Library Revolution

Great post today from Pimp My Library about Perfection. Great post, Mary! From one reformed perfectionist to another!

Perfection has been on my mind lately, and I feel like it’s definitely not a concept we can effectively apply to all things library. This is not to say that we should not be detail oriented, or even exacting in many of the things we do as librarians. Please. You won’t find a more detail-oriented person than me!

But it’s time to stop obsessing about making things perfect before considering them usable for our libraries. (Because I am who I am and I do what I do, in my mind this has a lot to do with the way we develop, promote, use, and change Web-based library services. But I don’t see why this all couldn’t apply just as well to other areas of library service, too.)

Too often I see library services get nitpicked to death by people trying to make them perfect before bringing the service out to patrons. Too often the life of the project gets sucked out of it, and the timing gets all off… we tend to miss the boat a little, I think, when it comes to getting something started while people are still excited about it.

And most of all, building a library service in the back room, making it perfect, and then presenting it users for use and feedback after it has been more or less perfected… this model of development makes it so hard to make any real changes to the service based on user feedback. Sure, we can try to address user complaints, but the framework by that time is more or less set in stone, and all tweaks need to be done within that framework. And major changes down the road are hindered, since you’ve set up a development model that is a real bear, meaning any changes require a huge project and time commitment.

What’s so wrong with letting your users in on a new service (or an old service, revised!) that isn’t really “done” yet? As long as you put that service out with the goal of getting feedback that can be used in refining the service, and then really do it, then what’s the big deal?

Put out your library blog without forming a committee to discuss (for months!) the exact content, layout, structure, etc. Just get some basic guidelines and go! Then see how your public reacts (by asking them and listening to their answers!) and make changes accordingly!

Start your new literacy/homebound/outreach/whatever service without a giant to-do (there is a lot to be said for the so-called “soft roll-out”). Then have some meaningful conversations with the first users, and see where that leads!

Skip the focus groups and committee meetings with your new OPAC design… put something together, and do a little usability testing in your library. Nothing fancy, just communicating with your customers. Then you don’t feel like you’re limited to  “the plan” whensomethign pops up that just doesn’t work.

Businesses, especially Web-based ones, are moving towards this sort of a “throw it out there and be ready to be flexible” model, and it’s really working for them. And no, their products aren’t perfect. But by skipping initial perfection, I think we can more effectively work towards the eventual goal of creating more perfect library services.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 7:17 pm and is filed under Library Service, Library Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.