“If You Build It, They Will Come.”“Technology is Just a Tool.”“Give Them What They Want.” “Half the $ Spent on PR is Wasted.”“Even Bad PR is Good PR.” and other Dubious Truisms that Don’t Pertain to Library IT Services

A Presentation made by Tom Peters at the ALA PR Forum at the ALA Annual Conference, Anaheim CA 6/24/12

Do I win the prize for the longest, bestest conference talk title EVER?

A Little About Me

IT expert? SortaPR expert? NyetLibrarian for 25 years

Yes, I’d do it all over again

Library user for 54 years In 4 years, I will have been a

librarian for half my life.

These Slides Are Online

www.SlideShare.com/

No Sermon This Morning

Let’s Try An Inductive Talk, Instead

Not this: Generalities peppered with a few examples.

But this: Examine a couple of very successful library technology services How did they happen? What role did PR play? What can be concluded from these

instances?

Two Amazing Library Tech Services

Collaboration Stations Plug-n-

Display Toggle with

“More Meds” Buttons

Bistro Tables

“Dating Game” Chairs

Scanning Stations

Flatbed scanner with book edge

Single-pass, doubled-sided

PDF, Word, JPEG, etc.

USB, G-Docs, email

This Ain’t Top Tech Trends

These technologies have been around for awhile

Real adoption and diffusion is much more interesting than cutting edge tech

No Need to Bleed

Neither of these info tech successes are Cutting Edge Technologies

How Did These Happen?

Collaboration Stations Vendor demo Frustration over price Local offer to build Specs and design Furniture selection Location selection PR blitz Fortnight of high

anxiety 6 more added within

yr.

Scanning Stations Vendor contact Vendor demo Friends discussion Temp location Staff orientation Furniture selection Permanent location Soft launch mid-

semester Added another soon

Why Were They Successful? Obvious needsBuilt and improved upon known

user behaviorTied to current pedagogical

styles and curricular goalsEasy to use with obvious benefitsLocated thoughtfully within the

libraryGood promotion, with help from

users

Find a Local Tech Genius

Doug Smith, Classroom Technology Support

Years of experienceBoth a thinker/visionary and a

builderMaintains current knowledge

about TechCost consciousAn keen eye for durability and

the point of quickest failure or obsolescence

Homegrown: Paean and Pain

InexpensiveDesign and

construction team is nearby and easy to contact

However, you literally are a guinea pig as they work through various iterations of their design

Furniture and Space Config May Drive Tech Successes

Nah, It’s Not About the Chairs(Or is it?)

Mathews, Brian. 2012. “The Library is [Just] a Philosophy (it’s not about chairs)” Chronicle of Higher Education (June 19).

Available at http://bit.ly/LJ2YQ0 The library is a belief system, an

application of a philosophy translated into a tangible form.

Space should be designed for intentions, not for users.

What do the chairs enable users to do?

Mathews (2012) cont.

Figure out the why before you figure out the what and how.

It takes a lot of villages and neighborhoods [i.e., use/experience zones] to make a library.

What are the intentions of the library? Academic Support? Preservation? Knowledge Creation? Instruction?

More Mathews (2012)

“…consider the best means for making those intentions tangible, rather than just the current means.”

Hey! This is the PR Forum!

Would That This Phrase Had Never Been Uttered

“If you build it, he [they] will come.”

Why? (That was a Good Movie)

The phrase appeals to our lack of PR prowess.

It’s generally false, especially when it comes to library information technology.

Collaboration Station PR Blitz

WebsiteTwitterFacebookStudent NewspaperAlumni MagazineBanners on the actual tablesPowerPoint slide show on one of the

screensOffers made to groups working on

projectsWord of mouth

Scanning Station PR (lite)

FreeEasy to UseGreen (not

stressed)Simplify the

choicesThank you,

Friends

Why “Reggie Scan”?

Cultivated Word-of-Mouth

“Word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful form of marketing these days. And, libraries can afford it.”

Don’t wait for word-of-mouth marketing to just happen.

Encourage people to tell their friends.

Peggy Barber (June 23, 2012) at a session of the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim CA

Wait Just a Darn Minute…

Does computer tech need any promotion?

