Library Revolution

I heard such a great story on NPR this evening as I raced to pick my son up at daycare. It seems that the long-standing rule against encores at the Metropolitan Opera was broken Monday night when the Met general manager, Peter Gelb, responded to the audience’s reaction to Juan Diego Florez’s incredible performance of the aria “Ah, Mes Amis” by greenlighting the first encore in 14 years.

For years, the practice of performing an encore at the Met has been forbidden. As Gelb said in the interview I heard today,

“In the ’20s and ’30s and ’40s, there was wording in the program books admonishing the audience with words saying ‘positively no encores allowed,’ kind of like no-smoking signs.”

But the audience went wild on Monday night after Florez’s rendition of the aria, and Gelb wanted to give them what they wanted- even if in doing so he had to break the rules.

“For me, and for the audience at the Met,” Gelb says, “it’s very important that opera be a theatrically satisfying and thrilling experience, and if the audience has a great time with a singer singing an aria like this, with an incredible run of nine high C’s, and they want to hear more of it, why not?”

Way to listen to customer feedback and act on it! Way to break down a barrier to customer satisfaction!

I think we should think of this in our libraries… what are our audiences clamoring for? What rules could we re-examine, re-write, or downright break in order to give our customers what they want?

Oh, and be sure to take a few minutes to listen to the encore - I can totally see why the crowd went wild!

 Share

Question: Is there a changing table in your library’s public men’s room?

 Share

A wonderful colleague of mine said something very interesting (and very true!) over lunch a few weeks ago: “Librarians like to provide services for the people that they know.” She said this with a sigh, going on to point out that this is all fine and good, but that sometimes it leads us to neglect services for other segments of the population we serve just because they’re not already coming in the door.

Please read David Lee King’s excellent post about the dilemma this puts us in.

In one sentence: “Stop ignoring your library’s rapidly-growing digital community.”

 Share

From the OMG I wish I had written this file.

Seth Godin talks about “punishing” your customers for the sins of a few jerks who like to take advantage.

Read the post and think about your library.

 Share

Several weeks ago, a colleague and I ran a small workshop for librarians on wikis. We had a great group of people who were enthusiastic about learning something new, but some of them had no clue whatsoever about what a wiki even was. No problem, though, since the whole point of a wiki is that it is quick, easy, and collaborative in nature. By the end of the session, we had worked together to learn about wikis (with a short digression to discuss XML feeds), the uses they could be put to in their libraries, and each member of the group had edited a pre-established wiki and created at least one of their own. Everyone left with a smile on their face.

Now, I usually find it easy to run a training session or workshop and have everyone leave the room smiling and enthusiastic, to one degree or another. But the real trick is the follow-up. What happens when they get back to their libraries, get socked with a pile of work and a line of patrons to help, and I’m not there to cheer them on with the project they were working on? Sometimes nothing happens. I talk to the people a few weeks later, and all I get is a sheepish look. “Well, I meant to work on it, but, well… you know!”

This time was different, at least at first. I was so encouraged to get some feedback after the session that every single one of the participants had been working on at least one wiki to serve a particular purpose int heir library. WOW!

However, wikis seem to me to be one of those things that’s easy, fun, and exciting to get started, but that can be absolutely torturous to keep going. Especially since the collaborative nature of a wiki relies on a certain amount of buy in by others who may not be as charged with the enthusiasm you came into the project with.

And this is exactly the feedback I’m getting from several of the workshop participants now. They have a wiki going that seems like a great and efficient way to meet their particular goal. They got it set up, added initial content, and brought in the group. It was OK at first, but by now the effort has died. Now what?

This is why I like Wikipatterns. I can’t remember who suggested this site to me (thank you!, but I have found it a great source for tackling just this sort of a situation. By exploring the sort of behavioral patterns that have emerged around other wiki projects and taking a close look at how your situation may or may not resemble the patterns experienced by others, some real insight can be gained… and some problems addressed.

Maybe you thought you were taking on the role of the Wiki Champion… when everyone else thinks you’re really the Do It All or the Over Organizer. Maybe someone needs to Seed It With Content or combat a feeling of Page Ownership among your users in order to get the ball rolling. The folks contributing to this wiki have all been there and done that, and are willing to share and discuss ways to get past these sorts of roadblocks. Sure, they’re all generalizations and don’t apply to every situation. But I’ve found the patterns to be pretty spot on with the kinds of situations I’ve encountered.

And I find the patterns can apply to other projects as well, not just wikis. Who among us hasn’t dealt with someone who sounds suspiciously like their description of a Wiki Bully in other situations where people might need to be convinced to adopt a new way of doing things? Believe me, there’s a lot of bullies out there, not just when it comes to Wikis. And a lot of the time the first step towards dealing with it is to recognize the problem.

Anyway, Wiki patterns isn’t perfect by any means. But I definitely think it’s nice to see a resource out there for dealing with the hardest part of a collaborative project - the collaboration. Setting up the site is one thing. Getting the group to work together and create a sustainable project is quite anther.

