To read this content please select one of the options below:

Library service as theatre: Using dramaturgy to investigate attitudes to the retail and professional models of service

Jane Cherry (Te Aka Matua Library and Information Centre, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand)
Philip Calvert (School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand)

Aslib Proceedings

ISSN: 0001-253X

Article publication date: 16 March 2012

1453

Abstract

Purpose

Librarians have traditionally followed a model of service based on a professional ethic. Attempts to introduce a retail model of service have generally met with staff resistance. The study aims to ask librarians about their attitudes to the retail and professional models of service and what they did not like about the retail model.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were drawn from focus groups consisting of experienced reference librarians.

Findings

Results suggest that librarians behave differently while front‐stage and backstage. They resist the retail model because it is perceived to replace service based upon knowledge with fake behaviour.

Practical implications

Managers can draw on the results when considering how best to improve the service provided by library staff who prefer the professional model of service over the retail model.

Originality/value

The use of Goffman's theory of dramaturgy has highlighted previously unknown attitudes to service held by reference librarians that will slow or stop the introduction of the retail model of service.

Keywords

Citation

Cherry, J. and Calvert, P. (2012), "Library service as theatre: Using dramaturgy to investigate attitudes to the retail and professional models of service", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 64 No. 2, pp. 201-214. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012531211215213

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles