Roving - The rOverview (part1)

At the moment I seem to be getting asked quite a bit about how roving enquiry support works over here. But there are a lot of facets to this, so to prevent boredom and "rOverload" (hopefully) I'm going to break it down into 5 small parts and post over the next couple of weeks. But here's a quick "rOverview" of how it works for my team to set the scene...(no more puns, I promise)...

The Front of House set up:

Enquiry Support are one of 3 Customer Service teams based primarily front of house:

The Customer Support Team (including Library Assistants) staff the Helpdesk and deal primarily with accounts, membership and circulation, but also handle general enquiries and make referrals. 

The Environment Team (made up of Stewards) look after the study environment ensuring people are following guidelines and working in appropriate study zones etc. but also field some enquiries whilst roving and refer a lot of these on. 

The Enquiry Support Team (Library Advisers plus me) provide roving support, including general enquiries, finding and accessing print resources, referrals to specialist staff and referrals advice, first line digital access support, assistance with using equipment etc.

But any member of staff could be dealing with front of house enquiries and referrals so cross team communication and training are important. 

The Enquiry Support Team:

My job title is "Enquiry Support Officer" and I look after the team of Library Advisers. They are the same grade as a Library Assistant and currently I have 3 established Advisers and 2 peer support temps. (I started the academic year with 4 temps, and so far 2 are still here - I am really pleased any of them have stayed this long!)

The peer support temps are here as a trial project for this year. They work along side established staff but are front of house only, just providing roving support. The established Advisers work both front of house (roving) and back of house (the team has quite a broad remit relating to all things enquiry-supporty). But as we're only interested in the roving here, the Advisers are all effectively doing the same job - and wearing the same tee-shirt - pictured right (not literally - that would get crowded). 

The Hours: 

We typically provide roving enquiry support from 10am - 6pm Monday-Friday during terms 1 and 2 and we reduce that in line with service demands in term 3, when most students have their heads stuck in books and past exam papers and are not so much in need of enquiry support, as caffeine and chocolate. 

We cover some weekends and bank holidays, depending on expected demand.

We also operate an Adviser On Call service allowing other front of house teams to phone for an Adviser to come and help a specific person if required.(This number is only available to Library staff - students cannot phone for an Adviser).

The Rest:

So, that's how the basics shape up. I'll post a few separate posts over the next couple of weeks to look at: 

• The People (who are these roving wonders?)
• The Tech (what wireless wizardry is required to make roving work?)
• The Review (how did it go this year?)
• The Future (whatever next?)

(Images from Morguefile.com - except for the Adviser tee-shirt - that's real!)

Thing 17: The Medium is the Message- Prezi and Slideshare #cpd23

So, Prezi huh?
I tried it out a while ago for an info sharing meeting in Sheffield. Given that my first presentation (the one where things were running a bit late so I didn't have time to actually load the powerpoint so I just talked off the top of my head) was so much better than my Prezi one (which I did have time for and did load properly) I am a little sceptical. Not about Prezi as a tool, but about my prowess as a Prezi-Master.

The fateful nausea-inducing product of my ill-conceived first attempt can be seen below. If it had worked I planned to use it as a staff training tool for our front of house enquiry referral model. I can hear the relieved sighs of 102 members of the Customer Services department as I type. . .

Informed referrals on Prezi

So recently I have been trying powerpoint again, but in different ways - such as just using images with no text at all (which I quite like), and using Turning Point with it to allow interactive voting - which is nice. This is the powerpoint I have been delivering internally to staff over the Easter vacation on the Library project to standardise our core terminology (the bits that look like they should have graphs but don't are the Turning Point bits which wont display properly here):

Standardisation working group april 2012

View more PowerPoint from katharine Widdows

I am willing to give Prezi another go, but it will have to wait until I have more time to play. Until then I will try to use powerpoint in slightly less boring ways. In an attempt to improve my powerpoints I have recently invested in a few books I haven't had time to read yet - but maybe they will help when I do.

As for Slideshare, I am on there, but I am pretty sure the stuff I post is only of interest to me, as it allows me to access stuff from different places. Mostly my presentations (like the one above) are not likely to be of much interest outside of my immediate work place.

Conclusion - Must try harder. 

Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published #cpd23

Wow - 16 is a BIG thing!

I don't think I have done very well in this area myself, I used to be one of Those People who thought librarians stamped books all day and came into librarianship quite unexpectedly. I think possibly my first (vague) brush with advocacy was writing about this for the Library Routes project in 2009.

