7. Somerset Libraries model
• Managed by trained, experienced information
librarians
• The Enquiry Centre responds to enquiries from
libraries or direct from individuals by phone, e-
mail, fax, letter or text
• Supported by online and printed reference
materials (small collections)
• Clear policy
(Somerset Libraries Reference and Information
Services Policy V1Feb12)
8. Somerset Enquiry Service
• http://www.somerset.gov.uk/libraries-and-heritage/libraries-facilities/library-informa
• Strong Online presence
• Clear and Informative
• Scope of service is carefully described.
9. • The model was robust, clear and well thought
through
• The Somerset service is now staffed by 2 people
at all times and operates for 57 hrs a week.
• Some operational calls are taken
• 80% of enquiries are dealt with immediately with
the rest a response in 2 working days.
• Staff had wider responsibilities for reference
collections, newspapers etc and staff training
10. Libraryline
• After a visit to Somerset we decided we could make
this solution work for us with some modifications.
• The reference librarian would manage the service
• The service would include reference collection
acquisition and management across all libraries,
enquiry service, training, online resources, interlibrary
loans, support for local history librarian.
• The service would support all staff in all libraries.
• Community information database.
http://www.swanseacommunitydirectory.org.uk/
11. Daily operations
• Most enquiries arrive by phone or email
• Increased use of online services for renewals
• Located in an office not a library
• Service road shows
• Branding, promotion and marketing
• Training for staff and customers
• Additional resources for Libraryline staff are
Business Insight, Mint, OS maps
18. Q1
• I want to write to my local MP about
environmental issues. Can you give me
my MPs name and details of where they
can be contacted? I’d also like to find out
as much as I can about their interests and
opinions on the Environment.
19. Q2
• I am doing a Business Studies course.
Can you give me as much information on
Matalan as you can find?
20. Challenges
• Invisibility of service.
• Somerset kept close links with their
libraries via a dedicated phone.
• Online presence.
• Mystery customer exercise 2009.
• The challenge of providing a good library
enquiry service.
21.
22. Where we are now
• Central Library are first line for calls
• Continuation of virtual reference library
but with a new focus.
• More engagement directly with libraries
and customers
• More focus on digital materials
• Better use of knowledge of experienced
staff.
23. What does the future hold
• Increase role in training of staff
• New ideas for the promotion of online
digital resources
• Collection management
• Information Literacy
24. • Adams, Ralph. (2014) Rewriting the book:
The new library of Birmingham. Refer
volume 30, no. 2 Summer.
25. Tasters ……
• Dead Baby’s Head article.
• A man walks into the library and asks, with
an apparent certainty that we would know
what he meant, to see the article “about
the dead baby’s head”. He said it was in
the paper in the early fifties.
• “Claire, there’s a Hollywood producer
on the phone for you”
26. • How do I set up an underwear business
in the Czech Republic?
• “I want to sue the Queen for illegally
occupying the throne”
• How do I become a male stripper?
• Quantum physics – “ Can you put
what’s on the internet in a letter?”
Editor's Notes
In 2006 Swansea Libraries were taking a long hard look at the services it was providing and amongst decluttering and refurbishing libraries. We had Embervision and Rachel Van Reil and the Welsh Libraries Quality standards. But we also realised we needed to look at customer care and the quality of information provision.
Our new Central library was being designed and we were moving to the civic centre – a fresh new start.
There was a niggly feeling that our response to information enquiries was inconsistent. It could be really good in places like our main reference library which was in the Victorian style central library and has a hitsory of this kind or work or sometimes vague in smaller community libraries.
CLICK SLIDE
I like this infographic because it looks so professional but if you can read it the facts are nonsense. In Swansea We did not want to have fancy looking libraries with good book stock and services which did not match.
We understood the importance of information literacy and our role as librarians to make sure we helped customers get accurate good quality relevant information when they asked us for it. And to direct customers to what they did not know they needed.
In the next few years we were to address these dilemma’s in a number of ways – firstly by redesigning our historic single point of contatct for reference information and then later to follow this up by a mystery customer exercise to asses whether f the niggly feeling about wider information skills in the service was correct.. We visited a random selection of Swansea libraries as part of this exercise. I shall come back to our findings a little later. Meanwhile!!
