“Free to the people” since 1895 Jumpstarting a 105 Year- old Community Icon: Bringing a 19 th Century Library into the 21 st Century

“Free to the people” since 1895

Jumpstarting a 105 Year-old Community Icon:

Bringing a 19th Century Library into the 21st Century


a presentation to PLA Annual Conference

MinneapolisMarch 2008


Your Presenters Richard Kaplan

Manager, Reference ServicesCarnegie Library of Pittsburgh – [email protected]

Karen RossiManagerCarnegie Library of Pittsburgh –

Downtown & [email protected]


Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh


Why did we embark on this project?


Examining the role of public library Impact of Internet?

Impact of amazon.com and super bookstores? Effect of rise in service economy on customers’

expectations?

Implication of the decrease in free time and increase in discretionary income (for some)?

Relevance of the academic model of subject-specific departments for the public library?


Goals of library redesign

Created library that is customer-centered and user-friendly• Eliminate customer frustration• Arrange activities and key spaces

Increase user base

Deliver information needs to users

Make library a destination in the community


Outcome of Strategic Planning: Our challenge Transformed space and services

• Designed and created a popular destination within a traditional library

• Merged subject departments into a cohesive Reference Department

• Trained and mentored staff to focus on excellent service to customers


Capital projects We embarked on our renovation projects

• 4 architects, 7 locations and more to come!• Distinct neighborhoods, distinct libraries

Website redesign

Concerned that communication with the public would become more fragmented and unplanned unless we created a consistent conceptual framework that would both inform and be layered on top of the new physical architecture• Information Architecture informed the process.


Information

Architecture?


An information architecture gives you predictability (it’s one of the ways we make things easier to use…)

taming complexityTM

User Interface Information Architecture System Architecture


Example: McDonald’s Infrastructure: the building, the cooking equipment, the

pricing structure, what times of day you can get an Egg McMuffin vs. a Big Mac, etc.

user interface: the signs and the design of the customer-facing portions of the infrastructure.

information architecture: the mental model that most people share for “how to interact with a fast food restaurant”. Includes the concepts of:

• a menu with items and their prices (only shows what you can order at that time, or lists the times)

• a place where promotions are displayed• a sequence of events that are followed in a particular order• an area in which to place an order, pay for the order, pick

up the order• an area in which to eat the food• a place to discard the garbage


Libraries as complex organizations Variety of customer needs

Variety of services

Variety of materials

Variety of facility issues

Depth of resources


Organizers make connections

Overview > Research > Analysis > Design


Overview > Research > Analysis > Design

The end of every customer journey

should be the beginning of a new one


How do we serve the 21st century library

user?


What do we want people to think when they walk

in our doors?


How can we optimize our space, services and

collections?



Outdoor space


ramming

Quiet Reading Room


Large print room


The Gallery @ Main



Teen






Results?

Named Number One “Most Useful Web Site” in Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh Magazine in 2004

4.1 million visits in 2004

5.9 million visits in 2007


Always ask myself:

What do I hope people will say about this library? This staff?

How can we optimize our space, services & collections?


What are we committed to?

What do we want to accomplish

as we work together?


Staff selection

Qualities / characteristics

Hire for attitude

Teach skills


Hiring process

General announcement and invitation• All-staff newsletter

• Internal job posting

Information sessions


Hiring process

Letter of interest

Meet & Greets

Interviews


Sample interview questions

What’s the best customer service transaction you’ve ever experienced (in any environment)?

What would you do to change the traditional perception of the library to become a more vibrant place to visit?


Don’t ask, “What if it doesn’t work?”

Instead, ask, “How will I feel if I don’t even try?”

- Suzanne Zoglio


Staff training and development To learn and master skill sets Challenge staff to explore and develop fresh,

new ideas• Expectation: explosion of ideas

Brainstorm Encourage new approaches to library services

• How can we do it better?• More effectively?• Imaginative & innovative

Take risks


Staff training and development Customer service / best practices Booklists, book reviews Book discussion groups Collection development basics Understanding our Goals & Objectives Databases Program planning and implementation Readers’ Advisory skills Reference interview


Ongoing staff training

Reader’s Advisory workshops• Staff lead training workshops

• Mysteries, urban lit, romance, chick lit

• Overview of bestselling authors, subgenres, award winners

• CLP staff and librarians throughout the county consortium attended


Ongoing staff training

At staff meetings• Best Practices Roundtables

• Enhance book-talking skills • Genre-of-the-month readings• Discuss what we’re reading in the genre• Brainstorm read-alikes• Constant practice


What fascinates you?

What makes your heart sing?


Staff involvement We’re creating a unique atmosphere, even

a spirit.

We’re identifying 21st Century customer service expectations.

We’re creating a new type of teamwork for managers and staff.

