RA in a Day 2011: Serving Readers with Library Building Projects

Our last session of the day was Serving Readers with Library Building Projects: Toronto Public Library, Mississauga Public Library, Ottawa Public Library

I was presenting, so no notes on these sessions. My session was Serving Readers at Ottawa, and here are some of my speaking notes.

I opened by speaking about GASP - a set of standards for graphics, ambiance, style and presentation developed by American consultant Peter Robinson, and first implemented in West Palm Beach Public Library (see here). I talked about how this unifying set of standards was very challenging in a large library with 33 branches, but necessary: it doesn’t mean OPL locations have to have to be cardboard cut-outs of one another, but they do have to be identifiably part of the same family. GASP standards apply to everything from promotional posters and customer service to renovations and new buildings. We implemented some of OPL's GASP standards in several of our renovations, and these proceses relate to serving readers, as part of an over-arching idea of customer service in the library.

In several renovations, for instance, our use of slatwall, the use of angles as well as lines, and our common chair and carpet designs, unified branches with a similar visual style.

In serving readers with renovations, one important element is to emphasise the library as a place of discovery. This was something we really tried to highlight at Rideau Branch, for instance: says manager Philip Robert, “I hope that people can walk around [...] and discover ideas, authors, books, etc. that they were not thinking of when they arrived at the branch.” We created small display spaces/nooks as best we could, within the constraints of the building. These mini-displays creates sense of discovery for patrons throughout branch and allows you to use small collections in small branches for small displays.

Other renovation ideas that directly serve readers and highlight collections include gondolas and tiered shelving. The latter is both less intimidating, and invites people down the aisle if you use the flat top for display – this was creatively used in a Vanier Branch renovation to pull people into a somewhat arhcitecturally awkward space in children's non-fiction).

In terms of overall architecture, creating an unobstructed view of stacks is helpful for readers, and invites discovery, as does effective use of lighting and floor. Floor colours and materials can be fun to play with - for instance, at Rideau we created the "green carpet" runway that both complements the oak ceiling beams (you can't fight your architectural bones) and leads patrons to the Information desk; we also placed alphabet carpet tiles along a whimsical hopscotch-style pathway in the children's section. Adorable seating in the children's section add to the atmosphere: staff are commenting that young families are staying in the children's section longer and more often after the renos at both Vanier and Rideau. "One of our goals was to make that section into a destination point for young families," observes Philip, and it definitely worked!

If you know Rideau Branch, you know we are lucky to have 30 foot ceilings, which invite the kind of spirit of imagination and inspiration that I am hinting at as an overall theme for serving readers with building projects. These windows both allow us to capitalise on a "cathedral" atmosphere and display selections from the City art collection, further encouraging and supporting creativity in the library.

Moving on to Greely Branch of OPL: Greely's previous library was a 946 square foot space in the fire hall; now they have 3000 square feet. Greely is the fastest growing rural village in the City of Ottawa, and, in fact, one of the fastest growing in Ontario. We received $400, 000 each from ISF, and federal and provincial gov'ts for this new build, with the City contributing the remaining costs. Again, here, you can see how we capitalised on small spaces using some of the same techniques as Rideau and Vanier to create spaces for readers: we used angles rather than straight lines, we made a Teen "nook" behind the circulation desk with a special reading bench, and tucked a display space on the other side of the circ desk. We also used slatwall and adjascent windows to create a small adult reading area: a space of quiet contemplation, cut off from the traffic in the branch.

Words of wisdom from Ottawa Public Library managers and staff:

• Know your natural environment: the way the sunlight streams into those lovely windows at Rideau affected our plans (after the fact). We realised that we had moved the circ desk into the path of direct sunlight, and had to order custom blinds!
• Win some, lose some: gradual height increases in shelves opens up the area for display and browsing, but you lose precious shelf space.
• Re-use and Re-cycle: OPL manager Tony observes, "at both Alta Vista and Ruth E. Dickinson, we were able to re-use and re-cycle many pieces of furniture. The end panels of the shelving at Alta Vista were of excellent quality so we refinished them and we re-purposed shelving from the old City of Ottawa archives. Similarly, at Ruth E. Dickinson we are having chairs with good quality wooden frames re-upholstered in flattering new fabrics."
• Check the latest accessibility guidelines for design (eg. aisles) . In high use public areas, aisles and passageways, a minimum of 1675 mm wide is recommended to allow two persons using wheelchairs or scooters to pass each other easily. 1200 mm width is required to allow one person using a wheelchair and one ambulatory person to pass. Interior barrier-free routes shall be minimum 1100mm wide with a 1600mm by 1600mm turn-around space a minimum of 30m apart. Know the rules before you make your plans!

