The Customer-Focused Library

A top library consultant offers specific recommendations for helping libraries adapt to their changing role in the community. What is the future of the public library? How can libraries embrace the forces of change and provide the resourcesand the resource-gathering environmenttodays patrons want? The Customer-Focused Library: Re-Inventing the Library From the Outside-In answers these questions by proposing a transformative alternative, a reimagined library in which the collections, the serviceseven the building itselfare designed and built from the customers perspective. Written by one of the countrys foremost library consultants, The Customer-Focused Library shows how perceived threats to the traditional library model are in fact exciting opportunities for change. The book lays out the steps by which professionals and patrons together can help invent a new generation of libraries, with discussions of hiring guidelines, merchandizing, the library website, even the building plan itself. It is a proactive, consumer-based approach aimed at helping librarians focus on underexamined ideas, underexploited trends, underused assets, and the as-yet unvoiced needs of library consumers. Illustrations and drawings of innovative library buildings and features A bibliography of additional print and online resources A complete index