Digitalist life in the library

1. 

   knihovnik2000
   January 25th, 2010 - 23:27

   I agree with your take on the value of pro-activity. I work in a more corporate environment, where (arguably) it can be more difficult to raise awareness of the value of the library and a librarian’s wide-ranging skills set.

   Where I work all new starters are invited to a library induction, where they get a personalised introduction to the library and the resources it offers (including myself!). As my role within the organisation also contains knowledge and information management elements I take the opportunity to blend these topics into the induction, thus providing a broader view of the role/skills/value of the librarian-information-knowledge officer. Additionally, I briefly introduce other functions of out team (e.g. records management and archives) so that the inductee has an holistic view of our role within the organisation.

   Some people may not attend these sessions for one reason or another, but we tend to catch them at another induction session we run for new starters, introducing some of our internal systems and information assets. Though this focuses on a different aspect of our work we again have the opportunity to introduce the other elements to inductees, thus providing the holistic view I mentioned above, but from a different starting point.

   Being pro-active in this way really pays off, and I think it helps to explode any myths, stereotypes or preconceptions that our colleagues may have about the work we do. The personal contact that we have with new starters also seems to be appreciated, and certainly helps with building relationships across the organisation.
2. 

   JamesM
   January 26th, 2010 - 10:10

   Emma thanks for posting about this subject. Really interesting and sadly all too true. I agree with knihovnik2000 in that within a corporate environment it can be EVEN more difficult to raise awareness of the value of the library/information service. All too often libraries are looked as an overhead when actually the can be a real draw and something to talk to clients about, especially if the library is able to offer “services” to clients.

   I also feel that Librarians in corporate organisations need to go beyond their traditional roles and offer more, much more. For example something we’re developing at the moment is training on using LinkedIn and Twitter, definitely not what I would consider a traditional training subject, but what happens when we deliver this training is that we interact with the people who have much more influence within the firm, the partners, the senior associates and the directors.

   As knihovnik2000 suggests we need to be much more proactive about how we sell ourselves/market ourselves within our work environments, otherwise we’ll just be ignored.
3. 

   Libreaction
   January 26th, 2010 - 15:41

   When I was at Said we provided a faculty induction to establish information needs, but I think this might have got lost due to the high staff turnover. Here at Judge we are also now timetabled in to meet faculty early on and we always hold these sessions in their offices. Vital start to the relationship.
4. 

   Emma Cragg
   January 27th, 2010 - 12:52

   Thank you all for your comments. This topic is definitely something on every librarians mind at the moment with questions of relevancy and with the threat of job cuts.

   knihovnik2000 and James I think you’re right about it being harder in the corporate world. I think in academic libraries we are lucky that the library is seen to have a central role within the University.

   The difficulty for us is to convince people that we offer more than just access to resources. In my mind the only way to do that is to develop our services to meet our users needs and to try to get one of our core services, that of information skills training, embedded within the teaching programme.
5. 

   thewikiman
   January 28th, 2010 - 14:40

   This is really interesting. What you were saying about doing more than just sending out the welcome packs – the trouble is, a lot of communication methods now are very non-intrusive, which is great for many reasons but not neccessarily that great when you’re trying to draw someone in to the library and alert them to its and your value.

   Following up the pack with a phonecall would maybe make a real impact, as the immediacy of the method of communication forces people to engage. But on the downside, it might annoy people, and I personally don’t think I would be able to put the idea into practice very well… There’s something about phone-calls these days that seems sort of almost *too* proactive… I dunno, I guess it’s because unlike many other forms of communication, you don’t get the chance to do things on your own terms. With an email you read it, assess it, reply in your own time. When your office phone rings you have to pick it up and engage with it whatever the circumstances, and with no prep.

   But anyway, it’s worth thinking about I reckon. The phone is a pretty powerful way to get things done / noticed, for all the good and bad reasons above.
6. 

   Emma Cragg
   February 1st, 2010 - 19:37

   Thanks for your comment Ned.

   I agree that phone calls and office visits might be seen as annoying. I am definitely more of a fan of emails so that people have a chance to think before they respond. However, I think if we’re not willing to be proactive or even pushy in those first encounters then we’re never going to get seen and the people we need to get our message to early on aren’t going to hear us.

   I think you sum it up perfectly with your last comment.

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