I was pleased to be able to attend CoFHE Mid-West/UC&R’s recent event “Tell us what you want (what you really, really want…): Library surveys and promotion on a shoestring”. The morning session looked at ways of getting user feedback through surveys and focus groups, and the afternoon focused on marketing initiatives to promote academic library services. Despite an interesting journey (Kassam Stadium is very hidden and not easy to find from the bus service out of Oxford), I managed to find my way there having found other delegates on the same bus!

Following tea, coffee and biscuits (and allowing time for presentations to be converted to the correct Word format!), the day began with a presentation from Anne Rowlands and Stephen Cullimore from Barnet College. They shared their experiences of using surveys and shared some good practice about the structure of a questionnaire, when and how to do it, and the types of questions to ask (e.g. open, closed, free text). At Barnet College they were interested in getting user feedback about their Learning Centres and devised a short 4 question survey which automatically loaded when users logged onto a PC (once for each user). Using this method they gathered 2600 responses; a higher response rate that the general student satisfaction survey at the college. Some of the data may shape the future of the service, although Anne stressed the importance of using a trial period (e.g. if students request longer opening hours) to assess and evaluate whether the change is feasible and if real use reflects the views expressed in the survey. Anne and Stephen hope to further their work to ensure they reach a wider audience (their current feedback was only from those who used the PCs in the Learning Centre in a certain period of time which could have skewed their results). They also hope to use the data to feed into “You say, we say” displays to demonstrate the importance of user feedback.

The next presentation was about focus groups, by Jan Haines from Oxford Brookes University. Jan’s talk was particularly interesting for me as I’m interested in learning more about how focus groups can be used and how to run them. She discussed the advantages of a focus group – qualitative, subjective feedback where the group can build on other’s ideas and are often more willing to talk than in an individual interview. Jan recommended using focus groups when you require in-depth information on a particular area, and using a group who share something in common. She went on to share some advice on the who, what, where, and when of planning and focus group as well as some advice on publicity and promotion, what to do on the day (before, during and after), and how to analyse the data and provide feedback to users (both those involved in the focus groups and those the decisions may impact upon). Unfortunately, despite all this research and forethought, Oxford Brookes still struggled to get participants for their focus group, highlighting how difficult this methodology can be (this issue was also raised recently at Middlemash, where Owen Stephens and others shared their experiences of lack of interested participants and no shows in their own focus groups). Jan’s presentation was really interesting and certainly gave me a lot to think about in practical terms of using focus groups.

We broke for lunch at this point – excellent variety although sadly a lack of labels (people are always interested in a food report so wouldn’t want to miss out that important point!). The afternoon session was handed over to Terry Kendrick, who was previously a librarian and now combines consultancy work with employment as a lecturer in marketing. His credentials certainly made him appropriate for a marketing event about libraries, and he didn’t disappoint.

Terry began with some basic principles of marketing, and a particularly eye-opening task. He asked us to think about the last time we studied for a course and asked it to think about the main reasons for doing it. He separated us into two groups; those who were passionate about the subject and just wanted to learn more, and those who were interested in the subject but mainly did it to get a qualification. Needless to say, the majority of the room (including myself) moved to the latter group. Terry then pointed out that if libraries market themselves by talking about all their “stuff”, our message will only interest the small minority that are incredibly passionate and always want to know more. If we want to reach the other group, we need to tailor our messages for their needs – being able to save time for example, or improve grades. This message really stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since – as both an undergraduate and postgraduate student, I didn’t use the library that much. I use electronic resources, and as an undergraduate I spent a lot of time in the library to use the PCs (in the days before internet access in halls of residence!), but I didn’t take advantage of many of the library services that were no doubt available to me. I’m now analysing our marketing far more – how would I market to someone like myself?

The afternoon was packed full of lots of activities and sharing ideas for marketing initiatives, with a particular focus on word of mouth marketing. Terry stressed the power a good testimonial can have in terms of marketing, particularly if the message is from someone that users see as having similar needs to themselves. We need to give our users a reason to talk about the library and build active communication channels to enable these interactions. One such example of these is the frequently seen “Share this with a friend” type features on the web (for example, I use ShareThis on my blog – but can you do this on your library website and online catalogue?).

Another key message I took from the afternoon was the importance of how we contact users, with what message, and when. This is something I am particularly interested in – I support the work of my boyfriend’s marketing business two days a week, and it leads to some interesting conversations. I come from a more service-based environment, mainly B2C (business to consumer), whereas my boyfriend mainly works in the B2B (business to business) market, primarily supporting products rather than services. One of the things we agree on (yes, despite these differences a lot of our ideas about marketing are fundamentally the same!) with regards to marketing is the growing importance of relationship marketing. Terry emphasised elements of this by pointing out that if the library sends mass emails, people may well see this as an intrusion, and if it is not relevant to them at that particular moment (highly likely!), they will begin to think of the library brand as one which is an irritant to them and not very helpful. Over time, this can have a massive effect on the brand perception of the library, and we therefore need to think very carefully about the messages we convey, how, and when. In particular, we need to make sure they are relevant and timely.

As you can probably tell, I got a lot out of the training event and would thoroughly recommend going to one of Terry’s sessions if you get the opportunity. A lot of the areas covered have stayed with me and made me think critically about our own marketing efforts. The morning sessions were also very interesting, particularly as they each focussed on a certain technique common to library marketing research. I also met some fantastic people – the table I sat on had some fascinating conversations, both from an FE and a HE perspective, and it was really interesting to share our thoughts and experiences and discuss new ideas to improve marketing within our institutions. Many thanks to CoFHE Mid West/UC&R for organising such an enjoyable event!

