The Ubiquitous Librarian

Partnering (an example from UCSB)

I’m deep in the cave right now—ten weeks left to finish up the book. (Sorry if you don’t hear much from me—grinding it out.) I have someone targeted for the Foreword and I really hope he agrees to do it… someone from outside of the library world.

We’ve got a new dean starting later this summer—you never know what to expect when a new CEO comes in, but you have to hope for the best. Hopefully the ubiquity can continue.

This week I am working on a chapter about measuring the impact of promotional activities. This is a question that always comes up on the conference circuit, so hopefully this will provide me with more acceptable answers during Q&A. Whenever you’re talking to those BIG ARL’s it’s always about assessment rather than creativity.

It’s been a while, so here is something fun.

I’m really digging the free massage idea at UCSB. And no, it’s not something out of the Annoyed Librarian’s nightmares in which librarians are giving massages to lure patrons to the help desk, instead it is a cross promotional effort. They experimented by having a massage therapist in the library one hour a week giving students a free three minute massage, as an attempt to get them to visit the Student Health Building for a longer (paid) session. Apparently it was successful because the health center wants to continue the sessions in the Fall.

 

The lesson here is not that everyone should jump on the “free massage” bandwagon, but rather to push for cross promotional programming. Find logical partnerships with other units on campus and develop events that are extensions of those services. Look for mutual interests with admissions, recruitment, retention, financial aid, advising, tutoring, housing, student activities, writing center, parking, police, campus tours and orientation, health center, gym, study abroad, and so on.

Libraries are like magnets, a billboard if you will, and these other campus departments can benefit from our foot traffic or web views. In return, we benefit from positioning the library as a campus hub.

Librarian as Recruiter

I’ve written about my efforts to reach students before they arrive on campus, but what about pushing it even further? What about convincing them to attend your school?

I was invited to an open-house weekend for prospective engineering graduate students, but could not attend due to a scheduling conflict. I was later included on an email to faculty urging us to contact candidates who had been accepted but were still considering their options.

This was an interesting insight because you often read about the drama of athletic recruiting, and it appears that the same thing happens (on a much smaller and less sexier scale) for academics as well.

I could see that we had top prospects in mechatronics, manufacturing, and thermal sciences. Just like a running back’s sprint time, I could see their undergraduate GPA and GRE scores. As well as the University they attended and whether or not we were offering them a Teaching Assistantship, as well as several other attributes.

I decided to contact some of the candidates and sent 20 of them a very casual email introducing myself as the librarian dedicated to their discipline and briefly mentioned a few of the resources and services that we offer to Georgia Tech students, customizing it a little for their field.

Surely they care more about the funding and research opportunities available to them – but it was an experiment and a chance for me to dabble in the recruiting effort. I figured it couldn’t hurt, I mean, are librarians from MIT, Stanford, or Michigan talking with these top prospects? It gave me the chance to humanize the library and offered them a direct communication channel to learn about research and resources for their area. It also showed that our librarians are thoroughly engaged and hopefully planted a few ideas and expectations of what we offer.

Long story short – it totally bombed. Three weeks later and no one wrote back. Although it only took about 15 minutes to send each candidate a separate email, it would have been nice get at least a “thank you” reply.

Perhaps I over estimated the value of the library or perhaps they decided to sign with someone else? I was operating on the principle that everyone likes to be wooed – whether they are choosing a college or being recruiting for a new job, people like to feel important. I figured that if I can give up a few minutes of my time to try and convince the next great nanotech scholar to attend then I’ve done my part. Imagine several professors calling to express their interest in you as well as a librarian emailing to say that the journals and conference papers you’ll need are all available in full text… it all works together to position our Institute as a more desirable option. 

iPods as a foreign culture learning tool

This is a slide from a recent talk.

This is an idea that we are still brainstorming. I read about a community college (somewhere in Illinois or Pennsylvania perhaps?) that uses iPods as a foreign language learning tool. Building on that theme, I am interested in creating an immersive experience for students that are planning to study abroad. Georgia Tech set a goal for 50% of undergraduates to study at least one semester abroad, so I feel there is an opportunity for the library to participate in that mission.

So why not take an iPod and fill it with foreign language tutorials and exercises, as well as a wide range of cultural and entertainment content: video clips, music, sports highlights, tv shows, and commercials. Add tons of images such as landmarks, currency, street maps, public transportation schedules, and fashion. Along with newspaper and magazine articles, restaurant menus, travel guides, and literary works.

