Challenge

I am a librarian and information professional in the course of working in my current organization

I realize that the library is very much underutilized. The library houses a wide array of legal

resources as I work in the law library. However customers rarely come sit in and use our

resources.  When customers come into the library they would rather just borrow books and use

them outside the library space such that even reserve resources housed in the library which

should not be taken outside the library according to the library rules are. The customers came up

with several excuses and reasons for their actions while arguing and smuggling them out. This

leads to loose and mutilation of some of our reserve resources. We want to improve use of the

library want customers to sit in and use the resources in the library space rather than take them

away. We want to attract new library customers.

Selection and Application

I  employed the research thinking technique- mind mapping in looking for patterns and themes

from data collected from the library customers to determine the "what is ". Using ethnographic

interviews as well as persona i collected data from members of staff of the organization whose

schedule of duty is research related. I asked those questions to ascertain their information

seeking behavior, what services they think the library is lacking or they would want to see in the

library. What excites them in the course of researching on a project? How they handle stress and

what they do to relax and unwind.  I asked them to relay their individual experiences while

carrying out research on a particular project in relation to the information resources they were

able to consult and library services they enjoyed as well as the time line delivery of their project.

I got together 10 colleagues mostly library staffs that are equally interest in the design challenge i

had shared, made copies of the data collected from the library customers and shared with them so

that each person could have a good view of the data. I equipped them with makers, cardboard

papers and sticky notes. I ask them to look through the data and take notes of specific interesting

points, write them in the notes and highlight some of them according to the level of importance

and relevance they suggest in generating new valuable ideas. There after everyone sits at a round

table in pairs to share ideas and discuss the findings.

Insight and Approach

Insights began to emerge from the data collected and we discovered that customers were quite

uncomfortable with the library environment; they wanted comfortable chairs and reading desk

and wanted to be allowed to snack and take a drink while reading. They also felt searching for

resources takes too much time and is stressful. They wanted easier and faster ways for getting the

information they required. They also wanted to be able to make photocopies and print with the

library environment and not have to use a business center.

Using the mind mapping tool presented very rich insight and new learning which could only

have been gotten through the collaborative effort than relying only on the quantitative data

initially gathered. These has helped in the redesigning of the library and restructuring the

services in such a way as to ensure maximum user experience and increase user base. I certainly

will use the mind mapping technique in future projects.

