A brief report from a unique service design research trip to seven university libraries in the Czech Republic. Almost fourty librarians took part and travelled more than a thousand kilometers during the journey. It was organized by team from Masaryk University to promote best practices and discuss latest design trends.

1. Lessons from a research trip to seven major
libraries in the Czech Republic

2. Back in 2011, the team of young academics the country in search of better services
at the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech interface.
Republic, was exploring the ways of how to
engage local librarians and bring them The goal of the journey was to experience
latest management trends in a different the librarian services from the customer
way than lectures and e-learning. perspective. This perspective was thought
to enhance the more traditional process-
Their flagship activity, the PARTSIP project, oriented view of the public services.
that focused on connecting the community Moreover, the goal was to exchange best
and enlarging its knowledge base, was practices used across the libraries by
delivering sound results. A numerous discussing them right in the midst of the
workshops, conferences and guest lectures servicescape2.
established a new way of looking at the
traditional field and spurred unusual wave
of creativity among the librarians.
However, the team wanted to bring the
experience and learning even closer to
practice. Inspired by Joe Heapy and Sophia
Parker's pioneering book Journey to the
Interface1 (Demos London, 2006), they
decided to start a real journey and travel
1. Translated into Czech in 2011 as Cesta za lepsim 2. Servicescape, or service landscape, refers to the
rozhranim. Available for free download under Creative environment where a service is delivered to a customer as
Commons license from http://www.prelozknihu.cz. services often come as complex experiences that are
delivered across numerous channels like buildings,
personnel, computers, paper forms etc.

4. The journey took four days in May 2012 A guided tour
and more than a thousand kilometers were
travelled during that time. As a next step, a short tour through the
library would be guided by the library's
Seven major Czech libraries were visited director and/or a service designer with the
during the journey, all spread across the goal to discuss the best practices and
whole country. These included Masaryk challenges in a particular environment.
University Campus Library in Brno, Library Most often a customer journey approach
of Tomas Bata University in Zlin, library at was adopted to uncover the process of
the University of Ostrava, Library of using library services from user's point of
Palacky University Olomouc, the Research view. From the very beginning, the group
Library in Hradec Kralove, National was taking pictures and notes and insights
Technical Library in Prague and finally the from the tour would be then typically
library of the University of West Bohemia discussed during the transfer to the next
in Pilsen. library between the participants.
A series of lectures and workshops on Further methods: World Café Mobile
topics like marketing, innovation,
webdesign, UX, service design and project Further methods would be used to
management accompanied each of the facilitate the knowledge transfer and
visits. exchange of best practices. For example,
during the transfer on the bus, a mobile
version of the World Café method was
tested3.
Expert workshops
Librarians were asked to specify one
A typical stop during the journey would challenge he or she was facing or an
first deliver a two-hour workshop to the innovation that they were thinking of
librarians facilitated by an expert in the implementing. Then they got 3 minutes to
field. discuss the issue with the colleague they
were travelling with.
Martin Kopta, UX designer and research
from Seznam.cz, most popular search After they brainstormed a possible solution
engine in the Czech Republic, introduced and shared experience, they switched the
results of an ethnographic research roles. After six minutes, one of the partners
conducted in one of the libraries. Later a changed the seat with the person sitting
workshop on interior design was delivered behind them and a new round of discussion
by Olga Biernatova from Guerilla Readers. began. Not only this offered librarians a
Jiri Pavlik and Jana Matejkova from numerous perspectives on the problem
eReading.cz explained what implications they were thinking about but it was also a
will the emerging e-book market have for great tool for networking.
the libraries. Adam Hazdra from South
Moravian Innovation Center and freelance
3. World Café is a method used for brainstorming and
service designer explained various discussion during conferences with few up to several
touchpoints the library service consists of hundreds of participants. It splits the audience into groups
and showed what personas can be used for. and let them rotate from one table to another during timed
intervals. More on the method is available at
http://www.theworldcafe.com.

5. .

6. People with disabilities may also face
difficulties when entering the library. At
one stop we spotted trash bins placed in
Research on user needs and behaviour is a front of the entry door for the handicapped.
vital part to designing services for libraries.
It offers deep understanding of motivations On the other, library in Hradec Kralove, for
and problems students and other readers example, gives users a great support as
face. When conducted properly, it can also regards accessibility and environment. Not
be a way to engage users and boosting only it enables anyone to enter the library
their confidence in the services. and use the books without any form of
registration, but it also gives the public free
As we have observed, Czech libraries often access to internet and software
adopt very formal ways to research, applications such as MS Office. The journey
conducting a satisfaction survey every one through the library is also designed to save
or two years looking mainly for recent time and to facilitate the most common
issues that readers face. Moreover, on-line task users do such as returning books just
user behaviour is scarcely tracked and after the main entrance or through the
analyzed. bibliobox.
However, as Ladislava Sucha from Masaryk
University pointed out in one of the
workshops, there is a range of other
methods that can be successfully applied in As the journey across libraries progressed,
libraries such as focus groups, the importance of personnel engagement
ethnographic research or user workshops. was emerging as a key element of a great
More importantly, research can be carried service. This includes not only the
out more often and informally. librarians but other customer-facing
providers such as the security. At one stop,
we watched a security person disrupting a
rehearsal of a theatre performance in
Services consist of several levels, starting library's foyer. On the other hand, when the
with accessibility. If a service cannot be library in Ostrava faced negative
found or is inaccessible to users, any implications of staff departmentalization,
advanced value-adding features are they launched a program to let employees
meaningless. try jobs of the others. This significantly
boosted understanding of the delivery
For example one of the libraries we visited process and also gave people more insight
required user to go through five into each other's roles.
touchpoints before they could reach any of
the books making access to service very Moreover, libraries often tap into the
difficult. Moreover, brand new users can knowledge and creativity of its students. In
register only behind the check-in which Hradec Kralove the library created a group
only registered users can go through. This of students that help it with organizing
paradoxical situation is resolved by adding events and web-based marketing. Also as
a digital terminal that prints time-limited our own brief survey during the trip
paper enrty tickets. showed, about 75% of the students were

7. willing to share thoughts about their vision did for desktop. It realized students were
of how the library should be designed. coming to mobile web for information on
opening times and contacts so its mobile
website features these prominently.
Whereas the physical user journeys are
mapped well in the libraries, it is not the Finally, openness was a theme that
same when comes to services offered via resonated throughout the whole journey.
the Internet. Analysis of user needs and Not only it is about the accessibility to
behaviour is done only partly or not at all users as discussed above, but it also
and sites are often not optimized for any includes open two-way communication.
other devices than desktops or notebooks.
Also, little is known about the actual National Technical Library rents individual
behaviour of digital visitors and so the web study boxes to PhD and Master students for
strategy often ends with a pretty-looking the whole semester, offering great privacy
home page. And yet - as the ethnographic yet access to all other services. The library
research conducted by Martin Kopta and in Ostrava provides students with a self-
Olga Biernatova revealed - connecting the operated coffee machine and cups,
digital with the physical is often the key to demonstrating the trust it has in its user.
delivering usable service. The Olomouc library has a very relaxed
rules when comes to student behaviour on
There are exceptions, though. The library its premises - and it has continually very
in Celetna in Prague, for instance, adopted high rankings when comes to user
different strategy for mobile access than it satisfaction.

9. Library's function has changed significantly
since Internet was adopted as a global
platform for information exchange and
sharing. A convincing answer to where During various workshops numerous
libraries are heading and how they will touchpoints for user interaction were
look like in future has not been given. identified. These included physical
However, during the research trip we environment (lightning, chairs, tables,
discussed several contemporary counters, self-check machines, books),
approaches that help navigate the changing other tangible touchpoints that support the
landscape. service (registration cards, official letters,
reader guidelines, back office) and also
digital interfaces (website, search engine,
mobile access, e-mails). Moreover, it is
front-line staff that puts all these
There is no question that physical touchpoints to work and facilitates service
environment, or Servicescape, affects one’s delivery.
perception of a service. After every library
visit people were using terms like airport, From this perspective, a simple service of
supermarket or bank to describe how they lending books turns into a complex
felt during the walk-through. If there endeavor which requires a lot of
should be a proper parallel of what a management and design focus when user-
library should feel like, it would be a living centered approach is to be adopted.
room. Libraries are often seen as bureaucratic
institutions whose operation is bound by
The idea of library being place of relaxation rules and hierarchy. Breaking into this
and living was proposed by Olga world with fresh ideas and creativity is not
Biernatova during one of the workshops an easy task, yet it is a one that is not
and it has been discussed by the impossible as we have seen during the trip.
participants at many occasions since. If we
consider the time that students and
readers spend at libraries, it is reasonable
to design the environment in the way that Finally, as more and more time is spent on-
makes people feel like home. It doesn’t line, libraries shall seek delivering more
have to be necessarily a radical change of services using digital channels. However,
the physical space. Or as Olga pointed out, during the trip we saw unfriendly user
it is the small daily things like custom interfaces of library catalogues which are
lightning, comfortable chairs and mirrors critical to library service; almost no
for example that make the difference. optimization for mobile devices was
carried out and websites are created
without proper content strategy.
Nevertheless, when a library turns to
digital space for service delivery, it makes
one large step towards the user and it can
also tap into larger audience.

10. We will be happy to get in touch and share
more insights from the trip. Please do feel
welcome to reach us at the following
contacts.
, head of the
KISK Department at Masaryk
University at pskyrik@phil.muni.cz
, project
manager at PARTSIP at
sucha@phil.muni.cz
, consultant
at South Moravian Innovation
Center and freelance service
designer at
adam.hazdra@gmail.com
Further information and resources:
Official website of the trip
http://www.cesta.partsip.cz/
Posterous blog was launched as a platform
to share thoughts and insights during the
trip
http://designknihovnichsluzeb.posterous.com/
Photos are available from PARTSIP
Facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/PARTSIP
Created by Adam in 2012 under
Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0)
license as a possible inspiration to other
libraries. Please do feel free to translate the document to
any local language.