Currently I have 2 sets of opportunities for this kind of activity:

1. The Day Job
My job, now I think about it, does involve advocacy in many forms, but this wouldn't have especially occurred to me if hadn't been for this Thing. I work in an academic setting, so it;s a bit different to the kind of advocacy described for public libraries in the CPD23 blog post. But it is still advocacy and it takes many forms, probably the top 4 are:

• Reporting on stats and management information to demonstrate the work of my team to senior management
• Working with our Marketing Advisory Group: I am currently working on a specific marketing campaign to improve the customer perception of my team (and other customer services teams) and increase awareness of the breadth of skills these staff have
• I work with school 6th forms (teachers and students), managing induction sessions to support their studies and help to increase understanding about academic libraries and the importance of our work
• Working with a committee to plan and manage library orientation and basic information provision for new customers throughout the academic year

2. The CILIP stuff

Outside of my day job I also work with the CILIP West Midlands committee as the Newsletter editor in my "spare time". And it is in that capacity that I hope to be more involved in wider advocacy.

Bits of work including organising and staffing a careers stand and representing CILIP WM at the last ever LIS show in Birmingham have been great and reasonably productive. But 

sadly my biggest idea so far was scuppered by several life-events intervening and resulting in me having to abandon most of my CILIP involvement for the last 4 months or so. But the plan WAS to use CILIP WM capacity to help libraries in the region to publicise events for National Libraries Day back in February. The idea was to gather info from libraries running events, write press releases and get the info out to various places - free newspapers - not free newspapers - local TV and Radio stations - etc. to increase general awareness of the day and also of specific local events. 

I suppose there is always next year. Anyone want to help out ready for Feb 2013?

Thing 15 - Conferences and other events #cpd23

I've split this post into the 3 parts, attending, speaking and organising and I'll give just a brief bit of reflection on my experiences of each:

Attending:
The best events, in my opinion, have the following characteristics:

• Accurate marketing in advance so you know what you are really signing up for
• Presentations and activities based on relevant topics at the right pitch for the audience
• Presentations delivered by interesting and knowledgeable speakers
• Time to talk to other attendees and share ideas
• Practical ideas that you can do something with at the end of the event

I've been to several events which I felt were a largely a waste of time, and the main reasons usually centre around poor marketing and poor planning. Going to an event you think will be useful and relevant only to find out the description you read of it was inaccurate and it is not actually covering the topics advertised is very annoying.
But mostly something good will come out of any event you go to - even if it's not part of the main program. It could be that you meet someone working on a similar project to you and swap ideas, sometimes just one thing that one speaker says makes the whole day worth while, or it could even just be that the time you had out of the office gave you a chance to think things through in a different way.

Speaking:
I have spoken a bit at a few small events now - all with relatively small and non-threatening audiences. But it's time to do bigger things soon. I can't guarentee I'll be much good at this, but I am certainly a whole load better than I used to be. Public speaking used to make me feel sick. It doesn't have that effect anymore, and I am starting to enjoy it to a point, but it is still very stressful. This is partly what makes me so sure I need to do more of it!.

Organising:
I have less experience of this, but have been involved in supporting event organisation. I've organised exhibition stands and staff training sessions etc. but nothing as exciting as a conference, for example.

However, it's one of the things on my list of stuff I'd like to have a go at, and I'm looking out for opportunities both in my day job, and through my CILIP WM role.

SO behind!! But TechnoGran would have made me finish anyway, so here I am. #cpd23

My last CPD23 post was back in November, and I am now some-large-number-of weeks behind the program (which actually finished in December!). This has been due to a combination of personal disasters which I don't really want to go into here, but which sadly include the death of my amazing Techno Gran not so long ago. 

My Gran was somewhat inspirational in many ways to many people, and even briefly touched the blogosphere and Twitterverse with her ipad adventures last year. Resulting in a surprising amount of tweeting and commenting and even a few requests from librarians and lecturers about the place asking if they could use her as an example when talking to students about technology. She kindly agreed that all of them could, but probably would have secretly considered their students to all be a little out of touch. 

Encouraged by yet another comment received on my Gran's ipad post about a week ago (this one from a LIS Masters student) I've started to think about blogging again and when I came back to the blog I also rediscovered CPD23. 

What would my Gran have said about it all? 

Probably something like:

"CPD23? What's that then? Free training? Thats great. Well, you've started so you ought to finish, don't you think? Now let me see if I can thrash you at this game of Simpsons chess - isn't Marge's hair funny!".

So, I don't have much choice in the matter really. Best get back to it. 

