Secret Shopper

As I planed my Secret Shoppers assignment I wanted to challenge the librarian and the library to see if I was going to get a good book of my choice to read, bring awareness to a genre that needs to increase in size and show that there is an increasing interest in this particular genre.

My library visit was disappointing but yet successful. How could that be? Well, the librarian was very approachable. He was very pleasant. As I walked up to the desk he had a look on his face giving me a sense of I’m here to serve you, along with great body gestures. As I approached the desk this is how my visit and RA interview went:

Librarian: Hello, how may I help you?

Me: I’m great and yourself.

Librarian: I doing well. What can I help you with today?

Me: I’m looking for a good fiction book to read?

Librarian: Okay, what type of fiction book?

Me: What do you mean?

Librarian: What genre?  Like romance, mystery, or suspense. What do you like to read or usually read?

Me: Well, I don’t usually read ay certain genre. I just read the covers of the books and if it sounds good I read it. I have never really paid attention to genres.

Librarian: What were some of the last authors or titles you read last?

Me: In the last three months I have been reading all of the books by E. Lynn Harris. A friend suggest his books to me but I think that I have read them all. Do you have any books by another author that writes like him or other books in I guess the LGBT genre?

Librarian: First let me check if we have any books at all by E. Lynn Harris. Maybe he has a new one out.

Me: There won’t be any new books by him because he is deceased. That’s why I asked for similar authors.

Librarian: I’m going to check to see what we have. I will tell you this now, our LGBT fiction collection is very small.

            As I waited, I observed him. He checked the library OPAC first. He then went to Amazon.com, Good Reads and a site I was not aware of called “What’s Should I Read Next”. He wrote some titles down and did another search of the library’s OPAC. Each search came back unsuccessful.

            When he was done searching, he explained to me that they did not have books by any other authors that wrote similar to E. Lynn Harris but if you would like, I could pull what LGBT books we do have and maybe something will strike your reading interest. There was a total of 55 books in there collection. I was able to find three books that I thought I would like to read.

            Before leaving I asked if I could leave him with a few titles and authors that would be good to add to their collection. He said “yes sure that would be nice. I will make sure your request are given to the collection development team.

Me: Thank you

Librarian: Have a good day and hopefully when you come back we are able to better serve you.

Me: You have a good day also. Thanks again and the service was great this time.