Keytag It: An Exploration of a Creative and Customizable Research Guide Promotion

The research guide is a common tool librarians use to communicate with and instruct their audiences. Despite their prevalence and value to users, research guides remain underused. There are many examples of efforts encouraging guide use, but few studies have measured the effectiveness of that promotion. Academic Outreach librarians at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) promote research guides through inexpensive and small keytags--similar to retail customer loyalty keychain tags. Findings of a quantitative analysis suggest the keytags have positively influenced guide use and support anecdotal reports of increased interaction with intended audiences

Creating a sustainable graduate student workshop series

Purpose - This paper reports on librarians’ experience creating and sustaining a workshop and webinar series for graduate students over the course of four years. Design/methodology/approach - Difficulties hosting and promoting stand-alone graduate workshops and a collaborative method for planning workshop days and webinars are described in this case study. Attendance data were collected and recorded for each event and additional quantitative data were collected via registration forms and post-event surveys. Findings - Working collaboratively as a department eased planning and promotional responsibilities, allowing for a sustainable workshops series. Focusing on a limited number of events per semester and developing a brand identity for the series streamlined promotion and increased attendance, relative to discipline-based, stand-alone workshops. Originality/value - While many libraries host workshops, the originality of our program lies in the collaborative planning and promotion process that efficiently uses librarian time and expertise to continuously offer well-attended graduate workshops and webinars. This case study could be used as an example for institutions considering starting a workshop series or those experiencing difficulties with stand-alone workshops

Social Media Best Practices in Academic Libraries (2016)

In order to understand current trends and use of social media in libraries, VCU Libraries created and conducted an online survey using SurveyMonkey. Our approach was informed by the study of social media and public relations practice conducted by Wright and Hinson (Wright, Donald K. and Michelle Drifka Hinson. 2015. “Examining Social and Emerging Media Use in Public Relations Practice: A Ten-Year Longitudinal Analysis.” Public Relations Journal 9). The VCU Libraries survey consisted of 22 multiple-choice, multiple-answer, and open ended questions. The survey was distributed to email discussion lists frequented by library professionals involved in management or communications. The data presented here in summary form includes responses from all 198 respondent

Same Question, Different World: Replicating an Open Access Research Impact Study

To examine changes in the open access landscape over time, this study partially replicated Kristin Antelman’s 2004 study of open access citation advantage. Results indicated open access articles still have a citation advantage. For three of the four disciplines examined, the most common sites hosting freely available articles were independent sites, such as academic social networks or article sharing sites. For the same three disciplines, more than 70% of the open access copies were publishers’ PDFs. The major difference from Antelman’s is the increase in the number of freely available articles that appear to be in violation of publisher policies

Innovate at Your Library with Business Model Generation

The Business Model Canvas has been widely adopted and adapted for use in wide range of business settings to explore innovation. This poster considers its use in the library to transform current practices and create new value for our audiences

Your Key(tag) to Success: A Creative and Customizable Method to Promote Research Guides

The research guide is one of the most common tools librarians use to communicate with and instruct their audiences. Despite their prevalence and the general consensus that they are useful, research guides remain underutilized. The literature offers many examples of efforts encouraging guide use but little work exists measuring the effectiveness of that promotion. The VCU Libraries Academic Outreach department promote their guides through inexpensive and small keytags­­ similar to retail customer loyalty keychain tags. The objective of this research is to measure the effectiveness of this approach, using both quantitative and qualitative evidence. Each tag has a URL printed on one side and a subject­related image on the other. Starting with 10 tags in fall 2013, we now have 41 tags with more in production. Given away individually or strung together as a keychain, the tags are used at events, during instruction, and in one­on­one consultations. With more than 20,000 tags distributed, anecdotal response is overwhelming positive. These tags provide an astonishing number of opportunities for conversations and interactions. To determine the impact of the keytags on guide use, we are analyzing guide use before and after the advent of the tags, as well as comparing use for guides with tags to those without. We have tags for a variety of guides in many disciplines, which allows us to customize our promotion and message for the needs of users from different disciplines with different focuses

Help Your Students Land a Job with Career Services

Nothing is more relevant for students than the job search. It is also an area where business librarians can easily add value with their broad knowledge of company and industry resources and research strategies. With this in mind, a business librarian and career adviser partnered to create and promote research guides to help students land a job

Planning Serendipitous Liaison Outreach

College and university students, staff, and faculty are busier in 2010 than ever before. Many students work full-time in addition to school. With budget cuts, staff members are doing multiple jobs. Faculty members are being hired as fixed-term, temporary, or adjunct instructors more than ever. People do not come to the library as much as they used to, and they are often in a rush when they do. At the same time, evolving models of reference service mean that liaison librarians are often sequestered in their offices, working elsewhere on campus, or otherwise not available when their patrons happen to come to the library. Paradoxically the people whom we are supposed to help often are not able to get access to us when they stop by the library—and they may not have time to make appointments to return. As liaison librarians at VCU Libraries, we have found it very useful to look for opportunities to promote discipline-specific resources or listen to patron concerns. They emerge at unexpected times and in settings that do not necessarily seem to lend themselves to outreach. A little effort on our part, however, and willingness to move a small distance out of our comfort zones has proven remarkably successful in reaching elusive patrons. Serendipitous outreach may be difficult to document and thus less inherently appealing when it comes to annual evaluations, and yet in certain ways it helps us meet our outreach goals at least as effectively as formal outreach methods

Moving Users, Moving Results: Exploring Customer Engagement for Deeper Relationships

Successful businesses know that customers make purchase decisions based on a complex bundle of rational and emotional factors that vary in degree and importance depending upon the context. In crowded markets where potential customers have many comparable options, it is often the emotional relationships that they have with businesses that influence where they spend their dollars. Recognizing this reality, businesses have been shifting from transacting with customers to “engaging” with them. This paper outlines the need for librarians to understand engagement more fully, and it points to guidance from the business literature on how to define and create engagement

Face(book)ing the Facts: A Librarian’s Guide to Surviving Facebook

Social networks are increasingly popular tools for personal communication. Large numbers of patrons use Facebook or similar websites daily, but can libraries use Facebook effectively? Our presentation will provide an overview of Facebook and its use in an academic library setting