This could be a very rich multimedia experience, but it doesn't stop there--- the special ingredient is student-added content. Upon their return to the US, students are invited (or perhaps it could be part of a class assignment?) to share their adventures in the form of text, video, images, and audio recordings. This adds more depth to the collection—first hand encounters from their peers.

I imagine offering an iPod for several of the countries that students travel to. For example the "French" iPod or the "Chinese" iPod and putting them on reserve with other accessories as well as making some content available online so that students could download the material themselves. This becomes somewhat of a historical archive that reaches beyond our school, and is potentially useful for anyone interested in traveling or studying those countries. It's a great branding opportunity for Georgia Tech.

That's the idea in a nutshell-- still coming together. We'll figure out copyright along the way, but I think it is something that could be cool and beneficial. We'll see if it gets any lift.

For more on iPods and Academia read about Duke's experience.

MORE
A friend just mentioned customs, manners, and traditions as well. What else???

Exam Cram – positioning the library for finals week

An idea that we’ve tossed around for about a year and a half finally came together last week. We called it Exam Cram.

I’ve posted about CeLIBration, our kickoff party designed to introduce freshmen to the library, but what about at the end of the semester? What is the best use our out time, space, and effort to contribute to student success? What is it that they need most?

Many libraries offer “study break” sessions with free coffee and cookies, but I wanted to strive for something more constructive. The philosophy behind Exam Cram was to gather the assistance that students, particularly freshmen, need as they head into final exams. Think of it as last minute review sessions, a chance to ask questions, a place to share notes, peer mentoring, confidence building, and motivation to study. I notice informal groups doing this all the time, so this was an opportunity for the library to offer a more coordinated effort.

In a nutshell, we collected a handful of teaching assistants and tutors from various campus organizations and academic departments, and provided space for them to help students. Some of them offered a structured review session, while others worked on specific problems/questions that students had. We kept them out in the open around group tables, rather than hidden away in a closed room, hoping to draw more students in and encourge a more social vibe. The courses we focused on were Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics.

A key component was partnering with others on campus. For example, the Housing Office offers similar tutoring sessions in a few dorms, but instead of us competing with them, we worked together to promote each other. This was beneficial for students because they could see widest possibility of dates, times, and locations where they could get help. We also worked with various student groups as well.

As the project evolved, we tried to serve as an aggregator, collecting all the “finals related” events going on around campus. From the big SGA sponsored party, to free breakfasts, to stress relief activities, and so on. Whatever was happening we wanted to be the central directory. This seemed to be the best way to serve the community: connecting students with the information they needed/wanted, but could not get elsewhere.

We pulled this together via our website as well as a giant board at the entrance. The board, which resembled a golf tournament leader board, included white space for students to add events or request additional review sessions. This device was effective because every time I walked by I observed students stopped to look at it. Next term we hope to add an online forum/message board system, similar to NCSU’s Gaming Hater’s Board, that could support on-the-fly or student-driven study groups. Ideally this would run all semester long so that informal groups could form as needed.

Promotional Efforts

Out basic flyer driving students to the website.

The website—which was linked via the library homepage.

The big board at the entrance of the library.

I also ran a targeted facebook flyer—but that’s a post for next week.

A special thanks to Dottie Hunt for the design work. She pushed this project into a place it could not have gone without her. Oh and just for fun, here is something she composed along with Sweet T to let students know it was time for donuts. And thanks to Mr. Bennett for the Super Bad idea and flip chart assistance.

Using “interesting items” as an annual outreach tool

File this under ideas that I just don’t have time to work on.

Every few months I’ll see an article that I feel everyone should read—very well written, seminal, synopsis pieces. The most recent one that comes to mind is from Wired about the switch to alternative fuel. It summarizes the current problems, explores the challenges, and is overall very readable, yet weighty.

I was thinking about the New Year and how everyone has top 10 lists for this and that and it could be cool for libraries to create one page lists (not bibliographies) of “interesting items” that were published over the past year—maybe with a very short two sentence annotation.

