Increasing Patron Monitoring in a Library Setting

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Increasing Patron Monitoring in a Library
Setting

• Matthew Thornton Brodhead
• BSAP Spring 2007
• Allison Mueller

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Special Collections and Rare Book Room

• Over 39,000 books including
• 120 Medieval manuscripts
• Fine press books
• American Womens Poetry Collection
• Historical Childrens Collection
• Pop-up books
• Artist books

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Participants

• Student employees of Western Michigan University
  Libraries
• 7 total employees
• Including me
• Manager Susan Steuer Ph. D. of History and head
  of Special Collections and Rare Book Room

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Reason to Intervene

• Library staff were not monitoring patrons while
  they used library materials
• Dr. Steuer wanted to increase monitoring behavior
  because materials housed at Special Collections
  are
• Out of print
• Hard to come by
• One of a kind
• Expensive (some books cost over 15,000)
• Priceless
• Abuse of materials is not acceptable

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Baseline

• Library staff monitored patrons on an average of
  18.5 of 90-second intervals

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Baseline
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Ineffective Natural Contingency
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Natural Competing Contingency
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Nothing beats getting paid to do homework
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Performance Objectives

• The goal is for staff to monitor patrons 95 of
  90-second intervals

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But how
With Goal Directed Systems Design?
Of course!
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Input-Process-Output Model

• (Staff member who looks at patron once every
  90-seconds) Output

(Production Training with job aid and monitoring
materials) Process
(Staff member who does not look at patron once
every 90-seconds) Input
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Goal Specification Form
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The Intervention

• 90-second interval timer
• Beeps once every 90 seconds
• Reminds staff to monitor patrons

DING!
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The Intervention

• Revised patron request form
• Modified to facilitate self-recording
• Used for data collection
• Observation no longer necessary

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930 am
936 am
MB
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The Intervention

• Patron Monitoring Job Aid
• How to use 90-second interval timer
• How to use self-recording materials

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The Intervention

• Graphic Feedback
• Graph updated on a weekly basis
• Provided visual feedback on performance

I love graphic feedback!
Placed within sight of staff
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Performance Management Contingency
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Ineffective
PM
Inferred
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And guess what

• Patron monitoring improved!

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Useful information

• Performance was calculated using the following
  formula

10 correct responses R 30 minutes patron viewed
materials X 60 Z 1800/90 20 possible
intervals (Z/90) 10/20x100 50 of correct
responses
R Correct responses made by staff member
Z (minutes patron viewed materials)x(60)
I Z/90 (I possible intervals)
(R/I)x(100) Percentage of correct responses
Questions about this?
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Recycle

• During the second week of the intervention, the
  patron request form was revised to facilitate
  longer stays
• A Notes section was also added so staff could
  note anything that may have affected their
  monitoring behavior

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Recycle

• And that was all that needed to be done to save
  the lives of thousands of books
• and to help save the world with Behavior
  Analysis!

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I.O.A.

• Jada-Rae helped me with I.O.A.
• 100 for three sessions
• She basically checked my math

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Social Validity

• Social Validity Surveys were given during the 4th
  week of the intervention
• Mixed results

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Good News!

• Dr. Steuer loved the results so much that she
  decided to make the intervention policy!
• Better yet we will be co-writing an article for
  a library journal about the success that
  non-library students can bring to library systems
• Not quite JOBM, but were getting there

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And for Staff

• Staff members reported that patron monitoring
  needed to increase, and that I was on the right
  track with my design

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However
Its a small price to pay for the greater good of
research
That beeper is pretty damn annoying
DING!
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Conclusion

• Everyone is satisfied with the results
• Library materials will live another day

And we didnt even have to shock anyone!
Oh dear
Dr. Steuer
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Questions or Comments?