User-Centered Practices in Libraries

By Kent MillwoodLibrary Director, Thrift Library of Anderson UniversityPresented at 2009 ALABI Annual Conference, and updated June 20, 2009ALABI – Association of Librarians and Archivists at Baptists InstitutionsWHAT IT ISIntroduction

- Unlike traditional, “top-down” planning and administration practices, “user-centered” practices promote change from the bottom up. The following discussion notes some of the ways this practice is already changing libraries. Whenever possible, hyperlinks are includedto take the reader to the original source.

Definition

– A “user-centered” library determines its goals and practices based on user needs,not its own, and does so on a continuous basis.The following quotes are taken from“Innovation and Strategy: Risk and Choice in ShapingUser-Centered Libraries,” by Kathryn J. Deiss.Go tohttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/1717

Then click Deiss1732.pdf.

“Creating services that add value for the customer takes precedence over all other driversin determining organizational success in the twenty first century. Libraries uniquelycapable of anticipating and meeting customer needs in ways that mirror a changing worldare the libraries that are deemed successful and, therefore, are able to attract resourcesand talent.” - p.17“For innovation to occur libraries must tap the creative potential of their staffs, vendors,and customers.” - p.18

Discussion Questions–

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Is it more important to give customers / users / patrons what they want or what you think they need?

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Is there a difference between what users say they want and what they really want?

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If you don’t give them what they want, will they go away?

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Are libraries in danger of being replaced, at least in part, by organizations like Google,Amazon, NetFlix, Wikipedia, etc. that give users what they want? That allow users tocreate content? That allow users to create the rules?

EXAMPLES OF INNOVATION

1. Example of a library system (in this case the entire state of Pennsylvania) available from

anywhere at any time. Note that providing 24/7 assistance is much easier for groups of librariesthan for single libraries.

Click to ask questions on any topic 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

http://www.askherepa.org/ 2. Example of a library that shelves books in a “user friendly” way instead of the “right” way.

Library in Phoenix suburb abandons Dewey system

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070719/news_lz1n19read.html 3. Example of a library that has created what may become a common staff position.

Facebook Application Programmer Position available at the University Library

https://www.honors.illinois.edu/?q=node/238 4. Example of the new library catalog at Ann Arbor District Library that allows its users to “tag”collection items with their own subject headings and write reviews.http://www.aadl.org/catalog

Look up Cooking with too hot tamales : recipes and tips from TV food network's spiciestcooking duo, by Mary Sue Milliken, and compare the official Library of Congress subjectheadings

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Cookery, Latin American.Cookery, Mexican.Cookery, Spanish.

to the user created subject tags.

spicy, recipes, cooking, food, tamales, mexican, food network, tv, Mexican food,burritos, Tacos, EnchiladasDiscussion Questions–

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Do users have more time to catalog than catalogers – If it is a book that interests them,yes, but then who tags the boring books?

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Do users choose better tags than catalogers?

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Although we might like our tags (and controlled vocabulary) better, which method ismore likely to result in the user finding books?

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How is it that neither the cataloger nor the users picked cookbooks as an access point?

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Why do we still limit subject headings as if we were living in a world of limitedresources (3x5 cards, card catalogs, understaffed technical services department, etc.)?There is a very good article in Wired Magazine on how humans are having a hard time adaptingform a concept of “scarcity” to one of “abundance” in Chris Anderson’s “Tech Is Too Cheap to

Meter: It's Time to Manage for Abundance, Not Scarcity.”http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/mf_freer In it Anderson quotes the science fiction writer Cory Doctorow and what he calls "thinking like adandelion." Doctorow writes: "The disposition of each—or even most—of the seeds isn't theimportant thing, from a dandelion's point of view. The important thing is that every spring,

everycrack in every pavement is filled with dandelions

. The dandelion doesn't want to nurse asingle precious copy of itself in the hopes that it will leave the nest and carefully navigate its wayto the optimum growing environment, there to perpetuate the line. The dandelion just wants to besure that every single opportunity for reproduction is exploited!"Librarians have always wanted the best subject headings, the best Dewey and LC numbers, andthe best author / title / notes fields. But have we always gotten it right? Remember when theofficial LC subject heading for a “Light Bulb” was “Lamp, Incandescent?” And how is itpossible that both librarians and users failed to choose “cookbook” as a search term? Whoknows, maybe the next searcher will tag our example with “cookbook”, or “cook book”, or“cook books”.Users could care less if we get it right – or even if they get it right. There are lots of typos inTagging. Users simply want to find they book they want no matter what search term they use. Inother words,

they want to find the book in every crack in every pavement.

Later in this presentation, under Examples of Web 2.0, various social networking sites aredescribed. How might the online catalog change if these techniques were used?

PLANNING vs. INNOVATIONPlanning

– Typically, a means to improve what we are already doing, or add to what we aredoing. Planning usually results in incremental change, leaving the organization’s identity intact.“If you asked an American what he wanted for better transportation prior to Henry Ford, hewould have said a faster horse.”When online catalogs first came into being, a popular feature was the ability to display metadataas a catalog card.

Innovation

– Things that change the way we do things. Examples of Innovation:

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Automobiles, television, TV dinners

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Websites vs. newspapers

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Full Text Databases vs. Periodicals

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Cell phones vs. all of the following - phones, ipods, computers, televisions, radios, GPSloators, still cameras, video cameras, notebooks, calendars, telephone books, yellowpages, travel atlases, alarm clocks, flashlights, etc.

Consequences of Innovation

– If you truly innovate, you may1.

Abandon many of your core goals and objectives