ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C & R L N e w s ■ F e b r u a r y 2001 / 193 C o l l e g e & R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s n s n e w s Promoting library services to campus administrative offices A new approach and a new tool by Jian Wang A search o f “Library Literature”1 indicates that much has been w ritten about uni­ versity library services provided to students and faculty. However, as of this writing, no literature addresses issues on prom oting uni­ versity library services to the subset of n o n ­ academic offices on campus, suggesting that campus administrative offices are often ne­ glected and underserved by the library. This article describes a pilot project, u n ­ dertaken at the University o f Michigan at Dearborn’s (UMD) Mardigian Library, to ex­ tend information services and resources to this neglected user group. It demonstrates the implications o f the changing nature of library services for academic librarians w ho are chal­ lenged to think and act like entrepreneurs in meeting the increased and changing needs of all user groups on campus. Background UMD is a m edium -sized urb an university serving a stu d en t p o p u latio n o f ap p ro x i­ mately 8,000. T he U niversity Library has more than 30 full-time staff mem bers includ­ ing 12 librarians. Public services librarians work with teaching faculty to support teach­ ing, learning, and research activities at the university, while technical services librarians are almost invisible because o f the nature of their work. In 1998, T im othy F. Richards, library di­ recto r at the M ardigian Library, initiated a p ilo t p roject to ex p lo re p o te n tia l o p p o rtu ­ nities for m arketing an d pro m o tin g library services an d reso u rces to a w id er cam pus com m unity. The goals o f th e p ilot project w ere 1) to establish relationships w ith cam ­ p u s gro u p s b ey o n d th e teaching faculty, 2) to en h a n c e library services to cam pus adm inistrative offices, a n d 3) to increase the visibility of technical services librar­ ians o n cam pus. I w as assigned to w ork o n this project w ith the help o f a library administrative as­ sistant. O ur first target group chosen was the Office o f Institutional R esearch (OIR) at UMD. OIR has five full-time staff mem bers. Their primary responsibility is to conduct studies on such topics as student retention, enrollm ent, graduation rates, and academ ic program s to facilitate institutional planning, and to support decision-making affecting the university. Because OIR staff rely heavily o n data, statistics, and research information to per­ form their work, there is always a n eed for information. The librarians thought that a project such as this w ould b e helpful to OIR staff. Furthermore, the head o f OIR w as very supportive, too, in agreeing to a trial of this pilot project. About th e a u th o r Jian Wang is serials catalog librarian at Portland State University; e-mail: jian@pdx.edu mailto:jian@pdx.edu 1 9 4 / C & R L N e w s ■ F e b r u a r y 2001 Table 1. In fo rm a tio n N eeds S u rv e y Q u estio n n aire • W hat are y o u r d ep artm en t’s goals? • W hat are the to p five ongoing projects in your department? • W hat inform ation d o you use at work? (C heck all that apply.) ----- D ocum ents ------ Data -----Facts ------ Ideas • W hat inform ation w o u ld b e of m ost interest to you? Statistics o n … D ata o n … Inform ation o n … Ideas o n … Facts o n … H elp o n … • If w e could provide y o u w ith the inform ation you need, h o w w o u ld you like to receive it? (C heck all th a t apply.) ___ E-mail ____P hone Brochure ___ Fax ------Web Needs a sse ssm e n ts To provide th e best service, it is essential to understand the inform ation need s o f a given target group. I decid ed to start w ith need s assessm ent as the first step o f the project to gain a better understanding o f the inform a­ tion need s o f the OIR staff. I thought that using an inform ation needs survey w o u ld be a helpful tool in identifying the information requirem ents, expectations, an d priorities of the OIR. I consulted the library literature first, in the ho pes o f finding an appropriate survey instrum ent. However, not being able to find one suitable to the p urp ose o f the project, I designed my ow n questionnaire (see table 1), w hich w as to be u se d for soliciting infor­ mation. Before m eeting w ith the OIR staff, I sent the questionnaire to them w ith the h o p e that it w ou ld help th em generate ideas about their inform ation needs. T hen I scheduled a follow -up m eeting w ith the OIR staff to dis­ cuss their needs. E x ch a n g e o f ideas After the OIR staff h a d a chance to review the survey questionnaire an d discuss the is­ sues am ong them selves, the