“If You Build It, They Will Come.” “Technology is Just a Tool.” “Give Them What They Want.” “Half the $ Spent on PR is Wasted.” “Even Bad PR is Good PR.” and other Dubious Truisms that A Presentation made by Tom Peters at the ALA PR Forum at the ALA Annual Conference, Anaheim CA 6/24/12
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“If You Build It, They Will Come.”“Technology is Just a Tool.”“Give Them What They Want.” “Half the $ Spent on PR is Wasted.”“Even Bad PR is Good PR.” and other Dubious Truisms that Don’t Pertain to Library IT Services
A Presentation made by Tom Peters at the ALA PR Forum at the ALA Annual Conference, Anaheim CA 6/24/12
Do I win the prize for the longest, bestest conference talk title EVER?
A Little About Me
IT expert? SortaPR expert? NyetLibrarian for 25 years
Yes, I’d do it all over again
Library user for 54 years In 4 years, I will have been a
librarian for half my life.
These Slides Are Online
www.SlideShare.com/
No Sermon This Morning
Let’s Try An Inductive Talk, Instead
Not this: Generalities peppered with a few examples.
But this: Examine a couple of very successful library technology services How did they happen? What role did PR play? What can be concluded from these
instances?
Two Amazing Library Tech Services
Collaboration Stations Plug-n-
Display Toggle with
“More Meds” Buttons
Bistro Tables
“Dating Game” Chairs
Scanning Stations
Flatbed scanner with book edge
Single-pass, doubled-sided
PDF, Word, JPEG, etc.
USB, G-Docs, email
This Ain’t Top Tech Trends
These technologies have been around for awhile
Real adoption and diffusion is much more interesting than cutting edge tech
No Need to Bleed
Neither of these info tech successes are Cutting Edge Technologies
How Did These Happen?
Collaboration Stations Vendor demo Frustration over price Local offer to build Specs and design Furniture selection Location selection PR blitz Fortnight of high
Figure out the why before you figure out the what and how.
It takes a lot of villages and neighborhoods [i.e., use/experience zones] to make a library.
What are the intentions of the library? Academic Support? Preservation? Knowledge Creation? Instruction?
More Mathews (2012)
“…consider the best means for making those intentions tangible, rather than just the current means.”
Hey! This is the PR Forum!
Would That This Phrase Had Never Been Uttered
“If you build it, he [they] will come.”
Why? (That was a Good Movie)
The phrase appeals to our lack of PR prowess.
It’s generally false, especially when it comes to library information technology.
Collaboration Station PR Blitz
WebsiteTwitterFacebookStudent NewspaperAlumni MagazineBanners on the actual tablesPowerPoint slide show on one of the
screensOffers made to groups working on
projectsWord of mouth
Scanning Station PR (lite)
FreeEasy to UseGreen (not
stressed)Simplify the
choicesThank you,
Friends
Why “Reggie Scan”?
Cultivated Word-of-Mouth
“Word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful form of marketing these days. And, libraries can afford it.”
Don’t wait for word-of-mouth marketing to just happen.
Encourage people to tell their friends.
Peggy Barber (June 23, 2012) at a session of the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim CA
Wait Just a Darn Minute…
Does computer tech need any promotion?
Aren’t most library users enthralled by info tech?
Isn’t Technology Just a Tool that We All Just Accept?
No, Technology Services Require some Planning, Thought, Study, and Imagination
Develop Use-Case Scenarios
How do you imagine each service being used?
Think like a potential user. What will be the benefits for them?
How will this tech service improve their information lives?
Then Be Prepared to Ignore Them
Some students just like the collaboration station furniture. They ignore the tech.
One student used a station for several hours alone, because he had dropped his laptop and the screen had cracked.
Location, Location, Location
Locate the service where users can find it.Locate the service where users will like using it.
Collaboration Stations in the large, open study areas within the library▪ Collaboration Station in a group study
room isn’t used as much (but users asked for it!)
Scanning Stations in “Copier Row” – a high-traffic area on the main floor
Observe What Users Do, Then Improve How They Can Do It
9 out of 10 users are actively using portable devices (laptops and/or phones, mainly)
Lots of small-group work with two or more laptops open and being shared
Lots of people making paper-to-paper copies
Interestingly…
…neither of these highly successful library tech services was suggested or requested by users.
People Don’t Know What They Want
More Specifically: When asked, people have a hard time imagining and articulating what they want.
Crisis of Imagination in Librarianship?
When presented with something useful, people will use it.
When We Asked Users What They Wanted…
Survey says:
MORE OUTLETS!
No, Not…
ExitsEmotional OutletsOutlet Malls
Yes, Electrical Outlets
We Gave Them What They Want
Success Begets Duress
Some Trouble in Paradise
Risk management concerns about anonymous emailing from the scanning stations
Systems concerns about ongoing support
Apple dongles for the collaboration stations left everyone dazed and confused
Rapid roll-out and mid-semester deployment concerned some librarians
Beware of the 3 P’s of Tech Projects
1. Personalities
2. Politics
3. Pecunia (money)
Roller Derby and Library IT: The Mysterious Link
When a tech service becomes successful and breaks away from the service pack, the rest of the pack tries to elbow it back into the pack.
Money, Money, Money
Don’t be Swayed by the Bean Counters
They say: If we offer a scanning station as a free service, our photocopying revenue will decline.
I respond: Scanning stations are desired by users, are much easier and cheaper to operate, are greener, etc.
Just One Slide of Preachiness
Don’t refuse to innovate because it might harm existing revenue streams.
Don’t do it!
That way lies madness and obsolescence
(Pass the hat)
Financial Bottom Line
7 collaboration stations added in one academic year for less than the price of a single vendor-supplied station
Too soon to tell about any decline of photocopying (and that revenue rivulet)
Containing Costs
When possible, construct with local talent and materials
Just do itA wildly popular service trumps frugal fiscal management
A PR No-Win Situation
Wireless Network Services
Now expected by
most library users.
One of the most heavily used library services
Biggest challenge: Avoiding negative PR when the wireless network teeters
The Mobile Revolution Has Invaded the Bricks and Mortar Library
Wireless: Nothin’ But Negative PR
Because good wireless access is now just assumed, the only PR possible with wireless is now negative PR Poor coverage Limited capacity Device problems User ignorance Often never gets reported to
librarians What halo effect does this negative
PR have?
But Isn’t Bad PR Really Good PR? No, not in this instance
Some Generalities, Lessons, and Conclusions, After All
Go Ahead: Launch Something Half-Baked
We should have promoted the heck out of the scanning stations when we first deployed them
Perils of a Soft Launch: Confuses and angers users (Why
didn’t the library tell us about this great service sooner?)
Confuses and sends mixed msg to library workers (soft launch = tepid commitment)
No Single Tech Solution
Probably never will be
No black rotary phone era on the horizon
Remember Mathews’ Villages and Neighborhoods
Lessons Learned
Launch and promote
Then watch and learn
Then modify/expand as appropriate
Be happy with success
Lather, Rinse, and Repeat
Thank You for Your Time and Attention
Tom Peters Today: Assistant Dean for Strategic
TechnologyInitiatives, Milner Library, Illinois State University
As of Aug. 1: Dean of Library Services, Missouri State University