connecting you with information, support and your community Are we cool? Katharine Widdows Enquiries Support Officer University of Warwick Library
Jun 30, 2015
connecting you with information, support and your community
Are we cool?
Katharine Widdows
Enquiries Support Officer
University of Warwick Library
connecting you with information, support and your community
OR: Student Engagement at Warwick: An Enquiry Support Team Perspective
connecting you with information, support and your community
OR (perhaps. . .) We are probably not cool – but we will keep trying
connecting you with information, support and your community
Social Networking: online engagement
connecting you with information, support and your community
Library uses of library social networks
Library Use Facebook Twitter
Up to date info & events promotion Yes (RSS and posts)
Yes (RSS and posts)
Receiving and responding to enquiries
Yes Yes
Using photos to add interest Yes Not yet
Using web links to direct people to other places
Yes Yes (use tinyurl / bit.ly)
Re-posting information from other services
No Yes
Getting feedback on services Not actively Yes - #librarywin
connecting you with information, support and your community
Student uses of library social networks
connecting you with information, support and your community
connecting you with information, support and your community
connecting you with information, support and your community
connecting you with information, support and your community
Facebook and Twitter: Library considerations
Issue Facebook Twitter
Terms and conditions Be careful! Much easier
Interface changes Frequent Only 1 so far
Who are your administrators? Personal log in Library log in
What about referrals? By email By email
Are you hitting your target audience? Potentially Potentially
Promoting your presence Various Various
Can you record activity? Yes (but we don’t fully yet)
Yes (but we don’t fully yet)
Inappropriate “engagement”? Potentially Potentially
connecting you with information, support and your community
Foursquare?
Social Networking - What next?
connecting you with information, support and your community
Mobile technology for roving staff: Face to face engagement
connecting you with information, support and your community
Utilising mobile technology: Smart Phone vs. iPad - staff comments
Smart Phone:
We thought we’d be cool – we’re not
It’s quicker for students to go to an OPAC
They think we’re texting our mates
iPad:
Certainly better received by students than the smart phone
Most students were quite impressed, able to help them whilst on the move
Most students were quite interested to see me using it and a lot of students asked if it was my own
connecting you with information, support and your community
Does the ipad help with student engagement?
• Allowed us to pull students out of OPAC queues• Allowed us to deal with enquiries “on the spot”• You could hand it to the student to do a search
themselves• Challenges the library/ “librarian” stereotype?• Ice breaker?
connecting you with information, support and your community
Technology - What next? CGI Robots?
“I feel that for the extravagant size of the library there are not enough explosions or special effects to spice, what can be quite long and dull days up.
Surely adding CGI robots and some form of 'Megan Fox' to the library would improve the aesthetic as well as increasing morale of the staff.”
(Genuine comment received via student feedback system in late 2010)
connecting you with information, support and your community
Or Employ Megan Fox?