Browsing by Author "Giles, Sharon"
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Item Email Marketing for Libraries(1998-10) Giles, Sharon; Crossno, Jon; Perkins, JeffreyThe possibilities of using electronic mail for marketing library services and products are enormous. This new venue offers an innovative, inexpensive, timely, and easy-to-distribute means of promotion. An exploration of options will include the use of mass distribution, targeted distribution, client databases, in-house library listservs, and e-newsletters. As an example, the development, implementation, and initial results of an email marketing program at UT Southwestern Library will be summarized.Item Emailing the New Books List: A Promotional Success?(2000-10) Giles, Sharon; McKibbon, ShelleyIn an era of falling usage of print materials and the triumph of the digital library, UT Southwestern Medical Center Library has been experimenting with using electronic means to promote its print collection. Since October 1999, the Library has been emailing a list of new additions to its book collection every month to subscribers of the Library's email alert service, Info-Library. Beginning Summer 2000, the list will also begin appearing on the Library's home page. Because this activity places extra demand on staff time, members of the Marketing Team decided to determine if this promotional method actually works. Success or failure will be measured by evaluation of circulation records and by surveying users at checkout. [Research Award (2nd place - posters)]Item Get Them with Humor: April Fools at the Library(2002-10) Giles, Sharon; Crossno, JonOur crafty Marketing team at the UT Southwestern Library recently devised a diabolical plan to get the attention of library users with the use of humor. We decided to risk public exposure and certain humiliation by publishing an April Fools edition of our beloved "Info-Library" e-newsletter. We then cajoled the library staff into using their creatively warped imaginations and submitting their pathetic and even possibly funny library-related scribblings to the cause. The staff rose to the occasion...and to the chance to get published on the Internet. Credit was given whether merited or not. To the Marketing team's great surprise, no actual harm has resulted from this experiment. In fact, the hits on our Library News page in April actually jumped quite dramatically (or should that be comically?) Thankfully, no members of the Marketing team have been forced to resign, and no one has been drafted to write faculty roasts. The Director has also been spared the indignity of that quaint local custom of tarring and feathering. Even that arbiter of medical student humor, the student rag "The Murmur", has loftily ignored our jabs at the students (or are they just biding their time???) Originally, it was thought that it might be necessary to borrow a little library humor from other sources, but evidently all that silliness was just ready to be tapped in the bottom strata of our collective staff minds. Perhaps you too can find treasure in our mistakes...er, examples, and learn to mine your staff for marketing humor. So we herewith on this poster present the jewels from our Motherlode of Silliness for your enjoyment and inspiration. And may the Farce be with you!Item Getting the News Out: Promoting the Library with an Email Alert Service(1999-10) Giles, Sharon; Clopton, GaryEmail is a new marketing tool for libraries that offers an innovative, inexpensive, timely, and easy-to-distribute means of promotion. In 1998 the Marketing team of our library decided to explore the possibilities of email marketing and launched an alert service in the form of an email newsletter called Info-Library. Info-Library has been used to promote new library services and facilities, as well as weekly or daily features of the Library's Web pages, such as the Biomedical News pages and the Internet Site of the Week. This presentation will summarize our experience in designing, distributing, editing, promoting, and evaluating an alert service.Item Going Mobile: Laptop Lending in an Academic Medical Library(2003-05) Crossno, Jon; Giles, Sharon; Hooper, NathanPROGRAM OBJECTIVE: As part of a Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund grant, the Information Desk, the library's unified public service point, developed and implemented a laptop lending program to provide more options and flexibility to our clients' information-gathering efforts. SETTING: Academic medical library serving more than 19,000 primary clients in an urban location. Participants: Faculty, staff, and students of the medical center and its affiliated institutions. PROGRAM: A total of twelve laptops were initially made available as part of the lending program. Eight laptops were available at the main library, and four were at the smaller, research-support library. Each laptop came equipped with a battery pack (providing up to three hours of work time when fully charged) and a CD-ROM drive. The following accessories were also provided to clients at checkout: laptop case, power cord, 3.5" floppy drive, a connector cable for the floppy drive, and an instruction sheet. The program was initially promoted through articles in email and print newsletters, posters, and PowerPoint slides shown on the library's new marketing kiosk using an Iomega Fotoshow device. MAIN RESULTS: Checkout statistics will be used as the primary indicator of the program's success. Preliminary results indicate that use of the laptops is increasing. More laptops have been purchased to meet increasing demand. An evaluation survey will also be administered to laptop users to determine what is most used. CONCLUSION: The initial setup of the laptops involved defining a list of basic programs to offer and developing a method to easily "clone" the basic setup to each laptop. Ongoing issues include developing a schedule for laptop maintenance (e.g., virus scanning software and updates, operating system integrity, recloning the basic setup periodically, etc.) and providing access to the campus wireless network.Item Promoting the Library by E-Mail Alert Service(Information Today, Inc., 2000-04) Giles, Sharon; Crossno, JonItem A Searchable Library News Archive(2001-10) Giles, Sharon; Harker, Karen; Jacobs, LynneItem Theme of the Month Marketing(2002-10) Radley, Herldine; Ramos, Therona; Giles, SharonThe UT Southwestern Medical Center Library Marketing Team decided to focus monthly marketing on one product or library service. Marketing is accomplished by including the information in the library electronic newsletter, a university newsletter, flyers throughout the library, and an electronic banner on some library websites. Some previous months focused on Bindery Services, Intermediated Searches, a new library home page, Education Consults and Group Presentations, Update Client Contact Information, Discover the North Campus Library, LibrarianLive Virtual Reference Service, SciFinder Scholar 2000, Current Protocols and other products. An extensive renovation and redesign of the library was completed in August 2001. It became clear, in this setting, that the various flyers, posters, table tents, and other paraphernalia used to market the library's products and services created an undesirable amount of clutter and disorder. This clutter diluted the message we intended to sent to our patrons. The Marketing Team then took control of the promotional activities, concentrated its efforts to one product or service per month, limited and reduced the number of displays, and standardized the formats of its flyers. The poster will include some examples.Item Theme-of-the-Month Marketing: Here's How(Information Today, Inc., 2003-09) Giles, Sharon; Radley, Herldine; Ramos, TheronaItem To Banner or not to Banner? User Research on a Web Marketing Tool(2003-10) Giles, Sharon; Mayo, Helen; Radley, Herldine; Ramos, Therona; Tan, JosephResearch Award (3rd place - posters)