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February 5, 2008

Notes from Joan Fry Williams' presentation on Managing the library experience, Jan. 2008

Taken by Ellen O'Brien, Old Bridge Public Library

On January 16, Joan Fry Williams, a well-known library consultant, spoke at the Old Bridge Public Library to an enthusiastic audience. Her talk was titled: Information is Not Enough: Managing the Library Experience. She started off like Chef Emeril with a “Bam!” by suggesting that the old school model of librarians needs to be discarded. Ms. Williams suggested that we need to give credibility to what people want, not what we think they need. (Hence the title of her talk.)

“You cannot lead the people if you do not love the people.” is a quote from Dr. Cornel West that introduced the idea that our product is the whole library experience, not just information. Ms. Williams acknowledged that we may need to “gather the mercy we need every day to deal with the people we encounter in our libraries”.

However, we need to understand who the people are:
• The public thinks of themselves as library members, not “customers”, “clients” or “patrons”. People think they are library members – what’s the relationship between library members and librarians?
• Are we there to rescue them from their own ignorance or are we there to try to go along with them in finding what they came for?

Ms. Williams referred to the public as “civilians” and identified some key elements of the civilian reality of our relationship. In the civilian reality:
• The civilians believe that information is plentiful and cheap, so what our old school librarian model has to offer is not important to them – if you want to push information to them, annotate that list so they know what they are getting
• To civilians, this is an idea economy
• Civilians want personal opinions (these are ideas – not information) – merge those blogs, keep those annotated lists fresh, show them what’s new and what we think of it
• Civilians operate under immense time pressure – they want information fast and quality is not important!
• Respect for authoritative sources is not important to civilians – for the most part, they distrust those sources (big institutions) – they don’t care who said what, they want to answer the question.
• Peer collaboration is important and is the new way of sharing ideas and information – wikis, group blogs, Facebook, MySpace. Does your library have a wiki for anything? Does it have a Facebook and Myspace presence – does your teen group blog together?
• Look at the Grinnell College library motto – Save Time, Get Better Grades – all staff initiatives measured against this because this is what is important to the public they serve

To compare “old school” librarian training and the civilian reality, Ms. Williams suggested that:
• We are trained to see civilians as people who need our help desperately – people who need to be rescued from their own ignorance
• This view is toxic to us and to them. It makes us feel too superior without having a positive support for our superiority and it makes the civilians feel stupid –
• Civilians see themselves as diners waiting to be seated by a maitre de – ask “What can I do for you” rather than “How can I help you” – mentioning “help” implies they are lost and only we can save them.

On managing hospitality, Ms. Williams suggested that we:
• Make sure civilians know we want them in the library
• How many things in the library tell civilians that they are not wanted? Is a long lists of “Don’t” rules posted as you walk in?
• Being nice to folks as they leave by adding a “thanks for visiting your library, please come back” sign for the exit, can’t hurt!

Books stores have been very successful in becoming destinations in and of themselves. How can a library become a destination?
• Clean your library and clean your keyboards!
• Remember that a view is a hospitality service – make views available – don’t cover windows, turn chairs to face views – move your stacks to create pathways
• Create a good reading spot – one suggestion was to ask furniture stores to create displays of their furniture in your library.
• Be a source of pride – what we offer has to be better than what civilians have at home.
• Could we bring ourselves to call our public “guests”?

We ask ourselves “How can libraries contribute to creating pleasurable Learning Experiences?”
• Do we want to add to the pleasure of learning?
• Are we selling the enjoyment of learning?
• If we find pleasure in what we do, how do we show that?

This may sounds like we are supposed to allow civilians to do anything they want in the library. That is only OK within Reason, said Ms. Williams:
• Talking, eating, drinking, sharing computers, gaming and talking on cell phones can work if the library space can be zoned so that all of these things are not happening in the same place at the same time.
• Another good idea is having “library godmothers” who come in between 3 & 6 to help keep order like cafeteria ladies or lunch aids. They can keep the library from turning into chaos and provide volunteer opportunity to get the local community involved. The library godmothers patrol can be effective in keeping areas clean and relatively quiet.

