Customer Servicemeans

Convenience

 

• Every book its reader. 

• Save the time of the reader. 

• A library is a growing organism. 

Five Laws of Library Science

•  Books are for use. 

• Books are for all; or, Every reader his book. 

The Situation

Harris Says Americans Read

Three in ten (30%) Americans say their favorite activity is reading

The Customer-Focused Library

AV=1/3 of circulation

70% checked

out books

12% viewed signage

Most visited alone

56% spent less than 10

minutes

95% visited once a month

2/3 didn’t know what they wanted before

they arrived

http://www.oclc.org/reports/2010perceptions/thelibrarybrand.pdf

“I wish there was like a Netflix for books.  Like you can just order whatever you want, and then when you’re done, you can just give it back and take out another one.”

The Library brand is

“Books.”

What is the first thing you think of when you think of the library?

75% of Americans said

“books”

Parents are working

• 70% of children in families ages 0 -17 have either 2 working parents, or live in a single parents household with a working parent

• 65% of children under 6 in families have either 2 working parents, or live in a single parents household with a working parent

Less Leisure Time

The median number of leisure hours available each week dropped 20% in 2008, from 20 hours in 2007,  to an all-time low of only 16 hours this year. This continues a trend which has seen America’s median weekly leisure time shrink 10 hours - from 26 hours per week in 1973.

http://www.bls.gov/tus/

2 miles42%Don’t Use

58%Use the Library

Long walk

42%Use the Library

58%Don’t Use

Principle of Least Effort

Principle of Least Effort[Zipf's Law]

In information seeking:

• Most convenient, least exacting method

• Stop as soon as acceptable results achieved

• Use tools that are most familiar, easiest to use

Shelves just inside the door circulate 24% more books than shelves 15 feet inside the door.

(98) (74)Shaw, 1938

Books on middle shelves are checked out more often

18

29

18

28

16

135

Top

Bottom

Row 2

Row 3

Row 4

Row 5

Row 6

Search Engine v Library

83% claimSearch Engines

“easier-to-use”

90% agree Search Engines

“more convenient”

91% say

Search Engines

“faster “

Choice

Jam Experiment

More Choice

≠ More Satisfaction

Situation Analysis

• Many people enjoy reading.

• Not everyone thinks “library” when they think about reading, but people who do think about libraries think “books.”

• But they are busy.

• Their behavior indicates that they tend to go with the readily available and the easiest to access.

• Too much choice is confusing and leads to lower satisfaction.

UX

Predictable

Efficient

Convenient

Personality

Personal

Advocacy

Affirming

The7Essentials of

Customer-CentricBusiness

Aspects of Convenience

• Actual Convenience - Reduction of physical effort and/or time required

• Flow– Inclusion of related products and services– Logical structure 

• Perception– Set expectations, reduce uncertainty– Fill inactive time

• Control

Convenient

1. allowing you to do something easily or without trouble

2. located in a place that is nearby and easy to get to

3. giving you a reason to do something that you want to do

What will make the library more convenient?

Access Search

Possession Transaction

4 Stages of Convenience

1. Access

What factors affect how easy or difficult it is to travel to the library and enter it?

2. Search

What factors affect how easy or difficult it is to identify and select desired materials?

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

Photos by Michael Sauers.  Available on Flickr

Problematic Terms

Acronyms     &  brand names *

Database ‡

Library Catalog ‡

E-journals‡

Index

Interlibrary Loan

Periodical 

Serial*

Reference *

Resource *

Subject categories  such as Humanities  or Social Sciences 

‡ Often Misunderstood * Often Not Understood

Kupersmith’s Best Practices

1. Test2. Avoid - or use with caution - terms that users 

often misunderstand. 3. Use natural language equivalents 4. Enhance potentially confusing terms with 

additional words and/or graphics to provide a meaningful context. 

5. Provide glossaries of library terms6. Provide intermediate pages 7. Provide alternative paths

Displays

3. Possession

What factors make it easy or difficult to gain possession of desired materials?

80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)

20% of your books are responsible for 80% of your circulation

000    Generalities Odds and ends100    Philosophy & Psychology Man explaining himself200    Religion Man tries to explain the inexplicable300    Social Sciences Man looks at his community400    Language Man communicates with others500    Science & Math Man looks at the world and nature600    Technology  Man uses/applies nature700    The Arts Man’s self-expression and interpretation800    Literature and Rhetoric900    Geography & History Man records his experience

DDC Organization

578.23D28i

578.235S93q

596.4T23b

596.4Y11a

596.6H67a

4. Transaction

What factors make it easy or difficult to check out and return materials?

