Library Stories
Challenge
without adding staff
Solution
use open+ for extended access
Result
the community can bank on
It’s no exaggeration when Gwinnett County Public Library Executive Director Charles Pace explains that Gwinnett County is “Very diverse, very multi-ethnic. It’s a majority minority community, and there are over one-hundred different languages spoken in the Gwinnett County schools. There are people here from all over the world.”
Proving his point: Gwinnett County is rich in Korean culture, so much so that it’s known as the “Seoul of the South”, with a famous, corresponding food tour. Gwinnett County is home to the largest Hindu temple in the United States, featuring over 34,000 hand- carved pieces of limestone, marble, and pink sandstone. Not only that, Gwinnett County hosts Japanfest, a huge annual event celebrating the sister-city connection between Atlanta and Japan.
The community of Gwinnett is also home to and proudly supports scores of diverse, locally-owned shops and restaurants. You’ll find authentic Jamaican, Cajun, Indian, Mexican, African, French, Cuban, and Soul food, to name just a few. Of course, local breweries, BBQ, and Georgia peaches abound.
Gwinnett County Public Library does a knockout job in its 15 locations serving this multicultural community of one million people, consistently going above and beyond to meet the need for access to life-enhancing materials and services. The library mission statement includes “… convenient, creative, customer-friendly access,” and nothing says this quite like Bibliotheca’s open+, which they piloted in 2017 as the very first library to offer it in the United States.
Seven years and several branches later, we caught up with Executive Director Charles Pace about Gwinnett County Public Library’s bold step into the future with open+, and how things are going today.
In speaking about open+ technology, which the library promotes as “Open Access (self- service access to the library outside of normal operating hours),” Pace says, “It has been hugely successful for us. We’ve expanded it steadily as new branches have come online or been renovated, and about half of our branches have it now. It has allowed us to provide extended services and extended hours to the community, without having to add additional staff.
From the beginning, Pace says his goal was to provide more hours, but the library could not afford to pay staff for additional time. “One of the things that we really wanted to do was provide expanded hours of operation, but we didn’t get funding to add additional staff, so we had to figure out ways to do that. The ability at the open+ branches to essentially be available from 8 o’clock in the morning ‘til 10 o’clock at night is a huge boon to our community.”
Pace acknowledges that, initially, there was some concern among staff about their jobs, but quickly points out that no one at GCPL has ever lost their job because of open+.
Instead, the library has been able to expand hours and provide additional services.
“If money were no object and I could have staff there from 8am to 10pm every day, I would,” he says, “but that’s just not realistic, and it’s certainly not going to happen here in Gwinnett anytime soon. As another option, as a way to provide access and serve your community, I would recommend open+.”
Looking back on being the first library in the U.S. to use open+, Pace says,“I don’t know that there’s anything I would do differently. I mean, there were some hiccups, because we were the first in North America, in getting the software and hardware and everything integrated and talking to each other. But overall, it’s been a tremendous success. Usage has increased and it’s definitely a way to utilize and get the most out of limited staff resources.”
“There are times when you have to take a leap of faith and step out and just see what happens. Libraries are under a lot of pressure from a lot of different directions these days, which is why we have to be bold, and we have to experiment, and we have to try new things across many different domains and open+ is one of those areas that we’ve chosen to experiment in.”
In the years since Gwinnett County Public Library pioneered open+ in the U.S., usage has dramatically increased. During its inaugural year, 1,198 people utilized extended hours to access the library; that number has raced upwards every year and, so far this year, 44,919 people utilized extended hours. Patrons have been vocal with positive feedback to the library about extended access. They have shared that they have long commutes to work and that being able to visit library branches earlier in the morning and later in the evening is of great benefit to them. Families with dependents with developmental challenges have shared that early morning and later evening hours mean less crowded, quieter, more enjoyable environments for their loved ones.
To this day, patrons continue to express gratitude about extended hours:
“What I love about this library is the Open Access, which allows students time to study during off-hours from 8am in the morning and then at night until 10pm. You just need your library card and pin code to enter.”
