The strategic change I'd recommend, just based on this quick look at the site, could be called something like "Exposing the Goods." No matter what the business model, customers want to see what's available. It's OK to highlight a subset of inventory - like top sellers or new releases - but customers must have a prominent, easy way to browse and search the entire catalog.

Redbox isn't alone on this point, by the way. In our consulting work at Creative Good we've seen this in retailers, newspapers, and other websites. There's a lot of potential improvement in un-hiding your gems for customers.

I trust that public libraries can see that they also have a business model.

 

 

Yesterday, I was momentarily distracted at work, and put together a laundry list of library services.  This was a list for me, with no attempt to relate to what other people might want, or of course to be realistic.  Most of the list wasn't very interesting, and anyway I was supposed to be working, but one item caught my attention: My Book List.

 

The more I thought about what I wanted in a book list, the more sophisticated it got.

 

My zeroth requirement is that the list not drop entries after a year.  I know I've said this before, but if the library is short of bits, I'll send them some.

 

My first requirement is that I should be able to put books into the list whether they exist or not.  The trick here is that I still want spelling correction, so if I add an entry for Waiting for Mr Gteelebub before it is published and three months later Waiting for Mr Gteleebub arrives, I want my entry corrected.  (This is the sort of things for which the phrase too-hard basket was invented.)

 

My second requirement is that when I look at the list, I want to be able to see the status of each book in my local library, in the library network, and via inter-library loan.  Our library network catalog seems to do the right thing sometimes, but not always.  The catalog automatically triggers a certain amount of confusion in me, as though it was speaking to someone far more thoughtful and organized, but when it shows a list of books, it only seems to show the status of a book when that book has one or more holds.  I want to know if the book is on the shelf at my local library or not.

 

My third requirement is that the list be better organized than I am.  I know this violates the rule that you should always be smarter than the tools you use, but you should make an exception for books and libraries.  When I return a book, I want my book list to email me a list of the books on my list that are available at my local library.  If there aren't any, I want it to put a hold on one of the books on the list and email me.

 

“People don’t want a quarter inch drill, they want a quarter inch hole.” - Theodore Levitt (via SLA-IT)

 

And a pony.

When is a book born?  How soon in a book's life can a library patron refer to it?

 

This seemed like one of those things that I'd have a better handle on if I had library training, but I don't, so I hied me hither to the Library of Congress for some basics.  The LoC, like any good branch of government, is awash in acronyms, all but one of which I'll skip.  I'll also ignore the distinction between a book and its catalog entry.

 

Once a book's details are definite enough, the publisher can get an ISBN for the book (from www.isbn.org, naturally).  With an ISBN, the publisher can do two important things:  submit it to Amazon, and request that the book be added to the Library of Congress catalog.  When a book is added to the LoC catalog, it's given a Library of Congress Control Number (i.e., LCCN), and you can find it in the LoC online catalog.

 

Let's take a book that doesn't exist yet that I'm likely to want to read:  Zoe's Tale, by John Scalzi.  Here's the LoC catalog entry, and the page on Amazon.com.  The book hasn't been added to the library network catalog, so if you search for the book you'll just get the gap where it would be if it was there.  Of course, if you come back to this blog entry in a few months, when the book has arrived, the library network catalog link will work just fine.

 

But why do I care?  Well, I care because it's a book that I want to read.  I'd like to be able to add it to my reading list, except that my library web site doesn't provide one (although Worldcat does).  I'd like to be able to reserve it, so that I can read it when it does exist, but I can't reserve something that's not in the catalog.

 

As soon as any library in the network adds the latest John Grisham to the catalog, you can see how many people have reserved it, and how many libraries have ordered it.  That's about as exciting as things get for regular readers of the catalog, and it's also useful information if you're a librarian trying to figure out how many copies of the latest best seller to buy.  The library doesn't get that feedback for titles that aren't in the catalog.

 

I don't have a clue how many Scalzi fans there might be in the service area for our library network.  It might be a handful, or it might be hundreds.  I don't particularly need our local library to buy a copy if I only have to wait for two or three other people in the network to finish reading it.

 

In the case of Zoe's Tale, a library might decide to buy it based on how popular Scalzi's other works have been, which is fair enough, but doesn't help in the case of new authors.

 

So improved handling of books-to-be might be useful for the librarians in the network, and it would definitely be useful for ME.

