[Karl] This is a collaboration between librarians at Swansea and Aberystwyth Universities, because whatever institution you’re at, whatever library sector, we are all fundamentally doing same thing: teaching info lit and trying to make it interesting! Marketing needs to work: no point having great content if no-one knows about it. Sharing ideas is important and librarians have always been more about collaboration than competition.
[Karl] In March a Swansea librarian colleague described me to another thus. Relevance is it all relates to marketing of information skills. We'll talk about bean bags and congas later, but the balloon reference is because I use them in teaching info lit, particularly evaluating materials. Bearing that in mind, today we’ll discuss some of the projects we have run related to infoskills and marketing. What we did, how we marketed them, will pull out lessons learned and tips as we go along. Hopefully you will pick up on at least one thing you want to take away to do (or not do).
[Karl] November 2009 but relevant because it was the start of a journey for us, kickstarted some of the things mentioned later. Over to Joy for background…
[Joy] We met with the Guild and subsequently delivered information literacy training in Guild’s “clubbing” area – The joint - in collaboration with our colleagues in IS, Student Support and Law Presentations, live demos of software and the staffed “information station” in the foyer where librarians hailed passing students with the slogan “better marks” and pressed them with library leaflets and information providers bookmarks and pens Despite much fabulous marketing attendance for this optional event was poor. BUT although fewer people attended than we had planned, the feedback from attendees was all positive. We don’t have the pictures to prove it but a troop of cheerleaders started practicing their routine behind us halfway through the programme, and even that didn’t bring us a whole lot of extra takers.
[Joy & Karl] Target audience: Students who had not attended sessions in the library, or were not frequent library users. The 'unconverted'. New location (for us): Take the teaching to their location in an attempt to be as user-friendly as possible. Experiment with teaching in less formal environments. New group: We invited all parties with a vested interest in students' academic practice to take part:... Some helped with organising, some delivered teaching. Collaboration – as all the Aber projects listed are. I just want to make it clear that we always work with other teams and they also share the credit: ES&C, Customer Services, Academic Services, Monica our design genius etc. So won’t name-check throughout, too many involved, but just to be clear that these are IS projects not just us. New programme: Working with partners we put together a programme to take place on Wednesday 25th November 2009, concerned with covered various aspects of good academic practice - plagiarism, bibliographic referencing, critical use of reference sources, citation advice, and information about further support.
[Joy & Karl] Name: a pun, but which thematically drew all the content together: "Mind the GAP - avoid pitfalls with Good Academic Practice". The corresponding visual image (from a Creative Commons source that did not require attribution) and design of the posters reinforced the central message that we can help students avoid common mistakes. [Show big poster] Web 2.0 and the rest: We used every avenue of publicity, including Web 2.0. This was the first time we have used all those outlets for a single message. Flyer: We designed a programme flyer that was also a feedback form (partly for green reasons to save paper; it prevented clutter; and it enabled users to tick the session they attended and then just write on their comments). Information Station: We used the idea of an 'Information Station' ('Gorsaf Gwybodaeth'!) which would be outside of the venue where talks were taking place. Enthusiastic volunteers ran it with a laptop for demonstrating useful sources of information. This station was there to promote the events and explain what was going on, but also to offer informal help with aspects of good academic practice. Informal: emphasising that people could drop in and leave as they wished, they would not be trapped into staying or lambasted for dropping in partway through a session; we also did not implement any booking system for the event as an extension of this. Immediacy effect: On the day staff made announcements about the next session in computer rooms, cafes, bars, even to groups of practicing dancers, pool players and queues at cash points (i.e. anywhere with a captive audience!) Some of the students were pleasantly surprised that we were taking the time to seek them out and speak to them about sources of help and advice. Two levels: Note that as well as the way we marketed the event above, it should be remembered that the event itself was a way of marketing the library and the support services available, raising their profile. So there were two levels of promotion going on.
