NOW IS THE TIME TO PROMOTE PHONE REFERENCE SERVICES!!! to quote Gerry McKiernan of Iowa State University: "Another Radical (but Conventional) Idea for OnCall, OnDemand, On Site Reference Service. Publicize the Library Hip Reference Phone Number...via Library newsletter/Blog/Liaisons/Table Tents...Why Chat When You Can Really Chat (:-)"
Marie L. Radford, professor at Rutgers University in Information and Library Studies, posted comments on this idea at the Library Garden Blogspot (http://librarygarden.blogspot.com) recently saying that with a phone in everyone's hands it is a no brainer that libraries should be marketing this underused service.
What are your thoughts on this? What type of publicity could we generate? Do we want to be on our patrons' speed dial or listed in their Fave 5's?
1 comment:
Although I haven't come up with any great ideas yet for publicizing our telephone reference service, the need for such publicity struck me rather forcefully last week as I watched the Today show. They had a feature called "Five Telephone Numbers That Will Change Your Life." One of the numbers (not toll-free!) was for a service provided 24 hours a day by students at Auburn University. Viewers were advised to call this number any time and students would answer all types of questions. Matt Lauer tested the service by dialing the number and asking the student who answered if she could find Barbie's (the Mattel doll's) full name. The student answered very quickly, probably using Google. Matt was very impressed and urged viewers to take advantage of this marvelous service.
How frustrating that a feature like this could get past all the editors, reporters, and producers at the Today show without anyone realizing that such a service has been available for decades to almost everyone in this country through their local public libraries! As soon as I got to work that morning, I emailed the Today show to urge them to make viewers aware of this valuable resource that they are paying for with their tax dollars. I hope that hundreds or even thousands of other librarians did the same.
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