NeoLib

I know it’s cliche to note how we live in a global society. Still, it never hurts to revisit from time to time. Lately I’ve been working on putting more and more collections online. It can be a lot of work, and there is no small amount of faith in the belief that our small library collection will have some relevance for other individuals. That’s why, from time to time, I try to revisit the ways I’ve seen libraries contribute globally.

Collections

This one is the easiest to recognize. We digitize some material, slap on some metadata and put it online. We know it’s being used because we see the hits, but how it is being used is more of a mystery.

So in addition, to my librarian-ness, I also play the banjo. As such, I spend plenty of time geeking out with my fellow fringe musicians at http://www.banjohangout.org/. The style of banjo I play is called clawhammer. And clawhammer banjoists mostly play a style of music called Old Time which has seen a recent revival from the film O Brother Where Art Thou. So being a tradition steeped in old music, there is a small obsession with field recordings and old masters.

Enter the Digital Library of Appalachia. This is an incredible digital collection that contains photos, music, essays and other tidbits from Appalachia. This collection is so important to members of this community, that when it was offline for only one day it caused a slight panic.

However, that’s not even my favorite anecdote about the digital library. I’ve been working on a song recently called Put Your Hand on The Plow. I found out about the song from a Japanese banjo player who heard the recording of a fiddle player from, that’s right the Digital Library of Appalachia. As far as I can tell, there are no other recorded versions of this song anywhere. So here’s a breakdown:

1. A song is recorded deep in Appalachia
2. Years later it is put online in a digital library
3. A Japanese man hears it. Loves it. Makes a banjo version
4. A guy in Wisconsin listens to it (along with almost 600 other people) and learns it himself.

That’s not a bad life for a song that might have disappeared forever.

Reference

We tend to not think of reference on a large scale. Often we think of reference as a service for our most immediate patron base whether that’s the town, the campus, or the department. Still it’s growing as an international institution. There is not a week that goes by where I do not answer at least one water related request at the Department of Limnology from someone in South America or Africa or Europe. Still, my favorite interaction is with a man from Germany.

I received a question via chat from a man in Germany. He was researching the roots of his family and found a reference via Google Books to their Turkish village in an obscure census that somehow ended up in our library. I was able to find the census book and send him the little bits of information I could find. If I recall, it was something along the lines of this: Population 123 women and 136 men. Taxes XXX. Location in state Y. However, even this little information thrilled the man.

We tend to think of services as local and and resources as global. After all, resources only involve passive interaction with patrons; we put it online, they look at it. Services require active assistance; we interact directly with patrons. But that’s going to change as information about our collections goes online even if the actual collections do not.

Publications

Librarians are, hopefully, fierce defenders of open access. And we try to convince faculty to sign on, but it’s hard. Most are busy enough and don’t have any extra time to spend submitting papers to yet another repository. Still, we need to communicate the importance not just to the readers of the articles, but also the ways Open Access can benefit the authors.

I’m constantly showing this image to members of the CFL:

This image was published in Science February 2009. Here’s the full citation: Science 20 February 2009:Vol. 323. no. 5917, p. 1025 DOI: 10.1126/science.1154562

What it shows is the increase in citations for Open Access articles in the poorest countries. Note how in South America, the Middle East, the former Soviet countries all use OA articles much more. And not just use them, they cite them. So by making publications Open Access, scholars themselves benefit. Their articles will be read by more individuals, will be used in more decisions, will be cited more in further research. Their publications will have impact. And in a place where monetary gains are few, it’s nice to have some positive feedback.

Share

So tell me, what are some of your stories of libraries with a global impact. Share below.

: photo credits:

banjo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usonian/18067964/sizes/m/

village: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lapidim/43503396/sizes/m/

I studied philosophy as an undergraduate, so I’m fond of the big questions. Why are we here? What is truth? What is the good life? I enjoyed it because there’s really nothing more basic than questions like these. So it is with your website.

I’m going to continue to write on analyzing library websites, but before we can do that, it’s important to figure out the point of your site. As analytics guru Avishash Kaushik would say, “Why do you have a website?” If you can’t answer this basic question than you all data you gather is fairly useless.

Now, it seems like this is a no-brainer for libraries. But it’s a question that’s really more subtle than we’d think. Library websites can go a couple of ways. The two most basic things they can do is point to digital collections or point to physical services. Now that is highly reductive. There are a range of other things websites do, they provide reference, they give staff information, they provide entertainment for summer reading programs and so on. But I think in the end these two basic needs are primary. So let’s parse those a little more.

Websites as Pointers to Digital Collections

So, if this is the point of our website (this is the case for academic libraries), what are some smaller goals. Here are a few a library might focus on:

• Users find library catalog (seems simple)
• Users outside of the local area find and use digital collections (of photographs or open source documents)
• Users can easily access databases
• Users can find email/virtual reference links

Websites as Pointers to Physical Collections

Again, this seems intuitive, but this goal can also be broken down further

• Users sign up for event updates
• Users can quickly find hours and locations for branches
• Users can place holds on items in the collection
• Users can find textbook reserves for their class

These are just a few different examples of things a user might want to do on a webpage. The point, though, is not the specifics. The point is that a few clear goals are understood. Quickly, think too of what should not be included. Notice there are no goals about users finding the history of the building, or statement of building policies. This information might be important to include, but don’t make it a priority. The more items that clutter up a clear agenda for a website, the more likely the website will become cluttered and useless.

Marketing is one of the most difficult aspects of library management. Community support depends on it. Programs need it. And libraries are constantly needing to reassert their relevance. If it’s so important, why is it often performed badly? Most marketing begins first with a how and not with a what. Too often, there are talk of newspapers, fliers, service announcements long before anyone thinks of what exactly they want the public to know.

So the best way to market libraries (or anything for that matter) is to refine, refine, refine an idea until it is so solid that all choices and directions can be compared to that concept. Here’s how to break that process down:

1) Focus on what patrons want or need

Do not think first about what libraries have or should have or can offer. The goal here is to think of what the community may need to succeed at whatever they want. For students it’s often finishing a paper. For community members it may be something simple like preparing for a dinner party or getting the blue book value for their car or, of course, finding an entertaining book. The focus though in on the patron what we can do for them. Do not focus on the library for library’s sake.  It’s true that many patrons care about libraries, but those people are already coming in, but marketing is about reaching patrons that do not necessarily come to the library regularly.

I think this talk always puts it into perspective for me. This should be required viewing for anyone beginning a marketing campaign:

2) Decide how we can uniquely fill that need

Competition is hard. It requires resources, time, staff, things that libraries often do not have in abundance. Instead, focus on the niche, the unique. The things we offer that no one else has or can. For you book lovers out there, I recommend Blue Ocean Strategy. It’s geared for businesses with more flexibility, but in the end, it is a mindset. The library can choose to present itself however it wants. It has many strengths which can be highlighted in many ways. The question is what can we do that is amazing and unique.

I’ll go ahead and state the obvious: Everything is free. Think beyond that. There are more to libraries than free.

3) Refine the need and our ability to fulfill to a basic principle

I’m a big fan of simplicity. The shorter an idea, the more concrete, the easier it is to remember, the more likely it will be implemented and succeed. A basic principle should be one sentence or less.

My favorite example of simplicity in an organization is Southwest airlines. Their strategy is absurdly simple: Southwest will be THE low-fare airline.

That is refinement.

However, there is a caveat to this approach. Once an idea has been refined, it must be the cornerstone of future decisions. Begin meetings by talking about it. Refer to the idea before implementing a project. Make it the lodestone for the library. It does no good if it is ignored.

4) Now, choose tools and methods

Remember, tools are there to achieve a goal. They are not a goal in themselves. So, instead of trying different tools wily-nily. It’s best focus. Here are a few good rules to remember:

1) Use no more than two or three tools, but use aggressively

Greenpeace is a national force for environmental causes. At one time, they were probably the most vocal and influential voice among grass-roots activists. How did they reach this point? Under the guidance a San Francisco firm, Greenpeace began a direct mail campaign that netted millions of dollars. So much money came into the San Francisco office, that it created a rift in the organization. The point is not that direct mail is good, or that Greenpeace is an example of supreme marketing. The point is that small carefully chosen strategies can yield big results.

