Defining Your Library's Self-Service Needs: A Step-by-Step Guide

Patrons increasingly expect to handle everyday tasks on their own, whether they're at the supermarket, the bank, or the library. That expectation makes it worth stepping back and asking where you want to guide patrons toward independence, and how many self-service options make sense for your library and community.

Here's a simple way to work through that decision.

Step 1: Start With Your Patrons

Your patrons come first, so begin by looking at their experience today. Where does the current setup slow them down or leave them without an option they need?

This usually calls for input from more than one person, so look into:

Have patrons asked for specific additions or improvements?
Are patrons regularly standing in line to check out or return items?
Can patrons make full use of your services within your current opening hours?
Are there any issues picking up holds during open hours?
Is accessibility good enough for patrons with additional needs?

Step 2: Sketch Your Library's Layout

Once you know what patrons need, picture how they'd move through your space to get it. Sketch out your library's layout and think about how you'd guide someone through it without them needing to stop and ask staff for directions. This is also the point to check that the layout works for patrons with special needs, not just the average visitor.

As you sketch, think about:

Where would patrons naturally expect to find self-service options?
Can they find their way through the building on their own?
Where are your busiest, highest-traffic areas?
Can patrons with special needs reach, see, and use the equipment just as easily as everyone else?

Step 3: Weigh Your Own Priorities

Patron needs are one side of the equation. The other is your library's own priorities, particularly around staff time. It's worth thinking through which patron interactions you want to keep, and where you'd rather free up staff for other work.

A few things that tend to shape this:

Demand for additional programs. If your community wants more programs, shifting more transactions to self-service can free up the staff time to deliver them.
Extended or unmanned hours. If you're considering hours without staff on site, decide whether patrons would enter the building itself or use services without needing to enter certain zones.
RFID tagging. Whether your items are tagged with RFID affects how wide a range of self-service options is realistically open to you.

Look into:

Is there real demand for programs that additional staff time could support?
Would extended hours help your community, and what would that look like in practice?
Does your current item tagging support the self-service options you're considering?

Step 4: Match the Two Perspectives

Now put the patron view from Steps 1 and 2 next to your own priorities from Step 3. Sometimes they line up well. Often they don't entirely, and that's fine. This is where you decide what actually makes the final list.

Consider:

Where do patron needs and staff priorities already align?
Where do they pull in different directions, and which one wins for your library?
Based on this, what's your short list of self-service services to offer?

Step 5: Design the Physical Flow

With your priorities settled, it's time to bring it back to your sketch from Step 2 and work out the practical layout.

Consider:

Which kiosks will handle checkouts, returns, or both?
Where should alarm gates sit relative to the return area, so they don't trigger unnecessarily?
If you're extending hours, which entry points and zones will stay open?
How will returned items make their way back to the shelf, or straight to the next patron?

Working through staff and patron perspectives side by side at this stage helps you land on a layout that works for both. Getting the practical details right, from equipment placement to logistics, calls for a different skill set than day-to-day library work, so this is often a good point to bring in your self-service equipment provider for a second opinion.

Take these five steps together and you'll end up with a self-service setup that's shaped around your actual patrons and your actual library, rather than a generic list of equipment.