Us and Them. The Sun and The Remote. Finding the User vs. The User Finding Us
This post is inspired by how the articles The User is Not Broken and The User is (Still) Not Broken are as true today as they were when they were written.
Us. The Remote. Librarians and Library Staff. We pride ourselves on knowledge. Having it. Attaining it. Knowing it. Gaining it. Storing it. Searching it. Providing it. In doing so, there can be a tendency to shutter ourselves to evolving. We tend to keep doing things the same way we’ve always done them, to be resistant to change and new technologies, to rest on our laurels of being well-studied, well-versed and well-aware. We like routines. Year after year, library land is a cyclical universe: budget season, grant season, summer reading season, Banned Books week, However, we need to remember the message from a title on our shelves – Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson – that one constant in life is change. We libraries, librarians and library staff must change and adapt.
Them. The Sun. The Public. The Digital Users. The Physical Users. The Non-Users. The Supporters. The Non-Supporters. Where are they? Who are they? What are their characteristics? What are their information needs? How do they get their information needs met? Are we meeting those needs? Technology is evolving every day and so are people. Influences outside of our control are changing our behaviors and patterns. Hello internet, smart phone, Covid, to name just a few.
In order for a library to remain valuable, to continue to serve their communities for many years to come, we need to remember to change, evolve, and adapt. How do libraries continue to be that useful tool and service, acting as the remote, connecting our prize, the people, to their information needs (of which they are aware and also unaware) and desires? A viable library knows their community and their customers and they have their finger on the pulse of their community. While they may not be funded to a level to meet all those needs, but by collection information from their community through customer and staff surveys (both formal and informal), community assessments, connecting with local entities like school districts and nonprofits, we can better use our funding to meet the needs of our community. Because without data, you are just another person (or organization) with an opinion. The library system for which I work performed a community needs assessment in 2022 and we used it to create our new strategic plan and mission. It feels really good to be using a plan and mission statement generated directly from community feedback, I have to say.
In addition to formulating the mission, strategic plan, policies, programming and collection based upon feedback from the community, libraries must prioritize the user and their experience as Schneider wrote in their original 2006 essay. The library website and community outreach are two major avenues that will help center the library as the viable and trusted community hub that enhances lives, connects people to valuable resources both in the library and the community, and allows people to continue their lifelong learning without Amazon, Audible and other for fee entities. While both essays discuss the technological shift of users, Covid heavily changed behaviors after both articles were written, driving in-branch usage down and digital library users up. Library websites need to be a bridge, providing users Google-like ease of use to find what they are looking for without having the author’s name spelling perfected, last name/first name formatting, and Boolean operators to name just a few impediments. As libraries are seeing less in-branch customers, going out into the community, finding people where they are as well as intentionally serving people who need our resources the most will help aid libraries in remaining viable and visible. Outreach at laundromats, nonprofit client events, community events, WIC parenting classes, schools with high free and reduced lunch rates…these are all ways in which libraries can provide our valuable resources and compliment the efforts being made by other entities. As we continue to be funded at a lower rate than ever before, connecting to people where they are at and enhancing and expanding the services they are receiving through our collections, programming and services, means we will remain viable, visible, thought of, and funded.
References:
Kenney, B. (2014. January). The user is still not broken. Publishers Weekly.
Johnson, S. (2001). Who moved my cheese? Vermilion.
Schneider, K.G. (2006, June 3). The user is not broken. Free Range Librarian. https://freerangelibrarian.com/