[Joy & Karl] Point and time of need: It is difficult to enthuse students unless what you offer is exactly at their point and time of need. Many students assume they already adopt good academic practice, and it only becomes a concern when they run into problems! For those students proactive events won't have an impact, and they rely on our safety net services instead. Spoke to those in bar – would have been interested but handed essays in and now weren’t thinking on to the next lot. Bookings: By not enforcing booking we were flexible and open, but it made managing attendance more difficult. Booking in future to allow us to move a session to a more appropriate location depending on the number of bookings, and allowing us to plan for the number of PCs/laptops needed for the hands-on sessions. Also there is the 'scarcity factor' - sometimes people don't value something just because it is free - bookings with limited places mean users will be more likely to have to consider if they will be missing out if they don't take advantage of the session. The date: We obviously considered things such as whether it is an essay time or reading week; whether it suits the departments and their timetables; and even weather forecasts for wind, rain and storms are vital. A Wednesday was chosen because then students have the least lectures, therefore potentially are free to attend an event - however we later found out that although the reasoning was sound, students apparently don't visit the Guild of Students so much on those days, and the building would have perhaps been busier on a normal weekday. Spread the risk: As a way of playing it safe it might make sense to avoid cramming everything into one day where unforeseen factors (such as a day of very cold weather) could have a greater effect. Might be better to spread the talks over a week, one a day - then each talk could be in an appropriate place (a PC room for hands-on workshops, an informal setting for group discussion, a lecture theatre for formal talks) rather than trying to find a 'one size fits all' solution.
[Joy] Aspects that we developed – more later: Collaborative skills training and partnerships “ We developed effective partnerships between the groups who where involved in preparation for the event, uniting us in a common purpose. These collaborative partnerships will be valuable in the future.” Information Station Aspects we repeated: Awards – apply for them, what have you got to lose? [Karl hold up trophy, AberUni CyMAL Marketing Awards HE winner 2009-10 …] What next? Take confidence from the outcomes and focus on further engagement with students
[Katrina] Love Your Library Day on 14th feb – tie in with Valentines Day! ASK developed by Subject teams Librarians/Information Systems Team and special mention to Alex Roberts – web master! ASK originally created by the University of Minnesota and first adopted by University of Staffordshire in the UK. Thanks to them for permission to develop the Swansea version.
ASK – ask.swan.ac.uk Students enter date for completion of an assignment and ASK generates dated steps for the students to follow. Simple but takes a lot of preparation by staff and will need constant reviewing for any changes to links, resources etc. Welsh version imminent!! So far we've had approx. 4,500 views on ASK.
Cupcakes, helium balloons [for which there was stiff competition between students at the end of the day!] Post it note feedback, also chance to feedback by twitter or text. Students emailed, on Facebook, News page, Twitter, sent to student newspaper – didn’t happen!! Staff informed of event in Tuesday 9-10 staff training hour and emailed 3/2/1 week in advance. Good participation with staff with pink wigs and boas making appearances Meant different dept staff working together; frontline/elearning/media/IT/library. Very good atmosphere!
Text wall displayed in Central hall. Tweets and texts monitored but nothing unsavoury. Fairly low numbers but new to students and us, would definitely use again to capture feedback.
Post it notes feedback. Some useful comments which helped to inform new developments in library funded via ‘Student experience’ monies e.g. study spaces increased, number of power outlets increased. Bear popular prize!
Cake/cupcakes appreciated by students and hard working ISS staff!
Just two comments from the feedback from the Libraries for Life Marketing Innovation Awards 2011 judges.
Some of the Marketing Group with Higher Education section award. Lessons learnt; badger student contacts, on reflection we could have been more ‘assertive’ in talking too student union/paper/radio but contacts now more fully developed. Hard when staff are doing the organising on top of their ‘day jobs’. Time; Sunday before was spent drawing hearts on windows and inflating balloons! Use staff talents. Rebecca Kelleher from deserves a special mention for her poster designs and cupcakes, Andrea Miller made the wordle cake, enthusiasts kept ISS staff informed and involved as much as possible. There will always be sceptics – but the students enjoyed it as did I!
[Karl] Induction is SO important to librarians. We want students' first experiences of the library to be informative but also enjoyable and engaging so that their associations with the building and resources are positive right from the start.
