Read all about it! marketing and libraries

I have to agree that how we market ourselves as professionals and our services is extremely important.  I don't think the marketing skills need to be elaborate as simple things can tend to be more effective.

How people and students perceive us as individuals can influence their decision to use the library or not.  Are we friendly, approachable, willing to listen and explore new things?  Simple things such as Tea and Coffee for Easter term, while providing an area and time for students to have a break, can also be a marketing tool, encouraging them that we are here to help.  If those students then tell there friends, who also decide to use the library for its friendly, warm atmosphere then mission accompished.

"If we don’t have a presence there too we’re missing a trick." This statement about not getting involved with using social media techniques, I believe to be true as it is also my belief.  As I've previously commented on this blog, I think as librarians we need to be actively using social media, whether its, blogs, facebook, twitter or other mediums, in order to get our message and services out to our users.  As each person is different we need diversify away from traditional communication tools and have a presence on these new online forums.  The idea isn't to abandon traditional methods, just be more inclusive to everyone.  For example if a student doesn't use their Hermes email, but follows us on Twitter, they will still be in contact with the library and what we have to offer.

As for what I'm going to do in relation to social media marketing, continuing with facebook and twitter is a must.  We're also going to try and promote them more at the freshers fair this year.  In conjunction with tutorial we may try and set up a doodle poll to find out what sites our students use most and what method of communication they would like us to use.  I'm also very impressed by the Quinlib blog and may see if we can get this off the ground next term.

Whose got talent? or linkedIn = professional Facebook!

Having looked at what LinkedIn has to offer by looking for people already using it and perusing their profiles, it does seem like Facebook but for professionals.  Instead of finding your friends, you find work colleagues and like minded professionals.  This is no bad idea, as it helps to create another network and work related community, through which to share ideas, keep up to date and keep in contact with useful people, who may help you to further your career on a professional level.  This however is maybe where it falls down as not all of us are used to putting ourselves "out there" on a professional level and saying "look what I can do"!

Where do go from here?

This is also where I wonder what relevance it has for librarians and providing services for students.  Its useful for librarians, yes on a personal level, but surely the advocacy of using LinkedIn by students whilst at University, would be better coming from Careers advisers.  I'm not saying that it isn't useful for students to join and start creating useful contacts, just that it isn't necessarily a Librarians role to point students to it.  Although I realise as librarians we need to be aware of professional skills, where to find information and helping to equip students for when they leave.

This leads me to pose the question about our role in the library. There does seem to be more blurring of our boundaries and what we do.  We've certainly taken on larger teaching/training remits in academic libraries, providing search skills and use of resources workshops. Is LinkedIn something we should be inputting into training sessions for 2nd and 3rd year students as part of a "professional themed" workshop session in collusion with the Careers services?  The information world is certainly growing and we need to be part of it, but how much?

Poker Face!

Aside from sillier things and the personal aspects of Facebook for keeping in touch with friends, writing "hello" on someones wall, viewing pictures, checking horoscopes, games such as Farmville and organising parties; Facebook does have a lot to offer libraries and their students.

I set up a Facebook page for the Library in Easter, as I mentioned previously in my first post and have to say that its been well received.  Although we haven't had as many students become fans since then (we're now up to 79), we do see it as a way of publicising events, new e-resources, linking to relevant widgets such as Jstor, Copac, UL and disseminating information updates to the students.

We have been lucky that it has been promoted not just by ourselves but also by Tutorial and the Senior Tutor.  I am hoping that we can gain some more members after Freshers fair from the new student intake in October.

I realise that some people are sceptical about the use of Facebook and say that it maybe an infringement into student lives, but its their choice at the end of the day, whether they choose to look at it and actively use it as a way to keep up to date.  So if the students don't wish to become a fan, we don't mind as this is not our only means of getting information out to students. We also have rolling screens, put information on our Library catalogue, use Twitter, traditional email and the add news items on the college webpage.  It all helps.  I still believe that we need to use as many methods as possible to promote what we do and advertise library services, as students learn and access information in different ways. 

