Public Library Personas

we’re a bunch of “centrics,” but not user-centric

The Virtuous Triangle
– usability tests = learned that we can make anybody push a button if we make it big enough; they only test what we want them to do (not necessarily the “right” thing)
– normative data = data from 3500 different libraries in 20 states, every single OPAC transaction; a map of every public library in the U.S.; every branch; a patron-selected book circulates 7 times more than a librarian-selected one (?); Grand Rapids spends $40,000 out of $800,000 buying every book patrons ask for – haven’t lost a funding request in 21 years; the last time we collaborated on knowing users from data was OCLC in the early 70s – we still aren’t at the Wal-Mart level
– personas = what are the psychographic underpinnings; people want to find and experience where they get entertained & progress their life – what they want to achieve, not search, get books, get articles, etc.

need to do all of this in the library world and then the real world
who are the people most likely to support their local library – research shows it’s people that don’t have a library card – have to understand the research! we serve different groups for different reasons

old model – library in center, surrounded by users, surrounded by groups
new model – user at the center with stuff on the outside; serve the symptom

driving this is:
– crosswalks in commons; watch where the paths develop and then put them there after you’ve observed; (uses the term “information fluency” instead of “information literacy”); we force the users to our paths (that’s why the “information superhighway” metaphor is so horrible – “information ocean” instead); front end of where the next generation of users will be; have to see things before there is a curve; if only get 7% of the population, it won’t make it – has to hit the hump of the curve of adoption

SchoolRooms project of InfoOhio – post-millennial research; every single lesson every day for every day for every curriculum for the entire State of Ohio; parent view, kids view (video game view); ties question levels to standardized tests

what is context – trying to support context
your neighbors are different now – neighborhood, entertainment, research, learning, workplace (frameworks); group of skills and needs is dependent on where you are right now, different contexts; the five basic spaces people exist in as they come into the library (definitely not an information context); number one skill of a librarian is NOT delivering information – basic goal is to improve the quality of the question, which gives us more impact, and the question comes in a context (through good cataloging, folksonomies, talking to people, interfaces, etc.); 75%+ interactions are coming through clicks now, and the person improving the question isn’t there; can’t always make our judgments based on who we see coming in to our libraries because they aren’t the same users as home users

for personas project, talked to 2500 students and recorded them as they talked about habits, etc.; used software to track eye movements for about 1000 of them; kids’ eyes move differently than adults’ eyes (F pattern instead of traditional A pattern adults use from newspapers; it’s how kids read in print, too; their reading levels are up, & half their reading is online); need to know this if you’re going to align your paths with your audience!

new generation are 20 IQ points higher, & their brains work differently; older generations are right/left brain, whereas these kids are more balanced; significantly smarter generation, but they have no fact-based knowledge; they’re prepared for a world where content and solving things are different – the role of the information coach is totally there for them if we want to step up and help them; have to stop preparing ourselves for the past, though (all of this is for ages 15–25, the millennials)

showed chart of millennial characteristics; information only becomes knowledge through a process called learning – 7 styles; need to come back to behavior – what do they want to achieve? then we can figure out how to position our services to come alive in that environment where learning becomes knowledge

reading fluency is damaged for life if you can’t read by the end of grade four; we’re positioning ourselves for reading books, but what happens after grade there? everything after that is oriented towards experience and decoding life, but we’re still trying to influence as books; we don’t put up contextual things, especially localized

when we build persona-oriented websites, we’re managing our aspect of the local information ecology; it’s an ecology, not a delivery information

we are not aligned with the majority of people who are experience-based learning; doctors’ 4th style of learning is text-based, even though they’re really smart; you want a doctor/lawyer/engineer/etc. who is an experiential learner! all the kids are learning in groups now; they build the paths for themselves now

85% of students worldwide have a Facebook account; a lot of hands went up when he asked how many people have been to MySpace (the #1 site on the internet; will account for 40% of all internet traffice by the end of June; more blogging happens on myspace than on all of the other sites combined, & will double by the end of the year); so what can libraries learn from it? described Second Life and the Alliance Library System’s Second Life Library project! “boolean starts to fail as the world gets big;” beyond a certain level of information, you just can’t search it

personas project objectives: counted 10–15,000 stories from users (didn’t let the librarians in the room with users! they like us so they’ll lie to us; recorded them all, transcripted them, put them in a database, and the software found the patterns)
– personas are hypothetical representations of a natural grouping of users that drive decision-making for development projects; based on behaviors

librarians aren’t aligning story hours with moms who drop kid for story hour but then go upstairs to do their own research and work to finish their education and learn more to make enough to help their children do better; have to tie our services together in ways we haven’t previously thought of before

1. Henry persona
41–years old software designer; 1/3 of population of intranet users at Microsoft – he types in URLs directly, not using the start page of the portal (doesn’t care what is going on in the company); “frustrated” because can’t find all product info in one place (have to talk more about frustration than “satisfaction”)

librarian search behaviors aren’t like user behaviors AT ALL, and yet that’s our filter; we are a scalable solution as the “information coach” for localized info and “how & why”; get the narrative pattern from the software; librarians have a high sense of delaying satisfaction, which is why we go through hoops and search so many resources to find an answer – everyone else just grabs the first result from google

asked open-ended “describe…” questions; then grouped the stories under archetypes (57 of them; Canadian ones were very different than American ones)
showed themes & values – what do they care about (information isn’t in there, or books or databases – never showed up!); wanted community, learning, quality, efficienty, money/risk; that’s where we need to align; we keep selling the tools, not the feeling/experience/needs

good citizenship archetypes – cozy, collaborate, community, intellectual opportunities, willing to chat, security, safe, strong community leader, networking, pulls community together
frustrations – annoying, indifference, disruption, no wireless, no tape player, physical pain
inquisitive user – into to new things, lots of preferences, universal access
disengaged seeker – can’t get book you need; fear of puppets (!)
ultimate tour guide – (library staff archetype) out-of-date IT, not enough computers
themes – number one is interaction! community and learning, etc.

found 7 major anchors plus secondary anchors:
– Discovery Dan
– Haley High School
– Jennifer
– Mommy Marcie
– Rick Research
– Senior Sally
– Tasha Learner

each persona has a day in the life at the library, information-seeking behavior, ultimate goal, frustrations; includes charts for their needs, features your website needs, and how they should be tied together