 

 

 

This post is just some odds and ends left over from my previous posts, mostly from way out in left field.

I'm pretty much in love with our library network and inter-library loan (ILL), which work together to feed my SF habit, not to mention obscure books of military strategy.  I'd just like it to be the same only better.

There are three different ways you can borrow a book:  you can take it from the shelves, you can request it online from the library network catalog, or you can email a request to our ILL librarian.  If you request a book, you'll get an email when it arrives.  I'd also like to be able to get an email when a book is reshelved.  I'd like to be able to request a book online from the virtual catalog, just as I can from the network catalog.  The problem with making it easier to use ILL is that people might use it more.

My questions for the candidates for library director are:

How would you make ILL easier to use?
What limits should be placed on out-of-network inter-library loans?
Under what circumstances would you charge for the service?

One of the more intriguing ideas I've heard (and of course forgotten where I heard it) is that the existence of the network catalog and interlibrary loans might be used to allow libraries to specialize their collections.  My question for the candidates is, What would you do?

I'm not normally sensitive to anonymity -- until the government takes an interest.  I don't particularly care that Google holds all my personal email, but it drives me nutty that the FBI can demand my library records and then prohibit the library from telling me.  I stopped using the computers in the library as soon as it required my library card, and started again as soon as the library provided "walk-up" computers that didn't.  I may be nutty, but there are people that genuinely need anonymity, like women's shelters.  As the number and kind of web services provided by the library grows, this may become more important.

On the other hand, some services may not be possible at all without some authentication.  Anything which allows patrons to create their own content, whether it's book reviews or tagging, can obviously be misued in spectacular fashion if people think they can get away with it.

Here's my question for the candidates:  What are the advantages and disadvantages of anonymous computer use.  What would you do?

More and more libraries are beginning to use open source software.  Despite the fact that I work in the software industry, I think it's a great idea for libraries because it moves control back into the hands of the library staff and patrons and will enable more rapid change in the services offered and their user interface.  And I'm in favor of rapid change, in case that isn't already obvious.

So my question is:  What open source software have you used?

Libraries are a great idea because they buy expensive hardbacks and loan them to me for nothing.  I've also collected a considerable number of free ebooks, mostly science fiction.  My problem is that now I need to keep them backed up, because it would be a shame to lose them even if they were free in the first place.  Also, they're scattered across several computers, thumb drives, and flash cards.  It's almost like I need a catalog to keep track of them all.

You can see where this is heading.  Libraries already provide access to electronic materials that they pay for, and provide to patrons with various sorts of restrictions.  Wouldn't it be great if libraries could also provide access to free electronic texts?  Unfortunately, this is more complicated than it sounds.  Public domain etexts are straightforward, you can do pretty much anything you like with them, but what about Creative Commons licenses?  Pity the poor librarian who has to explain why 'attribution-sharealike' and 'attribution-noncommercial-sharealike' are incompatible. Or what, exactly, incompatible means in this context.

Thank goodness other poeple are thinking about this.  Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix's Vice President of Innovation, quotes both a Chronicle of Higher Education article on increased acquisitions of ebooks in university research libraries and a report from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, E-Books in Research Libraries: Issues of Access and Use (word document).

My question for the candidates for director is, How would you improve patrons' access to free electronic materials?

Hey!  Our library network is rolling out a new web interface.  It's all new and shiny, with better colors.  Even the whites look whiter!  OK, brighter whites is probably due to the fact that work just provided me a new (actually refurb) Lenovo with a brighter screen.

 

I'm not really making fun of the new color scheme -- I think it's great.  And I absolutely believe that details matter.  Companies spend thousands picking the best color for their logo, and a few years later they spend it again to stay up to date.  The new web interface is a big improvement.  Score +1 for the library network.

 

It also looks like every page now has a 'My account' button.  Even nicer, it looks like the web site does a better job of keeping track of whether I'm logged in or not.  Another +1 for the library network.

 

The network catalog now allows you suggest books for purchase.  I think this is a good idea, but I'm not in love with the implementation.

 

First, the link only appears on the main catalog search pages.  You won't see it if, like me, you search the catalog using a browser plugin.  I haven't given this a lot of thought, but it seems to me that an excellent place to link to the suggestions page is when you DON'T find something in the catalog.  Second, there's a radio button which requests an email when my library gets a copy, but what I care about is either when the network gets a copy or when it is available at my library.  Third, I'm asked for my name, home library and library card number, even when I'm logged in and the web site should already know.

