What is it that we do as a Library to create a "platform", and where are the opportunities for our users to design their own experience?

We've taken some steps in this direction, certainly. Our Friday night film series has two movie slots where the movie goers vote for the film to be shown. John Blyberg is designing our new web site with community participation as an active feature. But even though we buy any book that a resident requests, we need to devise a more proactive way for our users to make the collections "theirs".

We're going to have new spaces in the new library for members of our community to make their own. We've already heard from many users who want us to expand our cultural programming. We would like our teens to tell us what they want in the new teen space. And parents and children to help us expand our services to the 5th grade and under set. Tara Hunt, founder of Citizen Agency, advised the participants at the customer service summit to "embrace the chaos of community". We're ready! What would you like to see in the new Darien Library?

Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh led off with advice on instilling great customer service through out a large organization. Zappos is committed to "wowing" each and every customer. Everyone in the company embraces core values that promote excellent customer service. After initial interviews for skills, the HR department interviews specifically for culture fit, and all employees are evaluated on customer service and culture fit. Every new hire, even lawyers and accountants, spend 5 weeks of training that includes culture and core values, customer service, warehouse training, and staffing the customer service phone call lines. I was "wowed" by Zappos statement of core values, and by the process that they used to develop them. They did a lot of soul searching, looked at the people in their organization that were great, and asked why. Then they looked at the people who had been fired from Zappos and asked why. Tony's slides, including the core values, are online at Get Satisfaction. But you had to be there to hear his wonderful closing anecdote.

One night, Zappos employees were out of town and out late with some of their suppliers. They tried to order pizza from room service, but the hotel doesn't serve hot food after 11:00 pm. So they call Zappos customer service number and ask "where can we get pizza". Within minutes, the customer service rep. produced a list of pizza places that were open late and would deliver, near their hotel. In Tony's words, Zappos is a service company that happens to sell shoes. But they'll also help you find pizza.

Deliver WOW through service
Embrace and drive change
Create fun and a little weirdness
Be adventurous, creative and open-minded
Pursue growth and learning
Build open and honest relationships with communication
Build positive team and family spirit
Do more with less
Be passionate and determined
Be humble

Why not have social workers and clinical psychologists from the HSPC agencies drop by the Library? Like our roving reference librarians, they could be roving social workers. We know that after our librarians visit the schools, children are pleased to recognize a familiar face when they come into the Darien Library. And when we do "roving reference", people ask more questions.

If the social workers were available in the Library, it might break the ice for some people to use their services. And it would bring greater attention to the information we have in the Library about the services offered.

Social workers could also offer training to our front line staff on making referrals to their agencies.

Susan Jasko emailed the next day to sign up! Watch for "the social worker is in" sign, soon.

At the Annual Meeting on Sunday, Steff Geissbuhler of C & G Partners, unveiled the new logo for DarienLibrary to an enthusiastic audience. We will begin to use the new logo in January 2008. We expect to open the new Library in January 2009.

See more photos on the Library Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darienlibrary

Doors open at 11:45 pm on Friday, July 20. Magical costumes encouraged. See you here.

We want to digitize our back files of the local newspapers, and other local, historical documents (in cooperation with the Darien Historical Society), so stops at the vendors with high tech scanners was a must.

We are really, really looking for a solution for displaying and securing our DVD and CD collections; one that allows easy browsing and prevents theft. No one has quite what we're looking for yet.

We'll have digital and conventional signs in the new library, and it's fun to visit these booths.

And new furniture. Fred Eustis is one of my favorite people to visit at ALA. His chairs are beautiful and comfortable.

It was exciting to see the Encore catalog being demonstrated. Innovative Interfaces, our integrated library system, has developed a new online catalog, that is the closest thing to Google in the library field. We will begin testing this catalog this summer. I can't wait!

And what a treat to see Elizabeth Anderson at the Economist Intelligence Unit! A Darien High School ( and Columbia University) graduate, she clearly has the "intelligence" part down pat.

Here in the Library, we will always remember Janet as our President when we launched our Internet service in 1996. Janet was very amused that she would be the one to cut the ribbon on our Internet service, since she did not consider herself a "techie". Janet and Ron are both great readers and library users, and we will miss them very much.

Janet Evans, Library President, Hank Sanders, First Selectman, Congressman Christopher Shays 1996

"We love libraries and look forward to our wonderful new Darien Library."
"It's sure to be a terrific improvement for Darien's most-beloved institution."
"Wherever it's located physically--the Darien Library is the heart of this town."
"The Library, including the people who work there, are TOPS. I love when you say that you returned a book, they believe you! :-) Also love the children's room and great selection."
"Libraries rock!!!"

Only $2,984,830 to go!

We certainly learned a lot from Nora Rawlinson! Currently the VP of Library Services, Hachette Book Group, Nora has an illustrious career in both publishing and libraries, and generously shared her expertise on buying fiction with our book buyers this week. In the new library, self check machines will allow our staff to spend more time as Readers Advisors, out on the floor we're calling Main Street, talking about their favorite books with our readers. Some of the familiar faces you see behind the circulation desk now, checking out books, are becoming our fiction book buyers and are honing their skills. Nora's workshop was informative, practical and extremely useful as our staff learned how to use publishers catalogs as a selection tool to help them predict an upcoming book's popularity, the strengths of various publishing houses, and how to get the most circulation per dollar spent.

You can imagine my delight when I read John Blyberg's blog post last week, quoting Danny Meyer. “Our chefs and managers cook and run restaurants as if the word of mouth spread by each and every guest today will determine how full — or empty — our restaurants will be tomorrow. We work hard to hire people whose emotional skills — even more than how they can cook or serve wine — make them predisposed to deriving pleasure from the act of delivering pleasure. Long after our guests have forgotten how much they did or didn’t like the turbot or the lamb shank, they’ll remember how we made them feel.”
- Danny Meyer, WSJ, 3Oct3006

John is our new Head of Technology and Digital Initiatives, and will begin work for us in May. We knew that John was a perfect fit for Darien Library, and this is just one more example of why!

1956 1972

Visit the Darien Library Flickr account for more photos of Darien Library's history.

We're very proud of Emily Weiss this week. Her article about the Louise Parker Berry Fellowship was published in the current issue of Library Journal.

The Library's Board of Trustees founded the Fellowship to honor my 25th anniversary as Director, and Emily is our first Fellow.