Houstonians can also text or go online with their questions.
by: Allan Turner
There'll be no carhops on roller skates. And if you're hankering for a burger and fries, forget it. But if it's food for the mind you crave — books, music or movies — staffers at some of the Houston Public Library's most congested branches will be happy to deliver your order right to your car.
The library's new curbside service, HPL To Go, is being tested at the Looscan Neighborhood Library and the McGovern-Stella Link Library. If trials go well, the service will be extended to other “parking challenged” branches.
HPL To Go joins Info Quest, a program that allows users to text message queries to reference librarians, as the latest additions to the public library's growing roster of services designed to engage 21st century library patrons.
Other recently added services include the HPL Mobile Express — a van loaded with computers that visits under-served neighborhoods — and Info 24/7, which allows users to query reference librarians via the Internet.
Library Executive Director Rhea Brown said she has challenged library workers to find ways to remain relevant in the iPhone era.
“The library is no different from any other business organization,” she said. “For you and I in society, technology is the way of the world.”
Brown said the library, whose 41 locations drew more than 5 million visitors in the last fiscal year, relies on surveys and focus groups to guide improvement efforts. The curb service project grew out of complaints from customers weary of searching for scarce library parking.
“The parking lots are small and their business is very large,” neighborhood library chief Regina Stemmer said of the test sites. Puzzled for a solution, Stemmer said her “eureka moment” came as she spied a card advertising a food delivery service while dining with friends at an area restaurant. What works for chicken fried steaks, she concluded, might work for books.
Cruise in and phone
In HPL To Go, library patrons first reserve books or other materials via the Internet. When notified by e-mail that the items are ready for pickup, users simply cruise to the library, cell phone a librarian and supply library card numbers, the names of items desired and descriptions of their cars.
In many cases, Stemmer said, a book can be in a patron's hands in a single day.
HPL launched its second new program, Info Quest, in late July, allowing patrons to text questions to reference librarians and receive responses in a matter of minutes.
Patricia Bustamante, who oversees the program as director of the library's electronic services, cited a study revealing more than 260 million cell phones are in use in the United States, the overwhelming number of them capable of texting.
In 2008, she said, 63 percent of Americans 18-27 years old sent text messages from their cell phones; 31 percent of 28- to 39-year-olds texted.
With the Info Quest system, reference librarians across the nation stand ready to answer a user's question — provided, of course, it can be adequately answered in a brief response.
Those services join the library's most dramatic new media effort, a van that takes 13 personal computers and 15 laptops to under served Houston neighborhoods.
The van teams, reserved by churches, nursing homes, community centers and other neighborhood institutions, teach residents basic computer and resume writing skills, said Roosevelt Weeks, deputy director of library administration.
From: Houston Chronicle
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