Giving 'em what they want - independence

Last week when I went to the bank on the President's Day holiday I didn't expect it to be open, so I had my deposit ready in one of those ATM deposit envelopes. When I drove up to the 55th St NW Wells Fargo, I was pretty surprised to see the drive-up open -- 6 stalls worth, all with green open lights inviting customers in. Only a single car was at the window at the far left, by the teller. What was truly amazing was that the far right ATM machine had a waiting line, in which I was number 5.

What does this have to do with libraries? It appears that in banking (and other things), people prefer self-service. As I sat in line, listening to my Sirius tunes, I pondered my first experience with self-service in libraries. While working for the Air Force Library Service in the early 90s, we got a 3M self-check machine. (Never mind that it took a year for all the installation challenges to be worked out.) Our customers would stand in line to use that machine, rather than step over to the circulation desk, even though we had great staff on the desk. Just recently when I was picking up books at my local library in Rochester, I saw the same phenomenon. I think it has to do with that we as a culture aren't too far from the stubborn toddler mentality that says "I can do it myself."

So here's the message. As important as we (the collective voice of the traditional librarian) think we are, as much as we want to disavow the technology that will put control in the customers' hands, as unimportant as we think unmediated requesting is, as much power as we want to keep in the name of patron service, this is where the public's mind is at. Preferring to "do it myself" - even if it means spending time in line for the single self-service station.