Putting the User First: 30 Strategies for Transforming Library Services

McDonald (discovery and research services, Indiana Univ., Bloomington; coauthor, The Anywhere Library) provides a real-world resource for librarians seeking ways to re-energize customer service. Each strategy is coded, with variables including cost factor, action plans, personal practice, technological applications, space considerations, suggestions for changing your organization's culture, and further readings. The goal is to help librarians assess their resources and services from the patron's point of view, with suggestions on how to improve library interactions for end users. Charles Harmon and Michael Messina's Customer Service in Libraries: Best Practices provides a more formal approach to improving the user experience, drawn from nine librarian practitioners. McDonald takes a lighter tone, injecting fun amid common-sense observations that library workers will recognize from their own encounters. Managers and front line librarians can all make use of the suggestions that, if implemented, can lead to thinking outside the box and revitalizing the library experience for their patrons.