Herrick Public Relations Committee Minutes September 17, 2010
Present: Ellen Bahr, Sara Arrasmith, Laurie McFadden, Erinnae Baker, Brett Arno, Lois Foxwell, Ralph Arias
E. Bahr, chair
Meeting opened at 2 pm
Introductions were made. Ralph is a marketing major who will work with the committee this semester as part of a service learning course he is taking with Laurie.
An overview of prior committee activities was given for the benefit of the new members.
Library Tours
These events were deemed as not highly successful. The website now says “tours available on request”.
A handout is at the circulation desk for anyone who will lead a tour. Ralph suggested that we might try to have students conduct library tours to make guests feel more comfortable.
Club Expo
This event was successful in that the students who attended enjoyed it, but it didn’t get a lot of student participation outside the population that is already active in the clubs. It was a great deal of work for the staff and we feel that it would not be the best use of our time. Ralph would like to speak with other students about staging similar events in the future.
Library Branding
Ellen worked with a marketing class last year to try to get a sense of what we could do to connect better with the university community. There wasn’t a definite result from this interaction. The marketing students did conduct a survey that will be used this year by a psychology graduate student who will be expanding on the survey and analyzing the results for us. The useful information from these surveys so far is the manner in which the students view the library. Students generally have a positive opinion regarding Herrick, but don’t tend to think of it as a place to socialize or even to get one‐on‐one help with librarians. They think about it as a space to study or to get tasks done, such as printing or copier use.
A former AU student was employed last year to develop a Herrick Memorial Library logo. While the library was happy with the resulting product, we found that the university does not want individual units to develop branding, so adjustments were made and the Herrick logo is as currently displayed on the Herrick webpage.
Team Trivia
Held twice per semester, this event is always well attended.
Goodreads
Herrick has established a group on this book listing/review website. An invitation was sent out to the community to join, but no further action has been taken. We would like to use this resource more, perhaps with a read along. It would be helpful just to start some informal discussions on the board.
A Herrick Memorial Library page was established, but no one knows who set it up. Sara has contacted a number of people who might have done it, unfortunately no one has come forward as the page owner.
It was suggested that a former student set it up. Sara will ask Dave Snyder whether he has contact information for this student to try to have staff members made administrators on the page. If this is unsuccessful, we may need to contact Facebook to close that page and reopen an official page with staff members in control. Other units, such as Student Affairs, use their Facebook pages to broadcast
announcements.
Herrick email address
A side note to this conversation is that there is not an official Herrick email address. Each staff member has a personal address and circulation arrives in people’s inboxes as “the Desk”, but there is nothing for
“Herrick Memorial Library”. If we need to contact Facebook, we will need an official email from the organization.
Librarian Help Signage
Brian Sullivan will investigate the purchase and posting of signs to lead students to the librarian on duty for reference help.
PR Committee Mission
The committee is in process of assessing what the mission will be. Will we be promoting social events, or is there a more appropriate outlet for these ideas. Would we be better served concentrating on advertising library resources. Discussion ensued about fostering student involvement and library facilities usage.
Ellen read a quote regarding marketing from the OCLC website:
“Public relations involve promoting the library as a whole, developing an identity and image, and communicating library goals and mission to the community. For marketing, public relations, or advertising the ultimate goal is the same—let the community know what you have to offer.”
http://www.oclc.org/marketing/4pr.htm
If we are to concentrate on advertising, we need to decide how that will be accomplished. We need to identify media outlets on campus and establish a campaign. Possible avenues to pursue are: Alfred TV, WALF, Fiat Lux, MyAlfred, posters, commercials on Youtube, “READ” posters
Laurie will attend a marketing class through the library system and Ad Council in Rochester for the next 6 months. She will hopefully have some new information to share with the committee to help guide our future plans.
Conclusions
The committee is soliciting ideas for activities for Ralph to undertake. He would like to do student outreach.
The committee will continue to solicit opinions from students and concentrate on promoting library services.
Meetings will be held on Fridays during Fall semester, dates to be announced.
Meeting closed at 3:05 by E. Bahr
Minutes respectfully submitted by S. Arrasmith
