Library Service Design

Finished June 12 

Library Service Design: A LITA Guide to Holistic Assessment, Insight, and Improvement by Joe J. Marquez and Annie Downey

This book promises to give methodology and tools for library service design and speak to mindset. In my opinion, it delivers.

The book is organized in three sections, each consisting of two chapters. The first explains services design so that the reader clearly understands it. The second gives example of what service design looks like. The third shows how you can own your library service design and adapt it to your needs. 

The first section talks about Henry Dreyfuss, an industrial designer who brought the human element into design, showing that interconnected elements work to fulfill the purpose of the work, and exposing the problems of decisions made in isolation. The human elements that he included meant that the designer had to work to understand the user, their needs, and even their emotions. He also showed that design is scalable and flexible. This section also discusses what makes something a service. There are three categories here, with overlaps: care, access, and response. What this looks like in the library is facilitating the access to information and enabling the tasks associated with that, which includes things like tables, desks, copies, and computers. Services also have context, purpose and function; an interaction with either another person or a thing; and are experienced rather than possessed. Points of view also come into it, through both the user experience and that of the service provider. Design elements associated with this include scripting, setting, wayfinding, and consistency. There is a sense of making the intangible tangible through some type of evidence of an exchange taking place. The authors caution against default thinking such as "I know my users", and instead encourage open-mindedness and empathy.

The second section includes both phases of the service design process and the tools and techniques used. Phases can include prework, teamwork (including assigned roles and tasks and a set of rules), scope, scheduling, an observation phase, an understanding/thinking phase, and implementation and post-assessment phases. The tools and techniques are wide-ranging and more than one type will be used in any particular case. These include ecology maps, space analysis, interviews, contextual inquiries, surveys, personas, service safaris, discussion groups, design ethnography, customer journey mapping, journaling, scenarios and expectation mapping, five whys, prototyping, analysis and synthesis, focus groups, and blueprinting. Essentially, all the what, why, how, when, who discovery methods.

The third section gets into how you can adapt service design to your specific library and service situation. In particular, it looks at how you choose your team, and the importance of communication with that group, especially listening. You will want people with functional expertise, but also those open to experimentation and learning, with critical thinking and problem-solving skills, diverse perspectives, and big-picture thinking. You will also want a user working group. With this group you also need diversity, motivators or incentives of some type, openness and transparency, and trust. You need to understand your particular context, know what is unique, have knowledge of both culture and the built environment in which you are working and the external environment that is outside of your purview but which has its effect. It also expands into changing your culture to own service design. This means stepping outside of comfort zones and not blindly following trends. You will want to have ongoing assessments that are done in a mindful way, and done regularly, with reflection, consistency, and with an eye to new projects. 

I found this book energizing and enlightening. 

Better Library and Learning Space

Finished May 30
Better Library and Learning Space: Projects, Trends, and Ideas edited by Les Watson

This book has contributions from 25 authors including Watson and covers public, academic, and school libraries. While the focus is on space, not services, several contributors touch on service issues. Part 1 looks at projects and trends with chapters focusing on libraries in the UK, US, China, Hong Kong, Europe, and Australasia. UK trends included open plans, technology-rich environments and increased opportunities for self-help. US case studies focused on renovations to older buildings, and trends included the need for flexible space, technology storage, modular furniture, connectivity and power sources, adjustable lighting, and security systems. The Chinese case studies discussed the different cultural history, and the gradual movement away from a book focussed environment. In Hong Kong the focus was the move towards outcome-based curriculum, technology, and interactive spaces. In Europe, libraries in the Netherlands and Germany were looked at, with strong conceptual designs as the focus. In Australia, the case studies included both urban and remote libraries and focused on social cohesion and gathering spaces, the relationship to the environment and technology, and the acknowledge of indigenous cultural.
Part 2 is a focused look at trends. The first chapter here looked at technology and change and asked the interesting question "What is the next form of technology that is the library?" a twist from the traditional way of thinking about technology and libraries. Topics included BYOD, big data, and robots as well as the move from technology in operational needs to technology in terms of user needs. The second chapter looked at digital and media literacy and discussed a participatory culture of learning. Chapter three looked at issues around library spaces. A survey reported that the top space issues were HVAC issues and noise. There was a nice quote from John Ruskin here "We seek two things of our buildings. We want them to shelter us. And we want them to speak to us." leading to a discussion on the need for areas of silence and solitude as well as areas for communal and collaborative activity. Noted here were the use of colour and graphics in addition to book stacks and furniture to define spaces. In discussing the now common reference to libraries as a third space, they noted that this is a combination of first and second places in creating a space of work, leisure, and learning with the feeling of home. The final chapter in this section looked at using a combination of rational and intuitive decision-making when designing spaces, consulting as widely as possible, and building for the future rather than the past. Mentioned here is a PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological) which was new to me. They suggested doing "day in the life" analyses for each type of user and staff member to show how they used new features. They also advocated for using temporary solutions as experiments. I was happy to see that we'd done a lot of these things at my library as we took new looks at our space and how to use it.
Part 3 is a collection of essays on different views of the future library. I found this section a real mix with some very academic writing and some more approachable. There were many different ideas raised here. One spoke of activity-led space usability approaches with a connection to library's USP (unique service proposition. They defined this USP as build and curate collections and disclose objects in those collections to people in support of public policy, specifically to disclose knowledge to users to enable learning in its many forms. Their view was that everything libraries do should derive from this. One writer brought up the issue of dynamic conservatism, the fight to remain the same and how it can slow change in libraries. Public service has seen move evolutionary change than revolutionary change, and this issue was illuminated with a 1980 quote from Peter Drucker "The greatest danger in times of turbulence, is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday's logic." Another writer looked as some examples from the Netherlands to show how architecture and community worked to connect with books in different ways at the Amsterdam Public Library and through the Architecture of Public Knowledge initiative. Another writer looked at the concept of P21 (Partners for 21st Century Skills) with a focus on information and media literacy, taking image as a starting place and using mashups and creative partnerships to move in a new direction. I liked the Steelcase scape table here. They did note that you need to be careful not to repackage analog associations in a digital form. Another view was that of the transformation from a 2D age to a 3D age. In 2D, the textbook is at the center with creativity curtailed by books, guidelines, and curricula like a giant human copier without passion. A 3D age has people learning from each other, bringing passionate talent with access to information. This age is about lifelong learning as an integral part of life. Other views included reconfigurable spaces to serve a multiplicity of functions, varied spaces, collaborative and social spaces, the importance of observational research, the concept of community, and acknowledgement of sightlines and circulation routes. Of prime importance was customers' interaction with staff, minimizing the front of house to eliminate old style fortress desks and move to integrated help points. Flexibility seems to be a common theme from space to furniture to displays.
I found the book had lots of interesting ideas that will lend themselves to any library space project.