[Karl] Times have changed. Induction not about enforcing rules anymore. Increasingly people pay for education and expect to be treated well. [regs side from c. 1900]
[Karl] What we want is to create a good relationship from the start, so that the library isn’t seen as an irrelevant place which isn’t worth visiting. Our jobs depend on usage.
[Karl] Quotes from students - request for induction to be more flexible and welcoming, less authoritarian. ‘First positive experience’. As a result we re-thought every aspect of the undergraduate library induction: location, content, marketing, timetabling, technologies, seating.
[Any] Timetabling: For the first time, every student received a personalised email invitation to Welcome to the Library session. Yet not restricted to that, could drop in, all week. Also UG lib inductions not organised by faculty as in previous years. Instead the content of each session was generic and open to all disciplines. If they missed a session they could just go to another. Brought students from different faculties together which provided the opportunity for cross faculty interaction and networking. Beanbags: hired 40 beanbags from the GofS, created space and spread round. Area surrounded by books. Good for demos; links the library and teaching together; shelves and books acted as sound baffles; natural light and a view of the sea, open space bright and welcoming. (A choice, had another room with seats) Random pile of movable beanbags is a stark and welcoming contrast to the regimented line of chairs which say 'you will sit in this order because we have set it up this way'; also beanbags overlap so people sit in closer proximity if they wish, more social and inclusive. Informality and friendliness meant students were more receptive to our message. By the time we began the talk we had chatted with them and established a rapport. The whole thing felt better for both sides. Feedback: Also after a few years of declining physical access to the library this year we have seen a large increase in footfalls. For example we found that in comparison with Sept 2009, in 2010 we had: 50% extra users sitting in level D; 7,374 extra on the turnstile from Sept 2009 to 2010.
[Karl] Made a video. Break for speaker (and students), can be reused, also gives idea of library space. Incorporated video footage and a screencast to illustrate the process of finding a book in a more visual way. The film has been made available on our web pages and on YouTube but during the sessions we used high resolution versions with different soundtracks for variety. A large flat screen TV was placed in the open area connected to a laptop underneath for showing the video and presentation. Importance now of video/YouTube (e.g. exam skills event). Good for quick recording of talks like Psychology plagiarism, can be embedded in blogs. In recent JISC job one of the needs identified was more training – how to screencast, how to plan and edit video, how to share and repurpose. Some is easy, only tackle things like format conversion, compression rates etc once more confident.
[Any] V. quick. Just a selection.
[Any] V. quick.
[Any] CyMAL Marketing Awards ‘Highly Commended’ HE 2010-11 (hold up trophy – Katrina’s project won the proper prize) [No time to read it out]
[Karl]
[Joy & Katrina] Katrina: Focus groups held in 2009 informed content of PG courses, regular meetings with PG Office colleagues and the PG working group, part of the library Teaching group. Booking via PG office, courses advertised in the PG handbook and reminders sent by library staff. Certificates of attendance to add to their PG portfolio.
To develop our collaboration further with the University Student Support department after the Gap day experience, we liaised with our colleague there, John Morgan. Together we combined our existing study skills and information skills classes to offer a combined programme for Wednesday afternoons which students could attend some or all of. Given our focus on faculty teaching in semester one the project did not enjoy proper planning to dovetail both departmental approaches that it might have done, but we went for it anyway. We had 142 attendances to the information skills sessions. Classes included evaluating information for study, avoiding plagiarism, referencing software and finding everything on module reading lists. 100% positive feedback was received from the small number of students who completed the form, but we identified these issues needing our attention for semester 2. Although tools and techniques were available to address individual issues, we wanted a joined-up solution.
After investigating the options available to us, this came out on top. Our manager took our findings to the ALTO steering group and we were given leave go ahead. Our techie colleagues in the E-services team arranged self enrolling modules for UGs and PGs and showed me how to add the individual classes as groups. Students could sign up to those they wanted to attend once they had enrolled from a link on the programme page. We were able to monitor bookings so that appropriate rooms and staff numbers could be sourced Tutors could generate registers and send reminders and follow up emails all those booked for classes Course content could be uploaded anytime I was able to author and cascade procedures to all the tutors so admin could be shared. We collaborated with our E-services colleagues again on a new Bristol Online survey to gather the qualitative feedback we needed. They added a link at the end of it, jumping to a short form on the Aber web site so students could request a certificate of attendance while their feedback remained anonymous. We noted this in the class follow-up emails as an incentive to complete the feedback.
