This report was completed for a graduate level class at Syracuse University entitled IST 613
Library Planning, Marketing, and Assessment. This report was completed in partnership with
Lisa Raymond and Jennifer Walton, Co-Directors of the MBLWHOI Library in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts. The following report delivers information on the existing value and impact areas
of the library including an analysis of the existing stakeholders, services, and resources.
The MBLWHOI Library is a vital resource to the five science institutions located in Woods
Hole, Massachusetts, as it provides both strong core and specialized services to assist patrons in
furthering their endeavors in discovery, education, and research; however, communicating the
value and impact of the library and its specialized services to its busy user community can be
challenging. Bridging this gap is how the recommendation of the monthly lunch and learn
webinar series was developed.
The lunch and learn webinar series will not only help the library to share its specialized services
and resources with its community, but it will also allow the library to meet and expand a good
number of the goals listed within its Strategic Plan for 2018. A focus on identifying user needs
via assessment will be key to creating a webinar series that is both relevant and inviting to the
library’s community. By using webinar services that are provided at no cost by the institutions,
the library can reinforce communication with its users, while also ensuring that the library
budget remains primarily focused on resources, such as journal articles, that are of great
importance to library patrons. Strengths for the recommendation stem from dedicated library
staff, evidence of user needs for instruction on specialized services, as well as the library’s strong
core values of furthering the education and research projects within the Woods Hole community.
Marketing of the webinar series via flyers, social media, and email newsletters will refresh the
library’s presence on campus, thus helping it to meet its goal of being viewed by the community
as the primary knowledge resource on campus. The increased communication efforts will be
tailored to various audience types by using key messages for each user group, as well as ensuring
that the communication initiated by the library is brief, informative, and timely.
Assessing the webinar series will be essential, and the continued success of the program will rest
on the library’s ability to identify strengths and weaknesses in the series, as well as user need
areas. User surveys, focus groups, informal conversations, and library statistics will all be
collected and used as assessment tools. Assessment of the webinar series will help the library to
ensure that the series’ outcomes and strategic plan goals are being met.
Available library staff time and library budget will determine the ability of the library to
implement the webinar series; however, the benefits of implementing the webinar series will not
only create a platform for the increased exchange of knowledge between the library and its users,
but it will also bring renewed focus to the library that will allow for the library to maximize the
value and impact they are able to bestow on their user community
