Telling the Academic Library Story Susan Contente & Michael Meth - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Telling the Academic Library Story Susan Contente & Michael Meth November 1, 2017 LLAMA webinar: What's Your Story? -- Evidence- Based Advocacy for Your Academic Library

Who Are We? • Susan Contente – Director of Development • Michael Meth – Associate Dean, Research and Learning Services

Data and Metrics in Academic Libraries • Complexity and variety of metrics available – University metrics – Association and Consortia metrics – Peer metrics – Rankings • Challenges: https://img.clipartxtras.com/02a31e3ffb951dab91ce5a89c772ac32_complexity-clip-art-vector-images-illustrations-istock-complex-math-clipart_612-446.jpeg – When metrics oppose each other – When metrics are not directly tied to Libraries – When metrics are measured but not valued – When metrics are outdated

Audiences - Institutional Leadership - Students (UG and G) - Donors - Community - Granting agencies - Associations - Peers

Skills Needed in Libraries • Qualitative Analysis • Quantitative Analysis • Communication Skills • Challenges: – Where do we keep the data? – Is it accessible? – Push or Pull? – Ad hoc vs standing reports? – Do we have the right skill sets to communicate and understand the data?

Communication Tools • More than just tools. We have to understand the why of our communications and the audience – Magazines & Annual Reports – Brochures – Social Media – Digital formats vs http://bit.ly/2xJ1Xq7 print formats – Meetings; online or F2F?

Academic Library Story Donors: “Why do we still need the library? Library Management: “How do we create an environment where our scholars can be successful?”

Considerations • What information do we really care about in Libraries? • What do we really want to know? • What can we actually influence (with data)? • What are we not measuring that we should? • What are we measuring that we should not?

Library Literacy • What is Library Literacy? (The Susan and Mike definition) – Educating our various stake holders about what is important for libraries and why we measure and do what we do – Library jargon vs. human speak – Audience: faculty, students, alumni, campus administration, community, etc.

So, how do you tell the academic library story? • It depends… 1. Know your audience 2. Determine what you want them to know 3. Find a compelling way to communicate your message 4. Have fun! ☺

You can reach us at scontente@fsu.edu || mmeth@fsu.edu

Questions?