Interesting Presentation on Physical Library Spaces

http://grimmandparker.com/links/PDF/The%20Library%20of%20the%20Future%20VEFP%20G+P%20website%20version.pdf

Results and quotes from a survey about the future role of libraries and the likely future needs for library spaces. Not too long, and interesting reading.

Wonderland: The Library Experience for Book Lovers

Do you remember reading Roald Dahl's Matilda? (if not, go read it now. Dahl is still very good reading for adults.) Remember her library experience? For book lovers, that story still rings very true - the world of wonders just waiting in books. It's the same reason we love The Never-ending Story movie, and we identify with Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Books are magical for us, and libraries are wonderlands.

I've posted before about the clash between this nostalgic affection and the image of the "modern library." But I've come to realize that while our wonderland libraries do clash with the library-as-consulting-agency model, they are delightfully consistent with another new idea of libraries: the library-as-destination.

Library-as-destination is really a beguiling vision. Libraries from this vision are community centers, coffeehouses, hubs of literature and conversation. We'll have concerts and storytimes and philosophy discussion groups and many, many book clubs. One of the high points of this vision is that we don't have to give up our love of books! Literature will be a focal point of our passionate community centers. Our teen areas will be cool to hang out in, and our children's areas - well, they will be wonderlands! Bright, magical spaces with toys and climbing furniture and walls of bright, colorful books.

The best thing abut this vision? It's appealing to our most passionate users, our "core" group - book lovers. Book lovers would flock to this library. And it makes more sense, really, to build a library that appeals to the people who already love us, rather than trying to build libraries that will draw in people who are currently indifferent.

So what's in the way? Mainly conflicting visions. A library cannot brand itself as both a cool modern library of expertise and professionalism and as passionate literary hub. We have to pick one. And sadly, there are practical concerns at work here. Our governing body (also our source of funding) is the county government, and they are eager to prioritize economic development - which means that the consulting-library is easier to sell than the wonderland-library. We would need an amazing amount of community support to work towards a different vision. And I think we could get it- it's just a matter of selling the dream.

Marketing electronic resources: our five biggest mistakes

...and how to fix them!

5. Poor web design

Databases are a complex resource, and unless you're careful, they'll be hard to find, hard to browse and hard to search.

The fix: Let designers into the mix. Develop clear web way-finding, make sure we have good instructions and write a good "What are these and how do I use them?" introduction.

4. Marketing them as a lump

Saying "there's great stuff in the resources" isn't working. Very few people think "Ah-ha, THERE'S the great stuff! Just what I was looking for!"

The fix: We need to be promoting what individual resources can do. "Genealogy research? Try HeritageQuest!"

3. Using technical language and jargon to explain them.

You might not think "databases" is jargon, but I think it is - to a lot of people, a database is how you keep track of sales data, not a complex indexing of articles. We also need to watch out for "search Find It Virginia"' and other brand names.

The fix: My personal favorites are "articles" and "research," but you can use anything that makes sense to your non-library friends and family.

4. Attacking Google and Wikipedia.

Google and Wikipedia are fine for most people, who are just trying to find a good-enough answer and get on with their day. When we say "google isn't reliable" without putting that statement in context, we sound like this: "What's that, sonny? The inter-what? No, I don't trust that computer-thingy."

The fix: context! There are circumstances when you really need a specialized resource. When we talk about the differences between subscription databases and Google, we should be giving examples of times when Google won't do the trick.

5. Acting like they are equally useful to everyone.

They're not! Electronic resources are useful to certain subsets of our users, like students, scholars, business owners, etc. So again, be specific about what you're advertising, and to whom.

The fix: we should be marketing specific resources to the particular groups that will find them useful.

Interactivity

I've recently fallen in love with a museum blog. I'm finding that we have a lot of overlapping issues, both in terms of our business model (not "visitors=sales=money", but "visitors=stats=convincing people=money) and in terms of our goals and struggles - stay relevent, get people through the doors, engage younger people, get people interested in you and talking about you.

Here's a post I loved about interactivity:
http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2012/06/17-ways-we-made-our-exhibition.html

and another post about how to create a successful interactive element:
http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/04/design-techniques-for-developing.html

I think these ideas have a lot of potential applicability in libraries, especially when working with teens. Because one of the major struggles of adolescence is finding and expressing your identity, teens tend to like being encouraged to express themselves. Temporary or permanent interactive displays would be a great way to get teens engaged with the library.

