About five years ago, while I was still working for the public library system, I found myself in a branch manager’s meeting where we were discussing a few problems we wanted to iron out of our delivery system. Like many libraries around the country, our group of regional libraries ran a delivery service which allowed patrons from one branch to order a book from another branch and have it within two days.
I don’t remember what kink we were working on at the time but my solution was nothing short of genius. I suggested:
- We close all the branches and pull their inventory into one large warehouse.
- We change over all the pages, associates, and assistants to a new Delivery Model where they would pull and deliver items directly to our patrons’ doorstep.
- Patrons could already place holds on items on-line (through our OPAC) or over the phone, and this would be the obvious portal(s) for requesting items.
In essence, we would do away with our traditional library model in favor of a home delivery model. We would keep the reference librarians (cause I was one) at a central location (probably a mall), where we’d do the same things we’d always done, except we’d re-double our efforts to provide on-line and phone services.
I suppose you could call this the Netflix Model for library delivery, but you should keep in mind this was several years before this now famous company really caught on (which is why we called it the Pizza Delivery Model). I also doubt the Netflix Model would be very practical for books because I imagine it would be fairly expensive to mail them back and forth (probably $4 a trip versus .70).
All of this came bubbling to the surface when I read Librarian Avengers’ post about Cornell Library’s best kept secret. It still amazes me that libraries aren’t making moves into different delivery markets, and even when they do, as she explains, they hide their service behind jargon and doublespeak.
Granted, I’m not really advocating the Pizza Delivery Model. Although, if someone wanted to bankroll a month-long field test, I’d be happy to collect a consultants fee.
interesting. but i’d be sad if traditional libraries vanished altogether. i find it to be one of the last places i can go where i get a sense of community.
I agree. I was merely attempting to jog my branch manager’s out of the fog-of-traditional-thinking. I do wish that libraries would start considering ideas like booksfree.com though.
I found your post and just wanted to make you aware of a new homebound delivery service for books called BookSwim — http://www.bookswim.com. It hasn’t launched yet but takes the Netflix model and puts it towards books like your post suggests. BookSwim even will work with local libraries to deliver not-in-stock items to library patrons. Look for its launch in March.