1. MDes Service Design Innovation
London College of Communication
university of the arts london
December 2015
Common Research +
Individual Project
i-Community
Online platform & Community

2. What is the
Home Library Service?
A collaborative
project with
Camden Council
A Real project
with 7 students
The Home Library Service
Camden’s Home Library Service (HLS) is a service for
Camden residents who are unable to visit their local libraries
due to being frail, infirm or disabled. The HLS aims to ensure
that these people can access library services from their own
home, free of charge.
The core of the service is the delivery of items including
books, talking books, CDs, DVDs, jigsaw puzzles and some
electronic devices, such as CD players. HLS staff choose the
items for the users, based on their preferences and visit
them every four weeks to deliver and collect the items. Users
may reserve their own specific titles or leave it to the HLS
staff to make selections on their behalf.
HLS
HLS
TEAM
USER
SWISS
COTTAGE
LIBRARY

3. MANAGERS
(care homes)
MANAGERS
(social workers)
RECEPTION
(care homes)
DAIL-A-RIDE
(transport)
GP / NHS
CARERS
VOLUNTEERS
FAMILY &
FRIENDS
HLS
TEAM
USER
SWISS
COTTAGE
LIBRARY
VAN
SERVICE(HLS)
MEALS ON
WHEELS
COMMUNITY
CENTRES
EX-USERS /
NON-USERS
CAMDEN
COUNCIL
OTHER
LIBRARIES
BOOK
SUPPLIERSNEIGHBOURS
SOCIAL
WORKERS
ACTIVITIES
MANAGERS
(day care
centres)
CHARATIES
HLS
MANAGER
Camden
Council
Book
Suppliers
Manager
Carers
Dial-A-Ride
Camden
Libraries
Swiss
Cottage
Library
Head of
Libraries
budget
leased
funded
referrals
repair & maintenance
orderbooks
provideaccess
provideaccess
providebooks
arrangebooks
(inhousehelp)
reservation /
discharge
deliver
deliver
deliver
deliver
chats
provide books
choose books
borrowbooks
Service ecology of the HLS
USER HLS
Social
Workers
Sheltered
Housing
Community
Centres
Day Care
Centres
Van
(mode of transport)
GP/NHSAgency
Neighbours Family Friends
Managers
Care Homes
Receptionist
HLS team
Service
Centre

4. • Community based
• Service organisations
• 9 yrs, Good at Driving, Cyclist
• Joined Mobile Library Service
• Good at reservation
• Stock checking
• Runs a book club
• 15 yrs
• Good at tech
• Teaching e-readers and would help
teaching people (e.g. ipad): part of Online
Library
• 11 yrs, Cyclist
• Checking Overdue Books
• Good Knowledge of Books:
good at reservation
• 15 yrs
• Driver’s lisence
• Physical strength
• Training: 3yrs/ £60
HLS
Mon Tues
JOHN
NEAL JACK
Wed Thur
SUZI
The HLS have paper User Cards, containing
customers’ basic data and item preferences. These
are kept in plastic sleeves within four files, which are
separated by rounds. When preparing items, staff
pick a round, take a User Card out of its sleeve and
use the description of preferences to help remind
them what sort of items to select for the users.
HLS Team’s Roles & Activities
As they choose an item from a shelf, staff look at the
handwritten list of names of those who have taken
the item out (placed inside its cover), in order to see
if the user has been issued the item before. When
the staff finish compiling the items for all users on
that round, they issue the books onto the SPYDUS
software

5. “ I love reading, but there is not
much of chance to share the
book I’ve read. ”
Diane, HLS reader / 96 years
24% Elderly / disabled
10% Younger mentally disable
47% Elderly / infirm
18% Younger physically disabled
1% Temporary users(convalescence etc)
Persona, Diane:
Pain points
Key Frustrations:
• Loves reading but cannot share the interest
• Wants to know other HLS readers
Analysis of the HLS users:
• Only gets information about books from a
neighbour and HLS

6. • Picking up items is time consuming work
• We want to deliver a good quality of service
Key Frustrations:
• HLS has limited resources, time and staff
• Our readers are getting old and that makes me sometimes sad
Persona, Peter:
Pain points
“ Book preparation is time
consuming work but it makes
the quality of our service! ”
Neal, HLS staff

