Libraries are running two spaces - physical and virtual. The e-Library or library's online presence is not the traditional library website. What new roles and skills are required to run a virtual library?

1. Managing Your Library’s
Online Presence
SuHui Ho (Pronounced Sue-Way Ho)
Digital Services Librarian,
Science & Engineering Library
University of California, San Diego

2. Outline
• Brick & mortar library v.s. e-Library
• Definition of e-Library
• What it takes to create an e-Library that has
real impact
• New roles and skills

3. Once upon a time there was

4. Now there is

5. Once upon a time there was

6. Now there is

7. Once upon a time, there was

8. Now there is
.com

9. • Brick & Mortar Business
– Physical presence
– Face to face consumer experiences
• E-Commerce
– Buy and sell products or services online
– Some entirely online
– Transportation of physical items
– Combination
- Wikipedia

10. We Have Moved Online
• Collections
• Services Self Help • Catalog, databases, interlibrary
loan, renew materials
Reference • Email, Chat, Text
• Online guides/LibGuides
Instruction • Camtasia videos
Outreach

11. B&M Library Coexists with
the e-Library

12. Current State of the Library
• B&M Library
– InfoCommon/Learning Common
– Warehouse of books
• E-Library - information access
– Searching tools -catalog, databases, Google
– Collection: ejournals, ebooks
– Services

13. • University of Chicago’s underground storage
facility – stores 3.5 million copies
Image from http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/05/robot-powered-mansueto-library/

14. The web has fundamentally changed the way
library conducts its business.
Library website - front door and busiest service
point.

15. Library’s Online Presence
Web Library
Virtual Library Library Website
e-Library
Online Library
Library
in the cloud
Digital Branch

16. e-Library Definition
– Library’s online presence
– Library’s collections and services delivered online
– Co-exists with the brick-and-mortar library
– Many components:
• Library’s website
• Library’s mobile site
• Library’s catalog and databases
• e-Collection
• Library’s Twitter
• Library’s Facebook
• Library’s blog
• LibGuides
• e-Services
• And more

17. It is not the traditional library website.
• A brochureware
• Inform
• Direct users to physical library
• Complementary
• Secondary

18. How well does the library
staff this e-Library?
• No full time web staff
• No knowledge of new roles and function

19. “Many library spaces and services revolve
around the book stacks”
– Dr. Robert Schwarzwalder, Associate Univ. Librarian, Stanford

20. e-Library Management Roles and
Functions
• e-Services
• Website Management – container/building
– Website interface design
– Information architecture
– Usability study
– Content life cycle management
– Metrics
– Search engine optimization
– IT: Programming, database & sever administration

21. Interface Design
– Professionalism and trust
– Roles: graphic artists, animators, multimedia designers
– House – Interior design

22. Information Goal: Help users
complete simple,
common tasks in a fast,
Architecture efficient manner.

23. Context-
sensitive
design

24. Usability Study
• Easy to use or learn?
• Goal:
– How users interact with product?
– Where to improve?
• Usability test – a technique
• Role – usability analyst

25. Information Technology
• Programming
• Content management system
• Database & sever administration

26. Building the e-Library
• Library website = Library building
• Interface design = Interior design
• Information architecture = Space planning
• IT = foundation

27. Yet, many libraries stop here.
= leave after building is
completed, furniture arrives,
and books are on shelf.
Let the building run by itself
or ask your director to run it
by him/herself.

28. Website Management
Building Managing
• Information • Content life cycle
architecture management
• Interface design • Metrics
• Usability study • Search engine
• IT optimization
• New technologies
• Usability study
• IT

29. Content
– Librarians become authors
– Locally-authored digital content
• Web pages
• Mobile site pages
• Blogs
• Online instruction
• Videos
• Content in social media

30. Content Life Cycle Management
• Strategize – audience, voice, relevancy
• Create – writing for the web
• Review
• Update
Dirty Data
• Delete
• Archive

31. The Problem of Dirty Data
United Airlines
Lost $1 billion in value
Cause: a six-year-old story in Google News

32. Each page has an owner.

33. Website Metrics
Goal:
Understand
user
behaviors in
your website

34. Search Engine Optimization
Goal:
Top
ranking in
Google
search

35. New Spaces, New Challenges & Opportunities
Brick & Mortar Library e-Library
Space planning Web interface design
Information architecture
Usability study
IT: desktop support IT: web programming, database & server
administration
No equivalent Content life cycle management
Gate counts Website metrics, e-resources statistics,
catalog search statistics, online instruction
statistics
No equivalent Search engine optimization
Goal: help people find information Goal: help people find information

36. e-Services
Brick & Mortar Library e-Library
Circulation - get the resources Access the resources - navigation to e-
books, e-journals
e-problem troubleshooting
Remote access
Reference – reference desk e-Reference: chat, email, IM, text
Instruction – classes in the library Context-sensitive guides, tutorials,
podcasts, LibGuides
Outreach – exhibits in the library Videos, multimedia, slideshows,
Facebook, Flickr, Tweeter, Youtube
Collection Buying e-content, e-resources statistics,
Subject portals

37. It takes a village to
build, staff, and manage
an e-Library.
Staffing Model?

38. “The greatest impact of the Internet is likely to
come over the next decade as it starts to
reshape the traditional management
processes and structures that are used to run
large-scale institutions.”
Gary Hamel, “REINVENTING MANAGEMENT FOR A NETWORKED WORLD
“Educause, Oct. 13, 2010

39. e-Library Strategy
• An e-Library strategy aligned with the library’s
overall business strategy.
• e-Library to be an equally important, if not
more important, part of the library.
• Recognize new roles
• Budget and staff for this space

40. 7 Habits of a Successful e-Library
1. Has an e-Library strategy that is aligned with the
library’s overall business strategy.
2. Professionally managed from the most senior level
down and staffed by not only web staff but also most
public and technical services staff.
3. Has a website content life cycle management plan.
4. Adheres to information architecture, user experience
and web design principles.
5. Attention to metrics and usage pattern analysis.
6. Attention to search engine optimization.
7. e-Services actively managed.

41. Resources
“The Discipline of Content Strategy” by Kristina Halvorson
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/thedisciplinofcontentstrategy/
“Using Google Analytics for Improving Library Website Content
and Design: A Case Study”- by Wei Fang, Digital Services
Librarian, Rutgers-Newark Law Library for the Center of Law
and Justice
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/fang.htm

42. Questions?
• Email: suho@ucsd.edu
• Slides at http://www.slideshare.net/shh2/