SPEC Kit 327: Reconfiguring Service Delivery ยท 11
Executive Summary
Introduction
As the web emerged during the last decade, techno-
logical change continued to influence deeply, rivaling
growth as a constant in many libraries. As a result,
library administrators confronted such phenomena as
the increased provision of online content (particularly
journal content in the sciences), such demographic
phenomena as staff retirements and the graying of
the profession and, in many cases, reduced budgets.
A time of great uncertainty for research libraries, the
purpose of this spring 2011 survey is to assess the im-
pact that such factors had on the service provision in
ARL libraries. Of particular concern in this study are
two broad categories of library-staffed service points,
staffed service desks and branches (defined broadly)
that report to main libraries. While we acknowledge
that a trend towards consolidating and reconfiguring
library-staffed service points indeed existed before we
started compiling the data for this SPEC Kit, with this
study we hope to collect, document, and reveal some
of the newest changes in order to better characterize
and explore what is emerging.
The survey instrument asked respondents to pro-
vide background by considering changes in their
staffed service points during the last three years.
Having done that, respondents then were asked
to provide details pertaining to one or two of their
changes. Next, respondents provided comments on
whether the drivers for the change were one or more
of the following: a physical or philosophical change,
a change in financial or staff resources, an opportu-
nity afforded by changing technology, or an oppor-
tunity to increase collaboration and/or outsourcing.
Questions about user participation in the creation
and assessment of each change followed. There were
ample text boxes for further explanation included
with most of the questions. At the end of the sur-
vey, respondents were asked if they anticipated any
further changes during the next three years and to
briefly characterize these future changes. Additional
comments and/or supporting documentation such as
articles, related organizational charts, or other docu-
ments and/or websites were also sought.
The survey was conducted between May 9 and
June 13, 2011. Sixty respondents at 59 of the 126 ARL
member institutions completed the survey for an
overall response rate of 47%. Forty-three replies came
from public universities, fifteen from private universi-
ties, and one from a national research institution. Six
of the public universities were Canadian the rest of
the respondents were from institutions in the United
States. All were distributed geographically through-
out both countries. Because the respondents did not
respond to all the questions, readers may detect dis-
crepancies in the numbers reported that need not be
cause for alarm.
Definitions and Methodology
As library administrators continue to focus and hone
the services offered, the definitions of the service
points themselves also may change. As recently as
2003, when Joan Kreitz was collecting the data for her
Dictionary for Library and Information Science, a service
point was defined as โa fixed location within a library
or information center staffed to provide a specific
service to users, for example, the circulation desk,
reference desk, serials desk, interlibrary loan office,
etc.โ1 and a branch library was defined as โan auxiliary
service outlet in a library system, housed in a facility
separate from the central library, which has at least a
Executive Summary
Introduction
As the web emerged during the last decade, techno-
logical change continued to influence deeply, rivaling
growth as a constant in many libraries. As a result,
library administrators confronted such phenomena as
the increased provision of online content (particularly
journal content in the sciences), such demographic
phenomena as staff retirements and the graying of
the profession and, in many cases, reduced budgets.
A time of great uncertainty for research libraries, the
purpose of this spring 2011 survey is to assess the im-
pact that such factors had on the service provision in
ARL libraries. Of particular concern in this study are
two broad categories of library-staffed service points,
staffed service desks and branches (defined broadly)
that report to main libraries. While we acknowledge
that a trend towards consolidating and reconfiguring
library-staffed service points indeed existed before we
started compiling the data for this SPEC Kit, with this
study we hope to collect, document, and reveal some
of the newest changes in order to better characterize
and explore what is emerging.
The survey instrument asked respondents to pro-
vide background by considering changes in their
staffed service points during the last three years.
Having done that, respondents then were asked
to provide details pertaining to one or two of their
changes. Next, respondents provided comments on
whether the drivers for the change were one or more
of the following: a physical or philosophical change,
a change in financial or staff resources, an opportu-
nity afforded by changing technology, or an oppor-
tunity to increase collaboration and/or outsourcing.
Questions about user participation in the creation
and assessment of each change followed. There were
ample text boxes for further explanation included
with most of the questions. At the end of the sur-
vey, respondents were asked if they anticipated any
further changes during the next three years and to
briefly characterize these future changes. Additional
comments and/or supporting documentation such as
articles, related organizational charts, or other docu-
ments and/or websites were also sought.
The survey was conducted between May 9 and
June 13, 2011. Sixty respondents at 59 of the 126 ARL
member institutions completed the survey for an
overall response rate of 47%. Forty-three replies came
from public universities, fifteen from private universi-
ties, and one from a national research institution. Six
of the public universities were Canadian the rest of
the respondents were from institutions in the United
States. All were distributed geographically through-
out both countries. Because the respondents did not
respond to all the questions, readers may detect dis-
crepancies in the numbers reported that need not be
cause for alarm.
Definitions and Methodology
As library administrators continue to focus and hone
the services offered, the definitions of the service
points themselves also may change. As recently as
2003, when Joan Kreitz was collecting the data for her
Dictionary for Library and Information Science, a service
point was defined as โa fixed location within a library
or information center staffed to provide a specific
service to users, for example, the circulation desk,
reference desk, serials desk, interlibrary loan office,
etc.โ1 and a branch library was defined as โan auxiliary
service outlet in a library system, housed in a facility
separate from the central library, which has at least a