Aren’t most library users enthralled by info tech?

Isn’t Technology Just a Tool that We All Just Accept?

No, Technology Services Require some Planning, Thought, Study, and Imagination

Develop Use-Case Scenarios

How do you imagine each service being used?

Think like a potential user. What will be the benefits for them?

How will this tech service improve their information lives?

Then Be Prepared to Ignore Them

Some students just like the collaboration station furniture. They ignore the tech.

One student used a station for several hours alone, because he had dropped his laptop and the screen had cracked.

Location, Location, Location

Locate the service where users can find it.Locate the service where users will like using it.

Collaboration Stations in the large, open study areas within the library▪ Collaboration Station in a group study

room isn’t used as much (but users asked for it!)

Scanning Stations in “Copier Row” – a high-traffic area on the main floor

Observe What Users Do, Then Improve How They Can Do It

9 out of 10 users are actively using portable devices (laptops and/or phones, mainly)

Lots of small-group work with two or more laptops open and being shared

Lots of people making paper-to-paper copies

Interestingly…

…neither of these highly successful library tech services was suggested or requested by users.

People Don’t Know What They Want

More Specifically: When asked, people have a hard time imagining and articulating what they want.

Crisis of Imagination in Librarianship?

When presented with something useful, people will use it.

When We Asked Users What They Wanted…

Survey says:

MORE OUTLETS!

No, Not…

ExitsEmotional OutletsOutlet Malls

Yes, Electrical Outlets

We Gave Them What They Want

Success Begets Duress

Some Trouble in Paradise

Risk management concerns about anonymous emailing from the scanning stations

Systems concerns about ongoing support

Apple dongles for the collaboration stations left everyone dazed and confused

Rapid roll-out and mid-semester deployment concerned some librarians

Beware of the 3 P’s of Tech Projects

1. Personalities

2. Politics

3. Pecunia (money)

Roller Derby and Library IT: The Mysterious Link

When a tech service becomes successful and breaks away from the service pack, the rest of the pack tries to elbow it back into the pack.

Money, Money, Money

Don’t be Swayed by the Bean Counters

They say: If we offer a scanning station as a free service, our photocopying revenue will decline.

I respond: Scanning stations are desired by users, are much easier and cheaper to operate, are greener, etc.

Just One Slide of Preachiness

Don’t refuse to innovate because it might harm existing revenue streams.

Don’t do it!

That way lies madness and obsolescence

(Pass the hat)

Financial Bottom Line

7 collaboration stations added in one academic year for less than the price of a single vendor-supplied station

Too soon to tell about any decline of photocopying (and that revenue rivulet)

Containing Costs

When possible, construct with local talent and materials

Just do itA wildly popular service trumps frugal fiscal management

A PR No-Win Situation

Wireless Network Services

Now expected by

most library users.

One of the most heavily used library services

Biggest challenge: Avoiding negative PR when the wireless network teeters

The Mobile Revolution Has Invaded the Bricks and Mortar Library

Wireless: Nothin’ But Negative PR

Because good wireless access is now just assumed, the only PR possible with wireless is now negative PR Poor coverage Limited capacity Device problems User ignorance Often never gets reported to

librarians What halo effect does this negative

PR have?

But Isn’t Bad PR Really Good PR? No, not in this instance

Some Generalities, Lessons, and Conclusions, After All

Go Ahead: Launch Something Half-Baked

We should have promoted the heck out of the scanning stations when we first deployed them

Perils of a Soft Launch: Confuses and angers users (Why

didn’t the library tell us about this great service sooner?)

Confuses and sends mixed msg to library workers (soft launch = tepid commitment)

No Single Tech Solution

Probably never will be

No black rotary phone era on the horizon

Remember Mathews’ Villages and Neighborhoods

Lessons Learned

Launch and promote

Then watch and learn

Then modify/expand as appropriate

Be happy with success

Lather, Rinse, and Repeat

Thank You for Your Time and Attention

Tom Peters Today: Assistant Dean for Strategic

TechnologyInitiatives, Milner Library, Illinois State University

As of Aug. 1: Dean of Library Services, Missouri State University

Phone (probably until I die) 309-660-3648

Email tpeters@tapinformation.com