Showcasing Research Controls: An Online Test with LibGuides

Presentation Transcript

Showcasing Research Guides: An Online Experiment with LibGuides fourteenth Off-Campus Library Services Conference in Cleveland, OH April 29, 2010 Mira Foster (mira@sfsu.edu) Hesper Wilson (hspr@sfsu.edu) Nicole Allensworth (nallensw@sfsu.edu) Diane Sands (dsands@sfsu.edu) J. Paul Leonard Library San Francisco State University

What we'll cover today… a brief history of research aides - especially as utilized at SF State what drove us to showcase our aides exchange of Social Media/Marketing our promoting venture diagram of measurements assembling a few issues that surfaced… our decisions

Conclusions We advertised our LibGuides Our methods had some effect, BUT Our insights showed us… Guide utilization is causally identified with face to face direction LibGuides ≠ guideline substitute LibGuides = supplement to guideline LibGuides = welcome to connections

Case Study San Francisco State University California State University System (23 grounds) Approx. 30,000 understudies on our grounds J. Paul Leonard Library 20+ custodians 100+ research guides development and leaves of absence

Student Outreach – As things remained At the Leonard Library… - loads of in-class guideline (course incorporated workshops) - searching for approaches to achieve more understudies productively Library Literature reports… - poor rate of profit for vitality spent for aides - some promoter course-particular aides - study at GWU uncovers: clients don't discover guides helpful (Curtois, Higgins & Kapur, 2005)

LibGuides to the Rescue! In 2007, the LibGuides content administration framework is presented, making custodians into " data superheros " ! Library Literature reports re LibGuides - custodians' lives simpler - that showing workforce: -welcome the assets created  -trust LibGuides have enhanced understudy assignments (Horne and Adams, 2009)

We were Game! Embraced LibGuides in 2007 All aides changed over by Spring 2009 Some aides changed drastically, others didn't One major change: subject contact (administrator) contact data added to the aides

Our Guides move into the Modern Age

Initial Research Questions A promising marvel - Rock-star guides - Online declarations spikes being used We asked ourselves: - can a LibGuide substitute for face to face guideline? - is there an exposure issue? - would it be advisable for us to advertise our LibGuides? - will it have any kind of effect?

Relationship Marketing (RM) Establish and upgrade connections - everybody's needs are met (Gronroos, 1990) Trusting connections Liaison show

Tenets of WOM The discussion is as of now occurring Authenticity Transparency Individuals not foundations Use every one of the instruments

Theory versus Hone Desire to control informing Institutional versus singular cooperation Attracting peers versus constituents Experimental no accord yet on which devices/systems work

Research Design Overview 3-month examine in Fall 2009 Randomized rundown of aides with a control aggregate and a trial gathering (to be advertised) Marketing Team: 7-8 guides for every individual Librarian Survey: LibGuides in their work, LibGuides in their online networking domains Usage information from LibGuides and Google Analytics

Marketing Methods Home Page Feature Twitter Facebook Blog Posting Faculty Emails ir@sfsu.edu And vain bookmarking at an opportune time…

Librarian Survey Results 14 of 17 Librarians reacted Most reported saying guides amid reference/guideline Many reported showing or exhibiting advisers for understudies and sending URLs to personnel Instruction connected to guide utilize.

Homepage Feature Featured LibGuides: 3 guides for every day from advertised gathering Measurement: Redirect code + Google Analytics 49 interfaces on Library landing page No effect on guide use

Blog Posting Strategically planned declaration on Library blog Few ticks from blog But manage hits amid the objective time frame went up

Twitter Fall 2009: 18 of 31 showcased aides were tweeted Initial interest with first #SFSU tweets Many supporters were from our companion amass

Facebook Joined gatherings and posted connections (no coordination) Promoting own guide works better Friends were from our associate gathering

Faculty Emails Strategically planned direct showcasing messages to showing workforce Preservation of critical connections Some sent by Librarian Liaison, some by Marketing Team Successful both ways Dear International Relations Faculty, For your understudies doing research International Relations this semester there is a library look into guide accessible a t http://libguides.sfsu.edu/internationalrelations. It gives data on the most proficient method to exploit our library's destinations and sources.  We'd welcome it in the event that you would send this connection to your students.  It may be particularly helpful one week from now when custodians are on furlough. 

Statistics… LibGuides gives them… Google Analytics offer a decent supplement [A LIVE DEMONSTRATION OF LIBGUIDES AND GOOGLE ANALYTICS TOOK PLACE HERE]

Springshare Stats: Pro & Con Easy to utilize; can see details for all aides or individual tabs/pages, connections, and documents inside a particular guide; no compelling reason to utilize html or scripts More tabs/pages squares with more hits tallied LibGuide Usage Statistics don't divide between the guide creator and guide client Only month to month figures are accessible

Google Analytics: Pro & Con Lots of information accessible (where clients are, the way they get to us, what programming/equipment/association they're utilizing, and so forth.) Daily tallies! Number of one of a kind guests instead of aggregate # of visits (i.e., checking editorial manager visits again and again) Harder to explore And… do you need Google to have data about your site?

Results Overall Control bunch: 27% expansion

Results Overall Marketed guides: 63% increment

Whither Research Guides? Educational issue: LibGuides site versus Library site? Showing site engineering Authorship issue Inconsistent scope and utilize Subject versus course controls Different curator consideration

TIME The time administrators spend showing builds the utilization of their aides Social promoting conveys clients to custodians with whom they invest more energy flickr liceo_respighi

Cult of Personality Marketing items versus promoting curators Surrogate advertising Surrogate bookkeepers? SF State: Primacy of the subject contact

Conclusions: Marketing an item would have worked better if our library was promoted with a brand. Showcasing curators (mark You!) is less demanding in online social promoting. The main procedures that seemed to work were those that: Used existing relationship channels (workforce messages) Forged new connections (direction)

Conclusions for Our Library Lib Guides are not a substitute for face to face guideline. Lib Guides are a supplement to face to face guideline. Showcasing More connections Marketing more utilize

Suggestions (for us… for you?) Create "advertising materials" for custodians to utilize themselves Build a library mark Market bookkeepers Most striking discovering: Direct causal relationship between in-person guideline and number of visits to guides

Selected References (see meeting procedures for full list of sources) Courtois, M. P., Higgins, M. E., & Kapur, A. (2005). Was this guide supportive? Clients' impression of subject aides. Reference Services Review, 33 (2), 188-196. doi: 10.1108/00907320510597381 Gronroos, C. (1990). Benefit administration and showcasing. Dealing with the snapshots of truth in administration rivalry, Lexington, MA: Free Press/Lexington Books. Horne, A., & Adams, S. (2009). Do the results legitimize the buzz?: An appraisal of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University. Exhibited at the Association of Academic and Research Libraries, Seattle, WA. Recovered from http://www.slideshare.net/smadams/do-the-results legitimize the-buzz-an-appraisal of-LibGuides-at-cornell-college and-princeton-college .  SF State Libguides: http://libguides.sfsu.edu SF State Library Web Site: http://www.library.sfsu.edu Springshare LibGuides - Web 2.0 for Library 2.0. Recovered December 17, 2009, from http://www.springshare.com/LibGuides/.

Image Credits Owls: From Bahman Farzad 's photostream http://www.flickr.com/photographs/21644167@N04/3181451090/Word-of-Mouth hand-drawn chart : From tomlobo 's photostream http://www.flickr.com/photographs/tomlobo/522602858/Red Man with question: Diane Sands, SF State Librarian artist Time distorted clock : From Liceo Scientifico Respighi 's photostream http://www.flickr.com/photographs/liceo_respighi/2256867451/