While EnvisionWare developers were starting over, with input from hundreds of librarians and a clean slate to build a solution using creative technology, the competitors developed some interesting solutions.
Displaying the Queue
With a queue, people need to know their place in line, the approximate wait time, and how they are progressing. Keep in mind that an idle user is a clock watcher - what else is there to do while watching a clock or screen to see how many minutes remain in the estimated wait time? Some companies made the sign-up station show a list, others flashed some names on a screen in a marquee, and others adopted LED displays or large LCD monitors.
In an era of emphasis on patron privacy, companies are really showing borrower names, library card numbers, or a combination of both? Yes. But some actually allowed users to type an alias. Enter the era of stop word control on a queue station.
Estimating Wait Time
A queue must analyze the number of computers, the length of a session, and guess at the time the next computer will be available. If a library has five PCs with 60-minute sessions, and five people start at 9:00am, it's pretty easy to give an estimated wait time of 60 minutes, suggesting the next use will be around 10:00am. (With appropriate cautionary notices). So, knowing that it will be about an hour, and now wanting to sit and watch a screen for 60 minutes, a user decides to leave for 10-12 minutes to check the parking meter. And the inconsiderate PC user that just wants to check email leaves early. The queue flashes, nobody responds, the second in line gets excited, the queue flashes, and finally after 10 minutes, the second person in line is assigned and starts a session. Guess who comes back a minute later and starts screaming about unfair use! So the user signs up again but is now behind two other people that came after him but are ahead because he was removed from the queue as a no-show.
The Shuffle
Some screaming and grumbling time passes, and the staff manager shuffles the person back to the top of the queue. So now that person is at least on the top of the list, but everyone else on the list is angry because they just moved down a notch. Now it's time for staff to have a meeting with people in the queue, to explain how the system works and why it is necessary and fair that a person leaving the area would be moved back to the top of the list.
The fewer the PCs, the more dramatic the shifting of the queue, but regardless of the numbers, erratic (and expected) user behavior can play havoc on predictions.
Maximizing Utilization
Meanwhile, at EnvisionWare, PC Reservation has been released and offers a neat automatic time extension feature. When no one is waiting for a PC, time is extended in an existing session, keeping the computers busy and eliminating arbitrary ends of sessions when computer seats are empty. Queue competitors must respond and some do with a new system that allocates a fixed percentage of available computers for automatic extension. All computers can't be in the pool, because that would leave no ability to create a prediction for use and provide access for others.
Lost turns, shuffling names, visible lists of user names or barcodes, and inappropriate language aside, the queue still seems a bit unfair and it requires a fair amount of staff intervention. It still keeps idle users waiting in front of a screen, makes people painfully aware of the clock, and keeps the idle chatter at a moderately disruptive level. And, the waiting area is good for just one thing, giving idle users a place to sit and watch a computer monitor. There are some libraries where that much idle space is just too expensive to waste.
Continue to read how EnvisionWare customers defined the ultimate solution...