So we understood that we wanted information to be a part of our library service and we needed to understand how to make this happen.
As mentioned we were relocating our Central Library to new premises. Until that point Swansea libraries had run a Central Lending library and a Central Reference library. There was almost a century of history behind this structure. It worked well in the old building which had been designed this way but we could see this needed to change in the new library.
The new Central Library opened in March 2008. A very different approach. It was a book centred library with fiction on ground floor and non fiction, local studies and reference on the first floor. We opened with large numbers of new staff – perhaps as many as 70% and hardly any qualified librarians amongst them A lot came to us with book shop experience and good retail skills but little library knowledge. A few existing staff transferred over to the new library which helped keep some knowledge. We addressed this with extensive training which took place prior to opening..
Thinking about reference and information skills our research during the Library relocation established that in the old reference library staff spent 6 months training to learn about the resources available. We were never going in to be able to mirror this and therefore training was reduced down to awareness raising about what we held, where it was located and how to use them eg maps, resources in store rooms, reference books, community information and the reference interview. But this training was part of a much wider programme covering all elements of library management systems, RFID, customer care etc
Thinking about the research that says you remember 10% of what you read I think staff did well to recall some of what they learnt at this time. We were expecting a big learning curve.
We realised this would not be enough if we were to stick to our belief that information was to be part of the new library
We did some research and looked around to see what was happening in other library services.
Already there were signs that Reference Librarian posts were being cut and merged in public libraries. Traditional reference desks were harder to find and the nature of enquiries was changing. More information was available on the internet, wikipedia was growing and Times were changing.
We saw developments of the Ask a Librarian service and of Enquire in MLA England. Other virtual enquiry services were starting to appear.
Some forward thinking services had chat to a librarian features on their websites, eforms and online information directories.
So the technology and the idea that you could chat live to a librarian were already around in 2007
We found some examples of virtual reference services and decided to find out more.
So the technology and the idea that you could chat live to a librarian were already around in 2007
We found some examples of virtual reference services and decided to find out more. Remember this was the time when Library 2.0 and Hybrid Libraries were the buzz words.
This slide shows an example of a chat to a librarian service still available from the National Library of Wales.
We did some desk research and found a virtual service just along the M4 in Somerset. So off we went to find out more
Somerset libraries provided some library services at the time for neighbouring authorities such as Gloucestershire via a Service Level Agreement and this included reference and enquiry services.. Their Virtual service had taken staff away from libraries and into an office – at one point a warehouse on a trading estate. Calls were managed by a team of experienced staff, many former reference or local history staff. The team could by contacted by email or phone They had a small collection (few shelves) of hard copy resources and used online free and subscription services to answer enquiries. They had a very clear policy about how the would respond and this is still available to look at on their website today.
The online presence helps reinforce the value of knowledgeable and trained staff answering the enquiries. It is clear they are trying to also encourage use of online resources for customers directly which is another area we still struggle with today.
The phrasing they use “Your enquiry will be answered by one of our specialist information librarians. We will always use authoritative sources of information and, where appropriate, will check the answer in an alternative source” is clear and informative.
They encourage enquiries by email or using their online form
Their clear commitment to their customers about what they can provide is really good.
“Unfortunately, sometimes there are questions that we just can't answer. Your question might go beyond the scope of our resources or it might be a question that can be better answered by someone with more specialist knowledge. If this is the case we will refer you to a more appropriate source”
“We can't be held liable for any errors or omissions and we can't be held responsible for the content of any external websites.”
We thought the model was excellent, well thought out and well documented, There was a team of around 5-6 in 2008 to keep the desk covered with 2 people at all times.
Read slide
The reference collections across the service would be interfiled with core reference titles kept separately. So today in community libraries (branch libraries) you will see 2 -3 shelves of strict reference books all other books are in the loan collections. Somerset did away with Reference collections completely.
Central Library maintains a wider collection but today its about a third of the size of collection held in the old library. We rotate expensive reference titles. The service started in 2008 with 5 staff who worked 9-6 Monday – Friday and 10-4 Saturday. This staffing soon reduced to 3.5 in 2012 in response to cuts and again in 2014 to 2.5. This last cut has made us reconfigure this service again as it was no longer possible to continue to cover the opening hours. The stock budget is £36,000 aprpox with 50% online 50% spent book resources. Approx 70% of budget is spent in Central library.
