Good Afternoon library land, As the IT and tech help librarian here at Bridgman, I can tell you that it is the wild west of questions that come through the door. The biggest subset of questions we get are usually in regards to how to mass delete emails, how to browse the web, and how to use the specific device that they patron is currently on. Generally in order to keep my schedule more controlled, I like to schedule tech appointment and set them for an hour. Sometimes the whole hour is used, sometimes it is a quick fix. That said, I usually will ask if anything else is up with their tech if we wrap up on the initial question. I do this in order to try to maximize the amount of things that get solved in one appointment. The best advice I can give is to take down some notes on what the issue the patron is having when they call the schedule the appointment so you can research the issue before they arrive. This tends to smooth over the discovery phase a bit. That said, there are a few hard rules that I am bound by and follow with regards to tech time. Despite having done computer repair and network admin work in the past, I never will delete something from a computer myself (though showing a patron how to delete something should they choose to is fine), open up hardware that a patron has brought in, or purchasing something for a patron (in so far as I will show them how to get to something like amazon, but I will not click buy item, the patron must do that themselves). On the more interesting side, be aware that you are getting computers and tablets from people from all walks of life and sometimes people are not great about closing their, let's call them, private windows in their browser before showing up for tech time. This has happened to me 2 times in 3 years of running tech help and it is deeply uncomfortable every time. That said, it isn't common by any stretch of the imagination, but it does happen. If you have any follow-up questions or concerns, please feel free to email me and ask. Thanks, Kyle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kyle Bartoszek IT & Programming Manager On Wed, Jul 1, 2026 at 1:28 PM Anna Merritt via Michlib-l < michlib-l@liblists.org> wrote:
Hi All,
Our library is starting tech help appointments this fall.
For those who offer tech help, *what are some the most common questions you get?*
Thanks!
-- *Anna Merritt* *Assistant Director/Interloan/Adult Programming* *Richland Community Library* 8951 Park Street l Richland MI 49083 richlandlibrary.org l zv283
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