For those who have been following the work of the ‘Single Digital Presence’ project, you’ll know we’ve been exploring how public libraries can represent themselves better in the digital world, and how through digital, libraries can provide better services and attract new users.

 Something we’ve learned on the project is how capacious the word ‘digital’ is, it means something different to everyone who uses it.  It could be the systems used to manage collections and user data, it could be the digital services libraries provide such as e/audiobooks and online resources, or it could be the ways users find out about libraries online, on our websites, apps and social media pages.

As we’ve found in our research, isolating ‘digital’ as one discreet part of what libraries do obscures how digital technology now underpins all services libraries offer, both in the physical and online world.

Our focus is on how we can improve the experience of using a public library in both its physical and digital form, through development of intuitive, well-designed and inspiring online presences for public libraries.

 Since our last update, we have been working with partners in the technology sector, to develop in more detail how we can build better digital presences that improve current services and get more people using the public library. 

Discovery and its outputs: Embarking on digital transformation

In April, we partnered with dxw, a digital agency that works with the public and third sectors to build user-centric digital services.

We formed a single multidisciplinary team to conduct a discovery to create and validate practical concepts and prototypes for a national digital presence for public libraries.

Discovery is a phase of developing digital services that enables teams to uncover the problem at hand and test ideas with users. During discovery, we pulled together existing research and interviewed people from similar organisations. We spoke with sector peers at The New York Public Library, the National Library of Australia and the National Library of Scotland, to name only a few.

Focusing on understanding the existing digital capability across the library sector, the landscape that any potential service would operate within and drawing from comparator organisations experiences, revealed a need to shift our thinking. There were two opportunity areas that our team would focus on within design sprints.

1. Present an engaging national identity for public libraries, that showcases the vibrancy of library culture and connects people to their local library
2. A way for every local library to represent themselves as a unique place and community, whilst engaging and informing the public in an authoritative and trusted place

By mapping out the core users’ journey, the discovery team were able to create two possible solutions that can meet these opportunities. The result was a single prototype that covered a connected end to end journey from national to local presence.  The team then tested the prototype firstly with librarians and library staff and then secondly with people who do and do not use libraries (the above image is a screengrab). At the end of discovery, we’d evidenced four clear recommendations:

1. Build a national digital presence for public libraries
2. Help every local library to curate an engaging digital presence
3. Promote regional library consortia for shared lending
4. Create community guidance and resources for safe and effective use of social media

 Our aim is to set the direction and pace, so that we can drive the recommendations from discovery forward.

Understanding the needs of library community - From ‘single’ to national digital presence

Through speaking to librarians, library staff and users, we discovered there is a significant need, and huge appetite for a national digital presence for the UK’s public libraries. We found that the national presence should prioritise three things. It should:

1. Provide a space to showcase the work of libraries and librarians, amplifying the work librarians do and show potential users the variety of activities and services that libraries offer
2. Create a recognised identity for public libraries, becoming a focal point for national campaigns such as libraries week, World Book Day, or the Summer Reading Challenge
3. Connect users to their local library service seamlessly and intuitively

We also found that the development of a national digital presence should coincide with a programme of work focused on finding a way for every public library to have an exciting web-presence that reflects the vibrancy and individuality of their service.

In the climate of COVID-19, it is clearer than ever the role libraries will play in rebuilding our communities and a national presence should support this.

Public libraries already stand at the front-line of community support, providing support for businesses, job-seekers and running digital skills and information literacy sessions. This will be needed more than ever as we tentatively emerge into a post-pandemic world. There is a clear opportunity for a national presence for public libraries to support this through national content, campaigns and services.

 

Moving forward to deliver a national digital presence

We’ll begin by scoping and testing a national digital presence for the public library sector. We’ll draw on the expertise of the technology sector, as we move into the alpha phase of delivery and work in partnership to ensure we continue to embed user centred design within the long-term delivery strategy of a national digital presence.

We’ll continue to regularly engage with the sector, through research sessions, workshops and webinars, as we look to collaborate with our colleagues from across government to help every local library curate a digital presence that reflects the vibrancy of their service. We’ll embed this into a comprehensive digital transformation strategy for public libraries, to be published by April 2021.

 Get in touch

If you’d like to take part in our next round of workshops and user-research, please email us at

[email protected]

This blog was co-written by Jacob Fredrickson, SDP Project Manager, and Kath Cooper, delivery lead at dxw.

