"Books to your Door" - Welcome to the competitive market

About two years ago, I remember doing a series of presentations around Library2.0, some to The Combined Regions", others to Library schools, some more to our customers. To make a point on one of the Library2.0 themes, that of "bringing the service to the user", I used several examples of how Web2.0 technology concepts applied to the physical services we offered.

Example One was the coffee cart - you don't put a cafe in your library, you find out what the customer wants to drink and bring it to them where they're working. Slightly silly, but useful in explaining a point.

Example Two picked up on my own thoughts as a library user - I hadn't got time to go to the library to collect/return my books. I wanted them posted to me, with an envelope to post them back. I 'd just subscribed to a similar service for film (LoveFilm), and it was starting to look obvious that libraries needed to revisit their satisfaction models (for either local/ILL loans) before an Amazon or similar organisation stepped in to fill the breach.

Looks like it's starting...with BookSwim.

When I mentioned this second example, the responses ranged from "impossible" to "Talis and/or you don't understand libraries" to "we'd love to, but it will be a lot of effort and requires co-operation which doesn't happen overnight". I remember getting so frustrated, as it seemed to me/Talis that the whole ILL model needed to be revisited (ILL2.0, if you will) to move libraries into a competitive strongpoint so that if other commercial concerns entered our market, the would find an established, highly competitive, national satisfaction solution already in place - one that people trusted. We couldn't go on treading the same old ground with a similar service, as the world was changing.

There is the BookNow research from COPAC which emerged in 2005 - I'd be interested to find out which authorities have tried implementing/testing this. However, 2 years on, and its certainly not been offered to me at my home, so I'm assuming this is the usual 5 year turnaround for libraries as the endless politics and culture changes run there course. Its so frustrating - this is why I left libraries and moved to the private sector - I wanted to make a difference, but the red tape became something I couldn't deal with. I want to have an idea in the morning and implement it in the afternoon. Not endure 3months of meetings to get approval to move a shelf...grrrrr...

BookSwim doesn't strike me as an immediate threat to UK libraries - but it's now certainly on the way. We probably have 12 months to solve the problem and get a service out there. The clock is ticking...and we've already wasted 24 months...