 Circulation

 Check Out Here

What is convenient to one segment of the population may not be important to another.

• Silent Generation• Boomers• Gen-X• Millennials

Information Seeking Behavior ofSilent Generation (1922-1943)

• Accustomed to top-down flow of info• Formal• Stable learning environment

• Prefer materials organized and summarized–Ex:  Reader’s Digest, DDC

Information Seeking Behavior ofBoomers (1943-1960)

• Formal Feedback• Interactive & Non-authoritarian

• Easy to scan format– Ex:  Business Week, USA Today, People

Information Seeking Behavior ofGen-X (1961-1980)

• Independent, self-directed• Want frequent, immediate feedback• Learn by doing• Not attracted to classroom

• Prefer fewer words, Visual– Ex:  Fast Company, Wired, Chatroom dialogue

Information Seeking Behavior ofMillennials (Nexters) (1981-1999)• Cyberliterate• Media savvy• Mutitaskers• Teamwork

• Readers• Lively & varied materials• Chat (IM)• Search (Google)

Things You Can Do Right Now1. Make staffers easy to identify2. Offer assistance3. Use lay language4. Display, display, display5. Declutter6. Weed7. Do not use bottom shelves8. Post your hours and address

http://nlc.nebraska.gov/CE/ConvenienceBibliography.pdf

The list of sources is available at:

• ADA Guide for Small Businesses.  http://www.ada.gov/smbusgd.pdf• Circulation. “The Influence of sloping shelves on book circulation” by Ralph R. Shaw, The Library Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 4, 

October 1938, pp. 480-490.• The Customer Focused Library.  Metropolitan Library System and Envirosell.  available on Web Junction at: 

http://www.webjunction.org/documents/webjunction/The_Customer_Focused_Library.html.• Four Stages.  "Attention retailers! How convenient is your convenience strategy?."  Seiders, Kathleen, Leonard L. Berry, and 

Larry G. Gresham. 2000. Sloan Management Review 41, no. 3: 79-89. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 15, 2012).

• Information Searches That Solve Problems, by Lee Rainie, Leigh Estabrook, Evans Witt.  Dec 30, 2007  http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2007/Information-Searches-That-Solve-Problems/05-Who-goes-to-Public-Libraries/1-The-profile-of-public-library-users-is-similar-to-that-of-internet-users.aspx

• Information Seeking.  “Information seeking behavior and the generations.”  Eileen Abels.    http://www.ala.org/rusa/sites/ala.org.rusa/files/content/sections/rss/rsssection/rsscomm/virtualreferencecommittee/an07infoseekgen.pdf.

• Leisure Time.  Harris Poll 2008, http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-Time-and-Leisure-2008-12.pdf

• Library Brand.  Perceptions of libraries, 2010.  OCLC.    http://www.oclc.org/us/en/reports/2010perceptions.htm.• Like Netflix.  Anonymous teen quoted by Nate Bolt in his 2009 Urban Libraries Council Webinar, “The Future of Library User 

Experience” at: http://www.slideshare.net/boltpeters/future-of-library-user-experience.• Parents are working.  2011 U.S. Census, American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. 

http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_C23008&prodType=table• Principle of least effort:  Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_effort .  • Problematic Terms &  Best Practices. “Library Terms That Users Understand,” Internet Librarian 2005.  John Kupersmith, 

University of California, Berkeley,  http://www.jkup.net/terms-il05.html• Search engine v Library.  Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, 2005.  OCLC, 

http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm.• “7 Essentials of Customer-Centric Business.”  Different.  UX Magazine.  http://uxmag.com.• “When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?”  Sheena S. Iyengar & Mark R. Lepper.  Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 2000, Vol. 79, No. 6, 995-1006.  http://www.columbia.edu/~ss957/articles/Choice_is_Demotivating.pdf

Sources

Photos• Boy using the library catalog.   San Jose Library, available at: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanjoselibrary/2910254126/.• Display.  Kraemer Family Library.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27640054@N08/3513324940/• Library stacks.  OZinOH , available at 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75905404@N00/2184350729/.• OPAC sign. Enokson, available at: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vblibrary/4385120039/.• Signs.  All by Michael Sauers, from his Library Signage Set, available at: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/sets/72157594237320616/with/224087761/.  

• All under Creative Commons License