importance of 'marketing digital collection' including a case study from harvard
DESCRIPTION
This presentation was given by Christine Madsen at the July 2009 ALISS Marketing libraries in challenging times conference. It describes the importance of marketing digital collections using a case study from Harvard Open Collections. It also introduces tools for measuring and evaluating the use of digital resources.TRANSCRIPT
The importance of “marketing” digital collections: including a case study from Harvard
29 July 2009 | ALISS
Christine Madsen
MjU Knowledge Consulting
&
Oxford Internet Institute
3 Part Presentation
Tools for understanding markets
In-link analysis
Harvard Open Collections Program Case Study
What did “marketing” do for us?
Why is any of this important?
What does this have to do academic libraries today?
‘Inlink’ = any link to a web site
site A
othersites [site A has 4 inlinks]
Measuring inlinks =citation analysis
Inlink Analysis
Deciphering ‘Impact’
Impact of digitisation on scholarship
Impact of marketing on the success of projects
Inlink Study
Comparing 289 sites
Inlink Software
LexiURL Searcher http://lexiurl.wlv.ac.uk
Yahoo Site Explorer https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
The State of Digitisation: Inlink Analysis
16%4%
1. http://www.gutenberg.org Project Gutenberg
2. http://memory.loc.govLC American
Memory
3. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ BNF Gallica
4. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/index.html
Cornell Making of America
5. http://www.ulib.org/Carnegie Mellon:
Million Book Collection
The State of Digitisation: Inlink Analysis
The State of Digitisation: Inlink Analysis
Reasons for dramatic curve? Used, but not linked to? Not used? Not found...
N=55050%
The State of Digitisation: (Un)Awareness
The State of Digital Humanities: Inlink Analysis
Harvard Open Collections ProgramCase Study
844 inlinks3,196 inlinks26%
Inlinks over 1 year
Goals
to increase the availability and use of historical resources from Harvard's libraries, archives and museums for teaching, learning, and research
to offer a new model for digital collections that will benefit students and teachers around the world
Harvard Open Collections ProgramCase Study
Selection Standards - Create comprehensive, topic-based digital collections by carefully selecting topics, and materials;
Production Standards - Create digital surrogates that are both faithful to the original publications and of such high quality that there will be no need for re-digitization by other institutions;
Access Standards - Provide easy online access to digital collections within the Harvard community and around the world.
Harvard Open Collections ProgramCase Study
Harvard Open Collections ProgramCase Study
Marketing [outreach] campaign
Hiring an ‘outreach and evaluation coordinator.’
An email announcement campaign targeted at faculty, teachers, researchers, and librarians in relevant subject areas.
Searching course syllabi and descriptions to compile a list of relevant courses, instructors, and institutions and contacting individual instructors to engage them in using materials.
Contacting the creators of similar sites to ask if they would link to our site.
A mailing of printed brochures to over 2,000 librarians in relevant subject areas with information included on how they could receive more brochures for their library.
A monthly email newsletter letting users know what was new to the collections and including small case studies of our users.
Press releases to media outlets.
Full-page advertisements in conference publications and relevant journals.
Harvard Open Collections ProgramCase Study
24
Target Networks
Internet
Libraries/Librarians
Educators Researchers
Students
General Public
Target Users
“Trickle Down” Users
Harvard Open Collections ProgramCase Study
Harvard Open Collections ProgramCase Study
‘But that’s not our job’
Build it and they will come.
Our job is to preserve
We should be digitizing more...
Entire campaign cost 2% of our project budget(approx $30,000USD)
Harvard Open Collections ProgramCase Study
Marketing in Libraries
‘But it is our job’
core function of academic libraries for 1,000 years = supporting scholarly communities
but those communities are moving onto the web
it is STILL the core function of academic libraries to support these scholarly communities
Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science
Books are for use
Every reader, his or her book
Every book its reader
Save the time of the reader
A library is a growing organism
So why does any of this matter?
29
“It is no wonder that, when the library has been
extending its scope, changing its outlook and
altering its very character and functions,
there should not be adequate understanding
among the public as to what has been going
on.”
So why does any of this matter?
30
Opportunity to re-define the role of Library
Understanding use
Forming a relationship with a community
Understanding impact
Marketing Matters
“counted on indexing to save the day”
“a universal identification, location, and access machine”
The Current Model
32
The Current Model
33
34
The New Model
Scholarship
The New Model
Library KnowledgeInformation
scholarly communities
Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science
Books are for use
Every reader, his or her book
Every book its reader
Save the time of the reader
A library is a growing organism
Marketing the Library…Not just the services
Academic library model => Online
BOOKS ARE FOR USE
“no rack shall be higher than what can be reached by a person of average height, while standing on the bare floor”
✓ don’t make it difficult for people to get to the materials
✓ build easy to use interfaces
Marketing the Library…Not just the services
“The majority of readers do not know their requirements, and their interests take a definite shape only after seeing and handling a well-arranged collection of books”
✓ Build collections that can be easily navigated
✓ Allow for serendipitous discovery of materials
Academic library model => OnlineMarketing the Library…Not just the services
Academic library model => Online
“In no country where the concept, ‘BOOKS ARE FOR USE,’ has taken root in the Public Mind, will any library be allowed to close until the majority of humanity go to bed and cannot use it”
✓ build a stable infrastructure
✓ if users find a place ‘closed’ too many times, they will stop coming back
Marketing the Library…Not just the services
Academic library model => Online
“a library that is keen about its books being fully used will plant itself in the midst of its clientele”
✓ Market your library
✓ Understand your users
✓ Build and support a community
Marketing the Library…Not just the services
“It is no wonder that, when the library has
been extending its scope, changing its
outlook and altering its very character and
functions, there should not be adequate
understanding among the public as to
what has been going on.”
Marketing the Library…Not just the services
For more information TIDSR: The Toolkit for the Impact of Digitised Scholarly Resources
http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/tidsr/
Thank you
Thomas J. Michalak
Megan Hurst
Kathryn Eccles / Eric Meyer