Towards a new multichannel library customer experience and better staff’s digital competence within the regional development task in Finland

Abstract

According to the new Finnish Library Act the public libraries in Finland are tasked with 1) providing access to materials, information and cultural contents; 2) maintaining versatile and up-to-date collections; 3) promoting reading and literature; 4) providing information services, guidance and support in the acquisition and use of information and in versatile literacy skills; 5) providing premises for learning, recreational activities, working, and civic activities; 6) promoting social and cultural dialogue.

Tampere City Library holds a regional development responsibility in the Pirkanmaa and Central Finland regions (abbr. PiKe). The purpose of this is to support the development of the public libraries and the professional competence of library staff as well as to promote mutual cooperation between the public libraries within the area of operation. Our main goal at the start was to improve ways of providing customer service in PiKe libraries.

Customer service is heavily connected to the job description of almost every library professional. Librarians serve customers in many different ways, both physically in libraries and virtually online. Our experience shows that customer contacts inspire professional development and motivate staff to learn new skills. The regular visitors of Finnish libraries give very high ratings for service on customer satisfaction surveys. However, our vision states that targeting especially new user groups challenge libraries to provide better user experience in...