 

In March 2020, the British Library closed its doors to the public for the foreseeable future, which was a first during my 30 years of working here. The quiet buzz of researchers and entrepreneurs, the Piazza full of people and visitors in exhibition galleries suddenly disappeared.

Four months on, we are gradually returning to our sites in London and Yorkshire, and have prioritised reopening our Reading Rooms to enable researchers to return to the Library to consult collection items, many of which are not available online. But things will be very different for all of us.

With over 112,000 square metres of floor space in St Pancras and a 44-acre site at Boston Spa, the British Library might seem like the ideal place to socially distance. However, with the London basement stores running as deep as the Victoria line tube and a 1.6km network of airport-style conveyor belts, we still rely on substantial numbers of dedicated staff to get collection items from the Basements to the Reading Rooms.

To make sure our staff can work safely we will be working in bubbles, and staggering start and finish times so their journeys to work – many of which rely on public transport – can be made outside peak times. Because a number of colleagues are shielding or have caring responsibilities, we’ve also adapted our opening hours to accommodate a reduced workforce. 

We can’t wait for the buzz of the Library to return and to welcome as many of you back as possible, but it has to be safe for everyone. So what can Readers expect when they return to the Reading Rooms?

We will initially operate on reduced opening hours and limited capacity, which we hope to extend over time, and you will have to pre-book desks and pre-order collection items. We have adapted our Box Office system to process Reading Room bookings, and have limited the number and length of sessions that can be booked to allow as many Readers as possible a slot in the Reading Rooms. Although our Reading Rooms are now fully booked for the first week, new tickets will be released every Thursday at 11.00.

To adhere to social distancing guidelines we have adapted the Reading Rooms by installing new signage and floor markings to introduce one-way flows of users. This inevitably affects how many people – staff and users – can be in our spaces at any one time, and we’ll be carefully monitoring this as we reopen. Screens have been installed at service points to protect staff and users, and we’ll be providing visors to staff to enable those hard of hearing lip read. All this has taken a number of staff working behind the scenes to order equipment and install it safely in our Grade I listed building ready for reopening.

We’re asking you to wear a face covering while you’re in the Library, although it’s okay to take it off once you’re working at your desk in the Reading Room, or eating and drinking in the café. We’ll be monitoring how these measures work to make sure we’re keeping everyone safe, and may need to adjust our processes as guidance changes.

In the Reading Rooms, we’re allocating desks to keep a safe distance between Readers in line with social distancing guidelines. We appreciate it might be frustrating to not be able to sit in your usual spot (2185 in Humanities 1, anyone?) and to see empty seats, but we won’t be able to reassign desks for the moment.

Seeing you poring over collection items is our favourite thing, and we’ve been working really hard to provide access to as much of the collection as possible when we reopen. Some large format items like maps can’t be viewed in the Reading Rooms we’re opening because they’re too big for the desks, and some items need invigilation we can’t provide at the moment. We’ll announce more details about when these collections – and more Reading Rooms – will be available.

We realise this is going to be a little strange for everyone so we really appreciate your patience while we all adjust to doing things differently. Please bear with us as we continue to monitor the latest guidance, review the measures we have put in place and incorporate any feedback we receive.

Whether you need to continue your vital research, delve into our business databases or retrieve an article in an old newspaper, we can’t wait to see you back here.

Leathea Lee, Reading Rooms Operations Manager

 

During the Covid-19 pandemic teams from across the Library have been collecting audio, websites, diaries and testimony to capture experiences of lockdown and protect these resources as part of the national collection.

A snippet of what we’ve been collecting includes:

• Off-air recordings from 17 television channels and up to 60 radio stations, including community radio stations. We’re capturing all of the daily government updates, news programmes and TV specials.
• Over 3,000 websites (and counting) about the pandemic, with an open call continuing. The collection will eventually be freely available on the UK Web Archive Pandemic Outbreaks Collection
• Unedited conversations from the Listening Project on Radio 4, which is now inviting people who don't know each other but who would like to get to know each better to have a conversation.
• The Covid Chronicles; listener experiences of life during the coronavirus pandemic, in 400-words. All of them will be archived by the Library.

We’re also working on partnership projects to collect personal experiences from around the country, and creating a national database of coronavirus-related oral history and testimony projects. Do you have a collecting project? If so please submit details to [email protected].

We’ve also continued our work taking in items under legal deposit throughout lockdown, including newspapers, and will be working to catalogue these as we return to our buildings.