RESPONDING TO CHANGING USERS

The latest issue of the Journal of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries has as its theme The Changing of the User Environment. There were two articles that I thought were especially good. Here is a bit of each.

Guus Van den Brekel [University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands]: “The awareness of our quality resources and ways to find them, is no longer present, or being pushed aside, even swept away by the simplicity of searches via Google and others. How did (we let) this happen?” A combination of the ease of searching Google and PubMed, sticking to traditional library systems too long, and the new attitudes of the net-generation and gamers. “How can we change this?” Move from being product-oriented to user oriented. “Shift from ‘This is what we offer to you. Come and get it if you want to use it!’ to ‘You choose the services you need, when and where you need them.’” Get out of the library. Over the long-term, rebuild library systems “with open standards focused on modular web-based services.”

Tuulevi Ovaska [Kuopio University Library, Finland]: Divides users into three groups: “1. those who want to be totally served, 2. those who want to do things themselves but need assistance, and 3. those who are able to do everything they need for themselves.” “How should we, and how can we, provide the services for each group in such a way that we do not give less than they require but also not more than they need, or , what is more important, wish from us.” Group 1: perceives the quality of service to be equal to the speed of delivery, is becoming smaller. Group 2: must do more than provide access and written instructions, especially if English is not their native language; need hands-on training; problem is lack of time—both for users and staff. Group 3: “It is enough to inform them about the new services and resources available….”

References:
Ovaska, Tuulevi, Coping with different user habits and the changing user environment, Journal of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries 3(1):17-18, 2007.
Van den Brekel, Guus, Into the user environment now! how users have changed and how libraries can adjust, Journal of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries 3(1):8-16, 2007.