Category «Library Marketing»

Making Lemons into Lemonade: Libraries and the Challenge of the Website Transition

At the beginning of the spring semester, Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law school transitioned to a new website with a more modern look but a much more rigid architecture. As often happens with new website launches, there were obstacles to overcome – 404 errors to fix, a new navigation to learn, resources to update – as well as old website simply not transferring to the new site. In this article Ashley Ahlbrand describes some key issues her team faced and how they were addressed as a Lessons Learned for other groups pursuing the same transition.

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Subjects: Information Management, Internet Resources, Law Library Management, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Program Planning

You Say Aggregate, I Say Curate

Zena Applebaum, a law firm competitive intelligence director, defines an important development in the way that critical business information is shared within laws firms and similar organizations. Applebaum defines and aligns the role of “content curation,” a practice and skill wherein information from all the content in the world is provided to stakeholders through a precise, focused and filtered process with the result of direct benefits to specific groups, teams and projects.

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Subjects: Business Research, Communication Skills, Competitive Intelligence, KM, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing

Bill Gates: A billionaire book critic who apparently shuns e-books

E-book pioneer and advocate David Rothman’s commentary shines a critical light on the reading habits of Microsoft founder Bill Gates who reads his average 50 books each year, in print format. The potential impact of Microsoft in the e-book market as well as in funding support of e-books for public libraries has been muted. Rothman’s insights include hope to win over much needed support for free public sector digital libraries.

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Subjects: E-Books, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology

Bens Guide to the U.S. Government: Free, Educational Content from GPO for Children and Adults of all Ages

Kelly Seifert gives us a tour of Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government, a service of the U.S. Government Publishing Office that presents educational content for children and adults of all ages on the workings of the U.S. Government and U.S. history, with a focus on civics. Recently redesigned, the site features all new site content, a device-friendly infrastructure, and a modernized look and feel that has been optimized for an intuitive learning experience.

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Subjects: Business Research, Government Resources, Library Marketing, Reference Resources, Search Engines

Unpacking and overcoming edutainment in library instruction

Within our field, and more widely, there is a way of thinking that equates effective teaching with effective entertaining. This way of thinking can be referred to as a “discourse of edutainment.” It underpins some of the publications and conversations that encourage librarians to make their teaching more entertaining, for example by playing improv games or adding humour. In this article, Sarah Polkinghorne examines the edutainment discourse in three ways. First, she identifies and analyses it. Next, she connect it to larger concerns, such as creating significant learning experiences and wrestling with public speaking fear. To conclude she describe several concepts from the performing arts that could better support librarians working to teach in ways that are as engaging, significant, and enjoyable as possible.

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Subjects: Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology, Program Planning

The Next Librarian of Congress – What to do about the Internet Archive and Google Books scanning project?

David Rothman offers his insights and perspective on the work and challenges that await the next Librarian of Congress. He calls for an individual who is not only steeped in the requisite expertise of research, technology, learning, teaching and freedom of information, but in following with a cause he has long championed he states “we need someone with “a love of reading—including the e-book variety.”

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Subjects: Archives, E-Books, Internet Trends, KM, Leadership, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology, Management, Technology Trends

Seuss Oh the Places Youll Go: Still Rings True Today

Cheryl Niemeier answers the questions many members have following the decision to change the name of the Private Law Libraries-Special Interest Section (PLL-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) to the Private Law Librarians & Information Professionals-Special Interest Section (PLLIP-SIS).

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Subjects: American Association of Law Libraries, Competitive Intelligence, Law Librarians, Legal Marketing, Library Marketing

Library Research Guides: Best Practices

Many librarians have a set of research guides that they are responsible for keeping up to date, but finding time to devote to this important task can be extremely difficult. As libraries migrate to LibGuides 2.0, many are using this opportunity to study their users’ preferences, implement new policies, and completely refresh their research guide collection. If your library is going through this process, or you are simply planning on using the (relatively) calm summer months to update your research guides, here are ten best practice tips to keep in mind – by Kara Dunn, D`Angelo Law Library.

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Subjects: Legal Research Training, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology, Mobile Technology, News Resources, Online Legal Research Services, Reference Resources, Reference Services, Search Strategies

Seven ways to grow the e-book business while helping libraries and readers: Ideas based on my two decades of writing about it

E-book sales are not posting impressive sales increases, at least not among big publishers. One major reason is that much of the technology is difficult to use. Even increased library statistics for e-loans are not resulting in corresponding increases in funding and support for libraries around the country. Based on more than two decades of writing about e-books, David Rothman suggests seven library-and-consumer friendly ways to boost e-book growth.

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Subjects: E-Books, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology, Mobile Technology
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