We are living in a world that has much of its operations online. We also live in a world where many things compete for that online attention. Twenty-first century businesses have been innovative in customer service online in order to attract and keep customers, and libraries must do the same. As in many of our operations, libraries have much to learn from how businesses do business online.
Serving online customers aims to do exactly that. Donald Barclay, Interim University Librarian at the University of California, has researched the business literature to identify best practices of online companies and explores how libraries can adopt these practices.
The practices cover the following areas:
Improving self-service.
Bringing reference service online.
Libraries and distance education.
Designing library websites for multiple purposes.
Incorporating external services into library service online.
Continual improvement processes for library online services.
There is considerable content covered here, but comparisons are made mostly on a general scale – for example, the music industry rather than a specific music publisher. However, small explorations of particular companies are distributed throughout the chapters, providing a more focused exploration of what is being discussed.
Barclay looks clearly at libraries and what they are doing in the digital sphere and what their potential could be by taking a more business-like stance in online service. His analyses are well supported by comprehensive references at the end of each chapter. The focus is more on content rather than types of access, so there is no discussion of devices or apps.
There is much to learn from Serving online customers, and I am sure lessons will be learned that the author did not anticipate. If you are involved in online service delivery in libraries, then you will find considerable value in this small package.