How Do I Make Them Understand Advocacy in Todays World

1
How Do I Make Them Understand?Advocacy in
Todays World

• Carol Pitts Diedrichs
• Dean of Libraries
• University of Kentucky
• May 4, 2007

2
Advocacy for Technical Services Librarians

• Library context
• Basic principles of advocacy
• Technical services in particular

3
Have you heard any of these things?

• Everything is online
• Students dont come to the library any more
• Everything is on Google
• Why do you need so much staff?
• Reference and circulation stats are down?
• Why do you need so much space?
• Why do you need a storage facility, cant you
  just get rid of some of that stuff?

4
Centrality of the library

• Librarians take this as a given
• Those who fund us do not
• Facing increasing questions about the relevance
  of libraries in the new digital age
• Must be able to anticipate and address these
  questions in a compelling and powerful way

5
Common failings of our advocacy efforts

• Its all about us
• Marketing materials describe library services
• Marketing materials fail to convey the importance
  of libraries
• Communicating what we are doing rather than why
  it matters

Its not about you
6
My Perspective

• Spent 22 years as a serials cataloger, head of
  acquisitions and assistant director for technical
  services and collections
• Key role was advocacy for technical services and
  collections within the libraries
• But always also understanding the big picture of
  what the library was trying to achieve, its
  mission and vision
• Had the luxury of focusing on what
• technical services and collections
• needed to be successful

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July 1, 2003 to present

• New position as Dean of Libraries at the
  University of Kentucky

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What is Advocacy?

• Advocacy is a planned, deliberate, sustained
  effort to raise awareness of an issue.
• Ongoing process in which support and
  understanding are built incrementally over an
  extended period of time and using a wide variety
  of marketing and public relations tools.
• Saying to decision-makers, potential partners,
  funders, any stakeholder, "Your agenda will be
  greatly assisted by what we have to offer."

http//www.cla.ca/divisions/capl/advocacy/index.ht
m
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ALAs Advocacy Resource Center

• The best way to influence those who control the
  policies and the purse strings is for those who
  use and value library services to speak out.
• Educate UsersThe average user of the library and
  your services has no idea what it costs to run a
  library or how funding works. Thus, they may be
  unsympathetic to your budget challenges,
  regardless of how well you treat them.
• Constant communication is the best remedy. Use
  your active users to help you form a powerful
  constituency and become your greatest allies.

http//www.ala.org/ala/issues/issuesadvocacy.htm
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Whos Your Audience?

• Identify your target audience
• Then describe your services/expertise in terms
  that the audience will be interested in
• Who is the target audience for technical
  services?

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Know your audience

• Director of public bus service making a
  presentation to the local Rotary Club
• What he could have talked about
• Timely schedules
• Clean buses
• Low cost rides
• Friendly service

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Know your audience

• What he did talk about
• Painted a picture of what life would be like for
  the audience without good, effective bus service
• How many more cars would be on the road
• Additional parking lots and their costs
• Increase in traffic cops if more drivers hit the
  roads
• Increased emissions and environmental impact of
  more cars
• He talked about how public bus service mattered
  to his audience

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Why Does it Matter?

• Why does everything need to be fully cataloged?
• Why do all of those MARC fields matter? And ask
  yourself do they really?
• What do you contribute that is indispensable?
• How would your absence affect the library?
• How does what you do make a difference?
• Why is what you need or request more important,
  essential, critical than other needs within the
  libraries?

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Developing your message

• Message must be responsive to the priorities of
  those who control funding
• What are the goals of your campus?
• What is the strategic plan of the university and
  your library?
• Politically effective message must show how the
  library is a critical component of the success of
  these quests

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Mom and Apple Pie Messages

• A Generic Message will, at best, get you generic
  results
• Those that reiterate the intrinsic value of
  libraries
• What we have relied on in the past
• Not very politicalnot very powerful

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Political powertoday its a necessary ingredient
for library survival. In our rapidly changing
environment we must position libraries so they
are seen as the central entity for providing
access to the full spectrum of information,
knowledge, ideas, programs, and services that
support individual learning and intellectual
growth Sally Gardner Reed
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OCLCs Making the Case for Libraries