Think about it in terms of our profession. What are ten things (books, articles, editorials, blog posts, listserv discussions, podcasts, webcast, whatever—format agnostic) that everyone should read? What is representative of 2007? Probably something about digital preservation, something about 2.0, something about shifts in organizational structure, something about outreach and promotions, something on building/space design, something about Next Gen Catalogs, etc. Maybe couple this with a few buzzwords, trends, challenges, and predictions.

Now apply that same scheme to other disciplines—what are the topical “things” for engineering, computer science, business, medicine, psychology, the arts, etc. Who won major awards in the field? What are people blogging about besides celebrities? What is the buzz in various categories? What should everyone know about?

HBR does something like this annually for innovative ideas—and it’s always a great read—so why not do something more locally? Customize it for your library community. Public libraries should do something like this because I’ve always found them to be busy throughout the holidays with people grabbing up movies, music, cook books, and pop fiction, so why not try and expand their minds with a “10 things you should be reading” list? With academics, this could be another way to reach faculty. Just drop it off in their office, send it along with books they request, email it, or leave them around the classrooms, or at the department holiday party, whatever. My library is slammed with students finishing up the semester, but they might be interested in picking up a glossy, one page, easy to read, discipline specific handout as they head out the door. Especially if it looked cool. And it would be even better if the handout included a url to the library blog or a website that linked to all the titles online, along with other items of potential interest.

The goal should be to keep it concise and to not push the library too much—this kind of thing probably works better to pique patron interest with a soft sell on our part. Keep it limited to items that are easily accessible, readable (not too scholarly/boring), and of general broad interest. For example: clean tech is quickly growing in popularity, so where’s that definitive Time Magazine or NYT article?

In summary: Instead of addressing faculty with scholarly communications, information literacy, budget cuts, or collection development needs, why not approach them with ideas? Big ideas that they will be interested in. You might just be able to get your foot in the door for future conversations, but first you have to give them a reason to care. Think about their interests instead of your own.

Ah, but Brian this is so much work. You said yourself that you don’t have time to do this, how can I fit it into my schedule?

Indeed, it would take some planning. Maybe instead of doing every discipline you can focus on one or two, or scrap the discipline idea all together and go for the broadest audience possible. This is the type of sub-committee that ACRL should have. A group of 10 librarians who can meet/work online dumping discipline specific articles into a wiki over the course of a year so that all librarians (not just ACRL members) can have access  and use them for various outreach initiatives.

Oh, but this will never work at my library. We have to ask permission and get approval. Everything has to go through the upper echelons.

Wow, sorry to hear that your library is still back in the 1950’s. The library profession really needs to learn about salesmanship. If your administration keeps things on lock-down, I suggest you leverage your subject librarian role. (If you’re not a subject librarian you’re out of luck.) Look at your job description and strategic plan and it probably says something about outreach—this is a part of your responsibilities. Use projects like the 10 articles list, youtube, facebook, and tagging to interact with your community. Your job as a liaison is to sell the library to that specific group. You’re a professional and therefore you should have the freedom to accomplish this task however you see fit. The way I see it, I own Mechanical Engineering (until we hire someone) so I’m constantly trying to find new windows of opportunity. (Hmmm, that sounds like a good title for my next book) in which I can fit the library into their world. So my advice: try stuff—if you get in trouble apologize and say that you were only try be innovative and that you’ll gladly just sit and twiddle your thumbs at the reference desk instead of proactively engaging users.

Tagging in Compendex: social bookmarking for engineers

I have to give Elsevier their props-- they are really trying to improve their interfaces. Perhaps this is old news, but I was working with a grad student today and we were deep into Compendex and I noticed that they are offering tags. It's nice to see that these 2.0 technologies are finally finding their way into our databases.

How it works
When you do a search and view a citation you see this box:

Public = all registered Compendex users can see them
Private = just you
Institution = everyone at your school

I'm not sure how practical tags are because the Ei terms are pretty fantastic-- but from a voyeuristic stance it is fascinating to see what others have tagged. 

Groups
Probably the most useful application of this tagging system is the ability to create a group. These are tags that can only be viewed by other group members. This is great if you work in a highly specialized area and you want to share items of interest with others. What I especially like is that the groups are not limited to your own institution and that you can invite anyone else to be a member too, as long as they have access to Compendex. This allows researchers to interact with peers from other institutions and the ability to easily and quickly share information.