7. Define(as a team research):
Key Findings
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Increasing Capacity
Less Backstage, More Front Stage
Digital Inclusion
Recording the intangible and extensive
knowledge about users
Enabling Staff to Signpost
Increasing Capacity
Addressing the fact that HLS is poorly promoted,
participants suggested raising awareness. This could lead to
an increase in users and then the use of volunteers would
make sense.
Less Backstage, More Front Stage
Volunteers could help out backstage to allow staff to spend
more time with users. The downside of this, however, was
that it limits volunteers to only backstage work with no
contact with users. Additionally, the backstage of the service
could also be digitalised to streamline the process, making it
more time efficient.
Digital Inclusion
The prospect of making the elderly who are not competent
in technology become familiar with different aspects of
it, using the library services as a commodity to encourage
engagement.
Recording the intangible and extensive knowledge
about users
Being able to record information about the users would
allow the HLS to share this information with third party
stakeholders, such as Adult Social Care or other services
within the community. Digitalising this information could
also enable the HLS to profile users and identify their
different needs collectively.
Enabling Staff to Signpost
HLS could be a portal of information about other services
and activities related to specific user needs and requests.

8. Develop:
HLS Common platform_Home Community
Home Community
9:45 AM 100%iPad
HC
log in
Reader
Volunteer
Ambassador
ID_
PW_
9:45 AM 100%iPad
HC
Platform
copyrightⒸCamden Council
9:45 AM 100%iPad
HC
Name:
DoB:
Address:
Lucy
01 / Jan. / 1940
NW1 6LX
Home_ 0778 344 670
Mobile_ 0748 344 610
Two cats
Basic information
Contact prefer:
Pets:
interests current services well being
PreferencesFilter Personal requests
iPad 9:45 AM 100%
HC
Book
Audio
Category
Quantity
Type
Note
Category
Quantity
Type
Note
crime
4
large print
saga
2
clear voice
interests
History
History
Changes
Changes
Item preferences
current services well being
PreferencesFilter Personal requests
Key Advice and Suggestions from the
Workshops
Existing Schemes
There are existing schemes in Camden that support the
overlap of services, such as Cindex. It was important to not
design yet another system of overlapping services within
the community.
Compatibility of Softwares
There are two Council programs that the CP would
potentially share information with: Framework Eye (Adult
Social Care database) and SPYDUS (Library management
system). The following two opportunities for the platform
were explored:
to design the common platform as an external system
to gain access to specific parts of the other two databases.
9:45 AM 100%iPad
HLS
interests current services well being
PreferencesFilter Activities
Well-being
Eligibility
Concerns
Additional information:

9. / needs of networking system
/ Silos
/ Feasibility of the initial ideas
Develop:
Co-design with Stakeholder
MANAGERS
(care homes)
MANAGERS
(social workers)
VOLUNTEERS
HLS
TEAM
USER
COMMUNITY
CENTRES
EX-USERS /
NON-USERS
CAMDEN
COUNCIL
OTHER
LIBRARIES
HLS
MANAGER

10. The Common Platform
The CP is a digital user profiling system that enables
different providers of HLS to sign in and manage
several aspects of the service: library items, promotion,
ambassadors, volunteers and users’ requests. From this,
each student designed individual services that use the
common platform in different ways.
The staff members,
Users,
Volunteering bodies,
Sheltered housing,
Adult Social Care,
Other service providers
Prevention of
social isolation
Promote the values
of the service
Delivery:
Common platform

11. Key question
How can technology encourage the
interaction amongst HLS users and the
service providers?
• Closed working system
• Manual work
The STAFF
• Want to be active
• Want to share the book interests
The USER
Define(Individual serivce concept):
Key Findings

12. Active HLS
for the staff and the readers
Sharing book interests
with others
Who can support?
Volunteering &
Local community
Open Platform with
local community
Define:
Concept development

13. / Content
/ Functions
/ Data security
/ Accessibility
Develop:
Testing Prototype
VOLUNTEERS
HLS
TEAM
USER
EX-USERS /
NON-USERS
NEIGHBOURS

14. Develop:
Testing Prototype

15. Delivery:
App, i-community

16. Delivery:
App, i-community

17. Introduce i-community &
Sign up together
Promote i-community to the public,
book clubs with volunteers
Deliver items and share
info on the i-coomunity.
Users have IT sessions
with volunteers
On the i-community, users
recomend items and share info
and events.
Delivery:
Service Journey
i-community users
recommend items
that prepared for the
readers

18. Major Project of
MDes SDI
2015
HLS