2) Experiment, but assess

Be ruthless in trying out new ideas, but find ones that work. The social media bubble is soon to pass. It’s a great idea, but when used incorrectly, it yields nothing fruitful. So far the most successful experiment with Twitter in Libraries is through the Nebraska Library Commission they have over 400 followers. And the vast majority are libraries and librarians from other states. Always ask, who are we really reaching?

3) Most importantly, refer back regularly to the basic principle

Is this strategy working? Are we constantly promoting our basic principle? If not, start over. The most important thing is consistency and focus. It’s harder to hit a moving target than a stable one, and it is even harder to hit one that can’t be seen.

These are all simple steps. But I am amazed at how often they are ignored. All libraries are in different situations and all have different groups they are trying to reach. The key is to decided who and how and then proceed with focus.

Photo Credits:

Sony: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkponk/517248803/

Arrow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/denial_land/349094199/

Ok, so I know I was going to post a marketing strategy. The downside is that I will not be able to get it ready this week. The upside when I do get it prepared it will be much larger and more useful. I’ll shoot to get that ready before the end of the year.

This blog is focused on a lot of things, but a large theme is making smart, evidence-based decisions. And one of the best ways to do that is to create an environment where experiments are constant, encouraged, and logged so that they can be evaluated and further implemented. As Scott Berkun says “An easy measure of innovation at work is this: how common are experiments?” So what are good experiments?

Good Experiments are Measurable

Cassie Divine at Intuit argues that “Innovators that run experiments have a key advantage: data.” And that is absolutely true. Experiments can create great data. They can tell you not just whether this particular experiment works, but what the patrons value, what they respond to, where should focus be. However, to be able to answer these questions a well-designed experiment must have a built in system to log data. With web experiments, this is easy. Other experiments are less so.

Good Experiments are Well Designed

The worst mistake an organization can make is to not put real effort into experiments. True, one does not need to devote the entire strength of an organization to any particular experiment, but good experiments still need some support. That means staff need to be given time to work on experiments. Most librarians are already overwhelmed with responsibilities, but without a chance to tinker with projects, make promotional materials and monitor results, a good idea will die without truly getting a chance.

Personally, I believe that google has the right approach. Google employees are given 20% of their work time to work on personal projects. Now, that is probably more than us poor institutional and governmental organizations can expect. However, even 5% would give a good amount of time to try new things.

Good Experiments are Part of Job Assessment

A common misperception is that innovators are a born breed not unlike musical geniuses or math wizzes. Well, just like musicians must spend years practicing and mathematicians go through countless years of school, innovators too require time. As noted in Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit, creative requires time, routine, and practice like any other skill. So when running those dreaded annual performance evaluations ask “What new things have you tried this year” “What ideas are you working on for next year”.

Success or failure is not the point. The point is trial. If there is a lot of effort, success will follow in time.

Photo credits: Kid http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomaslife/4041046978

painter: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moriza/126238618//

The other day an instructor of mine mentioned how at a recent conference “everyone agreed that facebook is really only useful for promoting events.” That made me really squirm. Why? Well, I don’t have the full story, but I suspect it went something like this:

1. Library staff here about this facebook thing
2. Library staff here businesses are really beginning to look into facebook
3. Library staff sets up facebook page. Maybe they add a few pictures, throw up a few events.
4. Library staff “promote” their facebook page (which of course means putting a link to facebook at the bottom left of their webpage right beside the zip code)
5. Library staff does not see immediate pay off/the only people who friend them are die hard library supporters.
6. Library staff decide facebook clearly does not work for them and stop updating (in actuality, they probably only updated a few times to begin with).

This implementation is all too common and usually fails miserably. As usual, the problem is not facebook. The problem is that people view these tools (yes, they are tools, not ends in themselves) as the solution, not a step to the solution. After all, no one blames a hammer when a house falls down. As I mentioned before, this returns to the idea of cargo cults; people don’t understand the underlying reasons of why something works. Here’s a great ignite video on cargo cults and why the don’t result in the goals people expect:

Library patrons live in the same world that we do. They see social media campaigns everywhere. Their McDonald’s cups tell them to become fans on facebook. So we need to realize that just because we build it, doesn’t mean they will come. Here then, are a few principles to guide a social media campaign.

