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In 2006, the City of Beaverton, Oregon, required all of its departments to prepare a short, informational video clip about their services. The clip would be aired on the local cable channel between City Council meetings. The library chose to highlight their SelfCheck Systems because it was in the midst of a project to upgrade and increase self-services.
The upgrade part was easy. Four 3M SelfCheck System Model 6210s were replaced by new 3M V-Series units. Increasing usage of the systems, however, was a bit more involved. Circulation through the SelfCheck Systems had been steadily declining -- from 39% in the Fall of 2000 when the library moved into a new building to a low of 23%. Why?
The library's Polaris ILS threw up blocks that prevented use; their cooperative had some limiting policies in place; disc media was locked up in security cases. The biggest factor was that 'holds' were kept behind the circulation desk where staff had to retrieve them for patrons. Transactions at the circ desk were measured, and it was learned that 48% of all transactions included patrons picking up 'holds.'
It wasn't until nine months later that these problems were remedied. The ILS was upgraded so that some of the blocks didn't prevent use any longer. 3M Tattle-Tape™ DCD-2 Security Overlays were applied to all DVDs and CDs and the security cases were removed. In March 2006, 'holds' were put out on the public floor for patrons to pick up themselves.
Now Beaverton City Library was on its way to a higher self-service level and, after only about one month, the circulations numbers of the SelfCheck Systems jumped to 50%! The library continues efforts to increase that number through patron education and further work with its cooperative partners to ensure that policy decisions and technology problems never again prevent patrons from using self-service tools to the fullest advantage.
According to Michele Caldwell, Circulation and Technical Services Manager, "Giving patrons more self-service choices in handling routine tasks allows our staff to focus their time on more complex issues and to offer high quality service to the growing number of library users without increasing staffing levels."
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