I suggest that you start by finding out what the library leaders want in a digital branch. I'm not referring only to formal library leadership. There are usually two types of leadership in a library–formal leadership and informal leadership.

Formal leadership would be the library director, deputy directors, and managers or supervisors–the administration and management arm of your organization (see figure 7). When you meet with these groups, find out these types of things: what they think a digital branch means, what new services they want to provide with it, and what they have heard from the staff. Use their comments to help you better understand the needs of the community.

Find out what the library's goals or strategic plans are and how the digital branch might fit into those plans and help to meet those goals. For example, if the library wants to attract more teens, there might be some potential for the digital branch to explore blogs, content created by and for teens, and social networks.

It is also important to seek out and meet with the informal leaders of the library. Informal leaders are members of the library community who may not be as prominent in title as administrators, but could be equally influential. Informal leaders include nonmanagers who are natural leaders in your organization. This group might include some of your library staff who tend to always get things done–the “can-do” people. It might include influential board members, community leaders, and even extremely active patrons. Ask them the same types of questions. Find out what type of services they'd like to offer in a digital branch setting, then incorporate some of those ideas into your digital branch plans.

Next, you should make sure to talk to the public services staff. They're the ones who work the desk, who go out and interact with your patrons. They interact with your customers every day, so they may understand patrons’ needs in a way that other staff members do not. This group has an understanding of what patrons do when they use the Web, how they interact with a Web browser, and what questions they typically ask about using websites.

Ask your public services staff the same types of questions you asked the library leaders. They should have ideas of how they want to connect with patrons. For example, when I started working at Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, I met with every public service department and asked what they thought a digital branch was, what they wanted to do in a digital branch, and how they thought their department could be represented on a digital branch. I also asked what their patrons needed in a digital branch. I definitely got an earful of great ideas.

Let's not forget the reason why we're here in the first place–the customers! When building a digital branch–a place on the Web where your customers can visit the library to interact and accomplish tasks–you'll want to consult with your customers to find out what they expect to find at a digital branch library. You need to find out what types of services they would like to use on your digital branch.

There are many ways to do this. At Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, our Web team experimented with a variety of ways to connect with our patrons. For example, we held face-to-face focus groups. Our marketing director gathered enough people to hold a number of meetings of five to ten people each. At those meetings (complete with cookies and coffee), I introduced attendees to our current website and showed them what could be done with it. Then I explained the digital branch concept and gave them a tour of the rough draft of our own fledgling digital branch. I showed them what it would look like and described what types of things they would be able to do at the digital branch.

Then I asked what they thought and wrote everything down. Thankfully, the great majority of the focus groups loved the concept we had created. They also had some ideas for improvements, and some had questions about parts of the new site that we hadn't thought about and needed to improve.

We also set up a Web survey, linking from the main page of our website, that asked a series of questions about what our online customers would want in a digital branch. We received a variety of responses from that, as well.

Here's a snippet of what our customers said during our focus groups on their first impressions of the main page of the new website:¹

• “It's simpler–but miss seeing the contact info at the top of the page.”
• “Questions about how the top tabs differ from the side.”
• “Blogs: What are we going to do to keep the inappropriate comments controlled?”
• “My account: What will happen when you click on it?”
• “Kids: What will the new site have for them?”
• “This site looks very similar to Barnes & Noble's Web site.”
• “Catalog search–Like that we don't have to click two times and that it is coupled with My Account information.”
• “Like the rotation of the features section so I can see it fast.”
• “What makes this my unique branch? I would like something that is unique to me–like something on where I live, like a map of Lake Shawnee or North Topeka.”
• “It's pleasing to look at–pleasing colors.”
• “Well organized–can look across the tabs instead of boxes.”
• “Less cluttered.”
• “Like dark background.”
• “Visually you don't have to read everything.”
• “RSS button–What will that do for you?”
• “Will RSS features be incorporated into the catalog?”
• “Request material? Does that mean ILL or library-owned or we will order it?”
• “Today's events need to be higher up on the page because we need to verify what time the event is we are planning to attend.”
• “It's a little big–extended for a home page.”
• “I like the accessibility to staff–we can recognize and contact them.”
• “It does look easier to use.”
• “I like it.”
• “It's more intuitive.”
• “Would like to create a ‘my library page’ similar to My Yahoo.”
• “Easy to read quickly.”
• “I like it, but the research tab–does that mean online access to what?”