The team also manage the magazines and newspaper collections for the service acquisition processing and distribution. We maintain a newspaper cuttings file daily which we now digitise. Over see management of our community information database.
All enquiries are recorded in an Access Database which provide stats and allows us to refer back but this needs better reporting facilities.
The team also manage the online resources which are growing all the time – including set up, promotion and training for staff and customers.This will become a bigger feature of the teams work in the future.
Most enquiries arrive by phone but we have online forms, email addresses, answer phone etc. In 2008 the team took renewals and operational enquiries. We centralised all our publicity and stationery around one number – libraryline 636464, Since the initial hazey days of 2008 these phone calls have reduced and online services have grown. Libraries are encouraged to take these operational type calls directly. We found that many situations require staff to be in the library to check shelves and the virtual library model did not suit this activity. We could ensure good customer care around the enquiry but were not able to properly help the customers. This has been pushed back to libraries in recent years.
More people are using our library catalogue and enquiries for renewals and reservations are reducing. We still don’t have online payment for fines which we feel would be really helpful.
The libraryline team are based in an office with virtually no special services so they could be moved anywhere.
We have a menu phone system which is part of the Civic Centre telephony system. There was no cost.
Staff were provided with headsets – such as found in call centres to make phone handling and use of IT easier.
When staffing allowed the team would host training for staff and customers, visit sites with pop ups and marketing leaflets. We distributed business cards and pamphlets widely.
We developed further our online services.
After the initial set up of Libraryline we realised we had to firstly promote the service to our staff and customers and also look at training needs and establish the type of enquiries libraryline could expect to receive, the type of enquiries libraries can deal with themselves. It would also give us an idea about how staff in smaller libraries were coping with information enquiries
One way we looked at this was to engage in a mystery customer exercise. So its November 2008, and we looked at 8 libraries; including the new Central Library to be the libraries visited by mystery customers.
The main objective of this survey in addition to assessing general staff helpfulness was to establish whether recent training in information handling has been successful. Library Line came up with six fairly challenging questions which they would expect a young person to ask. These could be answered in a variety of ways but ultimately, if unsure, we hoped or epxected that the member of staff should always refer to Library Line.
Example of questions
ANSWER
Basic contact information should be available in various formats including in hard copy in the Wales Yearbook, online via Know UK or UK Parliament website (http://www.parliament.uk/index.cfm ), giving either or both the constituency and the Parliamentary contact details. The UK Parliament website can also be searched by the name of the MP to find out what debates or committees he/she has been involved with. Similarly, NewsUK may reflect statements or comments on key issues. Some MPs also have their own websites, such as Gower MP Martin Caton (http://www.martin-caton.co.uk/ ), giving more information on campaigns, political views etc.
In one of the libraries where this question was asked, a member of staff gave the customer the contact details for their MP, answering the basic question quickly and efficiently. The customer was happy with the information and the assistance provided. However, they were not offered any additional suggestions on where to look for information on the MP’s views on the environment, they were not referred to Library Line if they wanted further details, or made aware of the option of contacting Library Line for future enquiries without the customer having to come in to a library. Although providing this level of response would have been the ideal answer, the customer doesn’t know what resources are available to them and therefore wouldn’t appreciate that they could have been given more information.
Staff who were asked this question in another library only provided a web address where the customer might look up contact details, which left the customer disappointed that the information was not printed out or given to them directly. If you feel that you can’t find the details that a customer is asking for, and particularly if there are issues which mean that you don’t feel that you can put them on the computer, then Library Line staff can access online resources on your customer’s behalf and give you or the customer the information required, or suggest specific websites, by phone or email.
In library A; the member of staff told her where to look up the information (on the wall). The information was not there, so she asked another member of staff who the local MP was and she could not remember. She stated that it was best to look at the internet, she said that there was information on MPs, AMs and Councillors, click on for more information. She did not give the customer the information but wrote down the web address for me so that I could go home to look it up. Did not ask if I was a member of the library. The customer felt that she could have been given the MPs details, as they were on the screen in front of the staff member.
