Are Patrons Ready for “Do-It-Yourself” Services?

In very few libraries does funding increase proportionately to the demand for provision of services. If, however, restrictions prohibiting patrons from accessing their of own files are eliminated, enabling them to provide for themselves services formerly provided by library staff, wiff they willingly accept the challenge? In fact, the public does seem willing, even enthusiastic, about self-serve features, as evidenced by the results of an experiment in which the Ohio State University Libraries'automated circulation and online catalog system was programmed to accept patron-initiated renewal and save commands from library-housed and dial-access terminals. Attempting to forestall problems before they were created was essential to the planning, and the methods used are applicable to other libraries considering such enhancements