My Plan
Over Winter break I am going to experiment by creating a few groups based around a handful of the centers/labs that we have here at Georgia Tech. After tagging a few articles I'll invite several of the faculty members to join and offer to demonstrate the tagging feature to them and/or their graduate students. It could totally flop, but it should be a good test of the tagging feature.

So thanks Elsevier for trying something new. Glad to see all of our subscription money is going to good use. How about next you work on "group notes" so that we could leave messages or make comments about the research to our peers? Just something to think about.

In the works...

I'm heading down to Florida to give my last talk for a long long time. It will be nice to come back home, get into the workshop, close the door, and build a few new things. Here is a sneak peak at some current projects.

Next week I'll have a two-part post on Institutional Repositories: my promotion scheme & a mini-study on use

Daylight Savings as an excellent PR opportunity

Finally the weather is tolerable here in Atlanta; Fall is my favorite season. With this change comes the end of daylight savings. This is a great chance to pitch security. Just as all these corporations are jumping on the go green bandwagon, libraries can send a message about safety.

My library is located in an urban environment. Crime happens. Why not use this opportunity to reinforce an image of the library as a “safe” place? We have a security officer who checks IDs at the door and another one roaming the building, we also have a campus shuttle service that takes students to their dorms at night until 2am. These are things we already do, but we don’t talk about them publicly. By creating a media package, we can get this word out in conjunction with the end of day light savings (aka: shorter days) and sell the library as a safe haven.

Many of us spend so much time promoting resources, equipment, policies, reference help, etc but what about peace of mind? Promoting security makes us look responsible—and, as is our case, responsive to recent concerns about crime in the area. This effort makes us look like we’re addressing actual current needs, when really we’ve been doing this all along.

It invites the potential for wide collaboration too:

• Maybe Student Government or some other group could coordinate a “walking together” program—so that at the top of each hour (after 10pm) students could meet outside the library to walk over to dorms or distant parking lots. (This is directly in line with police recommendations that people travel in packs.)
• Maybe there could be some type of partnership between the library and housing? Perhaps we can deliver a midterm package informing students about upcoming events, workshops, all the usual library stuff, but also include something about safety?
• The library and the transportation office? They run the campus shuttles—we could push that info to students, encourage them to add the number to their cell phones or something to that effect. Maybe something with campus bus routes adding a few “night” time spots. We also want to find ways to get them too the library (not just home from it) so perhaps some transportation possibilities there as well? Door to door and back again.
• Maybe invite campus police to hold some safety seminars or whatever within our presentation space? Even if students don’t attend we gain positive PR.
• Maybe write a letter to the editor of the school paper laying out this “safety” theme stating that since we’re open late this is a concern of ours and that the library is working with all these other units on campus to ensure they have an environment that is comfortable and safe… etc.

It’s all about perception and media spin, so consider an awareness message that makes the library look good. It doesn’t always have to be about books, journals, exhibits, and computers—think big picture. What’s the patron thought process? I am focused now at trying to find out what deters them from visiting the library and then implementing solutions—how can we create a  motivational message? Or rather, the right message at the right time for the right person.

If I can gently remind users that the library is open 24 hours, packed with assistance (from librarians and IT specialists, to multimedia assistants, teaching assistants, and peers), filled with technology and resources, invites eating, offers both quiet and noisy study space, and the occasional exhibit, lecture, or other “intellectual” distraction—combined with the perception that it is not only safe, but activity seeking to ensure their security--- I feel I could raise both gate count and user satisfaction simultaneously.

Many libraries, particularly ARL’s, focus on promoting excellence in collections, but I am far more interested in promoting an excellence library experience.

Augmented Reality – a Second Life Experiment

I've teamed up with a computer science professor who owns an island in Second Life. We're inviting (recruiting) students to hangout, explore, and learn the basics of the software. Our rational is that if there is an interest, let's say 20 students or more, then we'll work toward purchasing an island for them. The idea is still in the very early stages, but ideally we're following this basic principal: just as a student can checkout a book, they can also checkout a plot of virtual land. In this framework it becomes a discovery experience.

The premise is that since so many of our students use digital design tools for class work, they can also benefit from exposure to Second Life. Maybe SL isn't sustainable long-term, that's fine, we can just move to another virtual environment. My personal feeling about technology is that everything you learn can be applied elsewhere, therefore the more you know the better.

Some benefits:

•  Students will have the opportunity to explore and experiment within a large virtual world.

