Reaching Out to Parents

After reading College Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know (which I highly recommend!), I am more interested than ever in finding out how we can reach out to parents.  Among many other things, the book talks about where students turn for research help.  I doubt anyone will be surprised to learn that they first go to their professors, then to their peers and family members, and then maybe to librarians.  I can always do more outreach with faculty, but this got me thinking more about how to reach out to parents.

I want to start small (and perhaps stay small - I wear many hats and don't have a ton of time for new endeavors).  Librarians staff tables at the various student resource fairs, and there is one resource fair where parents are likely to be present: Accepted Students Day - when students come to campus to meet their advisers and register for classes. 

This Saturday just happens to be Accepted Students Day so I'm trying a two-pronged tactic.  I have a sign up sheet for any parents who would like to receive periodic email updates from the library (our newsletter and maybe at most 2 emails a semester).  I'm not convinced there will be a lot of takers but I see no harm in trying.  I'm also working on a flier for parents that talks about when to send their students to a librarian, the various ways to contact a librarian, how a librarian can help, and, of course, library hours. 

We'll see how it goes.  The resource fair at Accepted Students Day is during a time when students have a lot of things to accomplish (including lunch, which is at least in the same room as the fair) so we don't always get a lot of visitors to the Library table.

I Wish My Library Would...

I mentioned previously that we are using posters to get feedback from students.  We put up our second set of  feedback posters in January.  The more popular one was the one that read "I wish my library would...."  You can see for yourself:

Of course, the most frequent comment was about this year's reduction in the print quota, something the library had nothing to do with.  We have heard most of the other comments before as well, although there were a few new ones.  However, we chose to treat this as an opportunity to respond to these concerns again, and in some cases, more thoroughly.  Responses have been posted where the poster was previously located (see image below) and are slowly being posted on our blog and Facebook page. 

My favorite response is the one answering the request for more online resources.  This time I included actual data, such as:

• We added the following databases recently and will be adding one more soon
• We spent X amount of money on electronic resources alone in 2011-12
• One of our full-text databases costs X amount of money

Students (and faculty!) have no idea what library resources cost the library/university, and the few I've informed about one price or another have been horrified.  This time we just opted to put it out there for everyone to read.  I also told them how much we pay for some of the educational DVDs in response to a request for more.  Once again, very few people outside of the library world realize these DVDs can regularly cost us $150-$500. 

For each separate response, there is space for students to write in additional questions and comments, but so far no one has done so (although one person did correct my spelling when I wrote roll instead of role...).  I have definitely seen some students reading them, so here's hoping this helps us to continue to improve the library's image!

Getting Feedback from Students

A few years ago, I created a display of the suggestions students had submitted and the responses from the library. This seems to have had a very positive impact.  There are far fewer suggestions now because many of them have already been answered.  In addition, my boss believes (as do I) that our responsiveness to the suggestions has increased students satisfaction with the library.  We are unable to carry out many of the suggestions, but we always respond and tell them why.

Recently, my boss gave me another suggestion for soliciting student feedback: a poster board with a starter phrase and space for students to respond.  Over finals I thought it would be nice to get them used to the idea of being able to write in this space by putting up two posters more for stress relief than feedback.  We had "Finals are..." and "All I want for [favorite winter holiday] is...."  As you can see below, we definitely got some responses.

 

I just finished putting up two new posters - "I love my library because..." and "I wish my library would...."  I'm looking forward to seeing what the students write.  Classes start tomorrow, so they'll be back soon!

Book Review: What They Don't Teach You in Library School

Photo by Barbara Slavin

Title: What They Don't Teach You in Library School
Author: Elisabeth Doucett

I read this book because I recommended it to a few soon-to-be librarians, and I thought I should see what it was all about before recommending it further.  I've been a librarian for 6 years, so I'm not necessarily the audience for this book. However, there were a few chapters that I really liked, and the rest were full of useful information for just about any librarian new to the profession.

