OCLC Resource Sharing Conference 2019

ILL staff, as well as library staff working at service points, have a great deal of anecdotal knowledge of the problems and points of confusions patrons encounter when placing requests, but turning that knowledge into useful data can be a challenge. In addition, a full picture of the patron experience must include not only data about the problems patrons experience, but also how library staff respond. This holistic view can help us ensure we are giving consistent information, facilitating hand-offs from the service desk to the ILL team at the right moments, and more. As part of an initiative to improve the user experience of our request services, NCSU Libraries spent three weeks in fall 2018 recording observations of patron interactions related to requested items at all service points in the libraries. This talk will present insights gained from this concentrated period of data collection, called a Service Insight Cycle, and how it has helped us develop proposed solutions as well as targeted questions for future user research. We will also discuss the Service Insight Cycle model, inspired by the software development process, which can be used to take a concentrated look at any service to identify opportunities for improvement.