Introducing the Barnes & Noble NOOK to the Whatever Town Free Library
INFO520
Erin O’Shea
12/7/2010
I. Executive Summary
The Whatever Town Free Library hopes to work in conjunction with your company, Barnes & Noble, Inc., in order to provide better resources to our growing and changing community. Our minority populations in particular, including those living below the poverty level and those for whom English is a second language, would benefit from this initiative. Our diverse population of users demands a wide variety of services, but our limited physical space makes it difficult for us to meet those needs.
We believe introducing ten Barnes & Noble (B&N) NOOK eReaders to our collection would allow us to broaden the spectrum of patrons our services can reach. We are asking for a one-time contribution of $2089.10, or the equivalent in the form of Barnes & Noble products, in order to allow our patrons to benefit from the multi-functional NOOK eReader. We plan to initiate our proposed plan in Fall of 2011.
II. Background
A. Community and Patrons
Our small library supports the needs of the almost 40,000 residents of Whatever Town, approximately 32,000 of whom are 18+ years of age and 7,000 of whom are 65+ years of age. According to the U.S. Census Report, in 2009, the number of Whatever Town residents whose annual income fell below the poverty line increased to 32.7% and the number of residents who speak a language other than English in the household increased to 8.9%. While neither of these populations represents a majority of Whatever Town, they are still a community that requires representation in the services offered by our library.
Our community has an especially interesting population because of the number of students that move to Whatever Town in order to attend the large State University here and remain post graduation. In 2009, approximately 76% of the students and 19% of the employees at the State University lived in Whatever Town and an estimated 13% of students reside in Whatever Town longer than the four years typically required to earn a degree at the University. The presence of the University and its community in Whatever Town is actually assumed to positively affect the estimated education and income levels of our residents. Therefore, there are likely a greater number of residents that rely solely on the Whatever Town Free Library that fall below the poverty line and lack higher education than the U.S. Census statistics indicate.
Our changing and growing population has become more dependent on the Whatever Town Free Library because of its status as the only free library in town. We are struggling to meet the varying demands of this increasingly library-dependent community.
B. Libraryand Services
The Whatever Town Free Library is a small facility in a growing community staffed by 4 librarians, 20 support staff members, and a varying number of volunteers. As the only public library in Whatever Town, DE, we do our best to support a wide array of user needs in a diverse community. We serve our community by offering a variety of classes and services ranging from career services to technical support. We also serve as a meeting place for a variety of clubs, ranging from book clubs to knitting clubs. Whatever Town High School students use our library’s electronic resources for homework help, free standardized test preparation, and research; our youngest patrons attend weekly story hours; and our oldest patrons seek technology help and assistance finding large-print books.
We have seen a steady increase in the number of student patrons seeking popular fiction and technologies missing in their University’s library, as well as an increase in the number of library-dependent patrons in need of internet access and literature in languages other than English. Because we are part of the Whatever County Public Library system, our collection of print books, journals, newspapers, and bound periodicals is estimated at an impressive 5,000,000, but our actual library houses only a small fraction of these resources, particularly due to a lack of space. Online resources, however, like our eBooks, electronic journals, and databases, can be shared easily and instantly among all branches of the Whatever County Public Library System.
According to our count, there were over 800,000 visits made to our small library in 2009-2010, and though limited government funding has allowed our library system to continue expanding its collections, the Whatever Town Free Library building is still the same size as when it first opened in 1939. A recent survey showed that almost 90% of staff have noticed that limited space and marked increase in library use are seriously affecting the number of services of which our patrons are able to take advantage (see Appendix B). A supplemental survey given to our patrons indicated that approximately 29% had access to the University Library and less than 2% were not associated with the University and therefore paid for this privilege (see Appendix C). So while many students take advantage of our services in addition to their University Library’s, non-affiliated residents have only the Whatever Town Free Library to rely on.
C. Staff
Our staff is led by our Branch Manager, Martha Stewart, and supported by our volunteers. Martha has over 20 years of library experience and has made this library’s success her priority for the last 10 years she has been working here (see resume in Appendix A). During her last six years as Branch Manager, Martha has seen an increased use of library services in conjunction with a slowing economy. Without additional funding, she has been able to recruit and rely on more volunteers to create/run programs that serve our community’s needs without requiring more space or funds. Over the past six years, Whatever Town Free Library and our community have benefitted from almost 9,000 hours of service from our dedicated volunteers. Martha will oversee the proposed project and rely heavily on her staff of paid and volunteer workers for support.