My favorite chapters were:

Chapter 4: Making "Librarian" a Brand
For some reason, of all professions, people think it is just so funny to poke fun at librarianship. For example:

Ignorant person: "Do people still use libraries?"  OR "Oh, so you read books all day?"  OR "Isn't everything online?"
Kate (well, what I'd *like* to say): "I'm sorry, what do you do again?  I'd like to poke fun at whatever that is."  

However, that's clearly not a productive way to respond to that kind of question.  This chapter talks about creating an elevator pitch to use whenever someone asks you what you do for a living or makes a comment like one of the above.  With the elevator pitch, you can head off the ignorant comments because part of it is to throw in a brief description of how you spend your time.  For example, my elevator pitch (with the three parts recommended by the author in brackets):

[Job title] I'm a librarian, more specifically a reference librarian at a university, which means [brief overview of what I do] I spend a large part of my time helping students find the information they need, either one-on-one or in a classroom setting.  [What I love about my job] One of the things that's so great about my job is watching the transition from frustration to excitement when working with a student.  Students often try to muddle through on their own for a long time before seeking out a librarian, so they can be quite frustrated at first.  However, as I work with them and make suggestions, I see the connections happening, and they leave not only with the information they need but with the skills to find information in the future as well as a more positive outlook on research in general.

The idea is to fit it into 30 seconds, so the above may be a little long, but it gets the point across.

Chapter 11: Promotional Marketing
The importance of marketing to libraries simply cannot be overstated, but it barely comes up in library school.  The chapter is just a very short overview, but is enough to get you thinking about the topic.

Chapter 12: Thinking Like a Retailer
This was a chapter that I've kind of seen touched on in a few places but never quite so straightforward and succinct as this.  There are things about retail that are very intentional that we don't really think about - when you walk into a grocery store, you enter first into the fruit and veggies section.  This is a very visually appealing - neat and tidy stacks of shiny apples, sections of bright green lettuce, etc.  Also, in a grocery store, the end of the aisle displays are for things the store really wants people to buy - that's real estate that sees higher product turnover.  Bookstores are always so neat and orderly as well.  So now I'm rethinking the location of our current displays, the idea of adding a few more, and also trying to create a sense of ownership of the library among our student workers so that they'll straighten more often as they wander around the building. 

All in all, a good read. The short chapters give brief overviews of each topic with suggestions for further reading at the end so if you want to pursue them further, you can.

Two Types of Librarians

There seem to be two types of librarians: (a) those who think the library is a privilege and users must respect that; and (b) those who recognize that libraries wouldn't be around without the users.

In the book Bite-Sized Marketing by Nancy Dowd, Mary Evangeliste, and Jonathan Siberman, the authors lay out "The New-Media Marketing Manifesto." One statement of this manifesto illustrates which type of librarian we should all strive to be:

I will remember that my job is not to convince people that they need libraries but to convince libraries that they need people (p. 17).

Let's all repeat that a few times.

User Friendly Library Stats

I love this quick 2-page document of public library statistics that OCLC put out: How Libraries Stack Up 2010. My library could definitely benefit from putting out a short, colorful document like this - for administrators, for the Board of Trustees, etc. Even if we only used it to compare ourselves to past statistics or made general comments in relation to number of students on campus.

For example, last year our stats showed that there were nearly 160,000 visitors to the library. If I estimate the campus population at 2000 (it's somewhere around there), that's basically like saying everyone visited the library 80 times.

Please Interrupt Me

A while back, I wrote about creating a Please Interrupt Me sign for the reference desk. We've had great feedback. Many people have commented on it, and we've heard "I like your sign" quite a few times, including from the President of the University!

It hasn't been without its drawbacks, however. Occasional abuse of the sign does happen, particularly during summer day camp. Young boys between the ages of 8 and 12 seem to think the sign is an open invitation to annoy the crap out of the librarian. Oh well, you'll have that. We can also choose to take down the sign temporarily if the kids become too obnoxious.