Working in a "Web 2 Landscape" (includes pretty pictures)

Yesterday we hit 3000 likes on our library Facebook page, and it made me a little reflective, remembering the days when I used to get excited about us having a couple of hundred. Especially as I've had several enquiries from other libraries in recent weeks about how we are managing our central social networking accounts. I'm not sure what has created the renewed interest in Library Land, but in the last few weeks it certainly seems revived.

In talking to other libraries one thing still seems to be the key difference between here, and many other institutions: We don't have many restrictions on what we can do. I have just spoken to someone who said it sounds like we have a "cultural web 2 landscape" at Warwick, that we can work within, which allows us to develop easily. So I wondered. . .

What does that landscape look like across the whole of the library?

What follows are my responses to the things I seem to be getting asked about  (alongside some rather beautiful - and free! pictures of web landscapes I found through Morguefile.com)

I think these are the 5 main features shaping this "landscape": 

1. The whole thing started because in 2007 senior managers gave us the green light to explore and experiment with web 2, they did not wait for us to ask them for permission, they did not ask for paperwork or project reports.
2. The library has no strict policy on what we can post or respond to - we just use common sense guidelines
3. Staff use social networking and web 2 tools in many different ways across library services, so we can join up and make these tools work together. 
• For example several of our subject specialist librarians blog, so we can feed their blogs through Yahoo Pipes straight into FB and Twitter so expanding the reach of the blogs and auto-generating FB and Twitter content at the same time.  
4. Decisions are made quickly and not over analysed by senior managers
• e.g. when I asked my manager - "Can we claim our 4Square place because our students are already there and currently we have no real way of monitoring it or engaging with them?". I was told "Yes" within just a few mins. 
5. The library is proactive in encouraging staff to learn more and get involved. E.g. 23 Things ran last year for staff (thanks to Emma Cragg). 

Where does my team fit in to this landscape?
My team (Enquiries Support) look after the central accounts, and we have our own team guidelines for that, based on the way we want our particular services to run. There is a lot of other activity going on outside of that. For example the Wolfson Research Exchange maintain blogs and have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts to target their specific research audience. 

While Enquiries Support collaborate with other library services who are active in these ways, retweeting some of their content, posting about their events, etc. we manage the accounts in the way that best suits this team, and our core service purposes (general, centralised, enquiry support).

Because we monitor all 3 accounts together (Facebook, Twitter and 4Square) I can generalise, to a point, about how we manage them. . .

Here are the 5 (OK - 6) main points:

1. 3 Library Advisers monitor FB, Twitter and 4Square on a rota basis alongside the central library enquiries email account (which they would be monitoring anyway so no additional staff time is required). 
2. Service hours are currently 10am - 6pm Mon - Friday
3. Library Advisers send referrals to specialist staff via email and specialists send responses back via email, which we then send to the enquirer via whichever service they originally used to ask the question (for Twitter we sometimes have to edit to fit in to the character allowance)
4. We have some basic guidelines in place for staff - such as who we follow, who to block, checking spelling and links before posting etc. - mostly it's just common sense. 
5. If you are managing a team who look after these kinds of accounts I'd recommend you make some time to set up and actively use a personal account yourself because . . .
• Interfaces change. A lot. 
• There are things you need to be aware of, which you may not come across unless you actively use the services yourself. (e.g. I had to explain to my team about #ff last week because it showed up in our Twitter feed and none of them knew what it was - imagine their imaginings!)
6. Training is important - even if the team are already familiar with using the services. There are key differences between how you post in your personal life and how you post when representing an organisation. Even with training - mistakes can happen - watch out for them and be prepared to handle them, but don't be scared of them.

The current stats and 4 key practicalities for each service are as follows: 

Twitter: 

Stats as of yesterday - Followers: 1382. Following: 76. 

1. We follow accounts we think we might retweet (ie. accounts that might be useful to our target audience (Warwick Library customers) and compliment the kind of information we want our accounts to offer). 
• This includes: other university services and departments, plus a few key external organisations such as COPAC, and the BL. 
• It excludes: other libraries, individual students and staff of the university and commercial organisations. 
2. It is useful to be aware of which other university services and departments are on Twitter, this enables reciprocal retweeting so reaching a bigger audience - but many of whom are likely to find your service relevant.
3. If a student posts a query which requires a private response we temporarily follow them and respond via direct message, or we ask them to email us at the central inbox - as seems appropriate. 
4. Twitter generates more interaction and actual enquiries than Facebook, despite having a much smaller apparent audience. 

