Sergio Dogliani先生來自於義大利,於1984年移民到英國,有多年成人教育的背景,加上愛閱讀和喜歡圖書館,讓他在2002年起成為Idea Store 的副理。(註2)這次應邀來台談Idea Store,從Idea Store創新的概念可得知其同時兼具圖書館與成人教育學院,開設了800種課程,經營中成功的關鍵是以人為導向,深植社區內資訊和生活所需,成功締造圖書館服務的新面向。Idea Store擷取書店和零售店對商品陳列的概念,吸引讀者的注意力,以客戶為思考核心,營造更親和和實用的介面,Idea Store工作團隊重組圖書館對資訊的展示和運用方式,進而呼應當地居民在健康與工作上的切身需要,提供更好的經營策略,讓圖書館能發揮改善生活品質的功能。
Idea Store花了兩年的時間和社區居民溝通,了解到居民需要一個有歸屬感的環境,資訊內容必須和生活有關,居民可以在環境中可以得到必要的關注、互動溝通的營造和自由自在的享受學習資訊,這樣才有可能激發學習的熱情。在網路中發現很多Idea Store以學習實務為出發的成功例子,從報告中看到Idea Store提供的讀書會分享,是深度的討論和主題探索,在圖書館特闢討論空間,並且提供豐富的相關主題書籍讓讀者充分瀏覽與討論,把書籍當成真正的生活相關和創造趣味來達成傳播與分享,是圖書館中責無旁貸的責任。(註3)
Idea Store是一種創新的概念,集合圖書館、學習中心和資訊中心的網絡資源中心。位在倫敦的哈姆雷特塔,這裡是倫敦32個行政區之一,有26.5萬的人口,其中51%來有色人種,以32%人口來自自孟加拉裔為大宗,剩下的19%有回教、中國、越南、非洲和西印度等民族。有多元種族的特色,也同時在本區域內呈現兩種不同的極端,一邊是全英國最貧窮的地區,有高失業率與低教育程度。另一邊卻是因為處在本區Canary Wharf的重要金融位置,有許多跨國企業在此成立公司,每日吸引10萬名高薪者到這個行政區工作。
Idea Stores提供傳統的圖書館服務,可免費的使用館藏書籍、電子資源和服務,同時還提供800種成人或家庭課程,如芳香治療、Photoshop、瑜珈、英語和其他外國語學習、烹飪、寶來塢時尚、都市爵士舞、視覺藝術、汽車維護等等。我們還提供咖啡、簡餐和點心,還有藝術家的展覽空間。
Library Watch:Could you tell us briefly about the services offered by your library?
Sergio:
Idea Store is an innovative concept combining library, learning and information services within a network of venues in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, one of the 32 independent London boroughs, with a population of 265,000, of which 51% non-white, with 32% of the community of Bangladeshi origin, with the rest made up of people from Somali, Chinese, Vietnamese, African and West Indian backgrounds. The borough is characterised by a rich diversity and by two extremes: on one hand it’s one of the most deprived area in the UK, with high levels of unemployment and low levels of literacy and numeracy, and on the other it hosts the financial district of Canary Wharf, which includes many multinational businesses, and attracts 100,000 workers daily to the area, mostly on high salaries.
Idea Stores offer a traditional library service – that is, free access to a large collection of books and digital resources, as well as information services. They also provide more than 800 courses for adults and families in subjects such as Aromatherapy, Photoshop, Yoga, English and Foreign Languages, Cookery, Bollywood Fashion, Urban Jazz Dancing, Visual Arts, Car Maintenance and many more. We have also cafes offering hot and cold food and refreshments and a gallery space that exhibits work by local and international artists.
Library Watch:The Idea Store concept is now twelve years old. What are the keys to be still successful and popular?
