The pandemic has forced so many of us to think differently about communications.
Traditional means of getting messages across – notice-boards or in-person conferences – have become less effective during lockdowns.
Meanwhile digital tools have become ever more dominant, although with the volume of information available, it has arguably become harder to get noticed.
Yet for potential users to know about the services that libraries – and library associations – provide, it is vital to think about how we can do this most effectively. From newsletters (electronic and physical) to different social media platforms or e-mail, there are plenty of options out there.
So for our 36th 10-Minute Library Advocate, think of a new communications tool you can use!
Write down which tools you use currently, both physical and digital. Which audiences do they reach? What sort of message do they allow you to send? What benefits do they offer you and your users?
Then think about what gaps you might have and how new tools might allow you fill them! And also whether existing communications tools may not be having the impact you want.
You don’t need to do everything, and of course you know your users best. Focus on what could work best for you!
Let us know in the comments below which tools you have recently adopted, and are working well for you.
Good luck!
This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 4.4: Increase our visibility through excellent and innovative communications.
You can view all of our ideas using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box.
With the arrival of the Covid, the French Insitution I’m working for as a librarian, had to close the library.
So I had to find a way to stay in touch with the users as well as keep providing them with resources.
That’s how I discovered Pearltrees. Thanks to this tool, I created “Lepleinderessources” a platform where I gathered and organized free online resources. It’s a kind of a free digital library of the web.
I had excellent feedback from the users and they even encourage me to promote the platform even more. So through Facebook library groups, I shared the link to public and community libraries in France. In a couple of days, the number of visits on the platform had exploded and reached 18 000 visits!
Today the platform registers more than 25 000 visits. I continue to work on the platform by adding links or removing the dead ones. It’s like a kind of digital weeding. I also create or remove sections according to the needs of the users.
To stay in touch with the users, I shifted all my workshops (book club, reading tales, read aloud…) online on the web conference Zoom software. The necessity of social interaction was so strong that despite their age (+ 50 years old) and not being tech-friendly, they adapted pretty well to the transition.
What I observe and learn in this difficult time of global crisis is that social and physical interactions between human beings are vital. Digital tools are here to compensate for this lack of interaction but are not a long-term solution. The users are cruelly missing the face-to-face exchange we could have at the library, they keep reminding me every week at the end of every online workshop.
We all hope this time is not becoming the new normality.
Thanks for taking the time to read my humble testimony,
Anaïs, head librarian.
Google slides for developing Virtual Book shelf.
Canva for preparing posters to market library resources and services.
Genially for designing new arrival of books.