the challenges of promoting academic libraries and reference

Promoting Academic Libraries and

Reference Services

Andrea MullenLIS 698, Seminar and Practicum, Spring 2011

Dr. Tula Giannini

Project Identification

Site: Brooklyn CollegeSupervisor: Professor Beth Evans

Title: Reference Intern

• experienced the challenges of low reference desk numbers

• looks into how other colleges and universities promoted their library services and how Brooklyn College could implement changes into their marketing services.

-part of the CUNY consortium

-Urban campus located in Southeast Brooklyn

-18,000 (mostly commuter) students

-has more than 70 undergraduate majors and 60 graduate majors

Brooklyn College Library

Holdings in the library include:-1.5 million volumes

-45,000 serials-43,000 electronic serials-40,000 electronic books

-technologically advanced

Now, what did I do?Interlibrary loan

Reference Desk

Working on various projects

Core Book Collection

http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/research/core_collections.html

Data: College Students Today

(And how to reach them)

College Students and Social Media

• Formal studies show the obvious: Facebook is incredibly popular with Americans of all ages

Twitter is also gaining in popularity

What Does this Mean?

Is it worth it to invest the effort and time into a Twitter feed when the teen usage statistics are so low?

Should the Brooklyn College Library use its Facebook page as a marketing channel?

What other marketing channels might BCL consider?

Proactive Marketing

Could be used to promote Question Point services

Edible Book Contest

University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign

To Grill a Mockingbird

Frank in Stein

Candied Voltaire

The Malted Falcon

What the Brooklyn College Library may want to market

Use the two outlets to announce:

-Changes in library hours, closures of certain areas at the library -Availability of chat reference services to BC students-Happenings at the library such as events and tutorials-Librarian recommendations on Web 2.0 tools such as CaptureFox-Publications from library staff-Answering questions through Facebook chat, Facebook message