By John N. Berry III
The first person you meet when you go into the library in New Smyrna Beach, FL, is likely to be Linda Dahlquist. It was her idea to be there, near the entrance, with a laptop on her cart to make sure library users could take advantage of the “roving reference” she initiated and delivers there.
“I take reference to the people! Some are a bit too intimidated to approach the reference desk, so I hang out by the front entrance to catch them as they come in the door,” she says.
That is only a tiny sample of the attention customers get from Dahlquist. Her supervisor, Melissa Reynolds, who manages the regional library in New Smyrna Beach and branches in Edgewater and Oak Hill, puts it this way: “When it comes to customer service, there isn’t anyone who comes closer to the ideal than Linda.”