 Share

I was in a library the other day, sort of hanging out near the circ desk while I waited for the person I was supposed to be training. (In case you haven’t noticed from my other posts, I spend a lot of time like this!) As I was standing there, the phone rang.

Here is the conversation I overheard – or at least the half I heard (paraphrased a little, sorry!):

Circ Clerk: (with a smile) Hello! Public Library!

<pause>

CC: (smile fades)Well… (uncertainly) I’m not really sure.

<pause>

CC: Um… I just don’t know. (frowning) On the main highway I suppose. You know, Main Street.

<pause>

CC: It depends on where you are coming from. I don’t really know…

<pause>

CC: East or West? What town are you coming from?

<pause>

CC: Oh, I don’t know where that is. I don’t live right around here…

<pause>

CC: Well, you could ask someone when you get close. We’re really right on Main Street.

<pause>

CC: (with a sudden look of utter confusion) Our Web site? I don’t know… maybe it’s there…

<pause>

CC: OK. Sorry about that. Goodbye.

I felt kind of bad… for the clerk (a really nice lady) and for the poor, lost patron on the other end of that conversation. I almost wanted to ask her to hand me the phone so I could give the directions myself.

I’m sure this not the first (nor the last) time someone has called this library for directions. I’m also guessing that they get calls for library hours, event information, renewals, policy questions, and other routine inquiries. Most of which have simple, consistent answers that could be given easily and clearly… if they were pre-scripted.

Do any of your libraries keep a set of typed, canned answers to typical questions somewhere near the main phone? I’ve seen this at libraries from time to time, but it doesn’t strike me as all that widespread a practice. But maybe that’s just my impression.

Nothing so long and complicated that staff would panic trying to find the right answer in a tall stack of densely printed pages… just a short summary of what to say to those questions. Something for the clerks answering the phone to fall back on when they don’t readily know the answer, they forget, there has been a change, or they just space out (we all have those moments!).

This poor lady could have really used a copy of the directions right near the phone… and so could her patron!

 Share

This video made me chuckle.

You know, I often equate what goes on in a grocery store with what goes on in a library… why is that? I guess we’re talking two retail spaces I visit often. Ones with lots of resources available for me to choose what I need. Ones centered around user needs and demands. Ones where the organization of materials is critical and easy access to products is vital. Ones where experience is often as important as content.

So what do supermarkets do right that libraries can learn from and emulate? What do they do wrong that we can learn from? (mistakes we can avoid.)

 Share

Here’s a Techdirt article talking about the role experience may be playing in the decline of the movie industry. Mike makes a great point, and there are several sentences where I could easily replace the word “movie” with “library.” Can you guess which ones?

I think that the library experience is something worth a lot of thought these days. With online retail spending increasing at a phenomenal rate, many brick-and-mortar stores are focusing on improving their customer’s experience. It’s not just about merchandise - I can get merchandise without leaving my couch.

But while I can order a teddy bear online, I can’t get the experience and fun of building a bear with my son without actually going down to Build-A-Bear Workshop. I can order a new iPod, but a trip to the Apple store with all its bells and whistles and hip factor is worth it for the experience. Whole Foods and Starbucks have made food shopping and coffee drinking fun forms of entertainment rather than stops on the endless errand-train.

These are companies that have really put a lot of effort into appealing to the value a customer places on the experience of purchasing something, not just the product that is being purchased. And more companies are following suit, making efforts to improve face-to-face customer transactions, jazzing up the retail environment, and offering customers perks both tangible and intangible) for coming into the store.

So to get back to movies… and to libraries…

If I can have almost any movie I want at my fingertips quickly, cheaply, and with a minimum of effort (think On Demand, Netflix, even Red Box), why bother going to the movies? Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner are coming up with ways to enhance the moviegoing experience, hoping to shake up the movie house business model a little - and make a fortune doing it.

In a world of easily accessible information, media, books, etc. through online providers (including us!) that make access cheap, easy, and convenient, what can libraries do to enhance the library experience? How can we make a trip to the library worthwhile?

 Share

Laura Solomon posted today about Convenience, asking the interesting question, “How convenient is the public library?”

My reply to her is not very.

She’s right - people (including me!) are ready to pay for convenience, and where libraries and information are concerned, part of that payment is in sacrificing some of the quality content. the fact that the library is free and that it can provide users with high quality information services doesn’t matter if it’s not convenient. That means easy to access, use, and interpret.

Life is short, and we’re all trying very hard to squeeze in as much as we can. So I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I don’t mind sacrificing a little quality or paying a little to make sure that my needs are filled with a minimum of effort.  Sorry, library, but sometimes you just don’t measure up when it comes to fitting into my life. If Laura is right and “Convenience is King,” the I say long live the king!

I’m really not a pessimist, though. I think that many libraries are already headed in the right direction and there is a lot we can do to make library services more convenient for our users.

I’d love to hear what libraries are doing to reach out to their customers and make library use easier and more convenient… what are you doing at your library? What could you do? What could we all do?