My final observations came from:

Lawson, Bryan. "Healing Architecture: For a long time, we have supposed that good design will improve patient well-being. Now we have figures to prove it. Bryan Lawson reports on how patient treatment and behaviour improved with new architecture. (Theory)." The Architectural Review 211.1261 (2002): 72+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 July 2011.

A study was done in a new wing of a hospital, observing patients’ responses to their surroundings. Patients in the newly designed environments gave significantly better ratings to their treatment and thought more highly of the staff treating them, even though in some cases, it was the same people and the same service. The study concluded that there is a direct relationship between people and their environment, and important factors included:

• the colours of surfaces
• the temperature of rooms
• high and airy spaces
• an environment that appears loved and cared for
  

It also cconcluded that it is EVEN MORE IMPORANT how the environment mediates the relationships between people:

• Matters of privacy or how spaces enable people to establish community or maintain personal place.
  

So, what does this means for us in a library environment? Although library patrons are not as vulnerable (hot/cold spaces, privacy) as hospital patients, there are some ideas here about serving a variety of people with a variety of spaces and options, being aware of how high and airy spaces are inspiring and formal, whereas lower ceilings are cozy and informal, and about noise versus quiet. Think about how people currently use your space: you can prescribe use by changing elements, and you can capitalise on current spaces/touchpoints by targeting areas for specific reader-oriented activities.

P.S. The computer crashed mid-way through my presentation (it was all a bit "Computer says no") and I had to ad-lib the rest with no pictures - the greatest tragedy was people missed out on the owl (slide 19 above).

Most of the other presentations (very visual!) are online:

• Serving Readers at Mississauga
• Serving Readers at Toronto:
  
  • Cedarbrae Observation Report
  • Branch-tastic! Merchandising Training
  • What to display?
  • Standard Shelving Bays
  • Cubes
  • Gondolas
  • Table Tops
  • Slat wall

RA in a Day 2011: The Psychology of Reading Fiction with Dr. Keith Oatley

Dr. Keith Oatley is Professor Emeritus of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto, and it is due to the hard work of committee member Diana (pictured here!) that he graced us with his presence at RA in a day. His slides are here.

Dr. Oatley has written extensively about the psychology of reading fiction (see here). He opened his talk by describing character in a novel as being made up of both actions and what happens “beneath the surface,” what is visible and invisible. The relationship between the two is what the psychology of fiction is all about. One of the unique things about a novel or a film is that we can be ourselves and another character when reading or watching: this is “the centre of the psychology of fiction. We take the author's instructions and we mentally create the imagined world.”

Oatley made an interesting comparison with the process of meditation: in reading fiction, we insert the intentions of the protagonist into the part of our mind with which we usually make our own plans. In essence, their plans become are plans: we feel our own emotions in the circumstances in which the protagonist finds him/herself. Studies are beginning to show a correlation between reading fiction and empathy: the more fiction you read, the more empathetic you are and the better you are at understanding others. This could be a kind of “expertise” being developed: for instance, if you read a lot of novels about romantic relationships, you develop better skills in these relationships in real life.

An interesting study was done by Oatley and his colleagues in which a “small personality change” (proportional to the emotions felt) was documented by subjects who were given a Chekov story to read, compared to a control group given a nonfiction re-writing of the same story. One might be able to conclude that “the story enables people to change, but it doesn't make people change.”

Another interesting observation Oatley made was that studies have shown, preliminarily, that people who may be “avoiders” of emotional engagement in real life actually feel empathy more strongly in fiction – perhaps fiction can circumvent that avoidance?
Oatley closed with two wonderful quotes:

• Proust on his books: they allow people to be readers of themselves, not of my book. My book is the “magnifying glass by which I could give them the means by which they read within themselves.”
• George Eliot on writing: "It's a set of experiments to see what we humans are capable of."
  

RA in a Day 2011: Luncheon speaker, Charlotte Gray

I was the convenor of this session, and Charlotte’s “handler,” so I have to confess I didn’t get many notes down! But here are some observations:

• I had never heard Charlotte speak before, and I was kind of thrilled to discover that she has a very sharp sense of humour.... Speaking about Dawson City in the 1890s, Charlotte deadpanned: “150, 000 people and 3 public toilets: that's what history smells like." She also protested my introduction of her was fulsome....Bah!
• Charlotte spoke about her most recent book, Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike. Gold Diggers follows the stories of six historical figures who arrive in Dawson City, Yukon during the gold rush. Charlotte sketched several of the characters in her novel for us, including Father Judge, a Jesuit priest, Belinda Mulrooney, who became the richest business woman in town by opening a hotel in nearby Grand Forks, and Flora Shaw, colonial editor and correspondent for the London Times, who crossed the White Pass trail in 1898 and wrote about it; Sam Steele, the head of the RCMP’s Yukon detachment.
  
