Putting the User First

We here in Discovery & Research Services are VERY happy to congratulate our fearless leader, Courtney McDonald, on the publication of her new book! Putting the User First: 30 Strategies for Transforming Library Services, published by ACRL, can (and should! do it!) be purchased via the ALA Store online.

I haven’t had time to read the book yet, but I’ve spent a few minutes skimming through it, so I have some first impressions. It’s a small square book, entirely unintimidating; each of its short chapters explores one thing that you can do to make your library better for its users (patrons, customers, whatEVER). I imagine this as a book you’d have sitting on your desk for a while, and maybe you’d pick it up and read one chapter every morning before diving into the workday. Sort of a “daily meditation” thing, although the whole point of the book is to actually DO something, not just meditate about it. Those who know Courtney will find a familiar voice throughout – conversational, whimsical, but in the end very practical.

Here’s a peek inside the book. This is the content strategy chapter. Yes, I totally cut off the side of the right-hand page. I have no shame – you’ll just have to buy it if you want to see what’s there… 🙂

Congratulations to Courtney!