LOOK AT THIS FIGURE. look at it.

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Marie Kennedy

just got the article reprints for my latest article (http://orgmonkey.net/?p=1234) and as i was flipping through i fell in love all over again with the figures i made to illustrate the frequencies of specific marketing techniques used in libraries. i don’t know why i find the little images of the librarian on the left and the patron on right so amusing, but there ya’ go.

here’s one of the figures from the article, figure 4: training. these are all the marketing techniques that fell into the category of “training.” the most mentioned marketing technique in this category is patron training in a group setting, mentioned 15 times.

figure 4. Training

Marie R. Kennedy. 2011. “What Are We Really Doing to Market Electronic Resources?” Library Management 32(3): 144-158. DOI: 10.1108/01435121111112862

 

Posted in images, marketing, writing | Comments Off on LOOK AT THIS FIGURE. look at it.

Collaborative Marketing for Electronic Resources

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Marie Kennedy

At the recent conference of the Association of College & Research Libraries (Philadelphia, PA) I used my poster presentation to propose a national, collaborative project with college and university libraries all over the United States to test a model for benchmarking marketing for electronic resources.

100 different college/university libraries will participate in the project, during which we’ll all work through the steps in a marketing cycle together, all perform the same marketing technique, and then report our assessments to the group. The goal of the project is to test a collaborative model for marketing electronic resources. We’ll organize ourselves and communicate via a wiki at http://benchmarketing.wetpaint.com. See THIS PAGE for the extended timeline for the project. We’ll begin the project on October 3, 2011.

There are quite a few universities signed up, but there is room for more of you to join the fun. If you’re interested, send me an email and I’ll add you to the list of participants. It is free to participate. No travel required.

Consider participating if:

  • you are a librarian in a college or university setting
  • you have permission to market electronic resources
  • you have access to usage statistics for electronic resources
  • you are willing to share what you learn in this project

wiki logo

Here is a link to the poster I used at ACRL and the handout that has more information about the project: http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/librarian_pubs/2/. If you prefer viewing in SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/orgmonkey/collaborative-marketing-for-electronic-resources. Email me if you’ve got questions.

Posted in e-resource mgmt, library, marketing | 1 Comment

dance, monkey, dance

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Marie Kennedy

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:

Posted in monkeys/bananas, titter, usage statistics, video | 1 Comment

your future is organized, and your calendar agrees!

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Marie Kennedy

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

Posted in organization tips, organizational tools | 1 Comment

what great managers know

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Marie Kennedy

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.

Posted in articles i'm reading, management | Comments Off on what great managers know

What Are We Really Doing to Market Electronic Resources?

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Marie Kennedy

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.

Posted in articles i'm reading, writing | 2 Comments