To enable the public to identify more with the library, Ms. Williams suggested that wherever possible, we adopt “green” buildings and practices:
• Get recycle bins
• Try to show that you care about the environmental things your community cares about

Bokomaten is a new idea in Europe that Ms. Williams introduced as she talked about going where the people are in our communities. Bokomaten is an ATM-like book dispensary that has been used in Europe on train platforms to allow people to check out books before they board the train and then return the books either to the Bokomaten kiosks or to their library. The idea is to go where the people are:
• Get books out into the community
• Westchester County is using “Go Library” which is the US version of Bokomaten. Don’t have a bus stop or an automated book dispenser – how about stocking a rack for a senior residence or local YMCA?

At this point in her talk, Ms. Williams emphasized that she was talking about changing behaviors by asking us to break up into small groups and talk about how to “Make Something Happen” by finding:

1 thing you can stop doing (in your library)
1 thing you can start doing

And, for extra credit:
1 thing that would be cheap to do
1 thing that would be fun to do

After we’d had a brief opportunity to try out “Male Something Happen”, we were on to Managing Abundance. Ms. Williams pointed out that we all have a lot of good stuff in our libraries and that we should:
• Celebrate our abundance by showing the pretty books
• Move new stuff to the front
• Ditch your 800’s – and anything else which is readily available elsewhere and not much in demand in your library
• The opposite of abundance is rationing – buy multiple copies of best sellers – go with hi/lo which is to buy lots of high interest items and keep the odd and eclectic – ditch the items in between that the public could get at Borders.
• Make your displays full of the good stuff

What about our collection development policies? Well, we should practice “Demand-based Resource allocation” by:
• Have what your public wants even if it isn’t what you want
• Go with Hi/Lo (as defined above)
• Stop managing demands of the public and start satisfying your public
• Make sure folks can find what they are looking for. How’s your signage – can it be read easily from a distance?
• Just like shopping, most stuff is found by people by serendipity – don’t hurry them out of the aisles. Let them browse a little.
• Put your most attractive stuff on display at the front and on end caps

We’ll do better at our jobs of practicing abundance and demand-based resource allocation if we follow some simple suggestions:
1) Create browsable multimedia information neighborhoods.
2) Encourage a Books/ Reading lifestyle by:
• Making sure our books are clean, attractive and there are lots of them
• Offer book clubs are that are like play groups for adults
• Using heavy weeding and rapid new additions
3) We also should practice generous policies that presume a civilian is innocent of offence and which involve minimal gate-keeping, rationing and which invoke simpler rules:
• Civilians will choose the library only if it adds to or matches their experience
• Have the same hours every day and at every branch so that guests know when you are open – data show that circulation goes up when it is easy to remember when the library is open

We’d then find ourselves working on managing success by:
• Enabling civilians to answer the easy questions themselves
• Helping civilians to succeed on their own terms

How can we do these two things? Using Simplified Way Finding:
• Become educated about Power Paths in retail and arrange the library that way. Identifying important intersections with high foot traffic will help you know where to position items that you want them to notice.
• Create or give directions in terms of the civilians’ situation rather than library directions – what does the guest need to know to help her?
• Signage helps – “Books for babies”
• Use user terminology:
o Use the same words in labeling stacks as you use in the catalog
o Use common language, not librarian-speak
o Pre-package answers to guest questions – call them “time-savers” or “insider tips” not finding aids
 Kid getting married – here’s some books
 Kid going to college – here’s some books
 Sick kid? – here’s some books
 Getting a divorce? – here’s some books

We can also try On the Spot Service or Dispatched Service:
• Civilians are really looking for someone who looks like themselves in the stacks, not someone barricaded behind a desk.
• Most interchanges take place side-to-side, standing up – so if you are standing in the stacks putting away books, civilians are more apt to sidle up to you and ask you about a book or where something is – the same way you’d approach a woman folding sweaters at a display table in Lord & Taylor
• Train everyone how to use the OPAC – even the pages. Everyone should be able to help a guest use the OPAC and then be able to help that person find that material on the shelves.
• How about a central dispatcher or communication devices for all the staff to call back to a central location or to call one another to get specialized help.
• Get out on your shelves and work there too
o Say to yourself and your manager, “I’ll be working in this zone, doing innocuous work for this length of my desk time.”
• Ask – is there anything I can do for you – NOT – can I help you?