• To raise the visibility and highlight the
  viability of libraries to their funding bodies
• Series of national print ads and similar posters
  that can be downloaded and customized by
  libraries
• Their goal for academic libraries -- Remind
  administrative budget decision-makers that
  libraries are more relevant than ever, thanks to
  new technology and the new role it lets them
  play. Librarians now serve students and faculty
  both inside and outside the library.

http//www.oclc.org/advocacy/default.htm
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Association of Higher Education Facilities
Officers study
More than half the students surveyed ranked the
condition of a universitys libraries near the
top of their list of reasons for choosing a
college
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Dont Promise What You Cant Deliver

• Take a hard, self-appraising look at what
  services you offer
• Do they still matter to anyone but the
  librarians?
• Do you offer a rush service in acquisitions but
  only deliver on your promise most of the time?
• Do you offer to be the metadata specialist but
  cant find the time to get the project done?

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Seize Public Speaking Opportunities

• Do you realize that you speak in public forums
  every day?
• You attend managerial meetings and present
  reports.
• You lead staff meetings.
• You participate in professional workshops.
• You conduct online research training classes.
• You represent your department at institution-wide
  meetings.
• You go to a job interview.
• You are involved in community activities and
  speak out on local concerns or preside at
  meetings.
• You participate in conference calls with other
  librarians
• Detailed preparation may not be needed for all of
  these situations, but each requires clear
  thinking and clear speaking.

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Elevator Pitch or Speech

• Brief overview of an idea for a product, service,
  or project
• Can be delivered in the time span of an elevator
  ride
• Commonly used to get your point across quickly

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Why Do You Need an Elevator Pitch?

• People are busy
• Your director/dean is constantly sifting through
  lots of great ideas/needs/wants to determine what
  is a priority
• You are an expert
• Youre more interested in your
• area of expertise than most people
• You are also more knowledgeable

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Characteristics of an Effective Elevator Pitch

• Concise
• 15 seconds to 2 minutes
• 250 words max
• Clear
• Understandable by your grandparents,
• spouse and children (try it out on them!)
• Conceptual
• High level, overview, 30,000 feet
• Do not deluge them with faces and details

Concise
Clear
Conceptual
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Characteristics, cont

• Compelling
• Tailored to the interest of the audience
• Consistent
• Everyone should hear the same basic message
• Credible
• Cant sound too good to be true

Consistent
Compelling
Credible
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Final thoughts on elevator pitches

• Memorize it and rehearse it
• Listen to your audience
• What is the first question they ask?
• Refine your pitch

www.thebusinessmakers.com/2006/12/23/episode-81-ri
ce-alliance-elevator-pitches/
http//www.yourelevatorpitch.com/
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From Steven Cohen at www.librarystuff.net

• I love the concept behind an elevator pitch.
  Many times, we try to describe what we do, as
  libraries and librarians, and we get too involved
  in laborious characteristics about ourselves and
  our jobs. If you were on an elevator with a
  stranger and had 30 seconds to describe what you
  do and/or where you work, what would you say?
  Remember, only 30 seconds. Go!

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Advocacy for Technical Services

• Environmental scan
• Whats new in your library and on your campus?
• Whats in the strategic plan and what can I do to
  make that a reality?
• Looking for opportunities to help the library
  achieve its goals
• Anticipate change and decide how to handle it
• Consider possible futures
• What of information resources will be available
  electronically five, ten, twenty years from now?
• What is the impact on technical services?
• Where would technical services like to go and
  what does it need to do to get there?

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Trends and New Roles for T.S.

• Future of the library catalog
• Mass digitization
• Rise of special collections and digital access to
  them
• New ways of doing business

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The Decline of the Catalog

• Users taking the bypass
• 89 of college students say they begin with
  search engines vs 2 with library Web pages
• One piece of a fragmented library information
  landscape (and hard to use!)
• Principle of Least Effort
• Metasearch in trouble
• Cataloging tradition unsustainable
• Just how much do we need to continue to spend on
  carefully constructed catalogs?Deanna Marcum,
  LC Associate Librarian

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Challenges Facing Cataloging
Karen Calhoun, Cornell University
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Table 1, Continued Challenges Facing
Traditional Cataloging
Challenges Facing Cataloging, Continued
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Critical Mass

• Now that we are starting to see, in libraries,
  full-text showing up online, I think we are very
  shortly going to cross a sort of critical mass
  boundary where those publications that are not
  instantly available in full-text will become kind
  of second-rate in a sense, not because their
  quality is low, but just because people will
  prefer the accessibility of things they can get
  right away. They will become much less visible
  to the reader community.