Sergio:
One of the reasons we are still successful, popular and relevant to people’s needs is that the Idea Store concept was the result of comprehensive, in-depth marketing research involving local residents. The findings were key in forming our vision and long term strategy. For example, people told us they wanted a service that suited their modern life needs, which means having access to buildings and resources seven days a week, so we introduced longer opening hours (71 per week), and our 24-hour digital library. They also wanted to come to a place with the look and feel of retail, so we had to learn important lessons from department stores, cafes, restaurants, theatres and cinemas and adapt these to a public library service. So, the emphasis has been on putting people (customers) at the centre of everything we do, in a way that had never been done before. I think we are generally good listeners, and take on board people’s suggestions for improvements all the time, so this is one of the ways of doing this.
Our strategy has resulted in a remarkable success (400% increase in usage, 92% customer satisfaction levels), so we have been able to demonstrate to decision makers that our library and learning service is greatly valued by the local population, and many think we are an essential part of our community. This has meant that we are in a stronger position than most other libraries in the UK, which are being closed because there’s less money to spend on public services and cannot demonstrate that their communities would greatly suffer as a result of their closure.
Library Watch:From your perspectives, the success of Idea Store, in terms of library service model, what would be the major differences between the traditional library service and the next generation library service?
Sergio:
The main difference between Idea Stores and traditional library services is that we have integrated our adult and family learning offer with the library service. There are other libraries that offer some learning opportunities, for example music or art history lectures, or foreign language teaching, but I have never seen anyone who offers learning and library services so well integrated. This is because, unlike other libraries, the learning offer is core business for us, not just an added activity delivered through a partnership with an adult college or similar - we are both the library and the adult college! We have a single staffing structure, and the Head of Idea Store (my boss) takes strategic decisions on both learning and libraries. Also, our frontline staff are trained to support users who need help on the library as well as the learning side (although when it comes to the teaching of the courses, we employ professionally qualified teachers).
Library Watch:How you or your library create the relationship between the book/resources and readers? What are secrets inside?
Sergio:
One of our roles it to support people in whatever reading needs they have: many local residents have left school with little or no qualifications, and as they grow up they realize that they are virtually illiterate, and life is much harder for them, because they cannot find work. We are there to help them, whether through literacy courses or by encouraging them to use our wide range of free reading resources (books, but also online). At the same time, we are also here to encourage people of all abilities to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading, because this is our mission. We are aware that there are different needs in the community, and the challenge is to cater for all these, not just for one group or another. Our quality book collection and online resources are designed to meet these needs, and we use tried and tested techniques from the retail world, particularly in bookshops, to ensure that people use our services and come back for more.
Library Watch:How to create library brand through mashing up all the components of the service and value at the right place?
Sergio:
Over the last 12 years we’ve strengthened and consolidated our brand, which is now well established in the community and valued internationally, but a good brand needs to keep up to date with developments in the outside world. In our case, we’ve responded to changes by ensuring our strategy continues to meet the needs of local residents. In recent years we have realized that local people are primarily concerned with issues related to health and work. This is not very surprising, because we are aware that we have many negative records related to poor health in this area, and one of the highest levels of unemployment in the UK. Unlike other library services we’ve come across elsewhere, instead of thinking that health and work should not be the main concern for a library service, we have embraced the challenge and created a Health Strategy and are working on an Employment Strategy. We think we can actively support those who need the most help in these areas, and we see our library, learning and information services being particularly well suited in doing this, whether this is through the provision of reading materials in the health and work areas, relevant courses and information, or partnership working with local agents and organisations. Ultimately, we are here to improve people’s quality of life, in whatever way possible – I think this should be the main mission for all libraries.
參考資料:
1.朱沛亭(2005), idea STORE另類的未來圖書館,傢飾雜誌,第42期
2.An introduction about Sergio Dogliani in the Nordic Library Conference, 2012. http://www.statsbiblioteket.dk/nordic2012/welcome-front-page/speakers-1/sergio-dogliani Accessed on 2014/10/20 accessed on 2014/10/15
3.Report from the Human Library at the IDEA Store in London.(2008) http://humanlibrary.org/report-from-the-living-library-at-the-idea-store-in-london..html access on 2014/10/20
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