The 80/20 Librarian: Focusing on the 20% that matters

A few months ago I was asked to speak on a panel at the Maryland Library Association Conference, in nearly two weeks, on the topic of passport services in libraries.

I recently learned from the State Department that 323 library branches around the country offer passport acceptance facility services.

One aspect of this service that makes it unique is that there is, as of early February 2018, a $35 passport execution fee paid, per application, directly to the library for its role in providing the service. The execution fee is a separate and distinct fee from the application fee paid directly to the State Department

While the number of libraries offering this service nationwide is impressive, the library industry only has a few articles out there which speak to this service.

Robert J. Rua from Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Public Library wrote in February 2011 in American Libraries Magazine

Some important points from Rua’s article are that his library started passport services in April 2010. His library made over $100,000 in execution fees. The money from the execution fees allowed his library to reinstate Sunday service hours to the entire library system. Passport services were then offered at all branches of the Cuyahoga County Public Library System.

Michael Meise from Roanoke County (VA) Public Library wrote in June 2016 in Public Libraries

Some important points from Meise’s article include the statistic that 203 libraries were offering passport services nationwide at the time of his writing. We also learn that some discernment is involved in seeing what the trade-off is between obtaining the then $25 execution fee per application and considering the number of staff needed, the time the service takes, and the staff’s current and future workload. Many tips on how to actually go about providing passport services are provided.

Leah White from ELA Area Library System wrote in her personal blog in November 2016   

We learn the following points from her post. Her library filed 7,493 passports in 2015. With a $25 execution fee the amount earned from all 7,493 filings came to $187,325. She provides links that act as “how-to” resources for libraries that want to become passport acceptance facilities.

White brings forth some compelling arguments to provide passports services at the library. The two quotes below resonate. The first speaks to libraries being able to offer evening and weekend hours, and no appointment needed service for their passport acceptance services.

“Most facilities, like a local clerk offices or post offices, offer extremely limited hours that only people privileged enough to have paid time off can afford. Weekdays during work hours and appointment only. Someone with multiple jobs and no paid time off cannot come in Monday through Thursday between 9am and 1pm,  in addition to the hassle of getting their children out of school for the day.”

“You bring people in for passport service but also introduce them to all the library offers – ESL classes, voter registration, lifelong learning, programs, books, etc.”

So what do I think are the next steps? Here is a general outline of my thoughts.

1. The national library industry, possibly through its professional associations, needs to develop some platforms (facilitating both electronic and in-person communication) for librarians across the country to communicate about passports. At the very least a national directory outlining where passport services are provided would be key to start opening up the lines of communication. After looking through program information for the American Library Association Conference in June 2017 in Chicago and the Public Library Association Conference in March 2018 in Philadelphia I could not find any program offerings on the topic of passport services.
2. The academic wing of the library industry should invest in studying and explaining the passport acceptance service model. Some basic questions should be posed to start the study. These could be simply asking, Who was the first library to offer passport services? When? What was their original intent? What were the metrics of success for them? Do those metrics of success differ from other libraries providing this service? Why or Why not? Case studies can be created to explain the development of passport services at different types of libraries across the country.
3. The library industry’s technological vendor community can be consulted for a possible pilot study to see what can be done to automate at least a part of the passport application acceptance process. Currently, the vast majority of passport applicants going to a library must pay the State Department with a paper check or money order. Why not work on building in a credit card payment system? In addition, the filing process largely uses paper forms and filling out those paper forms by pen. Why not build in a kiosk system that can scan the form and prepopulate the data on a screen? Or, enable a kiosk system to fill out and submit an application electronically? Digital photos of the applicant could also be taken by the kiosk system. While physical objects such as previous passports and original government documents will probably still need to be mailed in, the payment/form completed piece could be considered for automation.
4. Promote the services to major press outlets! Since there are not many articles written about the service at the national level of the library industry, the national press is by extension possibly largely unaware of the library as a passport acceptance service provider. There was no mention of libraries providing passport acceptance services in this Fox News Report in early February 2018 documenting the change of the execution fee from $25 to $35.

Here is a great recent article to read concerning the role entrepreneurship is playing in disaster recovery/disaster preparedness in Puerto Rico.

How Entrepreneurship Is Helping to Save Puerto Rico by Andy Isaacson in Entrepreneur Magazine

What are some key points from the article?

1. Jessie Levin’s, “expeditionary entrepreneurship” is of note. As Isaacson writes, “Governments and NGOs are important, with their standard operating procedures and approaches to administering aid. But entrepreneurship-not profiteering, but the principles of entrepreneurship can accomplish what those bodies cannot: quick and nimble responses to ground level problems, and connective tissue between foreign aid resources and capable local actors like grocery store merchants who are not often engaged. The same instincts that help an entrepreneur build a business, in other words, can help them rebuild a region after catastrophe.”
2. To solve “ineffective communication” Levin was quick to build relationships with a variety of stakeholders. According to Isaacson, “Levin often just connected dots.” In my opinion these stakeholders are: resource allocators, local leaders, and technical implementers. One example of this is connection taking place in the article concerns, “A cutting-edge, solar powered water-purification system was installed at a Boys & Girls Club in the town of Loiza because of an introduction Levin made between MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and the Rodenberry Foundation.”
   1. Of note here is Levin’s use of a house in San Juan that was used as a central gathering point for the stakeholders to network and to learn how they could help one another.
3. Re-invention of government services. The article cited Levin’s role in re-designing the office of the Puerto Rican Innovation and Technology Services
4. Entrepreneurship is taking place both from local Puerto Rican entrepreneurship, but also from entrepreneurs arriving from outside of Puerto Rico. I like how Levin, fuses the two. In the article he states, “I go into an area and try to identify who’s who. And I try to empower them and connect them around a goal.”
5. DePaul University researchers cite disaster recovery as an impetus for entrepreneurs to abandon fears of failure that may have held them back from trying to offer different products/services before. “”Necessities of the individual and his community override increases in fear of failure,” the DePaul writers report. From this, new solutions are created and new businesses are born.”