Assessment of Library Promotional Activities

(From the AIG wiki; originally posted March 2008)

March 2008 Discussion Topic:  Assessment of Library Promotional Activities

Ciara Healy suggested this month’s discussion topic, which is based on a message she received from the ALA ACRL Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) discussion list. Thanks, Ciara.

Think about libraries hosting non-traditional (in the library sense) events to promote library awareness. These events don’t promote library services and resources directly, but draw users’ attention to the library. For example, the Learning Commons and Special Collections at GA State University Library soon will sponsor a film screening to promote Women’s History Month. The example that was included in the CJCLS discussion list item is GA Tech’s CeLIBration, which gets freshmen in the library to particpate in very un-library activities, like speed dating, retro (board) games, and DDR.

Does anyone have any experience assessing this type of activity? How can we determine the impact of these events on users’ perceptions and use of the library?

---

The use of the Library as a hospitality space for the powers that be at the school can have some sidestream visibility benefits to the Library.

To my experience, folks coming into the Library for a non-Library purpose see only their purpose – be it meeting, viewing a presentation or attending a gathering.  The folks who arrive early, and alone, might browse if they don’t fall back on checking their cellphone or leaving to wait for more people to arrive.  If the librarian knows the person that arrives early, then an opportunity is available to “talk up” the Library or show whatever may interest that particular person.

Assessment material would be any followup from the visitors that isn’t related to their original purpose in coming into the Library – ie a request for information, a book, “where you got that poster from”, etc.

Tim Wojcik

---

I can only imagine a few ways to assess the use of the library as a hospitality space (I like Tim’s description):

1. anecdotally- hope that those who come for the non-library event mention this on a later visit and that the library employee who hears it will record it, etc. Inefficient and not good for gathering enough data to measure impact.

2. survey the non-library event attendees about their perceptions of the library at the end of the event. “Now that you’ve visited the library, would you return for research purposes?” or whatever. Value?

3. focus group of non-library event attendees. Invite them at the end of the event or hold the focus group at the end of the event. I don’t think this would really work.

This made me think about my freshman college year. Having come from a town of 2,500 with the public library in an old house, I was very intimidated about going to the 7-story campus library—so intimidated that I didn’t go for months until I had to do some scavenger hunt assignment. If I’d walked into the library to attend a non-library event and seen what it was like, I would’ve been inclined to go back much sooner than I did. There’s one anecdote for you.

Jennifer

---

This is an interesting topic. Ingram Library recently formed a friends of the library group and we are starting to host events either during or after library hours. It would be nice to have some type of assessment in terms of how many people who attend an event come back later to use our resources or if it has changed their perception of the library.

Diane

---

So, how can we determine who comes back after attending an event at the library and whether their library perceptions changed? Any ideas?  –Jennifer

---

ALA in DC hosted illuminating speakers as part of their “Marketing Library to GenX” workshop,  The two in particular that caught my interes, Ciara may have seen mention of them on the CJCLS List, are from St. Charles Public Library in IL and started an activities group targetd at twenties and thrities called T N T which very cleverly entices library awareness through non-trad events.  If I recall correctly, they gauge/assesse at the end of each event via a brief survey insturment- which seems sensible to me.  Check out their site for some great ideas.

As far as what I’ve any experience with (here in a academic setting), our local PR team conceptualized an ad campaign for the school paper that was based on an ad campaign originally run by a local establishment (bar) in the community’s free weekly paper that featured a picture of a patron with the tag line “Guess Who I Saw?”  The bar used it to garner interest by showing that interesting/popular/good looking people were there, we did the same to show interesting/popular/good looking people were at the library.  And, while I can’t actually address the efficacy of the campaign, the ad space did bring the library to people’s attention.  That same season we ran ads (featuring pics of student workers) to promote our feature film/DVD holdings; again, non-trad services to entice the populus…

Finally, to address the value of the survey insturment I would suggest that the brief survey may be the easiest and most concrete way to assess non-trad event attendees change of perception (or lack thereof) regarding the library.  The keyword is “brief” though, as anything too involved may sour participant’s perception at just the wrong time.

Jewell

---

I am a librarian at the Cartersville campus library of Georgia Highlands College and we are “teaming up” with the coordinator of student life and the president of the Book Club (started by a student) to host non library-related events in the library.

For instance, in celebration of National Poetry Month and Jazz Appreciation Month the Book Club has organized a poetry reading for April 23rd and the event will be held in the library. We have contacted the advisor in charge of production of The Old Red Kimono (http://www.highlands.edu/ork/) ,GHC’s literary magazine, and asked her to contact the students who have poetry in the magazine to see if they want to read their stuff. We are hoping to advertise the event in the upcoming issue of ORK and we also plan to advertise the event through student life.  There will be food and jazz music playing (hopefully by a student band) and we have set up a display of poetry and jazz books at the entrance of the library just in case the students want to browse afterwards (or beforehand). The library’s involvement is minimal—our role is to provide a venue for the reading—but these events get students to come into our library… and hopefully come back.