Our staff have new opportunities to work together.


Our challenge Transformed space and services

• Designed and created a popular destination within a traditional library

• Merged subject departments into a cohesive Reference Department

• Trained and mentored staff to focus on excellent service to customers



• Opened November 5, 1895• The Library's first annual report, January 31, 1897.

• A staff of nineteen; • A book collection of 27,000 volumes; • A City appropriation of $65,000; and• Cash in hand for the erection of seven branch buildings.

• 1898 Children’s Department opened.

• 1898 & 1899 Andrew Carnegie gives two $10,000 gifts for technical periodicals and the journals of learned societies.

• 1902 Science & Technology Department established. (Believed to be the oldest such Dept. in a US public library.

• 1902 Patent Depository established.

• 1905 Government Document depository status.

• 2005 3 million items, 96 staff.

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Around the mid 1970s

Between 1996 & 2001

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Around the mid 1970s

Between 1996 & 2001


Background

• 1998 -- Application of business planning model to public library operations.

• Process begun for strategic planning and goal setting.• Staff, customer and consultant research / input to determine future directions.

• 2000-2001 -- System wide strategic planning process initiated.

• Services • Facilities • Training• Collections

• Existing research service model with subject departments, last altered in 1986.

• Do existing services meet current & projected user demands and needs?• Does the facility support the needed service requirements?

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8 Subject Departments

1. Children's Dept.2. Foundation Center 3. Humanities

(AV, Fiction, Literature, Poetry, Religion, Philosophy, Sports, Entertainment.)

4. Job, Career & Education.5. Music & Art Dept.6. Pennsylvania Dept.

(Local History, Pennsylvaniana, Genealogy.)

7. Science & Technology (Sciences, Medicine & Health, Patents, Cookbooks, Psychology,

& Gov Docs.)

8. Social Sciences (History, Politics, Law, Business, Geography, Sociology, & Gov Docs.)

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• LC shelving organized by department floor.• 1st floor - Humanities. B-BD, BH-BX, GV, P-PZ & Fiction.• 2nd floor – Social Sciences. A, C-CN, CR-CT, D-L & Z.• 2nd floor – Music & Art. M-N.• 3rd floor – Science & Technology. Q-V, circulating Dewey.• 8 “stacks” of Reference materials NOT browsable.

• User Focus Group Conclusions.• Confusing “jargon”. We use terminology not used / understood by public library user.• Unnecessary multiple trips to find information and materials.• AV (then 25% of all circulation) too decentralized and spread out.

• Conclusion / recommendation adopted, Fall 2002:

• Provide an Integrated Service Delivery Model.

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What is an Integrated Service Delivery Model?• A consolidation of the major subject discipline depts.

• Redistribution of the reference and circulating non-fiction collections into sequential call number order.

• Transfer of almost all pre-1970 periodicals and the library’s Heritage Collections to off-site depository and allow for 5 years of growth in the circulating and reference stack areas.

What are the benefits?• Less customer / user confusion.

• Single point of service for reference. (excl. PA and Jobs.)

• Reduction in overall staff costs.

• Services and collections that more accurately reflect library use.

• Enhance the value of the professional staff by providing training and experience that broadens their depth of knowledge.

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Then Existing Model for Main Library

• Children's Dept.

• Foundation Center

• Humanities

• Job, Career & Education.

• Music & Art Dept.

• Pennsylvania Dept.

• Science & Technology • Social Sciences

Planned Model for Main Library

• Children's Dept.

• Film & Audio – New.

• New & Featured – New.

• Job, Career & Education.

• Pennsylvania Dept. • Combined

Reference The Foundation Center moved to CLP’s Downtown & Business Library in 2001.

Main Library Service Points52


How to Implement the Program?

• Summer, 2002 - Selected a Manager to coordinate the subject department merger, who became the Dept. Head.

• Developed a timeline to merge the departments and services based on renovation and collection shifting program at Main Library.

• Transferred of all Services affected by construction schedule on library’s first floor. Humanities, Job Center and Customer Services (check-in, check-out, returns and library cards)

• Shifted of over 1,000,000 volumes (+500,000 non print items) on 11 floors or stacks into call number order.

• Opened up an additional floor for public browsing, and transferred pre-1970 periodicals and duplicate reference materials to off-site depository (100,000 items.)

• Weeded, cleaned up and transferred another 50,000 items from “old” warehouse to depository.

• Weeded over 150,000 items from Main Library collections.

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Open Stack

Open Stack (new)

Open Stack

Open Stack

1

3

2


Main Library floor profile

Offices, shipping, admin.

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At the same time we:

1. Developed a plan for the new First Floor configuration

2. Setup a new Film & Audio Dept.3. Reconfigured our Photocopy & Microfilm Services

• Photocopy previously reported to Science & Technology

• Microfilm previously reported to Social Sciences.