Clifford Lynch, EDUCOM Review, 1997
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Engineers and the Library

• Engineering students are the least likely to use
  the literature of their field
• Typically value accessibility over quality when
  choosing information sources
• Engineers rely on informal sources of information
  such as peers and trade journals rather than the
  formal journal literature
• Quickest feasible solution is more often used
  than the most appropriate
• Engineering faculty prefer using the library
  remotely
• Engineering faculty view desktop delivery as a
  high priority amongst library services

Matthews, Brian S. The Role of Industry
Standards An Overview of the Top Engineering
Schools Libraries. Issues in Science and
Technology Librarianship, Spring 2006.
www.istl.org/06-spring/refereed.html
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Study at UC-San Diego

• Observing users at work
• Two windows open
• Library catalog
• Amazon
• Using Amazon to search inside the book to see
  if they wanted to go get it off the shelf
• Then using library catalog to locate call number

Reported by Dan Greenstein at Michigan mass
digitization conference, March 2006
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• MARC21 format
• Over 2,000 fields and subfields
• Research team evaluated 56 million record
  WorldCat database
• Bill Moen at U of North Texas library school
• Discovered only 10 fields and 20 subfields were
  commonly used
• Why have such a complex metadata scheme?

http//www.mcdu.unt.edu/?p30
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What To Do About It

• Revitalize
• Develop new uses for catalog data
• Find new users for the existing product
• Find new uses and new users

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Innovations and Cost Reductions

• Much better linkages ingest, convert, extract,
  transfer
• Interoperate
• Simplify exploit all sources of catalog data
• Eliminate custom practices
• Automate and streamline workflows
• Explore automatic classification, subject
  analysis abandon LCSH
• Mine catalog data for new uses experiment with
  FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic
  Records)

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Thirty-two Options Three Strategies A
Radical Abridgement
Mass collections catalogs Digitize Open
access Participate in the substitute industry
LEAD
EXPAND
Invest in shared catalogs Link pools of scholarly
data Seek partners
Improve the users experience Greatly enhance
delivery (fast!) Standards development/compliance
Recycle and reuse catalog data Innovate and
reduce costs
EXTEND
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Future of the Catalog

• Open WorldCat
• Google Scholar
• WorldCat Local
• New interfaces for catalog

Find It on Google, Get It from My Library
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Open WorldCat

• Integrates library content with web search
  engines, internet booksellers etc.
• Web searchers discover library resources in their
  results lists and move from the Web to the local
  library
• Makes libraries more visible where many people
  start their searches
• Seamless links drive traffic to the local OPAC to
  get shelf status and place holds
• But only a small subset of the database is used
  by partners such as Yahoo, Google, etc.

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WorldCat Local

• Pilot builds on WorldCat.org
• Locally branded interface
• Ability to search the entire WorldCat database
  and present results beginning with items most
  accessible to the patron
• collections from the home library
• collections shared in a consortium
• open access collections

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Features of WorldCat Local

• Single search box
• Relevancy ranking of search results
• Result sets that bring multiple versions of a
  work together under one record
• Faceted browse capability
• Citation formatting options
• Cover art and additional evaluative content

III
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WorldCat Local
interoperates with locally maintained services
like circulation, resource sharing and resolution
to full text to create a seamless experience for
the end user . allows users to place requests,
gain online access, or request an interlibrary
loan within WorldCat.org
44
User-Contributed Content Pilot

• New OCLC WorldCat feature
• Debuted October 9, 2005
• Users can add their own content to WorldCat
  records

http//www.oclc.org/worldcat/open/usercontent/defa
ult.htm
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Unconventional uses of the library catalog

• Created a MARC record for fundraising event
• An Evening with Carl Hiaasen
• Listed all his titles in 505 field
• Contained link that led to web page to purchase
  tickets online

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Unconventional uses of the library catalog

• Created MARC record for Live Homework Help
• Two records one in Spanish, one in English
• Record had lots of subject headings with school
  subjects such as Math
• Used subject tracings for Math as well as
  Mathematics
• 856 link to database

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Unconventional uses of the library catalog

