Shifting My Focus – the user experience

As of yesterday I have a new title: User Experience Librarian. This seems to be a natural evolution for me with an emphasis on assessment and communications in the widest terms imaginable.

Essentially, my job now is to study users and to make recommendations to library admin and department heads. I'll also work with others to develop targeted communication strategies and to do a little brand-work. The biggest challenge will be getting all departments/units to trust me—you say the word assessment and people freak out.

That being said, we'll be looking for a new librarian soon to fill my former position. Atlanta is nice, seriously it is. GT is a top five engineering school, and a top 10 public university. The Library has a third building “in the works,” is a member of ARL, and recently received ACRL's Excellence Award. We're well suited for ambitious entrepreneurial types because we're given a lot of freedom to experiment. We also have competitive Athletics programs. Something to think about.

Comments

[Edwin]

That sounds good Brian. Congratulations!

Does that included users who don't use the library yet was well?

Here in Holland we always focus on the users we already have and thus we miss (in my opinion) a big potential.

Others claim it's better to focus on those we already have. We might lose them too.

But that's the view of a public library, in this case...

Anyway: succes with the new job!

[stevenb]

Congrats on your new job. I do like the new job title. But if you're going to mention user experience in your post, c'mon and throw a bone to DBL.

[amanda]

Congrats, Brian! I look forward to chatting more about the whole UXlib thing. Fun!

[Paul R. Pival]

Wow, big changes at GT these days, eh? Congrats Brian, have fun!

[Jason Puckett]

Congrats, Brian!