Old-fashioned Charm: Love it or lose it?

Where I work, we build very sleek, modern libraries. They are lovely - high ceilings, lots of light, open spaces, modern signage. They fit well with the image we're trying to create (to the extent that we think about our image at all.) We try to portray ourselves as a new library for a new age - we are modern, slick, efficient; we are cool and professional. We use Barnes & Noble as our model. We're seeking a place in the business world, we're emphasizing our role in health information literacy and financial literacy, we think of our librarians as consultants. Our publications should portray us as "a winner."

Are we going the wrong way?

One thing I've noticed is that when people speak of libraries with affection, they are almost always talking about an old-fashioned experience. They love the feeling of peace and quiet, or they love the nooks and crannies, they love the sense of mystery, and the wonder of being surrounded by books - for many people, the older the books, the better. I've heard people wax nostalgic about paper dust. They don't want the experience of a large chain bookstore. They want the old-fashioned charm of a library.

While I love the open, airy spaces of our new libraries, and paper dust makes me sneeze, I can identify with this other perspective. I love old-fashioned libraries. I love mysterious staircases and hidden corners and yes, I love old books. I once read a quote that said that the love people have for their library is inversely proportional to the size of the library - that small libraries would always be beloved, in a way that large libraries never would be.

I think that New York Public Library gives this the lie. Look at the recent reaction when they considered moving their stacks. Their reading room is beautiful and well-used, and they have a rich array of cultural programming. The lions that flank the entrance are so iconic that they had a children's television program named after them (PBS's Between the Lions). They are a huge library serving a huge population, and yet they are loved.

The simple fact is, old-fashioned libraries are an emotional brand with a lot of positive resonance. As we move our library into a sleek, almost corporate image, what will our emotional impact be? We've worked hard to get away from the old-fashioned nostalgia, but I'm worried that we've driven away the people who love us the most. How will we regain their love? How will our sleek professionalism gain anyone's love?

I'm not ready to give up on the modern library yet, but we're going to need to think hard about the way we brand ourselves. We want to be professional, but we need to stay human, need to be approachable - we need to be able to be loved.

Advertising Electronic Resources: What's the Problem?

A week ago, I was asked to start revamping the electronic resources - to come up with a way to "make it so people want to use them." ("Electronic Resources" are the databases that the library subscribes to.)

So I sit down and take a look at the electronic resources page. How should these be organized? Alphabetically? By subject? Actually, we already have them arranged in both those ways. Yet I agree, the electronic resources page is hard to use. What does it need? A better system of visual organization? Different subject categories? My brainstorming was getting me nowhere. I tried picturing myself as a user, visiting the electronic resources page - what would I want to see?

I ran into some trouble at that point: I had no idea what these databases were, or how to use them, or who used them, and for what. I decided to spend a few minutes getting some basic familiarity with this resource. After all, I've been working at the library for five years. I should probably know how to use this service that we're always talking so much about.

FAIL. I spent maybe half an hour trying to figure the bloody things out. I couldn't find a darn thing that seemed even remotely useful or interesting. I'm pretty interested in psychology - specifically evolutionary psychology - and linguistics, and I though maybe I could find some interesting articles to read? Nothing. I tried to think of other things to look up. I went to the kids section and looked up bats; it was WAY less informative than your average internet search. I browsed around, looking for anything that might be remotely interesting. I got absolutely nowhere.

Now, maybe there's something for me in the electronic resources, and maybe there isn't. But how am I supposed to find out?

The problem here, I realized, was not the way the lists were arranged. Adding graphics and visualizations was not going to help. The problem is that most people do not know how to use these resources. I'm a smart, library-literate, net-savvy person. I'm sure that other people are just as confused as me when it comes to the electronic resources, if they ever even venture to that section of the website in the first place.

It's a mixed-blessing realization, because now I'm going to need to find someone to write an "introduction to the electronic resources," along with some user-friendly instructions. I'm pretty sure this will end up looking like a bigger overhaul than my bosses had in mind. Don't be surprised if the only change we end up seeing is some new color-coded organization and a banner advertising a "featured resource." At least I tried.