i’m on a deadline to get our e-journal usage stats pulled into a report and this video keeps popping into my head as i’m quickly analyzing data:
a while ago i told you about how i use the last 15 minutes of my friday to set my schedule for monday (memory refresher), but i haven’t told you about how i manage past monday. my calendar is my life line; if a task isn’t scheduled in my calendar, it pretty much means i’m not paying attention to it. on fridays, in addition to setting monday’s calendar, i’ll look at the rest of the week and schedule time for myself to do other tasks. these tasks don’t have to be accomplishment-driven, they can just be time set aside to remind myself to think about something.
when i read the post at time management ninja today it confirmed for me how helpful this process of scheduling appointments with myself actually is. the focus of the ninja article is on tough tasks, and that’s agreeably helpful. i also set appointments for myself to do mundane tasks. for example, i’ve set a recurring appointment to review approval slips every two weeks. every thursday afternoon i have an appointment with myself to read journal tables of contents, to see what’s new that week.
some of these “meetings with myself” i set in my calendar to display as “busy,” which usually means the task i’m focusing on is time sensitive. other meetings i will set as “tentative,” which mean i’d like to get to the task but wouldn’t be crushed if somebody needed me during that time. other meetings i set as “free,” and those are really just reminders for myself for what to focus on if i can. i don’t schedule every minute of my day because that would crush my soul.
one last tip: i do all my scheduling online in microsoft outlook; i don’t use paper for anything because it’s too easy to lose. if a task doesn’t get done at the original time i expected to focus on it, i can just drag it to a different place on the calendar and i know it will get taken care of eventually.
a sneak peek at tomorrow's schedule
Resonating with me today is an excerpt from the book, First, break all the rules:
People don’t change that much.
Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out.
Try to draw out what was left in.
That is hard enough.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. 1999. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. Simon & Schuster. p.57.
my latest article has been published! it is available via library management (for a nice, typeset PDF) or via my institution’s repository (for a less nice, word-processed PDF).
Marie R. Kennedy. 2011. “What Are We Really Doing to Market Electronic Resources?” Library Management 32(3): 144-158. DOI:10.1108/01435121111112862
Purpose – This paper aims to identify which marketing activities libraries are using to promote electronic resources and to examine how libraries are measuring the successes or failures of their marketing plans.
Design/methodology/approach – The research analyzes the literature published in library science on marketing techniques for electronic resources in use at libraries; the corpus is composed of 24 documents published from 1994-2009. The literature is qualitatively analyzed to determine the techniques in use, the libraries’ goals, targeted groups, budgets, and assessments of their marketing plans.
Findings – A total of 38 unique marketing techniques were discovered in the 24 documents consulted for this research. The four most popular techniques were patron training in a group setting, flyers/brochures, e-mails to patrons, and surveys. Libraries were generally unclear about stating the goals for their marketing plans but were able to easily identify the target of their marketing efforts. Budgeting was inconsistent among libraries included in this research; nine libraries reported having either no budget for marketing or did not mention budgeting in the article. Assessment was the weakest part of the marketing plans, with four libraries not documenting an awareness of the need for assessment and seven libraries noting an understanding of the need to evaluate their plan but unsure how to do so.
Originality/value – Based on the analysis the paper makes it clear that as libraries engage in marketing activities, they should make themselves aware of general principles before beginning their plan. Special focus should be given to selecting activities that match the goals of the marketing plan and choosing an appropriate evaluation technique before beginning the marketing activities.
Jenny R is awesome.
i’m sitting here at my desk popping wasabi peas and trying to talk myself off the ledge. here’s the thing. as the serials & electronic resources librarian it’s up to me to tell my university which print journals they can get rid of, journals that cost a LOT of money and are vital to current scholarship. if we have stable access to the electronic version it is redundant to retain a print subscription, especially when we know our users prefer the electronic version. if we have access in perpetuity (i.e., FOREVER) to the electronic version, why retain the old print? we don’t need the print version because we have access to the electronic version, and all those print volumes are taking up space. this is a perfectly logical thought process. librarians all over the world have followed this thought process, discarding print volumes of journals in favor of perpetual electronic access. so why is it that lately i’ve been mistrusting this thought process? it’s because i’ve been asking our journal vendors to provide me with titles and specific volumes/years that we should have perpetual access to. many of them have been slow to produce the list of titles/holdings, and i’ve returned many of those lists with added titles they’ve missed. that makes me nervous. what happens when it comes time to cash in that access? will the lists of titles and holdings we’re making now be honored later?
talk me down, people. how are you handling all of this at your own universities?
