Its Their Collection Give it back

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Its Their CollectionGive it back!
Crafting A Collection Your Customers Will Want
To Use
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What you will learn today

• Why have a customer-centered collection
• Centralizing collection processing benefits
• Making customer-driven collection decisions
• Organizing the collection for the self-sufficient
  user

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You will also learn

• How to develop an Implementation Plan
• Issues to be aware of
• Working with staff responses
• Looking for indicators of success

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A quick look at the SJPL Situation

• Pop served 940,000 10th largest city
• Inventory 1,994,779 items
• Operating budget 24.3 million
• Materials expenditure per capita 4.25
• Main Library joint use with San Jose State
  University
• 17 branches, building 6 more

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SJPL Collection and Circulation Facts

• 2003/04 Collection budget 3,550,000
• Collection size increase last 10 yrs 35
• Languages in collections 50
• Circulation per capita 15.4, 5.3M Visitors
• Circulation increase last 10 years 180
• 80 Circulation at Branches

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Customer Centered CollectionsThe 4 Step Process

• Select
• Organize
• Promote
• Manage

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Determine Community Needs

• What does your community demand?
• What is your competition doing? Whats selling?
• Balance needs curriculum popular
• Compliment other services in area
• Library as a destination

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User Input

• In library surveys
• Circ analysis
• Phone surveys
• Focus groups

• We listened!

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Public and Organizational Readiness

• 1999 Metropolitan Cooperative Library Systems
  Public Perception of Public Libraries
• 2000 San Jose Public Librarys Marketing Study
• 2002 Godbe Evaluation of Innovative Library
  Service model

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Results of our findings

• New popular books, DVDs, CDs
• Enough copies to meet demand
• Abundance of youth materials
• Languages
• High quality assistance
• High quality collections

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Drivers

• Customers Needs
• Merchandised Collections
• Popular multiples
• Teaching/training

• Library Realities
• Decreasing staff
• Increasing use
• Need to free staff to give higher level of
  service

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Centralized Selection

• Adopting centralized selection at SJPL was a
  group activity and took place in phases.

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Selection in San JoseA short history

• All units selected
• Selected Consolidation
• Team Approach
• Central Selectors
• Super Selectors

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Benefits of Centralized Selection

• Quicker response time to customer needs
• Right amount of materials
• Enough in the right format
• Stronger, more cohesive collections system-wide
• Able to respond to diversity
• Customer-centered staff training

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Efficiency in Meeting Customer Demand
Staffing v. Circ 02/03 13,491,292
Staffing
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Further Benefits to Customers

• More staff freed to help customers
• Customers have a better chance of finding what
  they want
• Savings due to streamlined purchasing, less
  mistakes
• Selection objectivity improved because of system
  wealth approach including format emphasis
• Coordinated effort toward meeting customer demand

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Transforming service
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Why our circulation has increased

• A strong customer-centered selection planning
  process
• Used ALL available funds to reach goal
• Easy access for renewing/ reserving
• Virtual reference service assistance
• All staff teach customers

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Why our circulation has increased (cont.)

• Emphasis on multiple copies of popular items
  including media
• Strong focus on collections that meet the needs
  of children and families
• Strong merchandising and collection promotion
• Building on Weekly Visitor

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Our collections confuse customers

• I could walk into a Barnes Noble and in 10
  minutes walk out with a book and a latte. If I
  walked into a library it would take me an hour to
  find a book and I would leave without the latte.
• 
  Linda Flanders, library customer

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Proactive Collection Management

• Identify competition
• Respond to diversity
• Phase out collections no longer sustaining
  customer need
• Identify how to share services
• Utilize electronic format for increased access
• Everyones a teacher
• Everyone serves youth and families
• Anticipating demand
• 80-20 Rule

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Customer Expectations

• Easy to browse
• Quick and convenient
• High multiples of popular
• Publish new v. new
• Customers dont want to have to ask

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What Customers want from us (cont.)

• Abundance of youth materials
• Collections presented for novice
• Customers value our reading knowledge and
  consider us experts

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Organizing your collection for success

• Observe customers
• Promote lively, active areas for high traffic and
  easy self-navigation
• Pull multiples of popular, often-requested
  material from Dewey locations permanently
  display them
• To label or not to label? Always address the
  needs of The Browser

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Promotion

• Effective use of canopies, tables, bins, endcaps
• Slatwall for walls, pillars, endcaps
• Appropriate furniture and acrylics
• Face-outs and anchoring
• Face-ups and stacking
• Fanning floppies

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Convenience
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Customers

• are MOST attracted to new books when displayed in
  smaller sections
• will identify any book as choice when displayed

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Improve the reference query save staff time
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Intuitive Layout
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Featuring authors or series
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Stacking and Faceout
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Browsing for all
Browsing For All Ages
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Family Place
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In Conclusion

• Customers Love It!
• Select the collection they want and provide it in
  abundance
• Organize the collection their way, smaller
  browsing collections are preferred
• Have all available staff able to assist
• Show em what youve got and enable the
  self-directed user

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For Further Information

• www.sanjoseway.org
• www.sjlibrary.org