Overall, however, the benefits far outweigh the few drawbacks.

Rethinking Our Role

As you can probably tell by the last few posts, I'm on a marketing/PR kick at the moment. A quieter library in the Summer means that it's a great time for me to work on these types of projects. I read The Visible Librarian by Judith Siess a few weeks ago, and now I'm working on Marketing Today's Academic Library by Brian Mathews.

I really like this passage from Brian Mathews' book:

...it may be hard for us to break away from the library-centered universe, but there is more to college than academics, just as there is more to libraries than circulation stats and gate counts. We are all part of the larger campus ecosystem. We should not limit our efforts to promoting the reference desk or a new database, but instead be focused on improving the quality of life on campus. (p. 9)

I'm just as guilty as the next person of thinking that we shouldn't be a supplier of paperclips, whiteout, folders, and other items; that we shouldn't be a storage unit; etc. But really, what other options do students have? Can we rethink our various offerings and policies in such a way as to benefit students but also not to dent our budget or clutter up our library? Hmmm....

Suggestion Box Display

We've had a suggestion box for quite some time at my library. All suggestions are seen by our library director. Then, I respond to any suggestions where the person has included contact information. However, most people don't include contact information, and those suggestions just go in a file in my office.

I'm not sure I'd feel particularly inclined to submit a suggestion if I had no idea who even looked at it.

So I decided a display was in order. We have an "art wall" (I use quotes because it's probably never been used as an art wall and is in the most inconvenient location imaginable) near the suggestion box, which the other librarians suggested as a location for this display. On the wall, I taped a number of questions along with our responses with plenty of room for expansion. Someone also left the comment "More cowbell" not too long ago, and we all agreed that should be included. The response is simply a picture of Will Ferrell and the cowbell, with text below reading "We agree!" Humor is always good. :)

I also made the suggestion box slightly more noticeable with an additional sign that says "How Are We Doing?"

Here's hoping we get some response!

Please Interrupt Me

I've had this idea written down forever and only just decided to do it. Goes to show I really need to take action sooner. Earlier this week I created a sign that says "Please Interrupt Me" with a smiley face below it. I can't even count the number of times someone has walked up to me and prefaced their question with "I'm sorry to interrupt you...."

I've had so many positive comments - more from staff than students, because it's Summer and there are few students here, but still. Someone walked in and said something to the effect of "Wow, that's something you don't see very often!" Others have said "Wow, I really like your sign!" And in general, I just notice people glancing at it as the walk in or walk by.

Just a little thing, only took a minute, but it is catching people's attention.

The Visible Librarian

Title: The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy
Author: Judith Siess

Well, I guess the third time is the charm. I've tried to read this book twice before but never got through it before it was due back. Despite being a bit slow going at times, this was a good book with lots of suggestions about how to market and advocate for your library. The author is a solo librarian but makes an effort to include ideas for all types of libraries and librarians.

Some of the ideas I took away include:

1. Meet with new faculty and provide them with a welcome packet.
2. Create displays featuring library services, librarians, comments and photos from students and faculty who have had good library experiences, suggestions made by patrons and responses to them, etc.
3. Cheap giveaways/takeaways: magnets, sticky notes, bookmarks
4. Get out of the library and go to people (something I already knew but certainly don't do enough of)
5. Library open house with food, information tables, takeaways, etc
6. Ideas for our Newsletter: testimonials from satisfied customers, column of sample questions answered recently (shows that the library can provide all sorts of information), and jokes or cartoons (but make sure to have copyright permission!).

Next on the list is Brian Mathew's newly released Marketing Today's Academic Library.

Lisa Loeb Loves Libraries

and so should you! Click here to see the video and read more about her.

