Telephone Changes Help Us Serve You Better

Our phones have been getting busier and busier. On the Telephone Reference side, we know it's frustrating for you, the caller, to be made to hold "for the next available librarian." Likewise, on the Circulation Help side, because there was no ability to queue callers, you often heard "If you are getting this message during normal business hours ... " and were required to call back later to talk to library staff.

This morning, we merged those two vital services. Telephone Reference, and Circulation Help now have only one phone number. Callers now will choose "help with your library card", or "all other questions." We hope that, by making that simple change, callers to Telephone Reference won't have to wait as long, and callers to Circulation Help will be able to hold for assistance.

The number to remember is: 916-264-2920.

Please let us know how it's working for you!

(Baby's photo is used with permission under the Creative Commons license granted by the photographer.)

Answer: 76,998

Question: How many telephone calls did Central Librarians handle between July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008?

It has been many years since we had the ability to accurately count calls to the Telephone Reference Desk. The new telephone system installed last spring has been counting for a year, now, and here's what we learned:
- Total talk time: 2,539.7 hours.
- Busiest month: January (7,542)
- Slowest month: November (5,349)
- Busiest time: 10-12 a.m.
- Slowest time: 7-8 p.m.
- Average wait to speak to a librarian: 1.5 minutes.
- (Red face, here) Longest wait in the hold queue: 28.5 minutes.

These were among the questions that crossed our desk recently:

Q. What are the health care benefits of federal public officials?

A. Slate reports that the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program is administered by the United States Office of Personnel Management. OPM reports it covers over 4 million federal employees, retirees and their families, and the government pays about 75% of the average premium. Benefits are listed on the Program's web site, and there is an interactive map to discover local coverage by state.

Q. What are the Postal Service rules/specifications for the format of business reply envelopes?

A. For this, we went straight to the horse's mouth. The United States Postal Service web site has a downloadable "Quick Service Guide 507a" that answered the question exactly.

What do YOU want to know? Call 916-264-2920 and we'll do our best to find the answer to your question.

Keep Those Calls and Letters Coming ...

Last month, Central Library staff answered 5,546 phone calls for the library system. This service began in 1992, when Sacramento Library branches were faced with a "down" economy and chose to centralize phone service in favor of preserving public service hours. We're still going strong, and answer all kinds of questions, ranging from library hours to help with library accounts, to all kinds of informational questions.

Here are a couple of questions we had fun with in May:

Q. What percent of the current world population is the population of the United States?
A. The Population Clock on the U.S. Census Bureau's web site on the day we answered the question showed a world population of 6,670,597,757 and a U.S. population of 304,193,202. So, a little bit of math later, we calculated the U.S. population is 4.56% of the world population.

Q. What is Sacramento County's credit rating?
A. With a free registration at Moodys or Standard and Poor, searching for "Sacramento County" yielded ratings ranging from BBB to AAA.

Q. What public transportation was available in Houston, TX between 1940-1945?
A. We found two web sites that yielded the following: There was a streetcar system owned by Stone and Webster and renamed Houston Electric Company. It began a transition to buses in 1929 to mitigate rising costs. In 1940 the rail car system was shut down, and HEC switched to an all-bus transit system. In 1940 there were 56 million riders; in 1945 there were a record 130 million riders. The web sites: Book Review: Houston Electric - The Street Railways of Houston, Texas and Houston Institute for Culture : Houston Timeline .

If you have a burning question, give us a call at 916-264-2920 or send an e-mail to askus@saclibrary.org. We'll do our best to answer it.

What Would You Like to Know?

One of the more interesting things librarians do is answer questions. In Sacramento, questions that come in by phone to any of our branches are routed automatically to the Telephone Information Service (TELIS) at the Central Library, where librarians use a collection of books, online subscriptions, and the Internet to answer them - usually in less than 5 minutes.

So, what kind of questions do callers ask? Everything from "What day is it today?" to "How many hairs are there on a cat?" (answer)

Here are a few questions we've received over the last few years:

Q: How did Roseville get its name?
A: It was chosen by the residents at a picnic for the most popular girl present (Sacramento Bee, Oct. 10, 1931).

Q: When weather reports give wind direction, does that indicate 1) direction the wind is blowing to, or 2) direction from which the wind is blowing?
A: From Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary: "the direction from which the wind is blowing."

Q: Does OPEC have a standard size for their oil drums?
A: According to the OPEC Web site: "Oil is measured in barrels. . .One barrel equals 52 US gallons, or 159 litres."

What would YOU like to know? Call 916-264-2920 after 10 a.m.

Winter Warehouse Book Sale!

