I left work half an hour late recently, although I think it was worthwhile:
A lady wearing a visitor badge (she was attending an ESOL course interview) seemed offended when I said that she could use the library facilities if she enrolled on a course, but not otherwise. I spent some time explaining that being an educational institution library we can allow access to our students only, but public libraries could provide her with books, computer use etc. if required. Once she understood, it transpired that she was unaware of the local public libraries - and that she lived just up the road from one.
After this, she produced some papers with the college logo on, and it appeared that she was enrolled on a course already - although as a work-based learning course this had been done offsite. She'd therefore received no ID nor had the college facilities explained to her. I got her sorted with a student ID and showed her the books she was interested in. She was very grateful and apologised for taking up so much time. I felt frustrated that she felt the need to apologise and that it was only through the coincidence of attending another interview in the library that she'd ended up with the ID she was entitled to and knowledge of the services we provide. Books aside, she can now take advantage of a new place to study and computer use (with some free print credit). I did stress she must still visit the public library to learn what it could offer!
On reflection, it would appear that we need to check what students enrolled offsite are told about the college and has made me rethink producing some small leaflets to explain our services. We currently deliver most information through induction sessions and our VLE (Moodle) pages, but students such as this will neither have attended an induction nor have an understanding of what Moodle is.
