WebJunction

Whether your library is large or small, never underestimate the power of your Web site. The public library in Richmond, British Columbia, didn't - and built a site (www. yourlibrary.ca) that is transforming its relationship with its community. The residents of this Vancouver suburb of 165,000 have embraced the library's site as a source of information, a vehicle for sharing ideas with the library, a place to learn, and (in the near future) a customized environment where patrons' individual needs and interests can be served.

How does the Richmond Public Library do it? Like any technical initiative, building a great site has required some cash - but far more important to the project has been the creativity, inspiration, determination, and commitment of the library staff. Two maxims, held in balance, have been the keys to success: “Don't be afraid to think big!” and “Pay attention to what is feasible!”

The library's involvement with the Web dates to the dawn of Internet time—clear back to 1995. In those virtually prehistoric days, the library built an ambitious, comprehensive site in collaboration with a local newspaper, The Richmond Review. With over 10,000 HTML pages and an award-winning design, the site was certainly a success by many measures. But as library staff assessed their accomplishment (and the maintenance required to keep the site going), they began to realize that this initial version didn't really give patrons better access to the library's collections and programs.

Chief Librarian Greg Buss and Deputy Chief Librarian Cate McNeely worked with the library's board to set a new direction for the library's Web presence. The new goals were to make the site less expensive to build and maintain, and more targeted at building the relationship between the library and its community.

With approval and budget from the board, Web administrator/librarian Shirley Lew and Manager of Reference and Information Services Mark Ellis set out to find competent consultants with a formal request for proposal. The team wanted to work with a Web development firm that would truly collaborate with the library to determine the identity that the new site would convey. They wanted someone to help them articulate the big questions - “Who are we, as a library?”, “Who is the community that we want to serve with our Web site?”, “What role do we want to play in our community?” - and determine the answers:

The team was fortunate enough to find a design firm that was as excited about the project as they were. “They had a lot to learn about us, and we about them,” says Shirley of those first few planning sessions, “It was a long, introspective, creative, and very exciting process.” As often happens in such projects, the challenge was not a lack of ideas but finding a way to pull the many possibilities together into a clear vision - one that was actually possible to implement.

When the requirements had been determined, including the basic architecture and the look and feel of the site, the design firm built an empty “shell.” A number of librarians then populated this shell with information about the library's collection and programs targeted to key audiences.

The evidence of this fruitful collaboration is visible in the site as it exists today (you can see it at www.yourlibrary.ca). The site does have a very well-designed interface providing access to the library's collections and programs, much of it specially organized to meet the needs of the library's populations, including Richmond's large number of Chinese speakers and its vibrant community of immigrants from around the world. But the site goes beyond this, exploring arenas that are highly unusual for a library Web site­­ - and that have proved to be hugely popular. To draw the area's many “new Canadians” to the site, the site has interactive sample driver's license examinations (http://www.yourlibrary.ca/driving/index.asp) and citizenship tests (http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/index.asp). An extensive online learning center (http://www.yourlibrary.ca/computers_sub.cfm?lev1=3) gives patrons access to courses on technology and business management. Because fees are charged for these courses, the Learning Center is also a center of profit for the library - and offers an added benefit to RPL staff, who get to take the courses for free!

The new site affected more than the services and materials the library could make available to the public. Since paying fines, ordering books, and obtaining cards were all handled by the site, its launch created demands for change within the library's own systems and processes. In part because of the library's long-term commitment to technology, both staff and patrons have become accustomed to change and have adjusted beautifully to this latest set of transformations.

Not surprisingly, when you empower patrons with better access to programs, services, and collections, they want to get more involved! This has certainly been Richmond's experience. And while the amount of input has been wonderful, one of the major challenges of getting the new-and-improved site up and running has been learning the best ways to work with the flood of ideas from the community. It has been a matter of listening carefully, setting expectations, and making careful decisions about what to do next. But all the feedback, and its effect on workflow and policies, are “signs of engagement” by the community: signs that the site is healthy - ­­­­and that the library is too.

And what's next for the Richmond Public Library site? Having made one success, the team is determined to create more. With sites like Amazon.com and Chapters.ca fresh in visitors' minds, the staff is realizing that they need to be able to do more than meet the needs of the community—they need to anticipate those needs. So Richmond is beginning to look at personalization initiatives like delivering lists of books and programs specific to individual interests based on previous transactions and profile information (age, ethnicity, and so on). Sounds impossible? With their gumption and experience, it seems certain that the Richmond team will find a way to make it happen!

When she's asked what it would take for other libraries to follow in Richmond's footsteps, Shirley Lew has this to say: “When you have a limited budget, staff members have to be willing, curious, and interested in learning and taking on new things. Curiosity and self-education are critical. Knowledge, skill, ambition - all are just as important, if not more, than the money.” In the end, it comes down to this: “Never assume you can't do something.”

But if there's one thing more important than the staff's “can-do” attitude, it is the library leadership's “yes-you-can” attitude. In Richmond's case, library leaders Greg Buss and Cate McNeely have actively supported the project every step of the way. Without that support, the Richmond Public Library Web site would still be a dream waiting to come true.

You can reach Shirley Lew of the Richmond Public Library at shirley.lew@yourlibrary.ca. The library's Mark Ellis can be reached at mark.ellis@yourlibrary.ca.