Having looked at those other libraries in Cambridge with Facebook pages, we all seem to be using it similar ways.  I notice a few have used Bookshare, which we haven't as yet, although if we start a fiction section it could be good way promoting books, or advertising our latest accessions.  I may look into this at a future stage.  In addition I think the discussion board could be a useful tool for library suggestions or for getting items for library committee!  I would be interested to know if anyone else has had any success using the discussion feature.

Image surfing!

What an enjoyable way to spend a few moments whilst on the Cam23 trail of Web 2.0 technologies.  Flickr seems very easy to use and allows you to see lots of lovely images.  I think my main concern with it flickr is can you use the images? What about copyright?  There goes my little "Jiminy Cricket" library persona.  The "creative commons" section of flickr does come in useful for that aspect of image use.

Having a quick search of flickr did bring up my egyptian wedding cake, which I found interesting, especially as lots of other cake decorators have commented on it being so unusal.  I've used one of my own pics in this post however, as it included our little figures of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft!

I also found alot of other interesting pictures on my hobby of machine embroidery.  Very useful to be able to compare and contrast other people's style and use of the medium (right) with my own (below).

However on the photo sharing front, I agree with most other Cam23ers, that I use Facebook to share my photo's with friends and family. The big question being... do I really want everyone to see my personal photo's or pictures? I think that really comes down to question of choice. Perhaps if I want to sell more of my pictures, I should actually use Flickr, like Cake in Chester to promote my work and make it more widely available.

In light of libraries using Flickr, its good to be able to have a store of images, but I'm not convinced that its any better than the images which can be downloaded from Google images.  As we have a large art collection at College, we are in the process of using an image storage system ourselves, which will allow us to put our library photo's in there.  This wouldn't allow them to be freely available though. 

In conclusion, no matter where we get the images from, they are useful in libraries, to promote, explain and show users what we do and the services, we provide.

Titter ye not! (To quote Frankie Howerd) I've been converted to Twitter

There's been lots of musings about Twitter and whether it has any any value.  Is it just a social networking site where people post what they are doing and keep in touch with friends, similar to Facebook, or something more?

I used to think it had no value at all, why would you want to "follow people" on twitter.  It sounded slightly stalker-ish but with the difference of the cyperspace medium.  A place where you could legitimately "stalk" your favourite celebrities, such as Stephen Fry, Lilly Allen, Demi Moore, etc, to name but a few.  However I couldn't quite grasp the concept, that I would want to be interested in what Lilly Allen was up to, or know what Stephen Fry ate for breakfast that morning!  I feel the same about Facebook status updates, even though I'm a Facebook fan.

So before the advent of Cam23, I decided I should see what Twitter was all about, even if only for my Continued Professional Development, and possibly to say ok, been there, looked and didn't buy the T-Shirt, as it were.  After attending the University Libraries course on Twitter, I thought maybe I should give it a go, even though I thought I would de-activate my account within a month.  Trying to use Twitter, I found "tweeting" quite hard at first, as I still couldn't grasp its "reason to be". The language and posting was very confusing in the first instant, ie. "tweet", "re-tweet", the mystifying "tweeple", "following", and the incessant use of # and @

symbols.  I have to say, I still find it confusing but perseverance seems to be paying off.

So what makes people use twitter?  Stephen Fry is quoted as saying, "It's not called social change or heavy debate, it's called twitter. I mean the clue is in the name." Which  leads me to believe he uses it for social networking.  This community aspect is obviously important to alot of people, for example, Demi Moore said, “...Don’t know how this community of positivity was created but I’m grateful to have found you and thrilled to be a part of this."

For me, it's this "community" idea that makes Twitter very useful and valuable.  Its great for intereacting with other people, especially other librarians, information providers, or organisations.  For my Continuing Professional Development, its becoming the key place I look for news, strategies, what other librarians are doing, networking, training courses via CILIP lists, asking advice, etc, where as Facebook I use for keeping in touch with friends. The more I personally used Twitter over the last 3 months, the more I find I'm coming around to using it for the library and the possibility of setting up a library Twitter account.  I certainly never thought I would say that about Twitter.  So watch this space.... 

Setting up a library account on Twitter would be another method of getting news and information out to the students, and retweeting useful messages from the UL and ebooks@cambridge will save me time, emailing them.  I did wonder about the need for having both Twitter and Facebook accounts in a library setting, and was reminded about what I said in my first blog post, that if people work in different ways and use different media, then we need to move with the times and be proactive at getting our information out to our users in the medium they find most accessibile.  In that case, all I need to do in future is find out how to link the library Facebook page and Twitter account together and bingo! just wait for them to be used. 

The first writings of Seshat Scribe

The creation of a blog and blogging for Cam23 things seems a very daunting prospect when you have no idea of what you’re doing and it’s a totally new technology. However the aim of participating in Cam23 things is to learn about Web 2.0 technologies and how they can best be used in a library environment.

Normally I have to say that I’m the first person to trial the use of new technologies, especially when it comes to user education and information literacy. In 2002, I created an online library information skills course via WebCT for geography and anthropology students, which involved evaluating existing training materials and adapting them for use online. In another job I used smart board technology in user education sessions to point out relevant icons on websites, explain the use of Boolean operators and how brackets work when searching, and to get feedback during training.



I have also trialled Optivote (Personal Response Voting Systems) to gain an understanding of student knowledge before and after library and information skills sessions. I also used Camtasia to produce information skills videos for distance learning students, for example, “how to use journals” and created quizzes via our own in house VLE to test student knowledge.

I have always felt it’s extremely important for Librarians to continually evaluate their services and the way in which we provide them, especially if that can help and encourage students in their learning. New technologies can help us engage more with our students and be a part of their learning, whilst allowing them to learn at their own pace.

Given this how can Web 2.0 technologies be utilised in the same way?

Strolling around various libraries over the last couple of years has allowed me discover what students actually do while using the computers we provide. Most I have to say seem to be chatting to friends via Facebook Chat, others are logged onto MySpace or Bebo, and some are viewing videos via You Tube. Not many actually seem to be working or using library resources, but sorting out their social lives. Or is that not actually the case?

I am a true believer that people learn in different ways and we should at least be aware of that fact. Is the person using Facebook Chat whilst in a library training session not paying you any attention? Or are they helping another friend in the room who is struggling to understanding what your saying and too shy to ask?

Students no longer seem to use the same methods of studying or communicating that I did; they seem to multi-task with various technologies and have lots of open windows. I have seen students frantically typing up assignments, researching for music and class division articles on Jstor and checking their email, whilst still arranging that night’s party on Facebook at the same time. I have also realised that watching You Tube videos were part of their studies, and in some cases lecturers had used podcasts to keep their classes fresh and interesting. Others had set up Facebook discussion groups for class assignments, again trying to integrate and engage students.

I have always wanted to use some Web 2.0 technologies as I feel they have a valuable role to play in passing on library information. Eventually in April this year, I set up a Facebook page for our library and have to say was surprised to find that within two days of its promotion we had 73 friends, despite having a small student population!



While this use of Web 2.0 has been successful, I’m not quite as convinced by Twitter, even though the training provided by the UL was good. Maybe this is because I use Facebook a lot myself and am more familiar with using it. I seem to be very slow at grasping what Twitter is all about. The wording even confuses me, i.e. “tweet”, what’s it all about? In the same way as Facebook status updates, tweeting seems to involve people telling you what their doing with their day. At the moment I’m finding it hard to see whether students would follow my library tweetings, but then surely its just another method of communication.

If students are changing the ways in which they learn and communicate, then Librarians perhaps need to evaluate and update the way in which we communicate with our students and be more open to providing services using these new technologies. Having said that I don’t believe we should use every single Web 2.0 technology if its not useful and we don’t really see how it can work in our library environment. Selectivity seems the best policy.

So with all that in mind, I shall try to be open to Web 2.0 technologies for the time being and work through the 23 things, whilst evaluating whether they can help improve library services to students.