The success of the kiosks has led to a queue of partners at the door of the county.
These currently include Fairfax County Economic Development Authority,
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Inova Health Systems, Virginia
Railway Express, Metrobus and Metrorail, City of Fairfax and Virginia Department of
Motor Vehicles (DMV). In 2002/3 the partnership with DMV will implement DMV's
estraTeller program on all kiosks, which is expected to enable citizens to renew
driving licenses and vehicle registration, from all county kiosks as well as DMV locations.
The excellence of the Fairfax website was given as the reason why Inova Health
Systems, a local health corporation, entered into a partnership with the library. Inova
committed $40,000 to the partnership, which jointly distributes health information via
the organisations' websites, the library kiosks and other media.
Services of three agencies (or departments) can be paid for by credit card. Online
services include dog licence applications. The Fairfax goal is to relate all services to an
individual's personal page.
Library service transactions, as in many councils, are probably the most voluminous
public e government service activity with over 500,000 self service holds on books
fulfilled per annum. There has been huge growth in this area, with holds doubling within
a few years. The library was one of the first four agencies/departments to develop a web
site. It started its e reference service Ask a Librarian in 1996; it accepts online
registration for library cards in seven languages, which is validated at the first checkout.
There is a fee for registration outside the service area, but this is no deterrent for users as
far away as Alaska, who join in to gain access to Fairfax's databases.
A survey of users of the site brought in over 900 responses and, in addition, the
library consults via citizen focus groups at, for example, elderly people's homes. The
classification for the site is created using customer consultation. Fairfax staff was keen
to point out how well placed librarians were to develop these ideas based on the
reference interview. This is particularly important for minority language classifications.
Reference staffs create recommended sites and database links. Libraries have data
base advisers by subject, who devise subject based web lists. There is also a Chapter a
Day Book Club.
Services available over the Internet via Fairfax County's website include:
comments form to the chairman of the board. This utilises the same type of software
as businesses do for consumer complaints. (ACS Quorum),
picnic area reservations,
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