ALA Program on Marketting Virtual Referene Services -- Saturday 6/15/02 3:00-5:30 pm - GWCC A302 (fwd)

[Stephen Coffman]

If you starting a virtual reference service or even thinking of starting a virtual reference service … and you are coming to ALA in Atlanta … this is the one program you won't want to miss .... 

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Marketing Virtual Reference Services or PR for VR
3:00-5:30 Saturday, June 15, 2002
Room A302
Georgia World Congress Center
(One floor below Auditorium for Opening General Session)
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Here's what people are saying about marketing and virtual reference ...

"It's impossible to overstate the importance of marketing in virtual reference; without it, even the finest service will die of starvation"  --- John Tisch, librarian, Philadelphia, PA.

"It's probably the single most important factor in the success of your service ... neglect it at your peril"  --- JoAnne Gilaney, librarian, Sydney, Australia.

'It's the difference between 35 questions per hour and 35 questions per week"  --- Michelle Fiander, Manager, Web Reference Center, LSSI

"Your new online reference service is so cool ... it's a shame more people haven't heard about it" --- Marianne Smythe, undergrad student and library patron, Boston, MA

"If you make a product good enough, even though you live in the depths of the forest the public will make a path to your door, says the philosopher. But if you want the public in sufficient numbers, you would better construct a highway"  ---  William Randolph Hearst, tycoon, San Simeon, CA

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And Here's Who's Talking at ALA ... 


3:00-3:05 	- 	Welcome and Announcement of the First Ever Samuel Swett Green Award for Exemplary Virtual Reference Service Steve Coffman, Kay Henshall and Arthur Brady

3:05-3:25	-	Karen Hyman, Director of the South Jersey Regional Library
Cooperative on marketing techniques used to launch and publicize the QandANJ statewide virtual reference service, one of the busiest virtual reference services in the world (http://www.qandanj.org/)

3:25-3:50	•	Bill Schickling, Gaylord Information Systems will show how they
have integrated virtual reference directly within their Polaris catalog ... and how the creation of such 'smart' catalogs and databases can help drive traffic to your service by putting a librarian in front of your patrons whenever they need help (http://www.gis.gaylord.com/)

3:50-4:05	•	Lisa Horowitz and friends from MIT on effective marketing in
academic environments --- current practice and future plans (http://libraries.mit.edu/)

4:05-4:30	•	Boyd Karren of Soter Associates (advertising and marketing firm
used by Horizon / Dynix and other library vendors) on lessons from the private sector, how libraries can take advantage of marketing and media strategies used in the business world without breaking the budget (http://www.soter.net)

4:30-4:50	•	Tracy Strobel of the highly successful KnowItNow project on the
various strategies they are using to market their service in Cleveland, Ohio
(http://www.knowitnow24x7.net/)

4:50-5:10	•	Linda Wallace and Peggy Barber of Library Communications
Strategies (and formerly of ALA Public Relations) on marketing lessons from the QandA Café project in Northern California (http://www.librarycomm.com)

5:10-5:30	•	Tutor.com on how to take advantage of the new integration
between LSSI Virtual Reference and the Tutor.com services to help reach school-age children (www.tutor.com)


Come early and stay late.  Food and refreshments will be provided.  And we look forward to seeing you all there.