Hub and spoke
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
The New York Public Library is…
“…shifting to what they call a ‘hub and spoke’ concept. The idea is to create hub libraries with comprehensive services — literacy training, homework help, job search assistance — and to tailor programs at satellite branches to meet the needs of specific neighborhoods.
“Those hubs would aim to replicate the success of the new Bronx Library Center, which has become a thriving gathering spot since it opened in that borough’s Fordham section in 2006. It has become a magnet for young people in the neighborhood, most of whom are African-American, Caribbean or Latino.”
- from “A $100 Million Donation to the N.Y. Public Library” by Robin Pogrebin in The New York Times.
“Hub and spoke” is a variation on the railway or airport hub and spoke programs. You can see the physical model in the photo. You have hubs which are the central columns. Then you have spokes, which are the individual beams, supported by the columns. Without the columns, the beams can’t get too high up. Without the beams, the columns can’t support much.
With railroads and airports, you have hubs which are big central gathering cities, and then you have spokes which go out to the small towns, drawing on the strengths of the central hubs, but providing unique services tailored to their town.
You find similar versions of “hub and spoke” in stores and companies. A store manager in a clothing store has department managers, who have associates specific to her department. The department managers are the hubs, and the associates are the spokes, stocking specific shelves, helping customers, managing their own cash register.
Within the bigger company, you have hubs who are the regional managers, and spokes who are the store managers.
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