• 2,000 language-learning print and audio bib
  records
• Added 856 link with this option want to learn
  right NOW? Start here with Rosetta Stone!
• Link took them directly to the Rosetta Stone
  database
• Career books
• Added link to Fergusons Career Guidance Center

Bost, Wendi and Jamie Conklin. Creating a
One-Stop Shop Using the Catalog to Market
Collections and Services. Florida Libraries 49,
no. 2, Fall 2006, p. 5-7
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Unconventional uses of the library catalog

• Oprahs New Pick
• Created before next pick was announced
• Listed all previous selections
• 856 link to her web site
• Allowed users to reserve the book before it was
  announced

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Discovery must translate to Fulfillment

• Integration of search, find and obtain
• Discovery is not enough
• Must be converted to fulfillment

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Mass Digitization

• What are the implications for collection
  development and technical services if all books
  are available in electronic form?
• Google Book Search
• Espresso Book Machine
• Internet Archive Bookmobile

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What Can I do Once Ive Found a Book I Like?

• Buy this book links you to online booksellers
  directly to the page where you can buy the book
• Search again find more results for your
  original search terms in others parts of the book
  or try a new search within the book
• Find reviews Choose about this book then
  click Web Search for reviews to find online
  reviews of the book
• Find related information choose about this
  book and click on other web pages related to
  to find other websites that mention the book
• Learn about the publisher click through to the
  publishers website
• Find it in a library if this book is a library
  book, you can find a local library that has it by
  clicking find in a library and entering your
  zip code

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Espresso Book Machine

• Prints entire books in mere minutes
• Currently being tested at the World Bank
  Bookstore in Washington DC
• NYPL and Bibliotheca Alexandrina are each getting
  one this fall
• Current model
• Prints the text of a 300-page book in just 3
  minutes
• With a color paperback cover
• Binds it
• For only 1 penny a page
• Machine retails for less than 100,000

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http//www.archive.org/texts/bookmobile.php
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Where are Todays Backlogs?

• 1998 ARL survey
• 1/3rd of holdings of archival repositories were
  unprocessed
• www.arl.org/rtl/speccoll/spcolltf/status0706.shtml
  

"it is better to provide some level of access to
all materials, than to provide comprehensive
access to some materials and no access at all to
others."
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2005 Publication by Greene and Meissner

• http//www.midwestarchives.org/2006_Fall/readings/
  AA68.2.GreeneMeissner.pdf
• Seminal study of archival backlogs
• Problem is widespread60 of repositories had
  more than 1/3rd of holdings unprocessed

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New Dialog and Energy in Archival Community

• Get legacy finding aids up as EAD
• Process each collections each at least minimally
• Make at least collection level descriptions
  available online
• Use appraisal techniques to determine which
  collections deserve more detailed treatment
• Track most heavily used collections and use data
  to make sensible decisions about which
  collections to process in more detailed manner

57
The Era of Special Collections

• Rise of special, unique collections
• In past, archival materials suffered from two
  limitations
• Available in only 1 location
• Difficult to find and use
• Digital technology offers a
• solution to both of those
• What is each institutions
• contribution to the core?
• What can t.s. do to enhance accessibility?

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PennTags

• Social bookmarking tool for locating, organizing,
  and sharing your favorite online resources
• Members of the Penn Community can collect and
  maintain URLs, links to journal articles, and
  records in Franklin, our online catalog and VCat,
  our online video catalog
• Can also be used collaboratively, because it acts
  as a repository of the varied interests and
  academic pursuits of the Penn community, and can
  help you find topics and users related to your
  own favorite online resources
• Developed by librarians at the University of
  Pennsylvania

http//tags.library.upenn.edu/help/
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Selected Resources

• Reed, Sally Gardner. Making the Case for Your
  Library A How-To-Do-It Manual. NY Neal-Schuman
  Publishers, 2001
• Karp, Rashelle S. Powerful Public Relations A
  How-To Guide for Libraries. Chicago ALA, 2002.
• Kies, Cosette. Marketing and Public Relations for
  Libraries. Lanham, MD Scarecrow Press, 2003.

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Selected Resources

• Elliott de Saez, Eileen. Marketing Concepts for
  Libraries and Information Services, 2nd Ed.
  London Facet Publishing, 2002.