Puzzle Me This:Connecting User Communities With Libraries Through Puzzles

Mathew Willmott, MIT Science Library

The MIT Libraries Puzzle Challenge

In October of 2007, the MIT Libraries embarked on a new type of marketing campaign, and released the first of a series of puzzles to the MIT Community. Five more puzzles were published throughout the course of the 2007-08 academic year. Each puzzle required the use of at least one library resource to find the solution, and students who correctly solved a puzzle during the given time period were entered into a drawing to receive an iPod Nano.

Goals of the campaign

Survey data showed us that advertising should be more engaging; thus we designed puzzles that would:

•Be fun for students to solveMade puzzles challenging but not impossibleModeled puzzles after MIT Mystery Hunt

•Introduce students to new resourcesCitation searching in Web of SciencePaper reviews in MathSciNetUrban planning history in Sanborn Fire Insurance MapsAdvisory database for business, management, and economics

What did we learn?

•Get to know the audience you’re advertising to: MIT students are problem-solvers, and so puzzles were effective

•Engage people with a fun activity:Solvers actually used the resources rather than just hearing about them

•Consider your target audience when choosing advertising locations:

The Tech’s puzzle page got the most attention.

For more information:Contact me at willmott@mit.edu or visit the MIT Libraries’ puzzle page at http://libraries.mit.edu/puzzle.

Marketing strategies and locations

Each puzzle had a solving period of about two weeks, during which we tried to use pointed marketing strategies in various locations to advertise to students who would be interested in solving them.

•Most successful locations:Lobby 7, MIT’s main lobbyPuzzle page in The Tech, MIT’s twice-weekly campus newspaperSpotlight on MIT’s home page

•Other locations, with mixed success:FacebookMIT Libraries News BlogSlides before on-campus moviesFliers at library desks

These advertisements were designed to focus on the puzzle; solutions were submitted through an online form.

Next Steps

•Currently conducting a survey of solvers:What they liked about the campaignWhether they learned anything about library resourcesWhat they think about advertising locations

•Considering conducting a focus group to get more detailed feedback

Puzzles Puzzle Construction: An In-Depth Example

 The main goal in the construction of these puzzles was to guide the users to a resource and show them some way in which it could be useful to them in the future.

Other Puzzle Examples

Now it’s your turn!Solve this puzzle to get an MIT Libraries keychain!

  (sample puzzle attached here)

•Puzzle highlights the Dewey Research Advisor (DRA):

New, lesser-known resourcePatrons could find it useful

•Solvers are directed to the DRA by the letters in bold italics scattered throughout the lower half

•Solvers use the DRA to find the answers to the questions with the appropriate number of letters

•Answers can be entered into the grid so that the elongated boxes contain a single letter:

•The completed grid reads “Answer is Milton Friedman” in the grayed boxes

•109 students submitted a correct solution to this puzzle

Compendex

•Column 1: ISSN numbers

•Column 2: Compendex reference numbers

•Not solvable with Google alone

•First puzzle released

•38 correct solutions received

MathSciNet

•Highlights peer reviews

•Grayed lines refer to MathSciNet MR numbers

•32 correct solutions received

Inventions of Note sheet music collection

(created at MIT)

•Word search in which the unused letters are the important piece

•67 correct solutions received

Sanborn fire insurance maps

•Pictures are counties in Massachusetts, solvers need to identify the highlighted town

•Numbers below each picture tell the solver which Sanborn map of that town to use.

•56 correct solutions received

Statistical Results

Dewey Research Advisor statistics

•Puzzle released in November. Statistical analyses showed significant increases in usage during November (and September when I was writing the puzzle)

•Top chart: Total queries to the DRA search box by month during 2007; November had a 200% increase over October.

•Middle chart: Answer pages accessed in the DRA, either through queries or through browsing the questions; November had a 40% increase over October.

•Lower chart: Total web traffic to the MIT Libraries webpages for the month of November 2007. November 20, the day the puzzle had a spotlight on the main MIT homepage, had 7796 visits, almost 2800 visits (56%) more than the second highest day that month.

Inventions of Note web traffic

•Red=puzzle open for answer submission•Green=puzzle in construction•Blue=remainder of the spring semester

•Average visits per day for the blue section = 136•Average visits per day for the red section = 304

Solver statistics

Submission count by student status (correct solutions in parentheses)

Puzzle Dates open Undergrad Grad Total

1: Compendex 10/15/07-10/30/07 25(20) 23(18) 48(38)

2: Dewey Research Advisor 11/5/07-11/20/07 75(72) 41(37) 116(109)

3: Sanborn Fire Maps 11/26/07-12/11/07 33(31) 29(25) 62(56)

4: MathSciNet 2/22/08-3/3/08 21(20) 13(12) 34(32)

5: Inventions of Note 4/4/08-4/14/08 46(42) 27(25) 73(67)

6: Library Catalog/RefWorks/Web Of Science 4/25/08-5/5/08 20(18) 17(17) 37(35)

•237 different MIT students solved at least one puzzle•23 students solved three or more puzzles•3 students solved all six puzzles.

•122 students requested to be notified directly via email when future puzzles are released

•Chart at right tells where students reported that they first saw the puzzle

What students are saying:

“…thanks also for providing a fun distraction from work throughout the year. I only wish you'd started these earlier in my time at MIT.”

“It succeeded in not only being entertaining, but I actually learned a great deal more about the MIT library tools.  Keep it up in the future!”

“The puzzles were unexpected, entertaining, and a welcome distraction from everyday work. Seriously, what MIT student wouldn’t be intrigued by a cryptic list of numbers, especially if it isn’t on a p-set?”

“I had a lot of fun solving the puzzles!”

“More frequent library puzzles, please.”