And, of course, countless slips are used as bookmarks or refrigerator-mounted notices or simply left in dust jackets for weeks. However small, these slips are touchpoints—ways that people interact with us—and collectively we’re pumping out thousands of these things daily.

Likewise, in some small way, we’re representing ourselves through these little scraps of paper. Yet, most of us are churning out slips that could be easier on the eye and more helpful to our users.

This isn’t something to keep you up at night, but it’s still worth thinking about, because details matter. All of these little touchpoints add up to create people’s experience of our libraries. And dispensing ugly checkout receipts illustrates that we haven’t spent enough time sweating these details. Even worse, this inattention is at the root of complaints about hard-to-use websites and repeated questions about where the restrooms are.

What is a good checkout slip?
To answer this we have to know what a checkout slip is supposed to do. As I see it, there are a few core ­functions:

• remind people when items are due (patron need)
• remind people what items they have checked out (patron need)
• facilitate the return of materials (library need)

Beyond that, some slips have secondary functions:

• facilitate renewing items (patron need)
• promote library events (library need)
• broadcast policy changes (library need)
• alert people to holiday hour changes (patron need)

With these factors in mind, we can now think of some other factors surrounding the design of an ideal checkout slip:

• They should respect people’s privacy.
• They should include the library’s name and branding.
• They should be easy to read. This includes obeying graphic design basics as well as not cutting off item titles, etc.
• Ideally, they’d show some personality and/or be friendly.
• Item types could be helpful to patrons trying to locate a misplaced item.

Checking out the fun
After compiling the functions’ lists, I started to think about whether there was a way to make checkout slips more fun, or whether that was a terrible impulse. More seriously, I considered what would be the minimum amount of information required to make an item easily identifiable and other basic considerations, such as why there is a due date listed for each item when most items share a due date with others. With all of these things in mind, I took a crack at designing a checkout slip.

There’s nothing very different about this design, but I reckon it is a bit easier to use when hanging on a refrigerator than the current crop. Aside from sensible typography, the only thing notable is that items are grouped by due date rather than listing a due date for each item.

I really like the idea of a checkout slip that includes an extra bit that’s specifically meant to be displayed on a refrigerator or corkboard, though such a design could add about three or more inches of length per due date. It might be cumbersome, but consider how much better this communicates your library’s philosophy.

Just remember: the details matter, especially when these checkout slips are the most visible output of your library that most users will see.

This first appeared “The User Experience,” a column I write for LJ.

Through my public library, I can check out a book on my Kindle for 21 days. Then the system sends a signal to erase the book and make it available for someone else. But there’s a loophole: if my Kindle is offline, the book isn’t deleted and is still available for another reader. So if I need another day, I leave the Kindle offline and continue until I’m done. When I go back online, the book is deleted. I say that’s fine. But my co-worker says that I promised to return it after 21 days — just like a physical book — and I must honor that promise.

From Holiday, April 1961.
[via]

We’ve updated it and it is better than ever. In fact, good implementations of One-Pager will be better than most library websites.

With this update the code is cleaner and more efficient, and we’ve added some responsive elements so that it formats well on any browser. Check out what happens on a mobile device. The image disappears and the menu adapts so that the most important tasks can be taken care of easily.

One-Pager is intentionally different than most library websites. Try out the demo and read more about the ideas behind One-Pager on Influx’s site.

Download Walking Paper Audio Spring 2012

Tracklist:
1. Feelings 4 U – Dreams
2. Holla – Colonel Red
3. New Chain – Small Black
4. Illest Alive [Main Attrakionz] – Clams Casino
5. Lady – Chromatics
6. Protection – Massive Attack
7. Black Cat – Broadcast
8. Palace Chalice – Mux Mool
9. Two Months Off – Underworld
10. Are You Can You Were You (Felt) – Shabazz Palaces
11. Mass Appeal / Transmission – BADBADNOTGOOD
12. Hard Times – Widowspeak
13. Cannons – Youth Lagoon
14. Slippin’ Shoes – Tindersticks
15. She Made Me – The Brian Jonestown Massacre
16. Hazel – Weekend
17. Wasted Days – Cloud Nothings

Previously

Walking Paper Audio Winter 2012
Walking Paper Audio Spring 2011
Walking Paper Audio Winter 2010

I’m not really sure what the metaphor is here, but this is a new advertising campaign for Romanian libraries.

See it at Cautatorii de Povestri.

[via Meaghan O'Connor]

Nice visual design at the State and University Library Bremen.

By FAT Architecture

Thanks, Tod!

In recent years little discussion pertaining to the form of the library’s catalog has found its way into print. The dictionary catalog, this strange creature of modern library economy, has become so firmly established in modern library practice, that is is accepted without question in most of the libraries of this country.

The complicated arrangement of the dictionary catalog has progressed to a stance where the average undergraduate has not been able to use it.

Clearly, the patron’s helplessness before the dictionary catalog cannot be attributed to obtuseness on his part. The fault must lie with the catalog.

Hagedorn, Rolf K. Toward catalog reform. Library Journal. 64: 223-25, March 15, 1939.

I wonder: do we have some sort of amnesia about our professional history? Why haven’t been building on these ideas since 1939?

She’s met latchkey kids and answered teens’ questions about sex – and took advantage of the opportunity to talk to them about diabetes and high blood pressure. She helped a victim of domestic violence find safe shelter and get medical attention. She encourages library visitors to use the hand sanitizer that’s always available to reduce the spread of germs. “Everything is an educational moment,” Pogue says.

She listens to the worries of the elderly, the unemployed and the homeless who turn to libraries for help and safety, and directs them to social services when appropriate.

“It takes a nurse to put a gentle hand on theirs and say, ‘I’m here for you.’” Pogue says.

How about we do less handwringing about electronic content and spend more time developing programs like this?

[more] [via]

While we do not have a print version of a lending agreement in place that the teens/parent/guardian has to sign, we do have a spiel that we do give the teens before we check them out to them. It’s not the same every time, but it goes something like this:

“Just so you know, but checking out iPod out is kind of a big deal. If it gets damaged, lost, or stolen, you’re going to have quite a hefty fine on your library card that you will have to pay before you can use the library again. So, if you’re ok with that and you can be responsible with the iPod, then you should totally borrow it.”

We usually end this conversation with a funny secret society type of handshake. My hope is that it resonates with the teens a lot more than signing some piece of paper.

[via]

Mesa County Library

[via]