• Charlotte spoke about the fine line writers walk when writing historical non-fiction: as she described it, "I do not invent, I imagine."
  
• She explained that the dialogue in her books is what people really said, taken from their diaries and letters.
  
• She gave us some great snapshots into her research processes, sitting at LAC reading Flora Shaw’s letters, or consulting the Sam Steele collection at the University of Alberta.
  
• Charlotte also gave us an idea of why she began writing historical non-fiction: when she arrived in Canada from England, she expected it to be very similar to Britain, and found that it wasn’t. She described what she called an uniquely Canadian character: an endless landscape, the idea of "the North."

RA in a Day 2011: Keynote: "RA as a Transformative Act"

The keynote address at this year's RA in a Day event was given by the amazing Duncan Smith, creator and founder of NoveList. Here are my notes; his presentation is available here.


Duncan opened by reading a quote and asking us where we thought it was from:

"We will help you find the perfect collection of books for reflection resolution or relaxation."

Sounds like it could be from a library? It's actually from the website of an English bibliotherapist. Duncan first heard about her in an article in En Route magazine (“Geek Odysseys - Book Loving in London: Volume 2 Bibliotherapy”). The bibliotherapist profiled, Ella Berthoud, spoke about the importance of novels at life-changing moments, and how the reading of these novels allows us to come back to world refreshed.

Duncan then asked, what is the nature of readers' advisory work? He proposed the following four core ideas:

1. To help readers understand what they like
2. To assist readers in finding more of what they like
3. To deepen readers’ appreciation of their reading
   (Smith told a story about Jane Goodall explaining in an interview how her interest in animals was sparked by reading about Dr. Doolittle and Tarzan. He also mentioned an interview with Mia Bauer, the founder of Crumbs Bake Shop, who spoke of being inspired to open her own business by Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence: “she didn't want to live a life of regret like Wharton’s characters.”)
4. To support readers in sharing their reading with others (sharing comments via catalogue)
   

The true product of readers' advisory service is thus not circulation, or the number of interactions we have with the public, or the number of book groups our library hosts, but relationships:

• between books
• between readers and books
• between readers (creating a culture and climate of sharing that deepens understanding)
• between readers and books and us!
  

So where are the readers?
One essential thing that Smith identified that we need for effective readers' advisory services is the readers themselves. Those who use the library just for fun are approximately7% of all users, but account for 24% of all visits to the library. What is missing from their profile is interaction with staff. Stats from major Canadian public libraries show that the majority of people who come in to the library are not interacting with staff. Also, stats show increased placement of holds online, which means readers may not visit in person as much anymore. In the US, we see that typically 87% of holds are placed remotely. “People are searching for things they already know about, not coming in to find out more about other things;” they see the library as “a utilitarian service.”

Being connected
This use of the library as a utilitarian service speaks to a lack of connection to the library, and specifically to the skilled staff. Smith pointed out that above and beyond implications for readers’ advisory service, this lack of connection can also affect library funding, because “people who are not connected don't vote for increased funding.” Staff need to focus on not just saying "Sorry, we don't have that," but on starting a conversation with readers. Smith posed the question of how we are behaving in interactions with readers: “are we being reactive, invitational, suggestive, enlightening (teaching how to use Novelist), anticipatory, contributatory, participatory?”

Building relationships
We might think the world is now dominated by technology, but it's actually dominated by relationships and “social capital,” just in different places. Some modern places to build social capital include: in the library catalogue, on the library website, in the blogosphere, on social sites (GoodReads, Facebook, etc). With respect to social websites, Smith encouraged us to engage in outreach to them: ‘places like Good Reads are full of library lovers. We should be connecting with them!”

What is our value? According to Smith, there are three ways readers' advisory experts add value:

1. Our professional stance: we talk about the promise or potential of books for all readers, not from a personal perspective (eg. “This book is great if you love 18th century mysteries because...” not “I loved this book because....”)
2. Our focus on the reader
3. Our “reflective practice:” our use of well-researched and thoughtful criteria to categorise reading (the appeal factors).
   

The majority of our users are connected “not with your building or your collection, but with you, the staff. And that's why we can't just sit around.”