The Service Model of the Contemporary Online Public Access Catalog - Assignment Example

The author, title and status information are then linked together to give the user an opportunity to know if the item required is available in the shelf before doing to the stack. It thus allows ease of obtaining accurate information regarding library collections.Futterman (2008) notes that market segmentation is used to identify the library’s customers with regard to their characteristics. In this case, market segmentation refers to the grouping of potential customers into different segments based on common characteristics such as gender, age, income, geography or other attributes that relate to buying or consumption behavior.

Futterman (2008) notes that the libraries mostly serve market segment of customers who are underserved. Most of these customers exhibit the following characteristics: firstly, they stay closer to the library, earn modest income, composed of diverse range of household types, life stages and age (Futterman, 2008). These include Green Acres (blue-collar baby boomers who earn middle income), Hometown (those within the house), Rustbelt Traditions, Exurbanites (with median home value of $235,000 and household income of over $80,000), Comfortable (settled married couples without children or adult children), Midlife Junction and Cozy.

This segment is mainly composed of high patron penetration as was discovered by TSCPL library. The other market of the library is that composed of young people and those detained in juvenile. With the current advancement in technology and globalization, a number of potential competitive forces affect viability of libraries. For instance, consumerization of online information retrieval technology is seen as a major competitive force for libraries. This is because nowadays people can afford internet services at their doorsteps.

This can be accessed via mobile phones, laptops, ipads, ipods and the like (Futterman, 2008).In cultural context, Futterman (2008) argue that the library should be able to provide services to diverse cultures in the society. For instance, he noted that the libraries had strong presence in the international market place and up-coming families consisting of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Most notable culture according to Futterman was the Hispanic culture (2008).