Research shows that library users opt for convenience. Books nearer the door circulate more, and books from middle shelves circulate more than those from top or bottom shelves. Laura Johnson, Continuing Education Coordinator at the Nebraska Library Commission, will discuss how we can streamline the library user experience and offer services that speed up, remove uncertainty, and are present at point-of-need. NCompass Live - April 10, 2013. http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ncompasslive/

1. Customer Service
means
Convenience

2. Five Laws of Library Science
• Books are for use.
• Books are for all; or, Every reader his book.
• Every book its reader.
• Save the time of the
reader.
• A library is a growing
organism.

3. The Situation

4. Harris Says Americans Read
Three in ten (30%) Americans say
their favorite activity is reading

5. 70% 2/3 didn’t
checked know what they
95% out wanted before
visited books they arrived
once a
month 56% spent
less than 10
Most minutes
AV=1/3 of
visited
circulation
alone
12% viewed
signage
The Customer-
Focused Library

6. http://www.oclc.org/
reports/2010percepti
ons/thelibrarybrand.
pdf

7. “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.”

8. The Library brand
is
“Books.”

9. What is the first thing you think of
when you think of the library?
75% of Americans said
“books”

10. Parents are working
• 70% of children in • 65% of children
families ages 0 -17 under 6 in families
have either 2 have either 2
working parents, or working parents, or
live in a single live in a single
parents household parents household
with a working with a working
parent parent

11. 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.

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

13. 58% 42%
2 miles Use the Library Don’t Use

14. 58% 42%
Don’t Use Use the Library
Long walk

15. Principle of Least Effort

16. 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

17. Shelves just
inside the door
circulate 24%
more books
than shelves
15 feet inside
the door.
Shaw, 1938
(98) (74)

18. Books on middle shelves are
checked out more often
Top 18
Row 2 29
Row 3 18
Row 4 28
Row 5 16
Row 6 13
Bottom 5

19. Search Engine v Library
90% agree
Search Engines
“more convenient”

20. Choice

21. Jam Experiment

23. More Choice
≠
More Satisfaction

24. 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.

26. Affirming
The
Advocacy
7
Essentials of
Personal
Personality
Convenient
Customer-Centric
Efficient
Business
Predictable

27. 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

28. 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

29. What will make
the library more
convenient?

30. 4 Stages of Convenience
Access Search
Possession Transaction

31. 1. Access

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

34. 2. Search

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

36. Signs, signs,
everywhere
there's signs
Photos by Michael Sauers. Available on Flickr

39. Problematic Terms
Acronyms Periodical
& brand names * Serial*
Database ‡ Reference *
Library Catalog ‡ Resource *
E-journals‡ Subject categories
Index such as Humanities
or Social Sciences
Interlibrary Loan
‡ Often Misunderstood * Often Not Understood

40. Kupersmith’s Best Practices
1. Test
2. 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 terms
6. Provide intermediate pages
7. Provide alternative paths

41. Displays

42. 3. Possession

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

44. 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)
20% of your books are
responsible for 80% of
your circulation

45. DDC Organization
000 Generalities Odds and ends
100 Philosophy & Psychology Man explaining himself
200 Religion Man tries to explain the inexplicable
300 Social Sciences Man looks at his community
400 Language Man communicates with others
500 Science & Math Man looks at the world and nature
600 Technology Man uses/applies nature
700 The Arts Man’s self-expression and interpretation
800 Literature and Rhetoric
900 Geography & History Man records his experience

46. 578.23 578.235 596.4 596.4 596.6
D28i S93q T23b Y11a H67a

49. 4. Transaction

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

51. Circulation

52. Check Out Here

54. What is convenient to one segment
of the population may not be
important to another.
• Silent Generation
• Boomers
• Gen-X
• Millennials

55. Information Seeking Behavior of
Silent Generation (1922-1943)
• Accustomed to top-down flow of info
• Formal
• Stable learning environment
• Prefer materials organized and
summarized
–Ex: Reader’s Digest, DDC

56. Information Seeking Behavior of
Boomers (1943-1960)
• Formal Feedback
• Interactive & Non-authoritarian
• Easy to scan format
– Ex: Business Week, USA Today, People

57. Information Seeking Behavior of
Gen-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

58. Information Seeking Behavior of
Millennials (Nexters) (1981-1999)
• Cyberliterate
• Media savvy
• Mutitaskers
• Teamwork
• Readers
• Lively & varied materials
• Chat (IM)
• Search (Google)

59. Things You Can Do Right Now
1. Make staffers easy to identify
2. Offer assistance
3. Use lay language
4. Display, display, display
5. Declutter
6. Weed
7. Do not use bottom shelves
8. Post your hours and address

60. The list of sources is available at:
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/CE/Convenien
ceBibliography.pdf

61. Sources
• 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/virtualreferencecommit
tee/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&prodTy
pe=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

62. 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/721575942373
20616/with/224087761/.
• All under Creative Commons License