First, be focus on being different, not tools

Seth Godin in his now famous book Purple Cow noted that in a world full of advertising and constant marketing, the only way to truly stand out is to be remarkable. The title refers to a thought experiment where Godin considers driving through the Midwest, surrounded by cows on a small highway. (Since I’m writing this in Wisconsin after having grown up in Kansas, this is an easy image to create) After awhile, all the cows will blend together and look alike. But if suddenly there were a purple cow in the middle of the field. Well, that we would notice.

The point here is not tools, but planning. First, we need to need to be different. We need to stand out in a world were books are a click away on Amazon. Only after there is a decision about what to emphasize and how the libraries need to be portrayed, then decide which tools will help get the job done. To once again use a fix-it  metaphor, no mechanic first decides he wants to use a 1/4 wrench and then looks for bolts to remove. He decides what needs to be fixed and then finds the best wrench.

Second, you don’t need to be big

I’ll admit that I’ve often chastised libraries for using technologies that only work with large scale populations (*cough* tagging *cough*), but there are ways to succeed even when one is small. Mashable created a fantastic look at several small businesses that created successful social media campaigns. Consider this a gallery of inspiration. Each of these businesses found a tool that worked particularly well and they devoted themselves to developing it in a focused and interesting manner.

Now it’s easy to criticize these and note that though they are small businesses, their market is still the world. That may be true, but one group specializes in selling Worm Composters now if that does not have a small worldwide market, I don’t know what does. However, the did a couple of things. First, they created multimedia promotions that were unique and personal. So they connected with people in a variety of ways. Secondly, they expanded their scope from marketing their products, to sharing gardening advice and tips. They didn’t focus just on themselves, they looked at what their customers/potential customers really wanted which, in this case, was a fantastic garden. This all brings to point three. . .

Third, Create a Niche and Focus on the Patrons

In my work in public libraries I’ve noticed there are two types of patrons. There are Generational Patrons which are the patrons that are committed to the library for the library’s sake. I call them generational because they probably (but not always) received their first library card when they were very little, visit the library regularly and make getting a library card one of the first things they do whenever they move to a new town. These are the people that will become a fan on facebook during a passive campaign.

Then there are Contingent Patrons. They come to the library because they need something. I’ll give an example to illustrate. One Saturday a middle-aged man walked into the library. He had a shirt the was grease-stained and walked around with the dazed, unsure look. I was at the circulation desk and asked if he needed anything. He said that someone told him he could get a manual for a 78 Buick truck here. I found there was one at the central branch, and asked if he had a card. Since he didn’t, I signed him up for a card, called the central branch to hold the book and he was on his way. Will he come back? I bet you the next time something breaks down, or he wants to build something, or his daughter needs to complete a project he’ll be back. Why? Because the libraries helped him solve a problem.

This is our niche! This is what we can do better than anyone else. However, we spend too much energy talking about books, reading, and different things on that. Once again, we focus on the tools, not the problem.

Kath Sierra summarizes this well here when she explains how if we want to be successful with our customers (patrons) we need to make them feel successful.

The focus is on what can be acheived. Sometimes it is simply entertainment or learning for its own sake (which is a type of entertainment) but there is an acheivement. We can highlight that so easily, but it may require abandoning a few sacred cows.

Fourth, Strategize

This last point is more of a summary, but it’s so important, it is worth repeating. After a social media idea and plan are developed, than it is time to think about the tools. Here’s a mashable look at some advanced marketing strategies. Some are easy for libraries (synching online and offline content) some are harder (creating contests and discounts), but everything is worth considering.

Next Post

Next post I’ll develop a quick marketing campaign. I’ll take a look at how to design and focus it. Which tools to use and how to set goals and determine success. Thanks for reading. As always, post a comment.

Photo credits: Tools: http://www.flickr.com/photos/docman/36125185/
chess: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pshan427/2331162310/

This is the last week I will be exploring web analytics. This week I will move away from looking at how our efforts can be tracked (i.e. how much our tweets/posts matter) and now I will show ways to find out how to track public perceptions of the library. With social media, it is very easy to have an understanding of how people feel about the library. You can see when they say something good, something bad, etc.