library adm inis­ trative assistant and I interviewed them at their office. The interview lasted less than one h ou r w ith very g ood re ­ sults. We explained o u r p urp o se for carrying out this pilot project. Then the OIR staff m em bers d e ­ scribed w h at they did at w ork, w h a t th e ir p ro je c ts a n d goals w ere, and w hat inform ation re ­ sources w o u ld b e beneficial to them. Because o f the op en ness and enthusiasm o f the OIR staff and o u r willingness to listen to their n e e d s an d w ants, b o th parties g ained each o th e r’s trust. As a result, the relationship betw een these tw o units o n cam pus w as strengthened. S u rv e y re su lts Data on information needs from the interview and survey w ere collected and com piled (see table 2). It is interesting to note the di­ verse inform ation need s of this target group and their preferences for receiv­ ing the information. The survey results indi­ cated that Internet resources are the m ost im ­ p ortant to them, and electronic delivery is the preferred m ethod o f access. P ro d u ct d e sig n D eveloping an information product aligned w ith the strategic goals of the OIR becam e m uch easier on ce som e o f the specific needs o f the target group w ere understood. I began w ith exhaustive searches of the Internet, vari­ ous library catalogs, research databases, in­ dexes, and full-text articles. To facilitate Internet searching, I com piled a listing o f relevant subject terms first (see table 3), and then conducted searches using vario u s search en g in es including Y ahoo, A lta V is ta , L yco s, N o r th e r n L igh t, a n d Metacrawler. I chose these search engines becau se they are typical and have different searching strategies. Scott Nicholson has classified Web search tools into five categories: directory-based search tool, full-text search tool, extracting search tool, subject-specific search tool, and m eta-search to o l.2 The search engines that I u se d seem to encom pass all types of search tools categorized by Nicholson. C & R L N e w s ■ F e b r u a r y 2001 / 195 Table 2. S u rv e y R esu lts fo r OIR In fo rm a tio n Needs • Docum ents o n the Internet • Databases o n higher education • G overnm ent inform ation on higher education • Information on the Michigan D epart­ m ent of Education • Data o n assessm ent, retention, enrollm ent, and graduation rates • Information o n institutional planning, managem ent, an d students’ success • Access to organizations affiliated w ith higher education • Information o n foundations • Journal articles • Other Web sites o n institutional research • Colleges’ and universities’ Web sites in Michigan • D em ographic information • Economic information • Census databases • U pdated inform ation o n higher ed u ­ cation, i.e., legislation • C onference papers • Associations, listservs, an d new s­ groups After the searching w as com pleted, I then evaluated these resources, selected them, and finally organized them into a custom ized in­ formation package. Because the OIR chose the Web as their desired m ode o f access to these resources, the finished p ro d u ct w as mounted on the University Library’s Electronic Reserves (Eres) server on the Web. Eres al­ lows digital material to b e password-protected to copyright restrictions. The resources listed o n th e project Web site can be accessed rem otely via a p ass­ word. The Web pages w ere designed to be user-friendly. As an exam ple, online o rder forms w ere provided o n the screen for easy and quick requests of n e e d e d items. The OIR staff w ere also en co u rag ed to seek o ur o n ­ going su p p o rt via e-mail, w ith e-mail links on the Web pages.3 Follow -up Good custom er service requires ongoing in­ volvement. After th e product w as developed an d m ounted o n the Web, w e m et w ith OIR staff to dem onstrate the Web sites. I also used this time for group training. In a departure from the usual practice o f in-library informa­ tion delivery, w e chose to deliver this infor­ m ation package in person to the OIR office. T he changing nature of library services re­ quires such changes in behavior from librar­ ians. “T he librarian must fill a dual role as sales­ p erso n of library services and as a provider of or part o f service.”4 This new “sales" con­ cept ad d ed value an d increased custom er satisfaction. The library’s hands-on dem on­ stration o f the inform ation product/package for OIR o n the Web was im portant to ensure custom er satisfaction and to develop the OIR staff’s confidence in using the library’s p ro d ­ uct. OIR w as also asked to give the library staff feedback after a period of use so that the library could im prove its p ro d u ct and services in the future. D iscu ssio n With limited time for this project to extend library