Our media and print services did some lovely design work for us on posters and flyers Our gap day friends in the Guild retweeted and reposted for us and put up our posters. Despite the Undergraduate programme being a semester one repeat we had nearly 50 students self-enrol.
We asked what they liked best – this is what they said We also asked who they would improve it Printouts of slides, more interaction between groups, exercises as homework, combine with writing session on the same topic
This is a summary of our recommendations which have been tabled for discussion (at Academic Affairs) More detail – [Avoid duplication of effort by using freely available content ] such as open educational resources and pre-existing or re-usable locally-created content as required, in the form of web pages, presentations, audio/video and self-assessed exercises and activities. Some, in the field of information literacy, are being developed already by Academic Services through a successful Learning & Teaching Enhancement Fund bid (I-ROME). [To be viewed as one of a range of linked services from Information Services supporting the learner] filling research skills gaps together with web-based “tools and knowledge” advice, induction, subject-embedded teaching, one-to-one help, I-ROME and student consultation.
[Joy]
[Sahm]
[Sahm]
[Sahm]
[Sahm & Joy] Using technology mediated and multimedia-rich content Widening access Enhancing mobile learning opportunities
[Sahm & Joy]
[Sahm & Joy] Popup counter
[Karl] One of our seasonal promotions (includes 12 tweets of Christmas, World Book Day promotions March 3rd, summer postcards from departing students to new students - “Wish somebody had told me…” - 2nd May onwards) Wednesday February 9. The point of the event is to engage those students who don’t use the library by highlighting resources and breaking away from the traditional, ‘stuffy image’. Collaboration - stalls run by partners in the University e.g. Welcome Centre, Guild, Careers, Bookshop.
[Karl] Preliminary vox pops: Volunteers interviewed about their exam experiences and revision: how did the exams go; what do they wish they had known; what tips can they pass on etc. Free printer credit. Put it together as a film, basis for Q&A discussion panel with a panel of experts.
[Karl] Exam Skills Conga! Example of crazy ideas that could just work… Director wheeling a trolley full of books along the front followed by students and the bravest staff. “As we meander through the library, staff are in strategic positions to point out the various interesting IS services available to support exam revision.”
[Joy] Prize draws. Everyone who attends will be given a raffle ticket, Kindle. Fancy dress and winner. Was lots of free food too.
[Joy] Thursday 12th May, EuroFun Day 2011: a celebration of Europe Day organised by the Centre for European Studies (CES), Aberystwyth University. A variety of activities, including information stalls, a selection of European food, a concert, a photography exhibition and movie screenings. The European Documentation Centre at Aberystwyth University (AU) can be found in the Law Library. Opportunity therefore – work with others, AND promote our resources, benefit our usage and those who need info on that topic. The information monitors/plasma screens showcasing the event.
[Karl] Music in the hall.
[Joy] EDC-themed stall in the Arts Centre with leaflets, posters and sweets, laptop, quiz… Trail from there…
[Karl] Demo it: "The Eurovision Song Contest has been broadcast every year since 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world." QR code trail with Euro Fun Facts – placed at intervals in the HOL and leading to the EDC. Posters, bunting, balloons etc it identify stations. 6 points directing them from building to building. As with all material, bilingual, so Welsh and English QR codes.
[Joy] Ended at Law Library, chance to visit the EDC, look at some materials etc. Another stall there, staffed.
[Karl] EDC quiz testing people's knowledge of the European Union with book vouchers for the winners. A visit to the EDC was necessary to answer some of the questions.
[Karl] Europe quiz tie breaker: come up with a rhyming couplet about Europe.
[Any] Last point? Importance of good visual design, have lots of examples out (posters, postcards, fliers etc; zoning bookmarks; ‘I study here’ postcards for int. students, a way of contacting their parents, and making a connection between study and the library, and as temporary bookmarks. Feel free to browse.