III. Statement of Need
Our patrons are suffering because of our limited in-house collection of print materials and our limited number of computers for free internet access. Library card holders are able to access most of our electronic resources from a home computer, but a growing number of our patrons are without internet access at home. A recent survey estimates that almost 70% of our patrons have been unable to access an electronic resource (internet, eBook, online journal, etc) on more than one occasion in our library because of our limited number of computers, approximately 18% lack internet access in the home, and approximately 9% are looking for books and reading materials in a language other than English (primarily Spanish) (see Appendix C). Unfortunately, these numbers are not mutually exclusive and many our patrons rely on us to provide these services; we are currently failing members of our community.
We at Whatever Town Free Library cannot allow our users to be denied access to information. We plan to introduce ten of the Barnes & Noble NOOK eReaderss to our library’s collection. Because approximately 78% of our patrons are already familiar with the device and its functions and 54% expressed interest in borrowing the device for the express purpose of accessing eBooks (see Appendix C), we believe the introduction of these devices will prove successful and beneficial to our community.
The NOOK, as you already know, is the #1 pick for eReaders according to Money Magazine, has over 2 million books available for wireless download, and has free Wi-Fi access anywhere a connection can be made (Barnes & Noble 2010). The NOOK supports several file formats including PDF, JPG, GIF, PNG, and BMP, is lighter than most of the other eReaders, and comes with games and a built-in dictionary (Scott 2010). Additionally, in December of this year, “Barnes & Noble, Inc., the world's largest bookseller, announced NOOKbooks en espanol, the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States, and the best - and growing - selection of Spanish titles, including bestsellers, new releases, classics, works in translation and more” (Electronics Newsweekly 2010). It is obviously an eReader with something for every member of our community.
Also, the State University, which is approximately half of a mile from our library and easily within walking distance, will open a Barnes & Noble bookstore on campus as its official University Bookstore in Fall of 2011. Many of our patrons are students and staff at the University, so we are sure that affirmation of the quality of the B&N NOOK will spread quickly among students, staff, and patrons, increasing sales for Barnes & Noble and support for our library and services. As our library depends on its volunteers, an increase in support will mean an increase in services offered and an increase in user satisfaction.
IV. Proposed Service
In Fall 2011, the Whatever Town Free Library wants to introduce 10 B&N NOOKs to the library’s collection of resources as a means of increasing the number of popular, classic, and foreign language books available to our patrons as well as increasing the number of patrons simultaneously able to access electronic resources while in our library, all within the limited amount of space we have available.
Other libraries have already begun using and loaning eReaders with varying, but nonetheless proven success. At Princeton University, a study conducted found that students given eReaders use more than 50% less paper than those without eReaders, which saves money, and enjoyed everything about the eReaders except the annotation tools (Trustees of Princeton 2008). Unlike the eReader used in the study, the NOOK boasts improved annotation tools and a full-color backlit touch-control screen situated just below the grayscale E-Ink display featured on most eReaders; these features in conjunction with its multiple functions make this an ideal eReader for all ages and education levels (Reid & Hadro 2009). Bulebosh supports this claim in her article where she quotes a consultant whose company recently conducted a survey about eReaders: “‘Grandmothers will soon be carrying them around,’ said John Rose of the Bonston Consulting Group” (Bulebosh 2010). Bulebosh sees this as a possibility and we hope to make this a reality with the implementation of our proposed initiative.
We plan to base our program on those already instilled in a number of libraries in a few New England towns. We will loan eReaders to library cardholders only, for up to two weeks at a time, and with an agreement to refund the library for loss or damage of up to $200 (Callari 2010). We will create a waitlist for each device if necessary and impose a late fee (to be determined) that increases daily until the NOOK is returned. All money collected from late fees will be used to improve the programdirectly.
Initially, six of the ten B&N NOOKs will be available for patrons to borrow for a maximum of two weeks at a time and the other four will remain in the library for education, entertainment, and NOOKbook library access purposes. We will connect the six NOOKs to be loaned to one NOOKbook library and pre-load them with about 12 of the most popular NOOKbooks, 12 of the most in-demand books at our library, and 6 of the most popular NOOKbooks en Espanol, increasing the number of NOOKbooks en Espanol if there is any overlap among the former selections. The remaining four NOOKs will be on a separate account and preloaded with 10 NOOKbooks that appeal to a wide variety of users. The account on all the B&N NOOKs will belocked and password protected so that no purchases can be made by anyone except library administration.