On Wednesday I attended a CoFHE event at the Open University in Milton Keynes.

The event was titled “The Terrible 2.0s? Web 2.0 without tears” and covered a variety of Web 2.0 topics such as podcasting, blogging, wikis and social software in general.

The keynote speaker was Peter Godwin, who started the event with a talk on Information Literacy and the Google Generation. Peter’s presentation was very interesting with lots of thought-provoking points made about today’s students (like those made in the CIBER report earlier this year). The main theme emerging from the talk was how today’s students are visual learners who like to learn in small chunks. Like Peter admitted though, doesn’t that describe a lot of us? Definitely something to think about when I’m next preparing material on “boring” (Peter’s words not mine!) topics such as Information Literacy though! He also included one of me favourite YouTube videos, A Vision of Students Today, which it was great to see again. Here it is for anyone that hasn’t yet seen it, really made me think when I first saw it:

I’ve previously written about Peter’s book which he co-edited with Jo Parker, Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0, but just to highlight it again, it really is a very interesting read for anyone involved in teaching information literacy skills.

The next talk was by Jane Knight and Steve Burholt from Oxford Brookes. They shared their experiences of podcasting for libraries from both a librarian and a techy point of view. I found this approach very interesting, it was good to hear about the practical experience for the librarian but was very refreshing to also hear from the techy side. I think it made a lot of us in the room (including myself) realise how much effort is needed to successfully implement a regular podcast for the library. The enthusiasm of the group from Oxford Brookes is certainly to be commended! You can view a copy of the slides for the presentation here.

We then had a break for lunch, which was a great opportunity for networking. I had a number of interesting conversations with other people at the event, mainly discussing new technologies and examples of good practice, as well as the inevitable hurdles people are encountering when trying to implement these new Web 2.0 technologies.

After lunch we had a session on social software by Christian Cooper, a lecturer from Thames Valley University who favours a social constructivist approach to teaching and learning. He discussed educational uses of social software including group critiques (particularly useful for Art and Design students), reflective journals and collaborative learning. The main content of his presentation concentrated on the use of blogging as a tool for learning by encouraging students to use it as a reflective journal of their learning experiences. You can view a copy of the presentation here.

Following a short CoFHE AGM, we then had the opportunity to have a guided tour of the Open University library, and explore the DigiLab, a room within the library for all OU staff and researchers to use to encourage them to explore new technologies and think about how they can apply these technologies to learning.

The DigiLab visit was my personal highlight of the day. Keren Mills, Digital Services Development Officer, gave us a brief introduction to the room and the main purposes of it before taking us to have a look. The room contains different areas of new technologies – it has an area for gaming (including a Wii, Xbox and Playstation2 amongst others), a PC area (for both gaming and advanced software packages), a Mac area (for podcasting, video editing etc.), and a mobile learning area (with PDAs and Smartphones). There are also a number of publications for general interest (I’d be in heaven in there with all the geeky magazines!), as well as copies of reports demonstrating how the technologies can be used (e.g. there was a report on mobile learning and some factsheets for anyone who is new to the area). The room is designed to be a creative space and is very informal in nature, it has comfy chairs and even Lego, plasticine and pipe cleaners to encourage creativity! What I particularly liked about the space was that it is open whenever the library is open and anyone is free to use the facilities whenever they want to. When we first went into the room, there was a group gathered around the Macs and PCs discussing their project on Second Life and it was great to see academics and researchers really embracing the new technologies and thinking about ways to use them to improve learning. The room is still in its infancy and Keren says there are still some concerns from staff that trying these new gadgets is just playing rather than working. I think for the majority of people that have visited the lab though, it is clear that it is an educational space and I hope more academics will take the opportunity to visit it and use the technologies. OU is a pioneer in this sort of thing, but I really hope we see similar schemes being set up in other Universities.

At the end of the day I had a brief tour of the Open University library, which I hadn’t realised had only quite recently been opened for students and the general public (when I say recent, I’m talking years not months, but I’d always naively assumed that all academic libraries were mainly used by students). I was surprised at how relatively small the stock area of the library is, but I hadn’t realised that OU don’t offer a postal lending scheme so the stock they have is only really for academic staff and local students. I can see why they don’t have a postal loan scheme as I’m sure it would be a logistical nightmare, as well as very expensive. Aberystwyth currently offer this for their distance learning students (I’ve never used it though to be perfectly honest!) but then they don’t have anywhere near the student numbers of the OU studying from a distance. It really highlights the importance of schemes such as the SCONUL Access scheme to allow students to borrow or at least use the material at their local libraries, and also the importance of providing access to e-books and e-journals so that OU students can access material from home. The OU Information Helpdesk is in the staff office too, as all their enquiries are taken by phone, e-mail or online chat. It was very interesting to see an academic library which supports a totally different user base to the traditional academic library. I think we were all a little bit envious of not having to deal with group study room bookings and various other annoying things, but I’m sure there are the fair share of problems working with student from such a distance!

All in all it was a very enjoyable day with a good mix of sessions and great networking opportunities. I also happened to meet fellow blogger Clari who works at the Open University, it was nice to meet her in real life.