How to Generate Buy-In and Excitement from Your Campus Library

Colleen Greene, MLISSystems Librarian & Communications

CoordinatorPollak Library

California State University, Fullerton

Frustrations & Challenges

• Libraries are different• Library websites are different• OU Campus won’t work for a library

website

• The answer to each is sometimes YES.

• The answer to each is sometimes NO.

Understanding Library Culture

Most Academic Librarians Are Faculty

• Focus on research, education, and access

• Shared governance• Academic freedom• RTP (Retention, Tenure & Promotion) is

including more digital work– Campus service– Scholarly & creative work– Faculty assignments

Libraries & Librarians Are, In General, Early

AdoptersLikely 1st on campus to:•Have a website•Use a CMS•Understand & use social media•Focus on metadata & SEO•Use embedded & interactive media•Work with RSS, APIs, widgets

Professional & Ethical Philosophy of “Open”

• Intellectual freedom• Open access• Open source• Open data• Rights-free

Understanding Library Websites

Typical Library Website

• Informational pages• Discovery tools• Proprietary licensed electronic resources• Research & instruction guides• Institutional repositories & digital

archives• Custom apps, databases & web services• Blogs• Widgets, RSS feeds, APIs

OU Campus is Only One Part of a Library Website• Examples– Home page– Informational pages– News/Alert pages (if no blog)

• Why?– Bulk of our content is proprietary research

databases, journals, ebooks, media, etc.– Industry-standard tools that support library

metadata standards & interoperability standards

The Pollak Library Website

• 17+ different major websites• 1000s of databases & journal interfaces• Some allow us full CSS control, some

allow moderate CSS control, others little or no CSS

• Make heavy use of repurposing between web services & OU Campus, and between OU Campus via APIs, RSS, Assets (looking at XSL for external databases)

• www.library.fullerton.edu

Patrons Have An Emotional Tie to Library

Websites• Students & faculty stress out when our

“website” changes, runs slow, goes down– Blockers to getting research & assignments

done– Even if bookmark discovery tools or other

interfaces, have to do proxy check to access proprietary licensed research materials

• Instruction librarians teach from live site• Professors include library site in LMS

Ways to help Your Library

Timing

• NEVER implement a redesign or upgrade rollout during the academic year, unless an emergency– Grateful that OmniUpdate extended the

V10 migration deadline through 2014.– Librarians carry very heavy instruction

loads, which allows for no training time– If something goes wrong, blocker for

students & faculty doing research & assignments

Branding & Visual Identity

• Less is better (used Ohio State model)• But campus can provide resources to

help brand across library sites and interfaces– Header graphic choices– Quality stock photos–Well-documented parent CSS– No parent CSS changes without advanced

notifications– Style guide for typography & colors

Library & Librarian Culture

• Include us in business requirements, design stages & mockups, content strategy, training– Many are experienced in XML, PHP, JS, etc.– Information Architecture, metadata, SEO

expertise– While OU Campus is not open, it supports flavors

of open source that can be integrated with open systems

– We are educators, use us as campus trainers

• Use terms like consistent & more seamless “user experience” vs. branding & identity

Library & Librarian Culture

• Custom librarian-centric Profile pages– Faculty AND staff, some student assistants– More freedom with content and formatting– Use template logic to show/hide widgets– Allow embedded content

• Heavy focus on education & outreach• Each Profile is actually a directory folder.– Profile page is index– Store conference handouts, presentations, etc.– Provides a mini professional portfolio space

Understanding the Role of the Library Home

Page• Functions as a digital branch of the library• Gateway to electronic resources & directory

to information about/inside the library– Don’t want visitors hanging out here a long time– High Analytics bounce rates means we are doing

our job > visitors are finding what they need

• Current trend is very minimalistic– Simple, few, key visuals– Primary emphasis on Search tools

Repurpose Content & Services

• General OU Campus Content (Assets)– Related Content widgets > tagged– Related Policies & Pages widgets > tagged– Related Stock Images > tagged– WNL & Library Alerts

• Third Party Services– LibGuides & LibAnswers APIs > tagged– Blogs > RSS + WNL > tagged– Institutional Repositories and Digital Archives

> RSS or APIs

Point-Of-Need Repurposing

• Use Asset tagging to target selected content to related library pages in OU Campus (feeds specific widgets built into templates)

• Use Asset tagging to target selected OU Campus sites and pages across campus (wish list, not happening yet)

• Have campus sites make use of library RSS (wish list, not happening yet)

OU Campus Template Guidance

• Using XSL to display data from custom & third party databases

• Integrating Google Analytics event handlers throughout site, links, forms

Training approaches

Newsroom Approach

• Few System Administrators (L 10)• Few Super Users (L 7)• Assign “beats” across operational

units– OU Campus Groups & Directories– Content Team Leaders / managing editors

(L 4)– Content Team Members / reporters (L 3)

• Few spot checkers / copy editors (L 3)

Start With Profile Pages

• Almost everyone has more interest in Profiles

• Allows for a personal “sandbox” approach to learning OU Campus– Not end of world if Profile page blows up– Allows them to learn OU Campus admin interface– Allows them to learn OU Campus workflows– Allows them to learn template widgets

• Required prerequisite for those moving on to part 2 (Content Team) training

Contextual Training• Academic librarians & all faculty are very

focused on learning models & pedagogy– One-size-fits-all training not effective– Contextual & point-of-need training preferred

• Train by operational/functional areas– Groups, Template Groups, Directories– Workflows (Editors & Reporters, best practices)– More advanced training for Super Users

• Content strategy (writing for web, SEO, content flow, content ideas)

Contact Information

Colleen Greene, MLIS•cgreene@fullerton.edu•@colleengreene•www.colleengreene.com•Pollak Library Faculty Profile Page

Class Link List: http://bit.ly/cgreene-outc14