Realising your potential: Marketing your skills in the

workplace

What we’ll look at today

• Who am I? Where do I work?• Identifying and prioritising skills and attitudes• Identifying and defining user groups• Marketing our skills and our services

Who am I?

Emma Illingworth, Assistant Information AdviserUniversity of Brighton:www.brighton.ac.uk/is:http://twitter.com/UniBrightonIS

Blog and twitter:http://librariansontheloose.wordpress.com/:http://twitter.com/wigglesweets

Where do I work?

St Peter’s House

Falmer Aldrich Queenwood UCH

University of Brighton

Identifying and prioritising skills and attitudes

Enthusiasm forlearning newtechnologies

ProjectManagement

skills

Patience

Ability toquestion

and evaluatelibrary

services

Ability toevaluate

the needs of allstakeholders

Ability to sellideas and library

services

Commitment to customer

service

Diplomacy skills

Ability to sellideas and library

services

Enthusiasm forteaching and

learning

Develop and maintain an

awareness of the profession

Creativity and Innovation

Identifying and defining user groupsDefining our users at the University of Brighton – who do we want to market our skills (and services) to?

Studentsft, pt,

distance, ug, pg, home,

EU, international

Researchers

Staffft, pt, visiting,

academic, support,

Professionals/public

Identifying the needs of our users

• School board meetings• Comments/feedback by comment form and

email• Verbal comments at the enquiry desk• Information services student survey• Information services staff survey• Aldrich library feedback wiki

Marketing our skills and our services

The library should have:• an effective marketing strategy in place So that:• our users know what they can expect from us,• what services we deliver• what sorts of skills we have and can pass on through instruction and user education sessions.

Marketing our skills and our services

• Be visible outside the library• Consistent online presence• Share good practice with colleagues• Brush up on presentation skills• Send a welcome pack to new members of staff• Participate in library promotion events• Your very own 30 second commercial

Re-cap!

• Who am I? Where do I work?• Identifying and prioritising skills and

attitudes• Identifying and defining user groups• Marketing our skills and our services

Contact me

Emma Illingworth, Assistant Information AdviserUniversity of Brighton

(: 01273 642 798 : e.illingworth@brighton.ac.uk :: www.brighton.ac.uk/is:: http://twitter.com/UniBrightonIS

My online profile:: http://librariansontheloose.wordpress.com/:: http://twitter.com/wigglesweets:: facebook.com/emmaillingworth72

Recommended reading - books• Siess, J. (2003) The visible librarian : asserting your value with marketing and

advocacy. Chicago : American Library Association• Pantry, S & Griffiths, P. (1998) Becoming a successful intrapreneur : a practical

guide to creating an innovative information service. London : Library Association Publishing

• Corrall, S & Brewerton, A. (1999) The new professional's handbook : your guide to information services management. London : Library Association

• Byke, S. (2009) A leadership primer for new librarians : tools for helping today's early-career librarians to become tomorrow's library leaders. Oxford : Chandos Publishing

• Pantry, S & Griffiths, P. (2003) Your essential guide to career success. London : Facet

• Myburgh, S. (2005) The new information professional : how to thrive in the information age doing what you love. Oxford : Chandos

• Ptolomey, J. (2009) Taking charge of your career : a guide for library and information professionals. Oxford : Chandos

Recommended reading – blogs and other electronic resources

Phil Bradley’s weblog http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/

Joeyanne Libraryannehttp://www.joeyanne.co.uk/