As you say the best response, and along with yours should act as a trigger to all, including Ed and Roy, to start thinking like this. Too many, far too many missed opportunities.
f
Frances Hendrix
Martin House Farm, Hilltop Lane, Whittle le Woods, Chorley, Lancs PR6 7QR, UK
tel: 01257 274 833. fax: 01257 266 488
email: [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: Dash Graham
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 10:43 AM
Subject: Re: Hands off our libraries!
One of the best replies so far in this debate, but the last section highlights what could potentially be the death knell of many libraries in the future.
What happens if and when the "virtual library", particularly digital books (including e-books and audio), becomes a national service? The same could so easily apply to enquiry and subscription database services, e.g. a full and single national version of Ask A Librarian / Enquire - (won't help too much with local enquiries). There are huge cost savings and reduction in duplication to be had here. As an example how many users are now joining libraries like Manchester to get access to their online databases? I know of a number of librarians who have and it's only a matter of time before the users who want specific services find out that this service is available to them.
I'm not going to begin to suggest where the finance comes from, but when the technologically knowledgeable and time limited users of the future, who do not physically visit their local library, it doesn't matter to them where they get their digital services from. After all the main eBook provider, Overdrive, have their servers in the U.S.A.
Despite my comments I do believe that libraries do have a place in the community, but I don't think they are going to be anything like libraries as we know them as I suspect they will be multi-functional, and books may be only a very small part of the services provided.
... and of course, not all users are going to be able to afford e-books readers, etc., so you come back to inclusion again.
Graham
Graham Dash, MCLIP, Library Services Manager (Systems & Development)
Environment & Leisure Group, Leisure & Libraries
London Borough of Sutton, Central Library, St Nicholas Way, SUTTON, Surrey SM1 1EA .
Tel.: 020 8770 4763, Mobile: 07515137830, Fax: 020 8770 4777
Borough web site: www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=907
Library Catalogue web site: www.sutton-libraries.gov.uk
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From: lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick London
Sent: 25 August 2010 17:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Hands off our libraries!
I've lost the thread of this thread so i don't what Alyson Hogarth said.
But...
I do kind of half-agree with Steve on the "...but Libraries are so much more than a retail outlet."
The economic model of libraries is actually nothing like a retail outlet, seeing as we do not directly charge anything to visit or lend books (which despite all attempts to pretend otherwise is overwhelmingly what public libraries are currently about - and what the general public thinks we are about). Therefore trying to model operations purely on what Waterstones does is going to miss the marketing point altogether (one of the key annoyances about the Tim Coates approach).
What we can and must learn from the retail sector is how to engage our regular users, dormant users, lapsed users inactive etc etc. Our LMS systems all store and can provide quantities of data on activity, preferences and behaviour that would make many genuine retail outfits weep with envy (no need for loyalty schemes here!). The fact that we do not live or die by profit margins has been the main reason this business intelligence has not been exploited nearly enough, but we may have to get vert smart at it very soon or suffer the oblivion so often reported by the media.
We also have in common with the retail sector that no one is compelled to visit us or use us - a fact that sets us apart from many local government services and makes us both a 'soft' target in hard times and potentially a popular cause celebre in the local community. But we have to get better at encouraging people to come in and when they come in to actually give them a good enough experience that they return. This isn't about being 'more than just books' or a being a hive of events and activities, but about basic customer care, smiling at instead of avoiding customers and asking them if they need any help. This is the core of what we should learn from the retail sector.
And one other thing since I am off on a rant. Almost everyone under 40 in this country is now IT literate and everyone under 30 expects to shop, communicate, socialise and access services online - as the default medium. When these people become 50 and 60 and 70 year olds will their expectation of what library services do, based on what they see now, fit into their lifestyle? So when this year's 50-70 year olds eventually pass on and are replaced, who will want to use the library service?
My point is that if we do not establish libraries in the virtual market place, with services available online and material delivered direct (whether e-books, searchable resources, 'web 2.0' functions, digitised local material or books by post) we will be facing much more than the reported one third decline in visitor numbers.
If we are not relevant to the future we won't be in it....
Nick
(Service Manager: Systems & Performance
Nottinghamshire Libraries
0115 982 9029)
----------------------------------------------------------
Steve Powell <[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: "lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries" <[log in to unmask]>
25/08/2010 15:03 Please respond to
Steve Powell <[log in to unmask]>
To [log in to unmask]
cc
Subject Hands off our libraries!
I have to agree with Alyson Hogarth here,
The comparison of Libraries & Bookshops, alongside the panicky cry of 'we've got to be more like a bookshop' has always felt to me like we're selling ourselves short.
Sure, we'd have been bonkers not to take on board [as has been happening for many years now] best practice in the marketing and design/layout ideas from Bookshops and indeed from the larger retail sector...but Libraries are so much more than a retail outlet.
Obviously I'm not a stock specialist, I'm talking more generally, but there isn't that much common ground...unless anyone out there really does believe that books are just 'tins of beans'?
Steve
Steve Powell BA (Hons) MCLIP
Children and Youth Librarian
Libraries Archives & Information
Communities Department
Nottinghamshire County Council
Retford Library
Churchgate
Retford
Notts
DN22 6PE
Tel - 01777 708724
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