Some books related to work

Finished this Fall
I've been some reading lately around work topics: planning, assessing; etc.

Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers by Peter Hernon and Ellen Altman
This one covers several related topics. It covers the whole idea of library service and what that means to different people. It looks and how you determine the value of a library and the services it offers. It looks at different ways of measuring those services, both qualitative and quantitative. It looks at the difference between service quality and customer satisfaction and shows the relationship between them. And it looks at what to do with the information you gather of both to improve and change what the library does.
Lots of tools, but also a lot to think about.

The Patron-Driven Library: A Practical Guide for Managing Collections and Services in the Digital Age by Dee Ann Allison
This book covers even more than the title suggests. On the collections side, it talks about how to enhance and improve the experience of those who use the collections. We see the power of collaboration, whether it is through social networks with our users, through collaboration with our colleagues in other libraries, or through a number of channels in terms of advocacy. The old "how we measure our success" raises its head again here in the discussion of metrics to base decisions on. It covers the various tools and add-ons available in terms of making the collections more visible and getting people interested in using them. It covers the various formats digital content comes in and how to manage and make choices. We also see how changes to the world of publishing, and about how data is stored and shared all influence the collection.
On the service side, we see experiences from those in the field to see that using real-life experiences when teaching information literacy gives better learning outcomes. We see how experimentation when linking services to collections adds value. There is discussion on how to assess the services the library offers and how they are tied to the collections. The last chapter also offers a look at the future of the library and what kinds of uses will be provided.
There is also a chapter on the "new professional librarian" that looks at different workplace opportunities, the competencies we now expect from our professional staff, and how to take advantage of the skills and abilities we have on hand as well as developing staff.

Productivity for Librarians: How to Get More Done in Less Time by Samantha Hines
This book was extremely practical. It started by looking at productivity and how it relates to libraries and librarians. It then looks at various influences on productivity: motivation, procrastination, and time management. The following sections looks at various systems of productivity, as outlined in popular management books. I found the summaries of each system, and the quiz to help you determine which systems might work best for you very interesting. Some I knew well, and others I was less familiar with. The next chapter looks at productivity for those with management responsibilities, again with many good points and approaches to situations. The next topic was very useful indeed, "sticking with productivity", and could be applied to more than just this topic. It really discusses various ways to keep with a program of change, ways to stay motivated, and tactics to deal with barriers that may arise. The final section includes information and links to resources that may be helpful in terms of changing your productivity habits, or learning more about different topics covered here. An extremely practical and useful book.

Crash Course in Dealing with Difficult Library Customers

Finished August 15
Crash Course in Dealing with Difficult Library Customers by Shelley E Mosley, Dennis C Tucker and Sandra Van Winkle

This book covers a variety of situations that one can encounter in a library environment. It begins with an overview of general guidelines when dealing with customer-related problems at the library.
The book is then divided into sections grouping different types of problem customers. Each type within the grouping is described well, and strategies are given for dealing with them, followed by a brief summary. Some of these didn't meet my library's normal procedure, seeming too restrictive or aimed at a smaller library with less resources than mine. Most strategies suggested were helpful and simple to understand though.
The first grouping is disruptive behaviours. This includes those who abuse privileges, those whose behaviour is disruptive to other library users, and those who take up more staff time than their information need should require due to their behaviour.
The second grouping are those who believe that their needs are more important than others. This includes aggressive customers, those who want to censor material, the name-droppers and self-important, and the ones who just like to be difficult.
The next grouping was of parental issues and included a range from permissive to abusive, as well as those who just drop their kids to fend for themselves.
The fourth group was those with social service needs from the job seekers to homeless and mentally ill. Information on other helpful organizations for those in the U.S. are also given in this section.
The fifth group was those who break the law, in terms of property or information. So this includes vandalism, theft and computer crime.
The last group is those who are dangerous or potentially dangerous and covers those with substance abuse issues, sex crimes, and stalkers among others.
There is also a helpful appendix that includes examples of policies, forms, and procedures.
A very good resource that will be helpful to most libraries.