Why care? It’s every where and growing.

Seth Godin internet sage and leading voice on marketing in the digital realm has mixed curiosity and outrage when he observes the lack of participation in social media by non-profits. After all, it’s free, it has a growing impact and so on. Hey, it’s true. Why not follow what other people are saying about us.

Furthermore, many of these tools are important in gaining feedback from groups that may not use other electronic media. A recent study found that the mobile web (i.e. cell phones) is shrinking the digital divide. Services like Twitter are built around the idea and ease of things like text messaging and can give insight into users of these services. So why not try to follow the comments that users openly express on services like Twitter or Facebook. We have users planting big red flags all over the web telling us how we can make things better. All we need to do is listen.

Measurement 1: Follow mentions of the library on twitter

Measuring tweets is an easy and important first step in a social analytics program. Research from Penn State has found that 1 in 5 tweets mention specific brands. This is an incredibly rich source of comments and observations. A common misperception is that you need to follow a user to see their tweets. That’s not true. Tweets are pretty universal. Unless a user explicitly says that they want their tweets to be private, they are open to everyone. Of course librarians do not have time to follow and skim millions of tweets per day to see what people are saying. Fortunately, there are several tools that can track keywords for us.

The quickest and easiest is Twitter Search. This is a quick and easy keyword search that can be customized in a few ways. The best is a limit by location. I work at Memorial Library in Madison and there are, of course, a million libraries named Memorial library. Nonetheless, a limit reveals that people are talking about the Madison Memorial Library:

Not too bad. Nearly all twitter tools have some form of keyword tracking. Using hootsuite (my favorite twitter client) I have set up several keywords searches to give me real time mentions of libraries that I work in. The problem is that this cannot be limited by location, so I learn about what students all over the country are doing in college library:

These features are found in other popular clients like tweetdeck or seesmic, or there are many stand alone ways to track keywords.  So set one up to follow the name of your library. Spend 5 minutes a week skimming through the mentions and you’ll quickly gain invaluable insight into what services your patrons are using and what they may like or dislike.

Measurement 2: Facebook

This one is fairly obvious, so again I’ll focus on the why. A recent study has found that 50% of social media users connect to a brand. So all of those signs at Burger King that ask to be added as a friend on facebook. Well, apparently people respond.

A library facebook page is not going to be earth shattering. But, returning to Seth Godin, why not? It’s free, it’s accessible, it creates good will and can quickly spread information about new services. However, the important point here is to be active without being desperate. Keep a page, update frequently, do not become the only face a patron sees on their frontpage stream.

Measurement 3: Do patrons feel like they matter

I’ve mentioned the MyStarbuck Idea Initiative before, but it’s worth repeating. Starbucks began a campaign where any customer can submit an idea. And the catch? Starbucks implements the idea and lets other users comment, discuss and analyze the idea. It’s a brainstorming sessions, survey, and focus group rolled into one. Simple ideas can emerge from this, things like adding back a particular scone.

The thing that is different is that this campaign and one by dell, is that they both listen and act. And by acting they are showing customers that their opinions do matter. So for libraries, the question is do patrons see their comments acted on? Is there a feedback loop in place that shows response. As one writer noted: listening without acting is worthless.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfield/2306001896

The measurement and analysis of social media is still very young and far more difficult than previous examples. First, the encounters often happen through third pary systems (for example, through twitter or facebook) so measurements like bounce rate and conversion don’t make as much sense (nor are they really accessible).

More importantly, the currency is different. Web analytics and optimization are built around many individual encounters. Primarily how many single visitors react to our web page. Social media is built around connections and relationships. It’s not just how one relates to many individuals, but how one fits into the environment.

Relationships and Connections have an impact

The return on investment (ROI) is more complicated. (And, of course, for libraries the investment is less in dollars than it is in personnel.) However, there are many examples of how social media can have real returns. For example, Dell computers found that the generated $3 million in sales through Twitter. Another study found that engagement over the social web correlated to higher sales. In fact, the groups with the highest levels of engagement found an average increase of  18% over 12 months while groups with low levels of engagement found an average decline of 6%. (A pdf report of the study, which is excellent, can be found here).