4. Maintained all of our services during renovation.5. Accommodated users from nearby Squirrel Hill

Branch closed for renovations. (Single busiest neighborhood location after Main Library.)

6. Re-opened two branches that completed renovations.

7. Eliminated 13 positions system-wide due to state funding cuts. (The blow was softened by having 11 concurrent vacancies in Main Library.)

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The Process

Examined Carnegie Library subject departments and other urban libraries that had merged or consolidated departments.

• Began a regular round of information meetings with all of Main Library staff to keep them informed of developments, invite suggestions, and promote staff buy-in.

• Reviewed Collections.

• Reviewed Budget allocations.

• Reviewed Periodical & Serial acquisitions.• Substantial duplication of tools and standard titles between

depts.

• Looked at outside collaborative efforts.

• Examined Information & Vertical Files. (3/4 were discarded.)

• Assessed skill requirements in different disciplines.

• Discovered idiosyncratic ways of each department.

• Asked what other libraries had done.

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Prior to Renovations.

• Established a schedule and scope of cross-training to be developed and conducted by Main Library staff.

• The staff needed to learn and develop the practical skills outside their traditional areas.

• Makes them an integral part of the process. • They’re making it happen, it’s not being done to them.

• Determined an order to integrate the departments.

• Decision was made based on our intuition, and observations of outside libraries that it needs to be a graduated process.

• Complete individual departments in a deliberate fashion.

• Merge the staff and the collections together, with particular attention paid to what the incoming staff feel are their important reference resources.

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• Concurrent with cross-training, began a cycle of cross-staffing in the existing departments.

• Exposed staff to resources and patrons they’re not familiar with.

• Better acquaint them with their professional colleagues and future co-workers.

• Better acquaint them with their “new” patrons.• Increase and promote all-around comfort levels.

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Cross Training (39 sessions between February & June, 2003)

• February 2003.• Humanities Dept. general overview.• Music & Art Dept. general overview• Social Sciences Dept. general overview.• Science & Technology Dept. general overview.• Teens general overview.

• What is a general overview?• Nature and scope of the dept’s. collection and

service areas.• Nature of the most common inquiries and questions

asked.• Most common and useful reference resources

utilized.• Which staff have subject expertise.

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Cross Training - Workshops

• Humanities Workshops.• Readers Advisory• Literature

– American– British– World

• Literary Criticism• African American Literary Resources• Shakespeare Resources• Finding poems and short stories.• Religion & Theology Resources.• Authorsheets (Carnegie Library developed literature

resource)• Using Explicators• Concordances

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• Music & Art.*• Art & Artists.• Architecture.• Appraisals and Auction Prices.• Collectibles.• Pittsburgh Artists and Architecture.• Music – Searching Uniform Titles in the catalog.• Musicians, variations on names and non-English

use.• Pittsburgh Musicians.• Special collections within the Music & Art Dept.• Music Scores & Sheet Music.

* In late 2005, we decided to keep Music itself as a separate department sharing common functions and space with the Film & Audio Dept.

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• Social Sciences Dept.• ERIC and other resources in education.• History sets.• Finding statistical data

– Governmental– International

• Business information– Directory– Financial data

• Consumer information• Copyright• Government Documents.

– Introduction– Finding Aids– Formats

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• Science & Technology Dept.• Science Handbooks

– (Chemistry, Physics, etc.)• Science Fair Projects• Manufacturer’s Directories

– Duns– Thomas’ Registers

• Army & Navy Registers• Medline• Patents

– US– British

• Trademarks

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• Science & Technology • Standards (CLP maintains a significant collection.)

– ANSI– ASTM– British & ISO– MILSPEC

• Building & Construction Codes.– BOCA– National Fire Safety Code– RS Means

• Topographical Maps & Mapping.• Used Car Prices.• Government Documents.• NASA & SAE Technical Reports (Fiche.)

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Cross Training Workshops

• Unique Construct. Half of the classes designed by the subject departments.

• The 2nd half were planned based on feedback and requests from the librarians themselves.

• Based on their experiences during cross-staffing exchanges.• Based on questions colleagues were asking the subject

librarians.

• Cross Training was continual, gradually becoming an internal continuing education tool. We still do them.

• Once or twice a month.• Informal.• Staff driven and staff taught.• No more than 1 hour.• Content, topic, or database specific.

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Timeline

2003• Planned & scheduled cross-training / cross-staffing.

• Initiated deliberate cross training programs and cross-staffing.

• Continued through June.

• First floor of the library closes for renovations (excluding the Children’s Dept.)

• Humanities Dept. shares space and staffing with Social Sciences Dept. but is maintained as a separate administrative unit. (Not fully merged yet.)

