[WEB4LIB] Re: Google Answers questions

[Sloan, Bernie]

Karen Schneider said:

"The collective advice I received: "You're right, Karen, the library
needs to hire some marketing professionals to get the word out."  We
don't publish our books--maybe we shouldn't try to do our own PR?"

Marketing and PR are important when it comes to making people aware of
library-based Q&A services (i.e., reference services). But marketing and PR
are just part of that equation.

When I give a talk on digital reference services (which is a for-free
library equivalent of the for-fee Google Answers) I like to stress the term
"visibility". It's my take on the digital reference services version of the
first item in RUSA's "Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and
Information Services Professionals" See Section 1.0 ("Approachability") at
http://www.ala.org/rusa/stnd_behavior.html). 

To me, PR and marketing are part of the "visibility" equation. A good
marketing campaign can raise people's awareness of a service. But to
complete the equation you need to work on ways to make the user aware of
your service at the user's point of need.

As Karen also said "A consultation with a reference librarian also
requires...knowing that you can consult with a reference librarian." If we
can make people aware that they "can consult with a reference librarian" at
the time that they need to consult with a reference librarian (i.e., at
their point of need) we'll be a lot closer to seeing increased use of the
digital reference services we offer.

Bernie Sloan