#66: Get a helpful critique

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Ask a favorite colleague to listen to you work at the reference desk for a little while and give you feedback on anything you might be doing that accidentally intimidates patrons or makes them feel like they are not the library’s target audience. Do you respond to a question about a nonfiction book by giving someone a Dewey Decimal number, which assumes they know how to use the Dewey system? Do you tell someone not to worry because their fine is “only” ten dollars, when ten dollars might be a really significant sum to some of your patrons? Even when you’re really well-intentioned, it can be easy to fall into patterns of speech that can be off-putting or discouraging to patrons.