Why a new "brand" and service model? They had to do something "drastic" or die! In order to get to this new brand and service model they had hundreds of town hall meetings, but the best method for collecting the information they needed: they watched their customers and identified the service barriers.
Great library services aren't "really" about money, but a point of view! Rangeview Library District had a unique situation in that they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with an increase in funding to accomplish the transformation. Many of the ideas that attendees brainstormed with regards to our own Pennsylvania libraries and our particular "service barriers were ones that required little or no money. The "lack of" or perceived lack of money should never prevent you from planning a great library or great library services.
The Anythink brand is radical and experiential. They have created an opportunity for their communities to interact with the services provided. Their "new" spaces were designed for people NOT books! Their spaces are very open and very versatile. Their libraries as well as their staff are flexible! The libraries are clean and bright and welcoming. Does your library look cluttered and dirty like a homeless shelter or is it bright, warm and welcoming?
Everything is based on the experience model. The day-to-day experiences as well as programming. Lots of inter-generational programs, weekly interactive activities throughout the library--that require no staff (i.e. marshmallow tower, latch-hook rug, flower arranging, sand box, giant yarn ball). A few of the branches have community gardens that allow for people to come together and interact with their garden and each other; one branch has a park.
Their staff model is a "roving model"--staff are out on the floor helping people; no longer "attached" to a physical barrier such as a reference desk. They have eliminated late fees! They still send out overdue notices and use a collection agency to retrieve materials, but the elimination of late fees has "liberated" the staff. They love not having to collect fines! One employee said that it is the "best part of the day". Staff is out on the floor actually helping and guiding users. No more "pointers"! They have also gotten rid of Dewey! They use a system based on BISAC called Word Think. The non-fiction collection is arranged by categories and words not numbers. After all, everyone knows words! Only librarians know Dewey. Instead of huge service desks for staff to hide behind or clutter, they have "service perches" throughout the library. Each perch has a PC and can be used by the staff to lead a customer to the information they need either online or with a database. The Anythink Libraries are user friendly and EASY!
One of the best parts of this new brand (in my opinion) was that staff members had to reapply for their jobs. Job descriptions were rewritten to match the new service model. Each job description has shared values and represents the competencies not necessarily the skills. In libraries, we tend to let the "nay sayers" drive the organization (whether it be staff or board members)--lots of negatives and negativity both in attitude and deed. Why not let the "visionaries" drive the organization for a change.
The staff is easily identified by their Anythink shirts that have the Anythink brand or a bright orange lanyard. They have trained the staff to talk about the "benefits" instead of the "stuff". Libraries are SO much more than books. We have to change the way we talk about what we do and offer, then we can convince the community of the benefits. Then and only then will libraries be seen as valuable to their communities.
Here are books mentioned by Pam Smith as valuable to those of us in the "hospitality" industry:
Setting the Table by Danny Myer
The Corner Office by Adam Bryant
How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day by Michael Gelb
1 comments:
Your last comment, referring to those of us in the "hospitality" industry, really struck home with me. The hospitality industry is normally thought of to be hotels and restaurants, but after all, isn't the job of a librarian a similar type of customer service that a hotel manager, host/hostess or wait staff at a restaurant provides? Certainly it requires a bit more training in information science, but the nuts and bolts--the responsibility of getting customers what they want, making them feel at home, and making them want to keep coming back--is the same. Many libraries and librarians would do well to consider themselves more as hospitality workers than as arcane gatekeepers of knowledge. In one of my classes in my MLIS program, I had an instructor tell me that it isn't the librarian's job to provide the patron what they want, it is rather the librarian's job to tell the patron what they SHOULD want, because the patron doesn't have an MLIS and therefore can't be trusted to know what they like. This is a horrible attitude, in my opinion. It is born of hundreds of years of academia that traps librarians in the "peer-reviewed scholarly" mindset, when the modern era is more of an "Amazon and Barnes and Noble review" mindset. We have to adjust with society if we're going to survive.
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