The Friends of the Sacramento Public Library are sponsoring a Winter Warehouse Sale on Saturday and Sunday, December 8 and 9. Public sale hours will be noon to 5 pm on Saturday and 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday. Friends’ members only are invited to shop from 9 am to noon on Saturday. The sale will be held in the Friends’ warehouse, at the rear of their Book Den store, 8250 Belvedere Avenue, Suite E, between Power Inn Road and Florin-Perkins Road just south of 14th Avenue. A large number of paperback and hard-bound books, records, videos, CDs and other materials will be available at prices ranging from $.25 to $2.00.

The Book Den store will be open during the Warehouse Sale, too. At the Book Den shoppers select from individually priced better books, including collectibles, and other materials, with most books priced at $3 and up. The Book Den is open every Friday and Saturday from 9 am to 2 pm, but during this special sale it will also be open the longer Saturday hours and the Sunday hours of the Warehouse Sale. All proceeds, after expenses, benefit the Sacramento Public Library.

For more information call the Library Telis service at 264-2920.

TENES UNA PREGUNTA? LLAMENOS POR FAVOR!

LLAME EL 264-2920! ESTA EL LA BIBLIOTECA DE LA CALLE OCHO?

"TELIS" ES LA VOZ DE LA BIBLIORTECA DE SACRAMENTO, Y RECIBE LLAMADAS PARA TODA LAS 27 SUCURSALES Y LA GERENCIA EN GENERAL. ESTE SERVICIO ESTA UBICADO DENTRO DEL EDIFICIO DE CENTRAL LIBRARY Y SUS HORAS DE OPERACION SON LAS MISMAS DE CUALQUIERA SUCURSAL ABIERTA.

TENES TAL LIBRO?

DONDE SE ENCUENTRA LA SUCURSAL MAS CERCANA?

TENES ALGO ACERCA DE LA ANTIGUA ASTRONOMIA PERSA?

REFERENCIA TELEFONICA ES UNO DE NUESTROS SERVICIOS MAS OCULTOS SUMINISTRADOS POR NUESTROS BIBLIOTECARIOS. NUESTROS BIBLIOTECARIOS TRABAJAN ESTA FACETA POR LO MENOS DE UN TURNO CADA DIA Y CONTESTAN UN SINNUMERO DE PRESUNTAS CORRIENDO UN GIGANTESCO RANGO! ELLOS UTILIZAN UNA COLECCION ENCIMA DE 400 TOMOS , REVISTAS Y DIARIOS SELECCIONADOS ESPECIFICAMENTE PARA ESTE SERVICIO.

TENES FORMULARIOS DE RECAUDACION?
CUANTOS LUNARES TIENE TAL BICHO?
CUANDO SE REUNE LA PROXIMA CLASE DE COMPUTACION?

EN JULIO, ALREDEDOR DE 5,375 LLAMADAS FUERON CONTESTADAS POR TELEFONO! DE AQUELLAS, 5,303 (99%) FUERON CONTESTADAS AL MOMENTO; SOLAMENTE 72 PREGUNTAS (1%) FUERON DIRIGIDAS A OTRO BIBLIOTECARIO.

A QUIEN REPORTO INCIDENTES DE FRAUDE BANCARIO?
NOMBRE Y DIRECCION DE MI REPRESENTANTE DE CONGRESO?
LA RESPUESTA DE 42 CRUCE?

NO DUDEN QUE TENGAMOS LA RESPUESTA!
LLAME AL 916-264-2920
HORAS DE OPERACION Y MAS INFORMACION

Who Ya Gonna Call? What D'you Wanna Know?

Call 2-6-4-2-9-2-0!

Is this the library at [you name the street]?

TELIS is the voice of the library in Sacramento, and handles calls for all 27 branches and library administration. It is located in its own little library inside the Central Library building, and is open all hours that any branch is open. Calls to TELIS during service hours are always answered by a librarian.

Do you have this book?
Where's the nearest library?
Do you have anything about ancient Persian astronomy?

Telephone reference is one of the hidden services provided by Central Library staff. Reference librarians put in at least one shift per day answering callers' questions about everything under the sun! They use a collection of about 400 books, magazines, and newspapers specially selected for the telephone reference service.

Do you have tax forms?
How many spots are on a ladybug?
When is the next computer class?

In July, over 5,375 callers got their questions answered by phone. Of those, 5,303 (99%) were answered on the spot; only 72 questions (1%) had to be referred to the reference desk for further work.

Who do I call to report bank fraud?
What's the name and address of my congressional representative?
What's the answer to 42 ACROSS?

Chances are, we can answer your questions, too!
Call 916-264-2920
Service hours and additional information