Upstairs, downstairs: public service initiatives at Baker Library

Abstract

Describes the planning and implementation of two concurrent systems reorganizations, undertaken at the Baker Library, Harvard Business School (HBS), Massachusetts. The first initiative involved the merging of the Reference and Circulation functions to create an Information Services Center, with the aim of providing a single point of contact for users and allowing triage by library staff of the most commonly asked questions: directional or reference. The second initiative involved the merging of two interdependent departments separated physically by two floors within the building: Corporate Information and the ‘Cole Room’; with the aim of enabling library staff from the two departments to work together and providing closer proximity of the library collections and the experts who manage them. The change was also seen as a means of creating a ‘laboratory space’ in which to practise a service delivery model and design the optimal space for the new library interior to come.