The Library Liaison Program Needs Web 2.0
Submitted by suzannemangrum on Wed, 2007-01-10 20:45.
I am a collection development/assessment librarian at the Middle Tennessee State University Library in Murfreesboro, TN. And it's a killer job! In addition to selection and assessment, there's a fair bit of public relations activity involved. I am responsible for the liaison program which consists of 5 other librarians and 39 faculty representatives. We depend on many of the faculty reps. to purchase materials in their areas. And just like serials and reference, ordering and collection development are moving online. Unfortunately, many of the reps. are uncomfortable with the online tools. I created a blog this summer to post all of the resources that a faculty representative could want, but no one is really interested. The tools are not being used to their full capability, and the collaboration/interaction is also less that I think it should be. I need to find a more dynamic way to push the information to them and get them interested in interacting with me.
I also think that our library in general could use some help making use of all of the new technology to get information to the students. We are green with envy over some of the cool RSS things other schools are doing with subject guides and course management systems, but no one really has the expertise to do anything like that....at least not yet. I am hoping this course will give us a start in that direction.
»
- suzannemangrum's blog
- Login to post comments
Getting faculty on-board with technology...
can be a very difficult thing. I think one way to sell faculty on a new technology is to focus less on the technology and more on how it will benefit them. I remember when I first started my current job, I'd created a blog in an effort to improve communication between the library, academic computing and the distance learning programs. Unfortunately, there were very few people actually interested in posting to it. I think it's often not about selling faculty on a technology, but on finding the right tool for the right job.
Putting the content where your users are is another important consideration; people often won't go to another site to read something like a blog. We now have a news blog at our library. However, no one actually knows that it's a blog because we're taking the RSS feed from the blog and are syndicating the content using Feed2JS on our regular Web page.
Going to the Faculty
I think one of the hardest things is integrating the technology into places the faculty already visit. At MPOW, we have some web 2.0 tools on out site but they are spread out and not always easy to find. We are working on changing the way we present our information. *fingers crossed*
I like Meredith's comment
I like Meredith's comment about "finding the right tool for the right job", not selling a technology. That makes intuitive sense to me. And I anticipate a similar problem with getting faculty on-board with new tools, or just with getting them to communicate with us. I'm hoping the panelists and facilitators (and participants!) will have some ideas about successful methods of getting faculty involved...online or in person.--Shireen
Yeah, I think the main issue
Yeah, I think the main issue is communication. A great new blog isn't going to solve all problems if the level of communication was already low. My liaisons are driven by necessity. I have had more conversations with liaisons this week because I canceled the order cards from our main vendor and created an online account for each liaison so that he or she could view the "cards" online. Since they had to, they have asked a lot of questions about the new system this week. But they all seem ok with moving this aspect of their liaison duties online. I have only had one negative response so far.
I really appreciate the RSS feed information, Meredith. That's our dream. Part of me (the wiser part) thinks that I need to be realistic and just work on building relationships. But the other part of me thinks that if I can learn how to work enough mojo in the background, the faculty liaisons will be overcome by the grand resouces before them and redouble their collection development efforts. *sigh* If only....
Sorry to be late in
Sorry to be late in responding to this. Don't give up on those faculty members yet. Sometimes they just need to get their feet wet slowly so to speak. We weren't sure if anyone was looking at our blog and then went to a department meeting and heard there are several faculty members who check it regularly. The other thing that came out of that meeting was that different members appreciated different forms of communication. So give it to them several ways if you can and just keep working at it! Rita