•  Students will have the freedom of self-expression and an outlet for creativity.

•  Students will collaborate with others, fostering leadership, project management, critical thinking and planning, team-building, and communication skills.

•  Students will apply design principles, engineering mechanics, problem solving, physics, geometry, and aesthetics within a 3D modeling universe.

•  Faculty will have virtual space and resources for instructional purposes.

That's it in a nutshell. We've set a few dates aside to see if anyone shows up. User interest and participation will guide this project. It could be a total bust, and that's fine. I have found SL very interesting, but so many educational (and corporate) efforts end up ghost towns. I want something more interactive and popular. A lot of the library stuff I've seen out there seems to be by-librarians for-librarians, and that's not the direction I want to go. I am more interested in something that targets my patrons, something that inspires the imagination.

Another unfortunate trend sprouting up are “no access” islands. (UT-Austin, Stanford, SJSU) I think it's fine if people want to buy private land, but don't place it in the middle of other open access educational environments. It's a country club mentality that doesn't belong there.

Here is our main flyer (front & back), courtesy of Dottie Hunt.

Raising our Game – ideas for the next phase of Gaming @ the Georgia Tech Library

If you are a librarian with a blog then you have to mention gaming from time to time. This is my obligatory post. Here are a few upcoming projects -- a peek at what's on my drawing board.

POKER

Many librarians have expressed interest in our CeLIBration event. We're gearing up for this annual “welcome” event the weekend before the start of the Fall Semester. (Aug 18) This time around I am hosting a poker tournament (and we've still got ninja tag , speed dating , retro video games, board games, ddr , improv, and pizza.)

Poker, Round 1 begins at 8pm. 10 tables, each with up to 5 players. Participants are given 25 chips at the start. After 1 hour of play, the top chip-winners at each table will advance to the championship round starting at 10pm. Those 10 battle it out for a trophy and a fabulous prize.

I'll post a follow-up review of the event later this month, along with our advertising strategy.

HALO 3

Harry who? Halo is the gaming equivalent to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or Star Wars for you old timers. People will camp out at Best Buy in order to purchase this game. Halo 2 sold over 7 million copies -- we're talking $125 million on opening day. Epic!

This is a great opportunity for all types of libraries (academic and public) to be a part of pop-culture, or at least geeky gamer culture. I am going to try and talk our admin and commons coordinator into letting me host a Halo 3 party on Tuesday , September 25 (the release day.)

We have an 80 inch screen with surround sound that would be awesome. We can dim the lights or illuminate that particular area, pull up couches and comfortable chairs and really offer a unique gaming experience. Something like this in our East Commons:

 

If it goes forward, I might put in some calls to Red Bull or Monster (coca cola), GameTap (Turner), and Microsoft (xbox) to see if I can get a few giveaways. Maybe start at 7pm and roll until whenever (we're 24 hours so…)

It's something you should think about too; I highly recommend you take advantage of the opportunity... you could probably easily find an enthusiastic gamer (use your online social networking connections for more than chatting with other librarians) and invite them to bring their friends, xbox 360, and halo 3. You give them space and a big screen and maybe invest $100 in food or try to get it donated.

GAMING THE WALL (like gleaming the cube, dude!)

This idea developed today on the reference desk with Dottie Hunt – the last hour on the last day of the summer semester. We were talking about the “halo 3 experience” and she suggested that we project a game outside on the wall of the library. This conversation evolved to “gaming the wall” on a Saturday after a football game. We have thousands of people walk by the library in route to their cars—so why not offer a distraction? It would be cool to have an ncaa football video game projected on a huge wall, hooked up to speakers. Or maybe a battle royal type game? This could be a big payoff in terms of street cred.

We could do it Sept 29 (vs. Clemson) and develop that week into some type of gamer's heaven (remember Halo 3, Sept 25), but I like November 1 (Virginia Tech) better because it's a Thursday night game and it's Va Tech vs. Ga Tech -- outdoor gaming fits nicely into the “techie” stereotype. Plus it will be televised on ESPN. I would love to take on Herbstreit and he can even play with his gator bait team . Perhaps this is something we could tie in with Homecoming too… I'm sure we could get funding from someone somewhere? Obviously there is still a lot to be worked out, but I just like the idea of gaming on the wall.

For more info on gaming @ GT, check out Lori Critz's presentation . We don't mess around in our library: