Here are some links to some topic related articles feel free to add anything related to the topic!


http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6312522.html - How librarians helped their users in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita


Notes from Connecting Users to Resources Session:

What types of 2.0 connections are you using to connect your users to your resources in your library?

Academic Library: Blogs and RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds for New Books

Blogging
Del.icio.us : for broad questions it gives access to everyone and is posted on the site and often given to the professor. This is a soft, non-official use and after course is over they use the links to create a website

Public Library: Blog for new titles with an RSS feed

All Libraries: EBSCO/Gale have RSS feeds for searches

How can we best help the users?

Users are not always scanning the horizon, we need to meet them at their point of need. How can we connect those users who do look ahead with someone writing a paper now?

Knowledge of resources and sources are often passed in individual conversations, where it is a cumulative process. Some libraries are able to create tutorials based on these conversations.

How can we harness Google? Is there even a Google dilemma?

• Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com
• WorldCat http://www.worldcat.org

Some of the solutions/ideas which we came up with included meeting the users where they are and bring our resources to them rather than try to pull users into the library. The size of World Cat does make it difficult to find materials on a topic.

How can we bring services to users?

• Newsletters
• e-newsletters
• brochures - people like to have a hard copy of materials
• press releases - these should also be online
• Everyone in the library needs to be involved

Connecting our users to the resources of the library is really a balancing act, we want people to come, but there is a point where the library will not be able handle the numbers. We also need to find new audiences such as shut-iins and those in assisted living.

When dealing with libraries as a public forum or space we need to remember to make our libraries welcoming.

How do we assess how we connect users with resources?

Can we assess the quality of the interaction?

One academic library evaluated freshmen final projects to determine their level of information literacy. Another way to do this is to get involved in science fairs at the younger levels. It is easier to do this at the University level or with library accreditation looming.
We also discussed branding getting in the way of information literacy. One solution to this is to look at what the corporate markets are doing to assess their services. Walmart is doing assessment at checkout. Fast food restaurants offer the chance of a monetary reward for participating in surveys. In libraries, a lot of what we here is anecdotal - how can we capture this information? We also wondered how we could capture information about non-users?

One solution to this last question was to go to the chamber of commerce. In this way you can use it to gather information on non-users as well as information on population distribution and how we can reach other groups of users as well. A solution for academic libraries was should we add questions about library use to class reviews? And the answer was do we really want to know.

Signage is often a problem - we should use it to help 'sell' our services. The major problem is that users and non-users often do not really understand what the library is for and what resources the library has. Should we combat this by teaching information literacy to kindergarteners? How do we market our resources?

We do not market or assess what we do in libraries very well. Marketing is everything to everyone and it does not always help you connect to the user. You need personal connections and word of mouth advertising - we could even use viral marketing. Another method for academic libraries is to develop team taught courses and further develop existing relationships with faculty. We might also use student assistants to survey the population and advertise our materials. We can also use peer to peer library instruction.

How do stores connect people to goods?

We could try putting popular books and movies in academic libraries. Changing the layout of the library or putting footprints on the floor of the library and putting the popular books in the front or the most used books in the back. We need to push through the initial lack of interest. Another suggestion was getting movement or demonstrations at the front of the library. We might also go outside of the library and go where the users are. If we customize displays to the individual we might also be successful. We heard how credit card companies determine what offers you will be most likely to select to maximize profit through data mining - why couldn't libraries use the same technology? One concern that came up was patron privacy. Can we collect the necessary dat in libraries? One suggestion was that we could attach the information to their library bar code so that the information travels with the user. E-harmony was also mentioned since they use a similar idea to connect users to each other. Do they really accurate determine who you are the most likely to like? Is this the most appropriate way to generate results? And what about the outliers and 'oddballs' who end up connecting on a deeper level?

The top three points that came out of our discussion were the need to have human contact and conversations, assessment, and marketing - especially looking outside of the library. Discussion: