Promote Your Value, Prove You’re

EssentialCollege & University Section Academic Luncheon

NJLA Annual Conference, 5-4-11Kathy Dempsey, Libraries Are Essential

What's the most important... Tool?

Strategy? Mission?

Tactic?

COMMUNICATION

When promoting your value…

• Faculty

• Students

• Administrators

Your 4 Most Important Target Audiences

• Faculty

• Students

• Administrators

• Staff members

Your 4 Most Important Target Audiences

Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive ResearchReview and Report www.acrl.ala.org/value/

Computers in Libraries Conference, March 11

Terry Huwe of UC-Berkeley

“Faculty Information Using Behavior”

(March 23, B301)www.infotoday.com/CIL2011/Presentations.asp

Value of Academic Libraries Toolkit (Oct. 10) http://www.acrl.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/value/valueofacademiclibrariestoolkit.cfm

This toolkit complements Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report by Dr. Megan Oakleaf. The Toolkit provides academic librarians access to articles, web sites, best practices, and assessment tools in one convenient location on the ACRL web site.

Companion Toolkit

The following review and report is intended to provide ACRL leaders and the academic community with the following:

1. Clear view of the current state of the literature on value of libraries within an institutional context

2. Suggestions for immediate Next Steps in the demonstration of academic library value

3. A Research Agenda for articulating academic library value

Value Report Summary www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/value/val_summary.pdf

Define outcomes. Create or adopt systems for assessment

management. Determine what libraries enable students,

faculty, student affairs professionals, administrators, and staff to do.

Develop systems to collect data on individual library user behavior, while maintaining privacy.

Record and increase library impact on student enrollment.

"Next Steps—A selection of recommendations for university, college, and community college librarians who wish to demonstrate value is included below. Additional details are available in the 'Next Steps' section of this report."

Link libraries to improved student retention and graduation rates.

Enhance library contribution to student job success.

Track library influences on increased student achievement.

Demonstrate and develop library impact on student learning.

Review course content, readings, reserves, and assignments.

Document and augment library advancement of student experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of quality.

Next Steps con’t…

Track and increase library contributions to faculty research productivity.

Continue to investigate library impact on faculty grant proposals and funding, a means of generating institutional income.

Demonstrate and improve library support of faculty teaching.

Record library contributions to overall institutional reputation and prestige.

Participate in higher education assessment initiatives.

Engage in higher education accreditation processes.

Next Steps con’t…

Appoint liaison librarians to support senior institutional leadership and/or offices of assessment or institutional research.

Create library assessment plans. Promote and participate in professional

development. Mobilize library administrators. Leverage library professional associations. 

22!!

Next Steps con’t…

"Just as there are no ‘quick fixes’ to the problem of demonstrating the value of higher education, there are no simple solutions to the challenge of articulating academic library value."

Having 22 “Next Steps” is madness!! Let’s cut through the clutter:

  Plan Measure value Collect data Communicate effectively 

No quick fixes, indeed.

• Faculty

• Students

• Administrators

• Staff members

Your 4 Most Important Target Audiences

Ithaka Survey" 'Ithaka S+R Library Survey 2010: Insights From U.S.

Academic Library Directors' aims to help academic libraries and other members of the higher education community understand the changing role of the library and how to strategically adapt to an increasingly digital environment. This survey focuses on the issues related to the strategies library administrators are pursuing for their libraries, the management of library collections, the development of new digital collections, and the creation of new services to meet changing user needs." (webinar recordings available)

www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/ithaka-s-r-library-survey-2010

FACULTY

The Ithaka survey asked faculty members whether they thought libraries were less important because of online info.

In 2010, only 14% of faculty said “strongly agree.” BUT in 2006 survey, that was just 8%.

GET TO KNOW THEM!   Be part of their intellectual world; publish & lecture

there. Be at their meetings. Connect with them on LinkedIn. Read their journals.

Don’t tell them what the library is doing; tell them about the differences the library is making.

Communicating with Faculty

How can you get to know these fickle creatures?

Beloit College Mindset List (www.beloit.edu/mindset/)

John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

Check out their shows, music, & movies. Follow them on social media sites, and get

them to follow you as well. Also check for mentions of your org on sites like Socialmention.com.

STUDENTS

Keynote by Michelle ManafyComputers in Libraries (March 22)www.infotoday.com/CIL2011/Presentations.asp

1. DN are all about living publicly, not privately.

2. More interested in knowledge sharing than knowledge hoarding.

3. Interested in interactions, not transactions.

http://books.infotoday.com/books/Dancing-with-Digital-Natives.shtml

Dancing with Digital Natives

Peer-to-peer communication: Use student workers for word-of-mouth marketing. “Working With Campus Marketing Classes to Improve

Reference Service Visibility”(2 classes at IWU created, administered, & analyzed a survey on student opinions & usage of ref. MLS, Nov/Dec 09, www.infotoday.com/mls/nov09/index.shtml)

Find out what they want and like: “Reducing Barriers to Resources by Listening to Our

Users”(ASU surveyed students as they simplified search via Serials Solutions discovery layer. MLS, Sept/Oct 10, http://www.infotoday.com/mls/sep10/index.shtml

If what you’re offering isn’t working for them, ask why. Don't tell them what the library has; tell them what it can

do for them.

Communicating with Students

Do you know your school’s mission & vision statements?

Do you know your library’s mission & vision statements, and do they align with the school’s? If not, you’re not even ready to approach the administrators yet.

You must align and connect your value to the institution's mission. SLA is doing a great, far-reaching project for this very reason. (www.sla.org/content/SLA/alignment/portal/index.html)

  Don’t overlook the “little people” who run things for the “big

cheeses.” Secretaries, assistants, trusted colleagues—find champions and advocates in their ranks to help you stay on the radar.  

ADMINISTRATORS

Have a seat at the table, literally and figuratively. Don’t wait to be asked. Even if this takes time, these are relationships worth building.

Speak their language; use their tools.

Don't tell them what the library is doing; tell them what difference it’s making in the lives and careers of students, staff, and faculty.

Show proof! Become best friends with ROI.

Communicating with Administrators

Your own staffers are one of the most-often-overlooked target markets, and one of your most powerful.

You need to engage every staff member, at every level—from full-time to part-time, from student workers and beginning paraprofessionals all the way through middle and top management.

Be transparent; be inclusive.

Remember: Your customer service and your advocacy are only as strong as your weakest link!

LIBRARY STAFF

“Empower the Staff First for More Effective Outreach” by Terence K. Huwe. Computers in Libraries, v. 26, n. 8, September 2006. (not free on ITI website)

Frontline Advocacy has been the project of ALA president Camila Alire. Advocacy University: (www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/advocacyuniversity/index.cfm)

ACRL has picked up on it too. Frontline Advocacy page: (www.acrl.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/advocacyuniversity/frontline_advocacy/frontline_academic/index.cfm)

Train them to start conversations by talking about the library’s benefits, not its resources.

Communicating with Library Staff

In order to be heard and understood, you must:

Avoid library lingo. (www.jkup.net/terms.html) Have a prepared, vetted message. Speak in the language of each target market. Use the right communication vehicle for each

target market. Back up your message with data. Not only talk, but also listen.

It’s All About Communication

Kathy Dempsey Libraries Are EssentialKathy@LibrariesAreEssential.com

Facebook:Facebook.com/LibrariesAreEssential

Author:The Accidental Library Marketerwww.LibrariesAreEssential.com

Editor:Marketing Library Services newsletterwww.infotoday.com/MLSandNew Jersey Libraries NEWSletterwww.njla.org/newsletter

Blogger:The M Word: Marketing Librarieswww.themwordblog.blogspot.com

Now a Kindle E-Book!