Jennifer I like your #2 assessment idea.

Stacy

---

Hi Diane!

It would also be cool to have a coffee shop in the library. That would certainly draw students–Stacy

---

GA State opened its coffee shop a few months ago.  It would be easy enough to survey students in the coffee shop about how/whether it’s changed their perception of the library

Jennifer

Focus Groups

(From the AIG wiki; originally posted April 2008)

Let’s discuss focus groups this month! Some questions to get you started:

• How did you successfully recruit focus group participants?
• What incentives did you use, if any, and what seemed to work best?
• How did you decide what questions to ask? (Complaints from patrons? Based on survey results? Other?)
• Academic libraries, did you need approval from your IRB to conduct the focus group?
• Please provide any details that you think others would benefit from knowing: Number of subjects, number of moderators, method(s) of recording discussions, time of day you held the group, reporting results, acting on findings . . .

If you haven’t conducted any focus groups and have questions for those in the group who have, feel free to post your questions.

I conducted a student focus group at the end of March that worked out well. I had 9 subjects and asked them 5 questions. The questions were based on our fall 2007 LibQUAL+ data–mainly repeated comments that we didn’t quite understand or that we wanted validated.  I served pizza and snacks, and each participant received a $5 campus debit card at the conclusion of the focus group. The subjects were great; they provided thoughtful answers and seemed engaged the whole time. I moderated the session and used a digital audio recorder and a video camera that also captured audio (which was good, because the audio recorder cut out quite a bit, and I would’ve missed much of the audio without the camera’s audio.)

At my insitution (Georgia State), we do have to get IRB approval to conduct a focus group. I requested a waiver of consent, since all reports of the focus group’s discussions would not have subjects’ names associated with them. Subjects still had to give consent according to the informed consent document, but they were allowed to give verbal consent. I told the IRB that I planned to do more focus groups in the future and did I have to submit an application for each one. I’m allowed to edit my current application and revise the date, time, and questions to be asked.

In the past, successful recruitment has been a problem. This time I targeted organized student groups and emailed members. I asked those interested to tell me when they were available and scheduled the focus group at the most available time. This meant editing my IRB protocol for date and time, but it wasn’t a big deal. I will definitely use this approach again.

I look forward to reading others’ comments–I’m especially interested in recruiting techniques!

Jennifer

---

Some focus group resources:

Becher, M. L., & Flug, J. L. (2005). Using student focus groups to inform library planning and marketing. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 12(1/2), 1-18.

Bloor, M. (2001). Focus groups in social research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Greenbaum, T. L. (1998). The handbook for focus group research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Greenbaum, T. L. (2000). Moderating focus groups: a practical guide for group facilitation. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Hughes-Hassel, S., & Bishop, K. (2004). Using focus group interviews to improve library services for youth. Teacher Librarian, 32(1), 8-12. Available through ProQuest Research Library.

Lee, D. (2005). Can you hear me now?: Using focus groups to enhance marketing research. Library Administration & Management, 19(2), 100-101. Available through ProQuest Research Library and ABI Inform Complete.

Walden, G. (2006). Focus group interviewing in the library literature: A selective annotated bibliography 1996-2005. Reference Services Review, 34(2), 222-241. Available through Emerald and ProQuest Research Library.

---

Using focus groups for library renovations

Some members of this committee have recently renovated their library. Before renovating your library did you create a focus group or groups to obtain input from students or other library users about the changes they wanted incorporated into the renovation? If so can you share your success stories and also how did you attract and select people to join the focus group? What were some of the drawbacks of using focus groups? The reason I ask is because we are to going to renovate our library and it seem appropriate we use focus groups to help us determine some of the changes we should incorporate into the renovation.

Thanks,

Diane

---

Hi Diane,

We did a small renovation last year and did not use focus groups for that project, however for the new building (scheduled to break ground this summer) we formed the Library Planning Group.  It is made up of “key” players such as the Director of Student Success, representatives from Educational Technology, library faculty members etc.  We also included students and faculty members (volunteers) that had an interest in the project.  We conducted “brain storming” sessions as the full group.  In these sessions we asked questions of all members and also just allowed time for everyone to say what is important to them in a library building.  We also divided up the members and did small groups focusing on interior, exterior and technology for the building, with library faculty interviewing the participants.   Group members also went on “field trips” to several schools and brought that information back to the table.  The Library Planning Group is very much like a focus group, we are engaging our users to find out what they want and need.  The group produced a Planning Document that was given to the project manager and architects, both of which have found it to be very helpful.  From our experience I would think that focus groups would be extremely helpful in planning a renovation.  These folks do know what works in the real world of academics (something an architect might not always understand) and can definitely help make the library better.  The only drawback I can think of is that a lot of folks have a lot of great ideas but you can’t give everyone everything, so some participants may be a bit disappointed in the end if their “great idea” wasn’t put into place (usually because of space, budget or practicality.)  Good luck!

Joy

---

Hi Joy,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. There has been talk of a new library in our future and I like your ideas about how to get the students, the faculty and the staff involved in the planning process.

Stacy