Daily Archives: October 12, 2020

Penn State – A Top 10 Research Library

By: Steve Borrelli

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released the 2018-19 Investment Index rankings. Penn State is ranked 9th, which moves us up a spot from the previous year, when we ranked 10th. For the past fifteen years, Penn State University Libraries has consistently ranked in the Top 10. The ARL Investment Index is a measure of relative size among the 114-member association, and is determined by the following four variables: total library expenditures, salaries & wages of professional staff, total library materials expenditures, and the total number of professional and support staff.

We’ve updated our visualizations which contain historical comparisons of Big Ten institutions on eight ARL metrics including: circulation, collections, expenditures, gate counts, inter-library loan, instruction, personnel, and reference. The historical BTAA ARL data is also available to download here, or https://libraries.psu.edu/about/organization-glance/libraries-statistics-and-data to take a look.

Tech Tip: Adding an In Folder column to your Outlook Inbox

By: Ryan Johnson

Here’s a tip that was given to me concerning the Outlook Desktop client.

Adding columns to your mail inbox can be a helpful way to help sort your email when searching.  To add a column such as the “In Folder” column, follow the instructions below:

While in your Inbox, go to View > View Settings > Columns:

adding columns screenshot

Change the Select available columns from field to All Mail Fields, select In Folder, and click Add ->:

The In Folder column will now appear in the Show these columns list. I clicked the In Folder column and clicked Move Up to place it before the Categories field, and then clicked OK to save that selection:

show columns screenshot

Now when you do a search, you will get your my results along with information about which folder you can find the document in.

Customer Service Tip: Email tip — Find out what they really want

By: Jeff Toister (submitted by Carmen Gass)

Email can be very convenient, but it can also make it difficult to understand what a customer really wants without a lot of back and forth.

Here are two tips to avoid misunderstanding a customer’s needs via email:

Tip #1: Before responding, take a deep breath, slow down, and ask, “What do they really want?”

Tip #2: If it takes more than two emails to figure out a customer’s needs, pick up the phone and call.

One of my clients, a technical support team for a software company, regularly uses these techniques when troubleshooting problems for their customers. They’ve found it helps them avoid misunderstandings and allows them to solve issues faster.