Diversity

ALA Presentation: PR Forum: Diversity @ Your Library: Broadening Your Audience and Engaging Communities
Speakers: Eric Friedenwald-Fishman and Maria Elena Campisteguy from the Metropolitan Group

This presentation addressed the 8 Principles of Multicultural Communication, which are:

1. Leave your assumptions at the door: They recommended that you get the facts about other cultures and recognize that you often think you know what you actually do not. You can get facts by scanning news media for articles about trends, challenges, and opportunities.

2. Understand the cultural context of your audience: You need to be aware of the norms, traditions, dialects, and other cultural nuances that are unique to the audience. Be as specific as possible when defining the desired audience. It is also important to understand historical experiences and attitudes that may impact communication with that audience. Then, identify and build on the cultural strengths and assets.

3. Invest before you request: Create community-centered partnerships: This was a good point - to treat community members as partners with whom you wish to engage, not as a tool for you to use. Get them involved early on. Don't try things out on them, ask them what they want instead. And then maintain that communication.

4. Build authentic relationships: Maintain a long-term perspective: Go to the community and work with trusted allies. Don't become a one-hit wonder - keep at it.

5. Build shared ownership: Engage people, don't just involve them! Make sure there are seats at the table for members of your audience to have input.

6. Walk your talk - Lead by example: Examine your organization and be honest in your examination. Do what you say you believe others should do and deliver on your promises.

7. Relate, don't translate: This one really stuck with me. You have to do more than just translate existing ads into another language. The values you may be drawing on may not be highly valued in the culture you are translating the ad for. Make sure the ad appeals to that culture.

8. Anticipate change: Be prepared to succeed: Recognize that your process and approach to the work may change. Continue to build infrastructure to support multi-cultural success.

In addition, for more PR information, check out the PR blog Visibility @ your Library or join the discussion list prtalk@ala.org.

I also need to work at Yale

Because there they have crazy drunken revelries complete with kettle corn, chants of "We love books!", streakers, and a midnight countdown for the opening of a new library. With over 1,000 students in attendance. And "several elbows were thrown as students tried to angle for best position in line to enter the library"!

Additionally, "Students around campus threw parties to celebrate the opening, including one in Swing Space that was publicized on an e-mail panlist."

A most excellent quote:

Said one visibly intoxicated girl as she arrived on Cross Campus, “I wish that our children were here to tell them that we were here, drunk as no other when the library opened. It’s too bad there’s no books, but we feel great.”

Talk about supporting your library.

Fantastic Bumper Sticker

Some of the other marketing by the Wyoming libraries is... interesting, but I absolutely LOVE this bumper sticker.

It's a great URL

ilovelibraries.org. For all your library-related needs.

It also has a link to a Public Library Search. Nice! Now you can find a list of every public library in your area.

The Library of the Future

This YouTube video, Transformation Lab - Prototyping the Future, is a very interesting look at some possibilities for the library of the future. Some of it seems a bit extreme and maybe more public library-ish, but it really gets at the idea of Library as Place, which seems to be discussed more and more these days.

I gave an informal survey to students where one of the questions asked what we can do to make their library experience better. I received suggestions that included: background music, more comfy couches, quieter work areas, allow food, wireless, best-sellers and pleasure reading, more computers, art throughout building, better computer chairs, "more help", and more signs.

Overall, it seems to be a lot about the library environment and less about library services. I'm looking into best-sellers, more comfy furniture is in our future, wireless is a campus-wide goal (I believe), and snack food will hopefully be allowed soon.

For further reading on this topic, there's a good article called "How to Evaluate Your Library's Physical Environment."

Innovative Library Marketing

While reading the latest issue of American Libraries Direct, I came across this interesting story. Until the end of May, you can call the City Library of Vienna, Austria and listen to 19th and 20th century erotic readings. Disappointingly, they've got an actress doing the readings, not a librarian.

Of course, the phone number isn't provided in the article, so if you'd like to call, you may have to do some digging.