CRM @ the library?

This will be more of a reminder to me to blog about this idea later, but I'll give you a taste of things to come. Customer Relationship Management has been in the business world for years--it's becoming so entrenched that people are forgetting what CRM stands for. I've heard it referred to as the "customer really matters" by the VP of area operations when I was working in the hotel industry and, while that definition retains some of the flavor of CRM, it doesn't touch on how customer-intensive CRM can be. One of the ideas I've been kicking around is how CRM could be brought to libraries--government institutions are notorious for not adopting helpful business practices, and libraries are right there with them. There's an argument that's been going on for some time on whether to refer to library users as "customers," as opposed to "patrons" and it's very telling of how libraries view their support base.

One of the reasons I see further reluctance to adopt CRM is because one of the cornerstones of CRM is collecting information on your customers, so you can create personal levels of conversation with them. This is anthema to libraries, who have been railing against the Patriot Act and have maintained that privacy is one of their ultimate concerns. It can go as far as creating guidelines, to not mention a book that a patron might like, because you've noticed them checking out similar ones before. But are people really that concerned anymore about keeping what they've read private from an institution? Is privacy from governmental intrusion the same as institutional privacy? The millions of users of Amazon is an example of this idea chipping away at privacy, in order to obtain personalized service. If libraries were to institute a similar program, one where people could opt-out if they wanted to maintain total privacy, would they see an increase in use? I certainly think so, but a lot of my colleagues and fellow students cringe at the idea.