In Queens, a New Service Model Means Renovations
Queens Director Thomas Galante Explains How the Borough's Libraries Are Changing.
By Staff -- Library Journal, 09/15/2005
LBD: What are Queens Library's plans for its new customer service model?
Thomas Galante: We are simultaneously creating a more efficient, satisfying, and professional environment for our staff, while using the time and space we save to service our customers better. Knowledgeable, approachable staff are what makes the Queens Library experience different from any other resource in our community.... No bookstore or web resource can match the reference interview or readers' advisory or the simple, friendly smile that our staff provide. That's why customers come to the public library. Our staff help them enrich their lives. By using technology to do the repetitive work, the new customer service model puts our best foot forward, and that's our staff.
How does the new model impact your buildings?
There are two philosophies at work: reimagining the space into a seamless environment for the customer and creating a more efficient workflow for staff. Improved workflow is at the heart of the renovations, with everything else fanning out from there. We are introducing central workrooms, where internal and external book drops go to the same place. This often means trading spaces between the workroom, which has usually been in the back of the library, with the public meeting/program room, which is usually at the front. Materials are checked in at one place and get back onto the shelves faster, reducing the transport of materials internally.
And for the customer?
Rather than a large circulation desk with room for several staff members, smaller desks are being installed, with one staff member overseeing three or four RFID self-check stations. More efficient materials handling and self-service yields more floor space that can then become teen lounge areas, more spacious reading rooms, and cybercenters. These efficiencies make more staff available for greater interaction with the public, such as special initiatives like better out-of-school programming.
What's the impact on design?
Peter Magnani [director, capital program management] and our architectural team are creating open plans and removing interior barriers. This means that when customers come into the library, they see everything that is being offered spread out before them like a banquet.
By creating visual relationships among the adult, children's, and teen areas—and the cybercenter—customers learn what's available and are enticed to try it. It's like coming into a retail store.
In terms of interior design, we are introducing color, new floor finishes, and new lighting to infuse the space with energy and make it more inviting. The library environment feels less institutional and relates more to the community, a home away from home.
With 63 locations, this is a significant undertaking.
We expect to roll out six branches every quarter over the next three years. It's an ambitious schedule. A couple of new buildings are well underway. They will have the new customer service model from opening day.
How are you managing change from the staff side?
The new service model, with supporting technology, is selling itself. Word of mouth among our staff is that it's genuinely easier and makes their workdays more varied and pleasant. It paved the way for us to create new promotional opportunities among support staff. Our librarians are spending their time doing the kind of work they became librarians to do. Staff in our Corona and Court Square libraries, the pilot branches, were great trailblazers. They helped refine procedures…. As we roll out and each library has to close for renovation, staff will be reassigned to a library where the new service model is already in place.
What has been the response from customers?
The public is taking to it very quickly, too. Staff are on the floor assisting customers at the self-service stations, demonstrating how to use the RFID checkout and also how to pay fines/fees through automated payment technology. They are also providing the one-on-one interaction that many customers want and need. The touch-screens are in several languages, unique to the needs of each community. Customers are checking material out within minutes instead of waiting in a line. In the end, the whole library looks and feels better. New furniture, signage, and redesigned spaces, with the design for each library viewed from the perspective of the customers in that community. It's advantageous to do an interior renovation along with the technology implementation.