Facebook:

Stats as of  yesterday  - Likes: 3000 

1. 1. We "like" a few pages within the university, but only really those related to us quite strongly
2. 2. Before the start of each new academic year we try to contact the owners of the freshers pages created by the SU and ask if they are happy to flag up our page to their fans. They are very helpful and supportive of us being in FB.
3. 3. We put less content on FB than on Twitter, because too much content makes people turn off our feed (Twitter will take a lot more than FB - possibly because the feed moves faster, and stays chronological, so people don't notice individual services so much??)
4. Be aware of the FB terms and conditions - consider what you are asking your staff to sign up to and consider giving them a choice about their level of involvement

4Square:

Stats as of  yesterday  - People: 282 Check Ins: 2165

1. We are there because our students put us there so we decided to step in and take  an interest (it would be rude not to - surely?)
2. It does not generate enquiries as such - but it allows us to monitor comments and spot a few nice photos people have taken of the library.  (Alongside the ones of sandwiches - which seem to be a popular photographic subject at the moment)
3. We are not currently offering any kind of rewards for check-ins or to Mayors
4. It may have potential for development later, but is not currently a priority - see my earlier blog post. 

CILIP PPRG Marketing Excellence Event

Earlier in the year I was really chuffed to find out that the submission I had made to the CILIP PPRG Marketing Excellence Awards on behalf of the Warwick Marketing Advisory Group had won a Bronze award. This was great news and was accompanied by an invitation to speak about the project at the annual PPRG Marketing Excellence Event. So yesterday I jumped on a train to Birmingham to find out what other libraries are up to when it comes to publicity and public relations and also to pick up the award on behalf of Warwick and present on our Check It Out campaign.

It was a really enjoyable day, with good crowd of library marketing types from a range of sectors, all very happy to chat between sessions and discuss a range of issues, not just around marketing, but also about internal communication. The most interesting thing I got chatting about was the idea that a rebranding exercise could actually improve internal communication because it brings people from different teams together with a common goal, and also promotes a feeling that everyone is part of the same overarching team - even in very large libraries.

The speakers were informative and the presentations were informal and provoked a lot of chat and questions about a range of issues.

Kate Hall from Leicestershire County Library Services was the first speaker, explaining how the "Words on the Street" campaign increased attendance at author events in public libraries in the county. The campaign built on existing branding but added colour and used the internal staff intranet to allow staff at a range of sites to easily access, edit and print key publicity resources to match events in their areas easily and at low cost.

Linda Smith, Chair of PPRG spoke next on some key points about marketing library services in tough economic times. Linda talked a bit about the history of library marketing - which was really quite enlightening, and something I would like to look into more (I may feel another blog post coming on). Linda also talked about the importance of using marketing to "unpack our services" so customers can see what we really offer and get past the misconceptions they may have.

Lunch involved a great looking cake - 'nuff said.After lunch were the presentations from award winners.

Unfortunately Edinburgh Libraries were not able to attend, but Linda Smith gave an overview of their project which had won a Bronze for their Edinburgh reads project, which is an interactive map of the city showing which books are relevant to different locations. It really is impressive - please do have a look at it.


View Edinburgh Reads in a larger map

Laura Wood and Nicola Richards from Cardiff Central Library spoke next about their year-long series of events intended to surprise, and in some cases shock, their customers. This was a fantastic and innovative project getting people into the library who would not normally have come, by putting on everything from Chinese New Year celebrations and poetry readings to speed dating. They are looking at erotic reading and burlesque dancers for next year - so if you're in Cardiff DO pop in to the central library - but DON'T expect anything boring!

Warwick University's Check It Out campaign was up next (my turn) during which we managed to increase attendance at student orientation by 717%. I am very proud of the project but it felt a little dwarfed in comparison to Cardiff's amazing originality.

Check it out: the hottest session on campus

View more presentations from kwiddows

James Barisic, head of Social:Haus public relations agency was the last speaker, and well worth waiting for. James talked about the need for positive messages and "rays of sunshine" in such a negative time, and how perhaps the focus of library marketing should be on great services, great achievements and the importance of we do, rather than on the problems with government cuts, the decline in borrowing figures and the difficulty we are facing (let's face it national press is picking up publicity on all that stuff already!) His message was to be friends with the press, and to offer them good news stories in a time when they are hard to come by. James was really well received and a perfect final speaker to end the event leaving everyone with a positive message and a fresh perspective.

Final note: PPRG are currently looking for new committee members if you are interested in getting involved. Contact Davina Omar (who was confirmed as the new Chair at the AGM yesterday) for details.