services and limited funding in the library, this pilot project h ad to be added to the regular w orkload o f the library staff. As such, it to o k a b o u t th ree m onths for the project to b e com pleted. The feedback from the OIR staff w as positive an d encouraging. They liked the idea of having appropriate inform ation available o n their desktop. Also Table 3. R ele van t Subject H e a d in g s Used • Institutional planning • Institutional research • Institutional m anagem ent • Institutional studies • Institutional assessm ent • Institutional evaluation • Institutional effectiveness • Institutional statistics • Institutional research association • Enrollment m anagem ent • College student retention • Collection student success • Collection student graduation rate • H igher education • Census database • D emographics 196 / C & R L N e w s ■ F e b r u a r y 2001 they w ere m ade aware of valuable resources available to them, such as research databases and full-text electronic journals to w hich the library subscribes. After successful completion of first pilot project with OIR, o ther offices show ed interest in this customer-tailored ser­ vice, too. Obviously, this service resulted in very good public relations for the Mardigian Library. With the successes, challenges also arose. Since inform ation resources are increasing and changing all the time w ithout notice, maintaining the Web sites an d keeping the resources updated becam e a challenging task. I had to check links periodically to ensure the validity of the resources, an d I looked for n ew resources regularly to ad d to the ex­ isting resources to ensure their current sta­ tus. The degree o f ongoing w ork w as u n d er­ estimated. It is important to rem em ber that designing a product is only part o f the process, and that maintaining the quality of the product and ser­ vices is an ongoing task that requires consid­ erable time and effort. There are many more electronic resources available on the subject since the first pilot project w as conducted. I also recom m end a follow -up m eeting every six m onths w ith the target group for feed­ b ack an d im provem ent. In retrospect, the questionnaire survey could have b e e n d e ­ signed to assess the target g ro u p ’s need s in greater detail. C o n clu sio n This pilot project dem onstrated the success o f a custom er-driven approach in m arketing an d prom oting library an d inform ation ser­ vices to a neglected user group on university cam pus. It h elp ed the library staff gain a b e t­ t e r p e r c e p t i o n o f h o w a p r e v i o u s l y underserved group is an integral part o f the cam pus. The library staff got experience, in­ put, an d feedback o n how best to expand library services to a less visible non-academ ic group (from the library services point o f view) o n cam pus. Using the Internet as a tool to p ro m o te lib ra ry se rv ic e s a n d re s o u rc e s p roved to b e favorable to users. Reflecting o n the specific pilot project’s results provides a basis for im proved sup p o rt and realistic expectations. Useful search engines • A lta Vista www.altavista.com • A sk Jeeves w w w .ask.com / • D irect H it w w w .directhit.com / • Infetti seek www.intelliseek.com • Excite www .excite.com • Expert C entral w w w .expertcentral.com / • FAST Search w w w .allthew eb.com • GoTo w w w .goto.com • Factiva w w w .factiva.com / • Fast Search w w w .m acsoldiers.com / fastsearch/ • Go N etwork w w w .go.com / • Google www .google.com / • H otBot w w w .hotbot.com • HotLinks G uide w w w .guide.hotlinks.com / g u id e/ • In k to m i w w w .inktom i.com /products/ po rtal/search / • iWon w w w .iw on.com • Lexis-Nexis Freestyle w w w .lexis nexis.com / • LookSm art w w w .looksm art.com • Lycos w ww .lycos.com • M axB ot.com w w w .m axbot.com / • M etacraw ler w w w .m etacraw ler.com / • M SN Search h ttp://search.m sn.com / • Netscape Search http://search.netscape, com • N orthern Light w w w .northernlight.com • O ingo w w w .oingo.com / • Sim pli.com w ww.sim pli.com • Open Directory w w w .dm oz.org/ • Raging Search w w w .raging.com / • RealNames w w w .realnam es.com/ • WebCrawler w ww .w ebcraw ler.com • Yahoo w w w .yahoo.com Note: Readers interested in the tech ­ niq u es of Internet searching are recom ­ m e n d e d to se e R andolph H ock, “Web search engines: (m ore) features & com ­ m an d s,” O nline (M ay/June, 2000): 17. For m ore inform ation ab o u t search engines see: h ttp ://w w w .searchenginew atch.com . http://www.altavista.com http://www.ask.com/ http://www.directhit.com/ http://www.intelliseek.com wwwsexcite.com http://www.expertcentral.com/ http://www.alltheweb.com http://www.goto.com wwwsfactiva.com/ wwwsmacsoldiers.com/ http://www.go.com/ wwwsgoogle.com/ wwwshotbot.com