Senior Librarian The Learning Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, Texas
Background: When this consumer health library closed its doors in March, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was not a robust system of virtual outreach in place. Staff decided to implement a chat/SMS service as one way to reach patrons during the library’s 16-month shutdown. This poster will briefly discuss the implementation process and will present usage statistics from go-live through the sunsetting of the service. This information will be presented in the context of the institutional environment, library staffing, and other services provided during the same time period. Staff and patron satisfaction measures will also be noted.
Description: The service was implemented in September, 2020, with patrons accessing chat from the library’s Recommended Resource website. Usage was measured using the service’s built-in statistics tool. Around the one-year mark, a simple staff survey solicited feedback on the challenges and successes of service implementation.
Usage of the service was low. One difficulty during implementation was promotion of the service, and when the library reopened, staffing the service was challenging. While only one of the library’s physical locations was opened the chat service was continued, but once a second location was opened in January, 2022, the service was closed.
Conclusion: Implementing a new service is not simply a matter of setting it up and making it available. Despite building the chat/SMS service, large numbers of patrons “did not come,” but those who did and who provided feedback were overwhelmingly satisfied with the service. A variety of factors can affect use and complicate success, and in this time of uncertainty and change, quantitative measures may not be the sole factor in evaluating a new service and whether it should continue.
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