As long as we are interacting with the public, why not try Upselling:
• Mention programs that tie in with what they are asking you about.
• Take the civilian to another librarian if you can’t answer their question – if necessary, explain the problem, asking guest if you got it right, ask the librarian if they are the person with the knowledge to help the guest and introduce the guest to the new librarian – exit by saying “thank you for coming and I’ll leave you to >>>>>”

Another idea that Williams offered was “Redeployed Reference”, the idea of prepackaging information, making appointments to answer reference questions, checking homework assignments and creating new positions:
• Target audience specialists are probably already in the library. Capitalize on that by having folks claim people not content areas for themselves.
• Introduce learning specialists. Learning specialist is actually a job at community colleges. This description is taken from the Brookdale Community College website: “Responsible to tutor individuals/small groups of students in fundamental and advanced areas of writing, including essays and research papers. Responsible for supporting classroom instruction, administering/evaluation placement essays, ordering materials, maintaining records, and supervising use of materials and facilities. Must have the ability to analyze individual student writing needs, develop learning objectives to meet those needs, and monitor student progress. Other related duties as assigned”.

Once changes have been made to reference, try Managing Convenience by:
• Understanding that for civilians, optional activities take place at night and on weekends and going to the library is an optional activity.
• Knowing that you have to give your public a reason to come to the library and you have to understand that they may not want to linger or wait around, they may just want to get their book or whatever and get on their way. You have to make this a convenient stop for them.

We could offer “Engines not OPACS” –
• Because only librarians like searching – everyone else likes finding
• By creating annotated database lists for civilians
• Using Google Scholar
• Making a trail of breadcrumbs from your databases to the library by finding a way to link the information in the databases to books, CDs, DVDs and programs in your library.

Notify civilians about information they want in ways that they are used to such as Text/IM:
• Try using IM and texting to involve guests in what’s going on in your library
• Use texting to send hold alerts

Capture their interest and upsell using Podcasting/Webcasts –
• Record your program or part of your program and provide a link from your website or blog
• Don’t be afraid to experiment with ways of telling your public what you can do for them.

Consider how you will be Managing Participation when you stop treating civilians as stupid and start treating them as equals:
• People are not engaged unless they feel you are listening to them – invite them to participate in the library via Facebook or MySpace
• Ask guests to contribute book reviews, blogs

Don’t forget to make use of 2.0 Services –
Find
Use
Share
Expand
• FUSE – with the emphasis on knowledge, not information
• Let guests put their two cents worth in
• You are sharing knowledge, not information

Another way to do Outreach is to:
• Have librarians participate in local blogs, wikis with a trail back to your library
• Participate in bartering?
• Make use of YouTube, del.icio.us, MySpace

It helps to see the Library as Laboratory –
• We have the bandwidth so have LAN parties for teens after hours so that they can play their hearts out
• Have LAN parties for businesses – particularly businesses that have to send a lot of pictures (big bandwidth)

Don’t forget to create Real-time Activities Buzz –
• Yorba Linda book feed – allows public to see books that have just been checked in. Apparently, this is possible with SIRSI.
• List of most popular titles checked out so folks know that the books they want are not available
• Have live program excerpts
• Publicize today’s hot topics
• Emphasize your wireless strength
• Offer a parking lot cam so people can see where parking spaces are before they come to the library

You know the kind of success you are aiming for, so:
• Once you know what your goals are, you need to develop some metrics to help you see what progress is being made toward those goals but make sure the goals and the metrics are from the customer perspective.
• Don’t be afraid to collect information that lets you see your library more clearly from the eyes of the public you serve.
• Some indicators of civilian-centered success are and what they mean to your:
o Higher circulation Smiles
o Higher registration rates Good press
o More new volunteers More clout
o Greater diversity More partners
o Friends More money

Remember:
• That we have more than one idea about how to get to success!
• We don’t need to wait to be perfect.
• We do need to invite the entire community to participate.

To encourage ourselves, we should also remember:
1. That we are speaking up!
• Speak truth to power
• Don’t be afraid to make suggestions about how to improve the library experience

2. That we are trying new ways of work.

3. That we are helping each other to succeed.

5. That we are learning and making adjustments as we go:
• If you are not learning something new whenever you make a change, you are aiming too low.

6. That we are finding ways to have fun –
• Happy hour on Fridays – 4 to 7 PM – cookies and soda, staff-themed dress, sing to folks who get new cards and amnesty of fines during those three hours

7. And we are building relationships –
• Between staff and community – the point is to get the people back into your library, not just get your books back

Posted by tumulty at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)
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