 

I fear that what we're looking at here is lipstick on a pig.  My guess is that all this page does is send email to the person at my local library who buys books.  No integration with the network catalog; no coordination between libraries; no system-wide patron voting.  I suppose this might be an ease-of-use improvement for the average patron, so I'll give this a grudging +1.

 

The feature that I find the oddest is that the network shows you a list of the most popular books.  When Amazon shows you a list of their most popular books, the implication is obvious:  you'll like this book because lots of other people do, too.  If you want it, you can have it tomorrow.  But the library is in a completely different situation, because it has a fixed number of books (at least in the short run).

 

As I write this, the most popular book in the network is Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri.  She also wrote Interpreter of Maladies, which I liked a lot.  I wouldn't mind reading her latest book, except that it has 663 holds on 183 copies.  Now it's true that with that many copies the math starts to work in your favor (basically, you win more from the people who read it in a weekend than you lose from the people who take a month) but it would still be weeks before I'd see it.  Essentially, the network is generating a list of books you can't have.

 

My semi-serious suggestion is that the network show a list of books that were popular and are now available.  Eventually, the network will work its way through all the people who put a hold on Unaccustomed Earth, at which point it will have almost 183 spare copies.  That's also when I'd like an email.

 

In a previous posting, I referred to the term "digital divide" without defining it, or to be honest, without thinking it through.  Helen Blowers of Library Bytes clears things up:

From Michael Lee at Tame the Web, I found the Baker's Dozen project at the Arlington Heights Library which aims to address just that problem:

Neat!

The director of the local library is retiring, and the search is on for a new director. The trustees have been asked to think about what questions they should ask candidates, and I'd like to play as well.  Here are my not completely serious ideas for questions for the candidates, part 4.

 

I really only have one question in this post, but I'm going to ask it several times in different ways.

 

The interrogative simple:  What web services should a library offer?

 

Just as a library is a service and not just a building, the library should provide web services and not just a web site.  It's not obvious to me exactly what those services should be, and I'm sure there's no absolute answer -- the answer depends on the community -- but the new director should arrive brimming over with ideas.

 

One possible objection to this line of questioning is that many web services would either be hosted by or require the active involvement of the library network that our library belongs to.  Well, yes.  The new library director has to be able to work with and through the library network.

 

The imperative absolute:  Name ten web services the library could offer?

 

Here's my ten:  tagging any web page, email when any book becomes available, personal book lists, a suggestion wiki, a google events calendar for the library, an online calendar for town events, a cell phone text message when a book is overdue, an RSS feed of new books tagged by subject and filterable by tag, a better authentication (login) system, and a voting system for book acquisitions.

 

I don't suppose this is the same list you'd come up, but I'm not a candidate for library director, either.  It's the job of the library director to be able to see far enough into the future to be able to steer while accelerating.  I'd be very worried about a library director that couldn't talk intelligently about tagging, RSS feeds, or wikis.

 

The interrogative oracular:  What web services will you offer?

 

Some web services are hard, or expensive, or minefields of various types (privacy and protecting kids being two large and dangerous ones).  But the new director should have found out enough about the community during the interview process to have some sort of vision, and to be able to make some sort of commitment for the first year.

 

I suppose it's worth pointing out that the library has a strategic plan, which doesn't mention web services.  The strategic plan looks as though it's designed to be achievable, which is not in itself a bad thing, but I also believe in Browning:  "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?".  Other than the sexism, naturally.

 

The interrogative optimistic:  What benefits should we expect from new web services?

 

We're presumably not pedalling down this road because it's fashionable.  And we better not be doing for some abstract benefit like making the library "better".  The new library director must be able to articulate how the community will benefit from new services.

 

In a time of shrinking resources, it's entirely possible that there are no web services that make the cut.  Perhaps any available money should be spent on buying more public access computers.  But I'd need to be convinced.

 

The interrogative pessimistic:  What difficulties might we encounter in implementing new web services?

 

Here's an interesting thought:  how do you make web services multi-lingual?  It straightforward (not free!) to make a Spanish version of, say, the catalog.  But many new web services consist of user contributions, so in making the library more interesting or useful to people that understand English well, you may be raising barriers to people who don't.