Recommended Readings
Avery, Susan, Jim Hahn and Melissa Zilic. 2008. Beyond consultation: A New model for librarian’s office hours. Public Services Quarterly 4 (3). * In-depth discussion of office hours with section on marketing. Lee, Deborah O. 2005. Marketing resources for the busy librarian. College & Undergraduate Libraries 12 (1/2): 81-91.** Mostly a thorough annotated bibliography. McGeachin, Robert B. and Diana Ramirez. 2005. Collaborating with students to develop an advertising campaign. College & Undergraduate Libraries 12 (1/2): 139-152.** Article on how a library worked with a student chapter of an advertising group to promote e-books. Nims, Julia K. 1999. Marketing library instruction services: Changes and trends. Reference Services Review 27 (3): 249-253. Overview of marketing for instruction with a good bibliography. Withers, Rob. 2005. Getting the word out: Publicizing library programs and services to the community. College & Undergraduate Libraries 12 (1/2): 3545.** A great article that provides the dos and don’ts of marketing.
* This is the anticipated published volume. Page numbers yet to be determined. ** Notice these are from the same volume, which is an entire issue on marketing in libraries.
o f Il li n o is U n iv er si ty ra ry d u a te L ib U n d er g ra
for Program Promotion
Lora Smallman is the Instruction Graduate Assistant at the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois. She hopes to continue working in instructional services at either a community college library or academic library. Susan Avery, Instructional Services Librarian, continues to offer guidance to Lora as she completes her graduate program. E-mail: smallman@uiuc.edu For templates and handouts, visit: http://courseweb.lis.uiuc.edu/~smallman/blueprints
Librarian’s Office Hours
University of Illinois Undergraduate Library
By Lora Smallman
Introduction
Librarian’s Office Hours is a new service model for research counseling. At the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois, it is a drop-in service offered to all students, though targeted towards undergraduates. The service is offered twice a week for eight weeks each semester and is drawing larger audiences every year. What follows is a promotional program from the Spring 2008 semester, with tips and advice to apply to any marketing campaign for instructional services.
Design
The content on a flyer or any promotional item is crucial to the project. The information should be concise, easy to read, and informative all at the same time. In order to accomplish this, one needs to ask the following questions:
Construction and Distribution
The final step in a promotion project is determining what types of materials to use for the design, how much to make of it and where to distribute it. With Librarian’s Office Hours, flyers were made and posted around campus on approved bulletin boards and left at library service points. The table tents were used within the library and it was arranged in advance with the dining halls to display them there, too. Both were printed through the school’s printing service, which comes out of the budget. A survey of students participating in Librarian’s Office Hours conducted in the Spring 2008 semester revealed that advertising by word of mouth is still very effective. Emails were sent to instructors of composition classes in hopes that students would be encouraged to attend. A no-cost way to bring in students! The survey* asked how students heard about the service and the results showed: 46% 27% 15% 10% 8% 6% Were recommended by an instructor Heard a PA announcement Saw a flyer Saw a table tent in the dining halls Stated other Were recommended by a friend
Planning
Choosing a theme helps a promotion project stay focused and makes it a fun and creative activity. For the Spring 2008 semester, brainstorming determined a theme surrounding pop culture, reality television, and Project Runway. After choosing a theme, find images to help trigger catchy phrases to use in designing materials. Search for free images on websites such as www.flickr.com or through Creative Commons in order to avoid ambiguity surrounding Fair Use. Using even the simplest software program such as Microsoft Word will make Flickr photo courtesy of any project look more user Cindiann. professional. If feeling ambitious, Microsoft Publisher is a user-friendly program that is helpful for layout and design. This brochure was made with it!
• • • •
For whom is the service intended? What is the service and/or what is provided? When and where is the service offered? How can one get more information about the service?
The layout of a flyer or table tent should be eye-catching, easy to understand and visually appealing. For Librarian’s Office Hours, the library focuses design on flyers and table tents. For these an image with a catchy phrase is placed towards the top, and the questions listed above are answered below the image. For the Spring 2008 semester, the phrase, “Get on TOP of your research” was used with the image to the left. For help with layout, use templates in programs like Microsoft Publisher . Libraries that have public address (PA) systems can reach patrons with announcements, particularly if they are short, witty and informative. Prior to and during Librarian’s Office Hours an announcement such as the following is used: “Hey Students! Is your research feeling less than fierce this semester? Then get on top of it with help from the experts right now in room 291 in the Undergrad Library from 3-5!”
*Percentages add up to 112% because four students gave more than one answer.
Turn page for a list of recommended readings