Practical tips for marketing academic library collection, including vendor partnerships.

1. Marketing
Your
Collection
Dee Magnoni
Olin College of Engineering
UKSG
31 March, 1 April 2009

2. A bit about Olin
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3. 31 March & 1 April UKSG Conference 2009 3

4. Olin’s Library
• Philosophy
• Access
• Service
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5. Olin Library Collections
• Physical
• Virtual
• Realia
• Visual Catalog
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6. Library Vendor Fair: Planning
Set your goal, and then…
Communicate!
Budget
Players
Timeline
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7. Library Vendor Fair: Execution
2 Weeks
Before
Day
Before
Day Of
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8. Library Vendor Fair:
Comments I
• Students answering raffle question
“What did you learn?”:
– We have access to a lot of online resources!
– Where/how to do my research.
– I learned how to customize my search windows.
– E-book note taking – pretty nifty!
– That our library is the most awesome ever! So
many resources, so little time!
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9. Library Vendor Fair:
Comments II
• Vendor feedback:
– “I very much enjoyed the experience at Olin’s vendor day
and we would certainly love to participate again next
year. What was particularly interesting from my stand-point,
was the students’ reaction to our technology...” Credo
– “It was great to get a chance to meet with students, faculty,
and staff.” Elsevier
– “We had great foot traffic and the students asked thoughtful
questions and really showed interest in our resources. I was
really glad to be able to speak with them.” Thomson Reuters
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11. Library Vendor Fair:
Lessons Learned
• Communication
• Challenges
• Support
• Finances
• Fun!
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12. Other Olin Library Outreach I
• LibGuides
– Springshare
– Instruction
– Research
– Tools
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13. Other Olin Library Outreach II
Rusty Haskell
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14. Other Olin Library Outreach III
Ken Bosma
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15. Other Olin Library Outreach IV
• Vendors as Partners
– Think win-win
– Training
– Prizes and materials
– Snacks during finals
– Industry advice &
mentoring roles
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16. And then there was Lifehacks
Olin Course to
• Library & existing Examine Curriculum • Students took best
instruction of models, mixed in
• Built on existing their own thoughts
• ALA / ACRL standards
• Olin Lifehacks was
• Looked at parallel born
offerings
Information Lifehacks Co-
Literacy Curricular
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17. Appendix I
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18. Appendix II
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19. Appendix III
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20. Appendix IV
March - May
September – 2 weeks before
June - August
• Set goals & date • Further • Food / beverage
• Reserve space & communication • Tables / cloths
notify IT with vendor • Production of all
• Initial partners poster styles
communication & • Overall publicity • Tabletop ID’s
then follow-up design
• Publicity articles
with vendor • Parking passes
• Reconfirm IT;
partners • Raffle sheet work with
• Collect vendor • Contact facilities on layout
information on photographer
attendance, food
& raffle
contribution
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21. Appendix V
• Day of Fair timeline I
– 7:00 am Arrive early to oversee table set-up
with facilities
– 7:30 am Electrician wires
– 7:30 am Name placards on tables, boxes of
vendor supplies to tables
– 9:00 am Linens arrive
– 9:30 am Wireless access code copied and
distributed to vendor tables; distribute
highlighters
– 10:30 am Catering arrives (2 hours late for linens, but
employees had not received linen order)
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22. Appendix V, continued
• Day of Fair timeline II
– 10:50 am Call on balloons – order was lost; vendor
will come right over
– 11:20 am Balloons arrive
– 2:05 pm Hold raffle drawing with vendors picking
names for their prizes. Library employees
choose library prizes and vendor prizes of
vendors not in attendance.
– 2:10 pm Clean up and send out message to
community on extra food
– 3:00 pm Send e-mails to prize winners
– 3:30 pm Compile comments from raffle tickets
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23. Dee Magnoni
Director, Olin College of Engineering
dianna.magnoni@olin.edu
Facebook
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