 Share

There are a couple of things I’ve noticed about my local grocery store lately that have made me think about similar situations in libraries. And I think I’ve learned a couple of lessons bys seeing what Stop and Shop is doing and how it affects me as a customer. I wonder if these lessons might be valuable when considering how our library services affect our customers. Please excuse me as I make long-winded comments and ask questions that really have no answers.

1. When implementing a new service, it’s time to rethink the underlying assumptions.

I love the Stop and Shop self checkout. I’m just the kind of person who would rather not deal with people talking to me while I go about my busy day, much less a surly teenager who, on top of it all, is touching my food. Self serve, as far as I’m concerned, is definitely the way to go if at all possible, and I love checking out my own groceries.

Except for one thing.

The damn conveyor belt is far too long. You start beeping things through, and sending them down the belt. Waaaaaay down the belt to the “bagging area,” which seems to fill up quickly. And then the bagging area fills up, you’re not allowed to scan any more items until you bag up some of your stuff. Which isn’t such a big deal, except for the fact that you have to go waaaaaaay down to the bagging area, leaving all of your groceries (and in my case, a baby who is freaking out at the stranger behind him in line) waaaaay down at the other end. It’s totally annoying. Enough so that it ruins the whole service for me.

I know that the self-checkout is just an old “regular” checkout with the new computer installed on top. I guess that’s the problem. When Stop and Shop put in their self checkout system, they didn’t re-evaluate the basic remise of the grocery store checkout line, which is that you check out on one end, then send stuff down a belt to the other end, where it is bagged. It’s really a two-person system. And it totally doesn’t work for one person alone at a self-checkout.

What if Stop and Shop re-thought the whole checkout lane idea? What if they used a cubicle-based design rather than an assembly line one, keeping all of the checkout activities all in one general area? What if they really put some thought into why the setup was like that in the first place… what is it about how grocery stores evolved that made the long conveyor belt a good idea? What if they really got creative and made self-checkout stations that looked or operated much differently from the traditional line… but that maybe works better when the transaction model is changed to a self-service one?

What if libraries did the same thing and re-examined the underlying assumptions of how business is done in a library when new services are added? Why does a self service hold shelf need to look anything at all like a traditional one? Why do staff use a certain workflow, even though the services the workflow supports have changed dramatically? What are we assuming about what a library does when we institute new policies and procedures… and is it time to rethink those assumptions?

2. If you really want to benefit your customers, find out what they really need.

As a customer with an infant, you might think that I would love the Stop and Shop “Customer With Infant” parking spaces. Think again.

This “service” was obviously designed by someone who a. wanted to find a cheap, easy way to make the company look compassionate to the needs of its users, and b. never tried to deal with an infant in a grocery store.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s never a bad thing to be able to get a closer parking spot, which is the only convenience that these signs provide parents of young children. But is that what we really need? I don’t think so.

What I really need when I’m schlepping Robert into the store with me is a space closer to the cart return, and possibly wider space. By the time I get him out of the car and into a cart, he’s on wheels, so it’s no big deal to walk a little farther. But getting him into a cart can be a bear when there isn’t one around for miles or if the spot is too narrow to get the cart between the cars. Getting him back in the car is worse, since then I’m stuck with a cart that I can’t return to the cart return without leaving Robbie in the car. You wouldn’t believe the dirty looks I’ve gotten for just leaving my cart where it is.

Anyway, I think the lesson to be learned from this is that Stop and Shop has offered a service that seems like a nice thing to do, but isn’t really all that helpful to the people they are pretending to care about. It makes them look good by putting out the signs (“Oh, look, honey. S&S is letting parents with babies park closer. How nice.”) but it’s not much more than an empty gesture. If they really wanted to help, and not just look like they were helping, they could have done a little more research.

Libraries can easily fall into the same trap, although I’d like to think that libraries are a little more honest in their stated intention to help their customers. Still, libraries could sometimes stand to listen a little harder to the actual needs of their patrons, not just the needs we think they have. It all comes back to having real, two-way conversations with out customers, and listening.

3. Advertising your services can be both subtle and inviting.

One thing my local Stop & Shop does right? They always remind me to buy a coffee at the in-store Starbucks. No, nobody taps me on the shoulder on my way in and says, “Emily, its been about 2 hours since your last cup! Aren’t you going through withdrawal??” It’s nothing so obvious as that, and it’s not the big Starbucks poster.

It’s the cup holder.

That’s right, my cart has a cup holder, which looks so lonely and empty when I wheel into the store. It’s a subtle (OK, maybe not that subtle!) reminder that there is coffee to be had, and an open invitation to go get some and enjoy it while I shop. Wild by Nature, by the way, has little holders in their carts to hold fresh flowers, which are the first things you go by when you enter the store. Same thing. It’s like saying, “Hey, don’t forget we have flowers!” and welcoming you to pick some up at the same time.

Libraries often seem to think that their customers know and remember what the library has to offer. I think that’s not really true – many of our customers have no idea about the vide variety of services we offer. And even if they did know, they could stand some little subtle reminders now and then.

Signage and newsletters aren’t the only ways to remind patrons of what we have to offer and invite them to take part. How can we infuse some more subtle reminders – cup holders! – into the library experience??

 Share