PLA 2010 Conference: Thinking Outside the Branch

Public Library Assocation - PLA 2010 - Annual Conference - Portland

By Brian Kenney -- Library Journal, 03/27/2010

• Library-A-Go-Go vending machines
• Flexible operational models keep buildings open
• Small gateway facilities whet users’ appetites

A group of California librarians (and architect Christopher Noll) yesterday demonstrated to a standing-room-only crowd how they are creating new outlets to extend library services.

As part of its 2006 strategic plan, the Contra Costa County Library (CCCL), Pleasant Hill, committed itself to becoming an “80 percent self-serve, 20 percent mediated serve” library, according Cathy Sanford, deputy county librarian.

Also, the board of supervisors mandated CCCL to increase service to the fast-growing eastern part of the county—and to do so with no additional funding nor reduction in services throughout the rest of the system.

The automated solution
One solution: use vending machines to distribute library content at high-traffic locations, such as transit centers or in shopping areas. But vending machines are neither cheap nor easy to install.

CCCL’s experiment with vending machines—the library now has three in operation—was bolstered by a Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the state library, a grant from its local consortium, and the gift of two opening day collections from distributor Baker & Taylor.

An interdisciplinary team—with help from a “champion within the local transit system,” according to Sanford—worked for two years to make Library-A-Go-Go (as it was eventually dubbed) a reality. Sanford deems the experiment a success based circulation: at any given time over 25 to 30 percent of the material in the machines is on loan. “And today, you can find three vendors on the exhibit floor introducing their own machines.”

(For more coverage, see LJ's August 2009 feature, Self-Service to the People, from which the photos are taken.)

Different services, different times
CCCL is also pursuing what Sanford calls “flexible operational models,” or different levels of services at different times, within the same building.

The Walnut Creek Library, set to open in July, is designed so that different areas can open or close independently. “It’s a great model to have for lean times,” Sanford said. The lobby, for example, may remain open 24/7 to allow users to return and borrow materials, while the more staff-intensive children’s library, on a higher floor, would provide services for more limited hours.

Santa Clara County Library, Los Gatos, is also experimenting with increasing access via flexible design. County Librarian Melinda Cervantes described how lobbies are open for extended hours, retrofitted with self-check/self-return technology, popular collections, a staffed service desk, and a Friends’ bookstore.

Welcome to the mini-library
Consultant Linda Demmers presented a third option: “gateway libraries” of approximately 2,000-square-feet that provide an edited version of library services—technology plus children’s services, for example.

CCCL’s Antioch Gateway, part of a community center that includes a gym and a preschool program, will serve as a second library for Antioch, extending service to a residents cut off from the main library by a freeway. It will include a 100 percent self-check collection of best-sellers, teen books, audio books, DVDs and picture books for early readers, with computers for all.

“You can’t keep stuffing and stuffing 2,000 feet with everything," Demmers said. "Then no one wants to go to them. You just want to whet the appetite of the community.”