A general internet search for the company website is a good start (http://www.matalancareers.com/, http://www.matalan.co.uk/pages/home ), but this won’t give impartial information – staff should either refer directly or refer the customer themselves to Library Line for online company information from Mint UK to give an independent overview of the company and possibly for market information on the retail sector, which we could then send on to them. We would also suggest using News UK to identify references to reports in local / national press.
Staff who were asked this question were unable to find information in their library in hard copy, and suggested the Internet to the customer, but as the customer was not a member they were not allowed to access the PCs themselves and staff did not offer to search on their behalf. Again, Library Line can help by doing the search for you or the customer directly and we can also send weblinks or even saved documents to you in the library to print out for the customer, or to their personal email address, if they have one. Even though the staff could not provide any specific information, Library Line was not referred to directly and it was not suggested that the customer might want to contact us directly
At Library B The member of staff advised the customer where to look up the information herself and advised to ask at another location. The customer was told her best option was the internet. She was asked if she was a member of the library and said no. Customer was told she would need ID to join so would not be allowed to use the internet. As the customer is from Sketty, she said that she would just try Sketty library. The member of staff then said that there was also a book that maybe helpful, which she went to get, but Matalan was not mentioned in it.
The customer felt that she could have been allowed to use the internet as there was only one other person in the library using the computers .
But in the final report the visitor/custome stated that they felt that she was being engaged with appropriately, no member of staff was dismissive of her and all staff were helpful and friendly, which shows in the rating given to return to the libraries again.
We have found that our original plan to address variations in service in community libraries much harder to achieve. Even after the creation of libraryline library staff were not using the service as they should. Over the next few yrs we have realised that remote libraries and all staff need constant reminding about the service and forwarding enquiries on. It’s a constant requirement
.
Somerset kept dedicated phones for customers to use directly to guard against this. I imagine its like a bat phone - We did not do this but instead put on road shows in all libraries at regular intervals to remind staff and customers.
We need to revisit the Mystery Customer research we carried out in and see if there have been changes good or bad ! We have one planned for later this year.
We are facing increasing funding threats and sustaining information enquiry services is going to be difficult in the future. We think it is worth fighting to maintain the specialist information roles as our experience shows that it is too difficult to expect front line circulation staff to have the indepth knoweldge although we will still work to ensure they can address basic enquiries.
Due to reduction of staff to just 2.5 it is no longer possible for the team to cover the phones.
Phone calls are being taken on the 636464 number by Central lIbrary staff who are already covering the opening hours.
Where necessary specialist enquiries are forwarded to libraryline team to answer. This can be direct via phone if they are at their desks, email, fax, answerphone or message taken and response given with in 48 hrs.
The staff are engaged in an events programme and promoting the library resources, hard copy and digital directly to customers. They run tablet sessions, Family history surgeries, ebook/Zinio drop in sessions, etc
Not being desk bound has allowed us to use their skills in a different way. This has been positive for the staff
Our challenge now is to try and stop any decline in the level of information enquiry responses which are given.
We are still working through new workflows for enquiries and we have not got it right yet.
Changing our web presence, contact details etc. This will take time as we have existing materials to use up.
Poor telephony system which causes us most problems.
The council is considering a whole authority telephone call management system which could cause us some issues. Fingers crossed this does not happen
The original plan for the libraryline team would be that they could host staff at the libraryline office and go through the online resources and the hard copy resources that were available. This would be through induction and on going training.
Unfortunately due to service wide difficulties we found it nearly impossible to release staff to spend time at the enquiry service to gather this training.
One day or half a day was never enough.
The new revised Libraryline will be better able to visit library sites and undertake training one : one with staff at their place of work.
New events are increasing visitors to libraries and helping libraries meet their performance targets locally
Supporting the Local Studies librarian (job share) in a sector which is growing and very vibrant.
Continuing to curate Swansea Libraries collections – our reference, local history, maps, photographs, etc.
Information Literacy – we will find new ways of engaging with customers to promote good information literacy skills. We are also engaging via local schools and our library homework clubs. Libraryline are able to visit the sessions and drip feed good information skills to young people. To demonstrate some of the tools that are available beyond google, you tube and facebook.
I have recently been asked to cross match our events to the Information Literacy CQFW module which should be quite interesting
Digital literacy
Libraryline staff will be supporting the many customers appearing in libraries still not digitally engaged.
