Utilize new technology and free staff to offer full, flexible, immediate customer service anytime, anywhere. We embraced this philosophy and constructed our newest buildings with no desk — neither reference nor circulation — at all. This innovation requires a different mindset. The Library’s current ILS has no clear vendor-provided option for running the staff-side circulation software on a tablet. Technology staff experts and staff offering direct service had to adjust and manipulate technology to make this new model a possibility. Going mobile removes physical and psychological service barriers creating a welcoming, relationship-based service environment.

A combination of creative facility planning, technology innovation and adaptable staff were necessary. The open floorplan of the buildings, the intentional selection of barrier-reducing furniture, installing an exceptional WiFi network, using docking stations to create dual-use computers that allow one device to serve customers and also serve as an individual’s staff device, and a technology staff able to take advantage of Sierra APIs to create new customer-service tools to enhance our traditional ILS capabilities, this model required us to stretch our imaginations and take a risk in changing the way we do business at new, high-profile locations.

Use has increased at these new locations. Removing service desks provides more space for collections, technology, toys designed to foster creative play, meeting rooms and programming areas. Staff members excel at assisting customers “where they are.” Staff from other locations shadow at the fully mobile sites to gain a greater understanding of what “proactive service” can really be. Staff members provide individualized, discrete, friendly assistance to customers who may need extra help downloading a book or understanding the resources available to answer their question while sitting together at a table rather than engaging in a transaction across a desk.