The Difficult Patron in the Academic Library

Summary

Faculty members depend on the resources and services provided by the libraries to teach, satisfy the curricular needs of the students, and conduct their research. Students need the library for many reasons, among which are to complete their assignments and to expand on what faculty covers in class. The patron/librarian relationship in the academic library is not always perfect. Issues which students and faculty face in the academic library environment are completely different from those in the public library. Identifying the characteristics of the difficult or problem patron in academia is a little more difficult than in the public library. Are what librarians face when dealing with faculty and students more issue-related than just dealing with problem patrons? The authors will identify, from the librarians' perspectives, some of these often called difficult patron issues and offer solutions to try and preempt these issues before they become problems.

Key Words:

• Academic libraries
• faculty
• students
• library staff relations
• problem patrons
• difficult patrons
• patron characteristics