Hi, I’m Rachel, and alongside Catherine I work as one of the graduate trainees at the Taylor Institution Library. Recently I was lucky enough to be selected to attend an open day at the House of Commons Library, London.
The library is situated at the heart of the Palace of Westminster, very close to the Commons debating chamber. As a working library it maintains a lending collection of 260,000 monographs, a detailed reference section and a large holding of journals. Interestingly, thanks to a recent freedom of information request, we know that the two most borrowed books from the library are ‘How to be an MP’ and ‘How Parliament Works’ (I’m not sure whether to be reassured by this or not!).
The House of Commons Library also has a unique role in providing a fully confidential and impartial research service to MPs and their staff. The library employs around 60 subject specialists tasked with carrying out detailed research in response to member’s requests and enquiries. These enquiries cover a huge range of subjects, and can range from a simple question of fact checking (e.g., “What proportion of votes did the Labour candidate receive in the 2013 election of a Borough Councillor for Parbold?”), to more complex and controversial issues (e.g. “What is the evidence for and against the culling of badgers in the British countryside?”). The library describes its major function as ensuring that its readers – our elected representatives – are kept as well informed as possible.
As well as responding to individual requests, the library also produces a selection of pre-prepared information resources. These can be in the form of short “standard notes” that cover the basic information central to an issue or topic, or longer research papers. Staff also produce “debate packs” which are put together in advance of every debate held in the chambers that is scheduled to last for 90 minutes or longer. These packs allow every MP to familiarise themselves with the facts and figures, as well as with the broader debates surrounding an issue. Much of this material is made publicly available online.
One of the most interesting parts of the day was a talk given by Chris Sear, head of customer services, who explained that the library was in the process of creating a new dedicated front of house customer service team to focus more on ‘face to face’ customer support.
That the library chooses to use the term “customer” is interesting. Whilst I am not sure how comfortable I feel with the commercial connotations of the term, its use does place an important emphasis on the quality of a library’s relationships with its readers. A customer is not a passive service user; they are paying for this service (though, in the case of libraries, often indirectly) and therefore expect it to be of a certain standard. In thinking about how to create a positive relationship between library and user, perhaps the concepts of customer service are not a bad place to start.
Chris argued that the first, and in many ways most important, step in achieving good customer service is to identify what those customers actually want. To do this, the library is working hard to collect as much information and feedback from their customers as possible. One interesting and simple measure they had recently taken in response to an identified customer need was to provide facilities for charging mobile phones, and in doing so they found that footfall through the library increased dramatically. Chris also pointed out that there are wider needs that the library tries to cater for. For example, many of the MPs would like to use the library not only for work but for relaxation. In response to this the library provides plenty of comfortable and informal seating areas, and a selection of journals and books intended for leisure use.
Chris emphasised that it is important to think carefully about who your customers are, and how they access the library. In addition to many readers using the library in person, the House of Commons Library also caters for a large number of constituency-based staff. For these customers, phone and email-based services are essential, and the library actively tries to reach out to them in terms of promoting the services they can provide.
I had a fantastic day at the House of Commons Library and would like to thank Staff Development for funding this visit. I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit a library which works so differently to one in an academic setting such as the Bodleian and found it particularly interesting to find out more about the role of the librarian-researcher. If you ever get a chance to visit, go!
