This document discusses strategies for librarians and scholars to collaboratively develop online collections from multiple perspectives. It emphasizes engaging with users by gathering feedback, surveying interests, and testing works in progress. Data from search terms, usage trends, and analytics can reveal what excites researchers and how to improve collections. The keys are talking to users, facilitating conversations rather than dominating them, and being willing to make mistakes.
Scholars and Librarians Collaborating to Develop Online Collections from Multiple Perspectives - MAGIC's Approach
1. Scholars and Librarians Collaborating
to Develop Online Collections from
Multiple Perspectives
University of Connecticut Libraries Map and Geographic
Information Center - MAGIC Perspective
Date
2. How do you approach?
✤ Developing Collections
✤ Current Research
Interests
✤ Begin the conversation
4. User-generated
collaboration
✤ Researchers provide
feedback everyday
✤ Search terms, usage
trends...
✤ Reactive to become
proactive
5. Involve Researchers!
✤ Ask for feedback!
✤ Send works-in-
progress (Alpha &
Beta)
✤ Find out what
excites researchers
6. Marketing and Collections
✤ Migrate from “We Know
What They Want” to....
“Based on User
Feedback....”
✤ Collections that are user
driven are easy to
promote!
8. Rethink Collection Access
✤ Where are your
researchers
searching?
✤ How can you
integrate into their
research habits?
✤ Is your collection
self-service?
9. Keys to successful data collection
✤ Google Analytics
✤ Google CSE
✤ Flickr
✤ Facebook Fan Pages
✤ Surveys & Feedback
17. Blog about it!
✤ Brief overviews of
collections
✤ Pictures/maps
✤ Blogs improve
search engine results
outsidetheneatline.blogspot.com
18. Food for Collaboration
2008 2009 2010
✤ Use data to identify 30,000
potential
collaborators 22,500
✤ Collaborate beyond 15,000
your institution
7,500
0
Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
19. Beginning the Conversations
✤ Open-ended questions
✤ Find out what your faculty are interested in
scholarly/recreational research
✤ Meet to determine what collections to create,
showcase, or to rethink
✤ Facilitate rather than dominate
20. What Can You
Do?
✤ Talk to your users
✤ Use data to begin
conversation with
researchers
✤ Be willing to make
mistakes
21. Questions?
✤ Michael Howser
michael.howser@uconn.edu
✤ Check out our collection at
magic.lib.uconn.edu
Tip: Meet at the local cafe or for
lunch with potential collaborators
22. Links
✤ Facebook - http://facebook.com
✤ Flickr - http://flickr.com
✤ Google Analytics - http://google.com/analytics
✤ Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) - http://www.google.com/cse/
✤ Google Docs - http://docs.google.com
✤ Outside the Neatline - http://outsidetheneatline.blogspot.com
✤ UConn Libraries MAGIC - http://magic.lib.uconn.edu