Changing Service Models

 ToBe successful LIBRARIES MUST simply
provide customers with what they want!
“What we value as an organization has little
or no value unless it matches that of our
customers!”
Joey Rodgers

Our Users are:
• Technologically Savvy
• Multi-tasking
• Cocooning
• Culturally diverse
• Have very high expectations
• Are mobile ”We must take the Library to them”
• Tax Averse

 Demographic Diversity
• Books, audio-tapes, web-sites, in Spanish,
Chinese, Somalian
 ESL Materials and training
 Sense of Time “I want it Yesterday”
 Technologically Savvy “Digital Natives vs.
Digital Immigrants”
 Today’s Digital Divide

Personalization
• Treat our customers like they are unique, not
like everyone else, individualized service.
• Portability and convenience is the priority
• Service must be anywhere, anytime, in the
format of our customer’s choosing and more
importantly on the device of their choosing

 Provides a personalized portal
 What I looked at before
 What others are looking at on the same
topic
 What else might I be interested in
 The old way is search engines, the
demand is for personalized search
engines

 New ways of sharing resources
• Eliminating Boundaries
 New ways of delivering resources
• On Customer Terms Not Ours
 New ways of integrating resource sharing and
delivery into an entire information framework
 Our services must be anywhere, anytime, and
on devices of the users choosing

 Eliminate boundaries
 One card - any institution
 All resources - all the time
Any where, any time, any way you want, your
library is there

 Users expect information to be delivered to
them
 Usersexpect technology interfaces to be
highly personalized
 Userscare much more about convenience
and community than quality and privacy

 Staff is often invested in the Status Quo
 We are often limited by traditional rules and policies in
a society that does not care about limitations
 Libraries don’t have any money?
 Can Library vendors provide products and services
that are not sustainable
 We remain identified with print resources when the
world is PDA/iPhone driven
 We are committed to a place, when we need to be
committed to our mission.

A New Direction
Market and customer driven institution
OUR PRODUCT must be determined by the customer
Libraries must serve as the community change agent
A competitive organization
Provide Direct customer service
Partnership Base
Quality versus quantity services

A New
Direction
First and Foremost: Public Libraries are a Business!!!
And must treat customers as such
Libraries are no longer a warehouse for books, they
are a supermarket of ideas!
Libraries! Can and should be the ultimate shopping
experience!
Our Collections are no longer just in case, but just in
time!
We must always Exceed customer expectations!
We must combine Quality and Convenience!

Customer Focused/ not Library Focused
 User technology not library technology (what they
have, NOT what we have)
 Library Resources available on PDA, cell phones
and other emerging devices
 Library blogging
 I CAL
 Web 2.0 - Library 2.0
 Libraries must be permanently BETA

 Involve technology developers and digital natives
in planning on a national level
 Provide more and better self-service and
personalization
 Take library content and services where people are
 Eliminate traditional, institutional, and even
geographical boundaries

 If you want information Go
to
 If you want Quality information
from trained Professionals Come to
OHIO LIBRARIES - Anywhere, Anytime
We are There for You!
HOW WOULD YOU RATHER QUINCH YOUR THIRST?

Library Link
• Links 26 Schools with
the public library
• Next day delivery of all print materials, including OhioLink
and OhioLink Plus
And Now SearchOhio!
OhioLINK
• Access to all Ohio’s 90
Colleges and
Universities
• 9 Million titles/40 million
Items
• Next day delivery
• Extend to all Ohio libraries

 Drive-up Windows
 Coffee and Beverages
 Concierge Services
 Direct delivery of materials and information
 Text Messaging
 RFID Tracking
 Access through multiple devices
 Push technology
 Pod Casting
 Service Guarantees

Merchandizing
Borders
Virgin Records
Amazon.com
Customer Service
and Empowerment
40-60% Retail
Space
Lift Technology
Ironwood Branch Library
Richmond Pl, British Columbia

 One Hour
Reserve/Holds
Guarantee
 24/7 Pick-up Boxes
 Beverage Services at
the Drive-up Window
 Even Dog Biscuits

No restrictions
Free Service to meeting rooms
Free popcorn
Drive-up availability

 Welcome Every
Customer
 Resolve Self-Check
Issues
 Library tours and
directional questions
 What About Dinner
Reservations?

RFID Beyond Self-Checkout
• RFID as an On-Line
Tracking System
Ship directly to and tracked
by the customer
Eliminate the Middle Man
and our outdated control
issues

Ohio’s Statewide Initiatives
24/7 Services and Beyond

 Cell Phone is more than a
communication device
 National access to all public
and academic libraries
 Voice recognition software
 Text Messaging
 Push Technology
 Instant Service
Anywhere - Anytime

 Customer Self
Registration
 E-Commerce
 Self-program and
meeting room
booking
 Computer and study
table reservations

 Check-out
materials
anywhere/anytime
 Mobile
inventory/reserves
and holds

 More than paying fines, lost and paid
 Ability to check-out or purchase new and used
materials
 Download music; audio-books; MP3’s and future
devices
 On-line gift shopping from Friend’s Shoppe

 Roving Librarians
 Wireless Headsets
 Wireless technology
 Laptops for loan
 Media Production
Labs
 Computer
Reservations
 Tech Lab Reservations

 Allows librarians to have
a visible presence within
the library without being
tied to a desk
 HP Tablet PC TC1100
 Omega Trek Wireless
Telephone

 Macromedia Studio Suite
 Apples iLife; iMovie;
iDvd; iTunes
 Convert video; photos to
DVD
 Audio-editing
 Web design
 Final Cut Express
 Terabyte storage for
lengthy projects

Youth Labs
Gaming
Teen Labs
Adult Labs
Chat

Private DVD Theater
Puts a floating 6-foot screen
right before your eyes. The
latest electronic technology
has created i-glasses, the
virtual theater that provides
private showing of DVD,
computer monitors and
other video sources.
Media Viewing Devices and
Teen Department

 PDA – Library Web Sites must
be developed to fit PDA
devices (live searching of the
catalog/request items
 Library catalog systems
 Library Database vendors
 PDA Screenshots
 Reference
 PUSH technology

 Instantreference
services
 Events

 RSS Feeds
• Personalized services
 People of similar interests
 Program Registrations
 New materials/programs/services of interest
• I Cal - inputs program dates/over dues/etc
directly into your PDA calendar
 People that integrate their lives

 Tapedbook talks/story hours ESL
programs, etc. available to
everyone/anytime -distributed through
RSS Feeds
Pushing our information out! We find
them, instead of them finding us!!

 Corporate or organizational blogs
 Departmental blogs
 Individual blogs of customers with
similar interests
 Integration of the customer’s account into
an individual/personalized blogs

Adult Blog Featuring ENCORE

A whole new philosophy
 Designed specifically to reach out to users/computers/PDA’s/Cell
Phones
 Enhances the users experience by being truly integrated and interactive
 Benefits the user instead of the site (Don’t make me think/Don’t make me
navigate) Combines quality and convenience in context to people’s
lives
 Much more movement and dynamic information on the site; Interacts
without refreshing pages

Reading History

To Accomplish what we have never done, we
have to do things we have never attempted!!

Most Importantly We MUST!
westerville public library

Busier than a Freaking Wal - Mart