I saw this article recently in the CILIP information group publication Refer. IT refers to a visit to the new Birmingham Library which looks amazing. But to this visitor was disappointed at being referred back to online resources when printed ones were probably available.
It is nice to find large, free lockers in a library to save carrying heavy bags around. The reference section is disappointingly small; I found the staff I tested poor at answering general questions or at directing me to sources, such as the OED or the Statesman’s yearbook. The bookstacks are high (even at 6’ I found some hard to reach) and there have been many complaints about the inaccessibility of research resources. One problem is that much of the large reserve stock (the ‘stack’, containing more than half the library’s total book stock , has been inaccessible due to lack of essential equipment (mobile lift platforms to enable staff to access resources safely ) which has not arrived. In mid-June two members of staff told me they had been banned from discussing stack access and cataloguing! More than one paper has suggested F for farce as a suitable classification for the story!
Staff are not always easy to find – and can be very busy. Although staff claim that their numbers have been cut substantially, figures suggest that the totals are the same as for the old (but smaller) library
After questioning he narrowed that down to when he was six (which we worked out was 1953). We asked him if he remembered what the story was about. It was the story of his father walking the dog and the dog dragging the head of a baby from the bushes (the baby had been abandoned there). After more questions about the time of year we narrowed it down to the Autumn and after consultation with Local Studies we hit upon the Evening Post in October and found it.
The enquirer wanted to show his grandchildren the article!
We get calls from all over the world but its not often we can tell our boss that Hollywood is literally calling…
A Hollywood produced asking for Claire by name called one rainy Monday morning from her office in California. She was planning a trip to Swansea to research a Victorian theatre star called Anna Mae Wong.
Claire was able to give her information about the Victorian theatres of Swansea and also travel, tourist and hotel information.
When the producer came to Swansea Claire was able to show her our resources; books, newspapers, trade directories and direct her to West Glamorgan Archives for photographs.
She thanked us in typical American style by buying us Starbucks coffee!
This was a series of enquiries running over several months. The enquirer wanted to set up a business selling underwear in the Czech Repbulic. I found him market information on our electronic information resource MINT UK. Put him in touch with business resources in Swansea and Prague and helped him with sources of information on relocation to a foreign country for him and his family.
This was my first day working here……
I took a phone call from a gentleman calling from the Midwest in the USA. He was a little agitated. He wanted to sue the Queen. She was sitting on his throne, as he saw it, and he wanted it back.
It transpired that he had been doing his family tree and he was a Plantagenet. He thought Henry Tudor should not have been made king and was a murderer, also he thought they had made a mistake when they had let the “German relatives” in and if you followed the “true line” he himself should be on the throne, hence his wish to sue the Queen.
Forty minutes later I (with the help of colleagues) had still not been able to convince him that it hadn’t been a mistake to exclude the Stuart heirs but a deliberate act of exclusion on the part of Parliament, with the acquiescence of the Law Lords to resolve the “Catholic question” and that as Henry Tudor had beaten Richard III then all bets were off there too.
So we decided to treat it as a straight information enquiry;
We recommended some sources in British history that he could access on the web
We put him on to the Royal Courts of Justice and the Justice Department for further advice on the legal side.
Gave him the phone numbers of Bangor Library and the National Library of Wales (as the claim was about the Tudors who were from North West Wales).
Customer rang to ask about being a waiter in a restaurant in Cardiff. Apparently the waiting staff went about topless. We couldn’t find details of the restaurant. Then the customer rang back and asked to find information about being a male stripper. We found some agencies for him and a Union, we gave him the number. The customer rang back saying the Union wasn’t answering. We checked and the Union was only open between 10pm and 3am
This was an enquiry from one of our disabled customers who likes his answers by letter. It illustrates the trouble we have explaining the internet to people who haven’t ever used it.
He had listened to Steven Hawking on the radio and wanted to know more about Quantum Physics from the internet. So we were to search the internet and put what we found in a letter to him – all of it.
So we found some very reliable information about Quantum Physics and sent it to him, gently explaining that the amount of information on the internet was a little large to send it all to him but this was the best of it and he could ask us for anything further he might want but if it was a technical question he might be better off contacting the Physics Department at Swansea University.