“I like their Open Access program. It’s very convenient.”
“This location actually has open Access hours. I usually am too tired to drive to the library during rush hour after work. It’s great that this library is participating in Open Access hours.”
Library staff hear comments directly from patrons, too:
“A patron commented that he appreciated having somewhere he could go get his work done without being expected to pay anything and with minimal distractions. He also worked from home and found it difficult to balance that with his home life (distracted by his children).”
“I’ve had several people tell me they’ve never heard of a library offering after-hours availability this way and how convenient it is for them.”
“I had one person who was extremely excited because their office is currently closed for some renovations, and they needed a quiet place to work in the mornings.”
“I had two last week. One was an existing customer that didn’t know about it. I explained the service and gave him a flier and he was so happy. He said this is really great and was going to utilize it for taking a night class. The other patron was a new library customer that said she would absolutely be using it—and did that day.”
Seven years since the pilot, the library has incorporated open+ into its operating budget, automatically planning for it when doing building construction and renovations. This has enabled them to add extended hours to numerous branches over time.
“Ideally,” Pace says, “I’d like to have it at every single location. More hours means more access. One of the key principles of our library system is access. The taxpayers pay for these buildings, they pay for these collections, they pay for these resources. Our opinion is that they should be able to have the maximum access that is possible. And having all of these additional hours is a way of increasing our presence and our footprint in the community. I think in that regard, it’s a huge success.”
“One of the things that I’m proud of with our libraries, because we have very limited resources, is, I’m very proud of how efficient we are. I think we do more with our limited resources than a lot of libraries that may have double our budget do, because we’re very good at leveraging community partnerships and trying to make do with as little as possible. I think that if there was some kind of metric for that, we would be near the top in terms of the value that we bring to the community, in return for the investment that we’re given.”
In addition to using open+ to expand access to the library during times that are convenient for patrons, Pace and his team continue to support the community through meaningful and unique programs and services. The library works closely with the schools and partnered to supplement their curriculums with access to Tutor.com. The library also offers Learning Labs filled with equipment and software that people use to create, collaborate, and share digital content and other manifestations of their imaginations.
Putting on hundreds of programs every month, the library saw more than 224,000 program attendees last year. Everything from storytimes in parks, to culinary arts (“Instant Pot Strawberry Cheesecake,” anyone?), to its mobile library making regular stops at a local brewing company, to STEM activities demonstrating fractals with toothpicks and marshmallows. They have a mobile kitchen and visit areas considered food deserts to offer nutritious options for those in need. They have social work interns at several branches, helping community members connect with agencies that assist in finding housing, transportation, food resources, health care providers, and job opportunities.
The library also spearheaded the New Start Entrepreneurship Incubator Program, which they launched through funding from a grant by Google in partnership with the American Library Association.
“New Start takes individuals who have recently been released from prison and works with them over the course of a year to help if they want to start their own small business,” Pace explains. “It helps them write a business plan and brings in experts to talk about all kinds of things, from finance and budgeting to taxes and legal issues. All of the different things so that they can open their own business, because, for many people coming out of incarceration, it’s very difficult for them to find a job. For a lot of them, starting a business is their way to be employed and become productive members of society. And that’s what we’re hoping to do and trying to do—to reduce recidivism and help individuals be successful once they get out of prison.”
Pace has been in libraries for thirty years and, with his team, continues to innovate and bring outstanding services and opportunities to the community. “I think that, overall, we have a good, robust system,” he says. “We have a good leadership team that works well together. There’s a lot of work to be done, and we have to remind people of why we’re here, why we’re a vital community institution, and what we bring to the table.”
He circled back to open+ and to libraries looking to expand access.
“If I could say anything, I would just say: don’t be afraid. Fear will hold you back. Fear is the death of progress. So don’t be afraid. Try new things. Experiment. Reach as high as you can. You may not always achieve that goal, but at least you have to reach for it, and by striving, by reaching high, maybe you’ll achieve greatness.”
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