• Late 2003 -- Humanities and Social Sciences Depts. officially become the first two components of the new Reference Services Dept.

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Timeline

2004• Continued cross-staffing with Science & Technology and

Music & Art Depts.

• Late 2004 -- moved the resources and staff of Science & Technology Dept. to the 2nd floor and merged them into Reference Services.

2005• Reassigned Art Librarian to Reference Services. Maintain

split schedule with Music & Art Dept until December while new Film & Audio Dept., coordinated with Music librarians.

2006• All intended subject departments merged into Reference

Services.

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Reality Check – November 2004

•Reference Question Survey – Two weeks.

• Tracked every reference question asked (excl. directional.)

• Confirmed the premise behind the consolidation of the subject departments.

• Tracked where the users are from.• Tracked who they are.

– Students– Business community– Regular library user or not?

• What resources were used?• Expertise level required to answer the

question.

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Reference Question

User Survey

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Survey Results

Social Sciences / Humanities2050 Questions

• 20% - History

• 20% - Literary Criticism

• 15% - Business related.

• 15% - “What is…?”

• 30% - Mixed

Ref Services QuestionsHumanities & Soc. Sci.

What is?13%

Lit Crit18%

History19%Business

13%

Articles8%

Law & Gov7%

Census & Geog.5%

Books6%

Current Events5%

Religion6%

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Survey Results

Social Sciences / Humanities Users

• 50% - Personal

• 40% - Students• 50% - College & University• 45% - Secondary• 5% - Elementary

• 10% - Business Users.

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Survey Results

Science & Technology 1970 Questions.

• 45% - General

• 20% - Common Science & Health

• 15% - Patents & Trademarks.

• 10% - “How do I…?”

• 10% - Hard Sciences.

Sci Tech Questions

Common Sciences21%

Hard Sciences8%

Patents15%

How do I13%

General43%

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Survey Results

Science & Technology Users

• 45% - Personal


• 15% - Business Users.

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Survey Results

Music & Art 1230 Questions

• 30% - Hard Music

• 25% - Music Scores

• 15% - Hard Art

• 15% - General Music

• 15% - Mixed• Lyrics• Collectibles• Images

Music & Art Questions

Music13%

Collectibles6%

Images3%

Lyrics7%

Scores26%

Hard Music28%

Hard Art17%

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Survey Results

Music & Art Users

• 60% - Personal


• 15% - Business Users.• Auction Houses• Attorneys• Appraisers

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Survey Conclusions:

1. Decision to consolidate subject departments was correct.

2. Revisited the decision as related to the Music component of Music & Art.

3. Academic users are a substantial portion of the library’s active customer base.• Service implications• Technology implications

4. With the exception of Music, specific discipline expertise isn’t necessary to meet the majority of user demand most of the time.

- “Can I have your number, we’ll call back with that answer.”

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Conclusions & Recommendations

1. Allow as much time as possible / feasible to plan, promote (staff & public buy-in) and train for a subject department consolidation.

2. Use graduated cross-staffing to familiarize staff with their colleagues, the resources they’ll need to use, and the patrons or customers they’ll need to serve.

3. Encourage and support staff planning of thorough cross-training.

1. Learn the resources.2. Learn the questions.3. Meet your colleagues.4. Reduce the stress factor.5. Involve the staff at all levels and solicit their input.

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Conclusions & Recommendations

4. Use your construction delays wisely.

Communicate Communicate & Communicate.

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Reference Services Customer Service Model

• As much as possible separate phone service from desk or walk-up service.

• Substitute some standing orders for on-demand purchases.

• ANSI Standards

• Provide electronic document delivery, including original PDFs.

• Plain language signage – say it in English.• Balance what users use / need and anticipated use

vs. acquiring materials because you’ve always bought them.

• Use data to make your decisions.• Survey results• Usage• ILL and photocopy requests.

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Results of the redesign? Visitors up 93%

• Squirrel Hill Library

• Since 2002

Visitors up 67% • Downtown & Business Library

• Since 2002

Circulation up 42%• Hazelwood Library

• Since reopening in May 2004



Results of the redesign

Increased circulation and registrations

Many more users

Library as a destination

The library is easy to use and understand.

No secret handshake is necessary.


The process of innovation is not simply an act. It is not just design, or market analysis, or investment, or entrepreneurship….It is all of these, a complex sequence of steps. And it is all the more complex because there is nothing automatic about it. The engines of innovation are human beings.

Daniel V. De Simone


Jumpstarting a 105 Year-old Community Icon

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/presentations/

http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA6312505.html• Beth Dempsey, “Power Users,” Library

Journal. Vol. 130 No. 20. December 2005. p. 72-75.


Your presenters

Richard [email protected]

Karen [email protected]