All B&N NOOKs will be preloaded with popular titles that are freely available on the internet and compatible with the B&N NOOK. Because the NOOK supports eBooks available through the OCLC and NetLibrary, the Whatever Town Free Library will already have access to a collection of more than 140,000 PDF-based eBook titles through their NOOKs (OCLC 2010). Also, with our shared NOOKbook libraries, we will be able to maximize the number of copies of a particular book available to our patrons, decrease spending on the number of copies of one book, and increase spending on the expansion of the number of titles in our collection. The B&N NOOK will also serve as an alternative to the limited number of large print books we have available for our patrons who struggle to read small text as it is said to be easier on the eyes (Barnes & Noble 2010).
We plan to advertise our new technology on our website and with posters and a display in our library for at least three months before we introduce the B&N NOOKs to the general public, and an additional nine months after. We will spend the first two of those months seeking volunteers for the downloading of NOOKbooks and the preparation of the B&N NOOKs. We will provide space for this work in addition to funding in the case we do not recruit enough volunteers for the amount of work required. We will spend the third month preparing our staff to work with the NOOK and its features. We will have training sessions in order to educate our employees on the multiple uses of the NOOK, allow them time to explore the NOOKs themselves, and be sure they are able to answer or find the answer to any questions a patron may have. In this way, our patrons will have access to a knowledgeable NOOK-user at any given time while in our library. By the fourth month, we plan to introduce the NOOK to our community.
In order to evaluate the success of this initiative, we will document the number of NOOK questions asked of our staff for the first six months after we begin advertising our new service and we will also document the number of NOOKs we loan to patrons both within our libraries walls and beyond for the first year. We will also look for an increase in the number of eBooks borrowed from our library and a decrease in the number of patrons waiting to access a computer, hopefully seeing a change of at least 25% in each. Patron satisfaction will be determined by brief face-to-face interviews with patrons conducted by staff and prompted by a patron’s return of the NOOK directly to a staff member after any period of use (see Appendix D). If, after one year, there are no major issues (malfunction, theft, etc), NOOKs are still being put to use, and patrons are consistently satisfied, then we will consider our service a success and continue to purchase NOOKbooks with library funds.
V. Proposed Budget
A. Predicted Cost
Item / Cost / Number / TotalNook / $149.00 / 10x / $1490.00
B&N Protection Plan / $39.95 / 10x / $399.50
NOOKBook / ~$9.99 / 40x / $399.60
Nook frame / $19.95 / 10x / $199.50
Advertising / $100.00 / 2x / $200.00
Training for Full-time staff / $20.00/hr / 4x2=8x / $160.00
Training for Part-time staff / $14.00/hr / 20x2=40x / $560.00
Unforeseen costs (electricity, lack of volunteers) / $1000.00 / 1x / $1000.00
TOTAL / $4408.60
B. Program Funding
Our library budget allows us to pay our staff members for up to three hours worth of meeting or training time bi-monthly, so we will use up to two hours of this time for training mandatory for all paid staff held strictly for introduction to the Nook. We have also received a reward grant of $1000 from the Whatever County Public Library System for our dedicated service to the community and plan to continue said service by using the bonus to fund part of this initiative. This money will cover any unforeseen costs or pay for additional NOOKbooks in the case of excess funds. In addition, we have received a $599.50 grant from Friends of the Whatever Town Free Library for advertising our new products and the purchase of Barnes & Noble Protection Plans to protect our investment.
Whatever Town Free Library Budget – salaries of employees / $720.00Whatever County Public Library Community Service Reward / $1000.00
Friends of the Library Grant / $599.50
TOTAL FUNDING ALREADY ACCRUED / $2319.50
VI. Conclusion
Our community is changing and in need of a library that can change with it; we want to provide our patrons with the services they need. The B&N NOOK offers the best solution: wireless access, millions of books, and, most importantly, user-oriented design; we appreciate that. A one-time contribution of $2089.10, or the equivalent in the form of 10 Barnes & Noble NOOKs, 10 B&N NOOK frames, and approximately 40 NOOKbooks, will make a difference. We want to demonstrate the value of the NOOK to a wide range of consumers and at the same time demonstrate to our patrons that our library thrives even in the face of challenge and change. We want to provide the best resources for our patrons: the Barnes & Noble NOOK is one of those resources.
References
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (2010). NOOK. Barnes & Noble. Retrieved November 27, 2010 from
Bulebosh, N. (2010). Surge in eReaders tablets predicted within three years. Library Journal (1976), 135(11), 16, 19. Retrieved November 27, 2010 from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.