wwwsguide.hotlinks.com/ http://www.inktomi.com/products/ http://www.iwon.com http://www.lexis-nexis.com/ http://www.lexis-nexis.com/ http://www.looksmart.com wwwslycos.com MaxBot.com http://www.maxbot.com/ http://www.metacrawler.com/ http://search.msn.com/ http://search.netscape wwwsnorthemlight.com http://www.oingo.com/ Simpli.com http://www.simpli.com http://www.dmoz.org/ http://www.raging.com/ http://www.realnames.coin/ wwwswebcrawder.com http://www.yahoo.com http://www.searchenginew'atch.com C8RL News ■ February 2001 / 197 As a result of UMD’s Mardigian library’s Project, our target group, OIR, was better educated about the availability and reliability of library informa­ tion services, and gained easier access to the in­ formation they needed. Library outreach projects such as this enhance library services to all poten­ tial user groups, promote cooperative relation­ ships between campus communities, and ulti­ mately benefit the whole university. Notes 1. L ibraty Literature ( Bornx: H.W. Wilson, 1 9 8 4 -) 2. Scott Nicholson, “A proposal for cat­ egorization and nom enclature for Web search tools,” J o u rn a l o f In tern et Cataloging 2, 3/4 (2000): 9. 3. T hose interested in Web site design sh o u ld see Kristen L. G arlock an d Sherry Piontech, D esigning Web interfaces to library services a n d resources (Chicago: American Li­ brary Association 1999). 4. S tephen Markel, M arketing the library (1996). Available at http://w w w -personal.si. u m i c h . e d u / ~ s m a r k e l / p a p e r s / m i s c / marketing_libraries.htm l. ■ ( “Part-tim e … c o n tin u e d fr o m p a g e 156) with students at this educational level than they are w ith undergraduates. In addition, we have tim e to accustom th em to such m ethods over th e course o f the sem ester. Initial resistance usually crum bles as students understand th e effectiveness o f these m eth­ ods a n d as w e set the to n e for the class such that students feel m ore comfortable w ith their classmates. Assignments Assignments need to be a mix of the theoreti­ cal and the practical, readings, and activities or exercises. G raduate students can be given fairly heavy reading loads, and as long as they are being held accountable in some way, they will com e to class prepared. They often be­ come very engaged w ith the readings, and adding one or tw o controversial sources to the syllabus can lead to lively discussions. As with any graduate program o f study, they need to understand th e theory behind the practice and the concepts that currently guide the p ro ­ fession. They also need assignments that will prepare them for w hat they will be asked to do on the job; assignments like preparing a lesson plan for an instruction session or writ­ ing an Internet use policy. Benefits to our students While w e believe that teaching part-time pro­ vides us w ith im mense professional benefits, w e think it also benefits our students. Brundin reported on a study o f Canadian library school faculty conducted in 1979. “For many educa­ tors practical experience w as a strong factor in establishing their credibility w ith their students as well as colleagues in the field.”1 B ru n d in also said, “L ibrarianship is a people-oriented profession; w e are concerned with users and w ith service to the users. We teach our students concepts and techniques, but do w e effectively prepare them to use these concepts and techniques in the working library world w ith real library patrons.”2 Students in LIS program s cannot do w ith­ out the theory that they learn from their full­ tim e instructors. But w e are able to provide, in o n e o r tw o o f their courses, the perspec­ tive o f w h at goes o n in an actual library, w ith the problem s and challenges an d successes that w e en co u n ter daily. We have encour­ aged o u r students to k eep in touch w ith us, and w h en they do, w e have b een delighted to hear, “Your class p rep ared m e w ell.” Contact your library school Teaching these courses has furthered our pro­ fessional developm ent, provided continuing education, and given us the opportunity to educate future librarians. We have only ben­ efited from the experience, and so w e encour­ age librarians to avail themselves of this chance. If you w ork at an institution w ith a graduate LIS school or have such a school in your area, contact the dean to inquire about becom ing an adjunct faculty member. The opportunity to teach future members of our profession pro­ vides a w in-w in situation for both the students and for us, and is not to be missed! Notes 1. Robert E. Brundin, “Field experience and the library educator,” Jo u rn a l o f E ducation f o r Library a n d Inform ation Science 31 (1991): 366. 2. Ibid., p. 367. ■ http://www-personal.si umich.edu/~smarkel/papers/misc/ 198 / C&RL News ■ February 2001