ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the boutique model can be applied and what is meant by teaching and training in a library context. Customer or learner focus is central to the idea of the boutique library. This is achieved through understanding the learner needs and targeting the teaching and training, and the services that back up the teaching, to those needs. The tailored teaching session is essentially a generic class with some individualised inputs, which will allow the user to take from it something memorable and personal to their learning needs. The marketing efforts of boutique hotels emphasise uniqueness, usually through the quirky or themed decor and service. Most boutique hotels will offer a distinctly expert experience. The desire to deliver something that meets the needs of individual learners, and that values them as individuals, is what drives the model, and librarians have long seen this as a core professional value.