Despite all of the evidence of value added, the vast majority, 84%, of social media programs do not measure the return on their programs. Not only is it hard to do, but many seem to feel it is against the spirit of the community to rank and measure engagement.

Well, fortunately we are libraries and we cannot increase profits. So consider the measurement of social media to be an exercise in strengthening our connection to patrons. After all, if people enjoy and connect to certain actions more than others shouldn’t we try to increase our efforts in those areas? So, enough intro, onto the analytics.

Measuring Participation

One of the easiest ways to analyze social media programs is to measure how our participation is accepted and used by the community. In twitter, this is often measured by two things: how many people follow our links and how often our tweets are retweeted.

There are a couple tools that can help follow these. To find statistics on links, the easiest tools are just the standard url shorteners. The most common, bit.ly, has accounts that will give statistics on how many people have clicked on the link that you’ve posted as well as how many people in total have viewed the link (for example if another users posts the shortened url).

This has two advantages, first, it helps give an idea of how “interesting” the links we post are to other users. Maybe patrons snooze over links to local election results, but love the link we post on job searching tools online. Second, we can see how links to our pages are being viewed. For example, we may see that many people have followed a link to a library program. Of course, this only measure those who follow a link through a bit.ly shortener, but they are one of the largest in the industry, so this is a minimal disadvantage.

Another way to track stats is with ow.ly. This is my favorite since it is both a twitter client (called hootsuite), a url shortener and a stats tracker in one. Here for example are my stats for the last thirty days(click for full image):

Ok, so I’ve been a little lazy the last few days. However, it is interesting to see what kinds of links my followers enjoy. Here’s a look at the top clicks:

So I can tell that many of the people following me must be librarians (no surprise there). However, they also are the type of librarians that like comics.

This is fairly low level stuff, but it’s worth considering what your patrons like.

Another tool, one that I haven’t really used, is called postrank. It combines with google analytics to measure things like blog posts and how they can take on a new life in Twitter, Reddit, FriendFeed, or other social media.

However, beyond measuring how individual posts fare. Hootsuite, along with other tools, give you the ability to track mentions of your twitter name or the ability to follow keywords. This is less important for measuring your individual participation, but can help measure discussion of the library.

Next Week

This took longer than I thought. As I mentioned, this is a new area so it is very exciting and full of many different groups trying out different strategies. Next week I’ll discuss how to go beyond tracking and analyzing library participation and show tools to measure the discussion of libraries and how to follow the buzz about different library programs over twitter.

So with the information on the site coming in, the next step is to redesign the site to capitalize on what patrons want. This is called website optimization. And the best way to create a optimized web page is with a multi-variate test.

Step 1: Develop Different Pages

The strategy in a multi-variate test is to create a couple of versions of the same webpage. For example we could change where the links are located on the page or  how much (or little) information is displayed on the frontpage. Change can be as little as a single picture.

Essentially, we are testing a series of hypotheses. For example, we may notice that many patrons come to our library’s youth services page using a search for “Storytime” but the bounce rate is high suggesting that they did not notice the calendar link.

We suspect that this information is too hidden. So one version of the page may add the link higher up in the hierarchy. Another version might par down the information so that high demand content (such as event schedule) is highly visible while other information is not yet presented.

Step 2: Test

So after making a few changes to different pages, upload them to Google Website Optimizer. This tool will randomly send visitors to different versions of the page. Each different version of the page will have slightly different usage statistics.

As an example, check out how Tim Ferris of 4 hour workweek used the Google Website Optimizer to improve his page.

Step 3: Analyze

So with all the information gathered for different versions of the site, it is easy to determine which one is most useful. So for our storytime example, we may have noticed that promoting the link higher in the menu decreased the bounce rate for that site and increased the number of clicks to the calendar.

However, maybe still more people clicked schedule on the minimal site suggesting that our control site was leading to a paradox of choice where too many options and too much information sent people away.

Step 4: Update

This is the easy part. With the analysis in, you can turn off the optimizer and alter your site to use the best page.

Key Points to Rememer

• Have a goal: The key to optimizing a page is that there needs to be a limited number of factors. With a focus on a specific goal (increasing the number of people who click on the events schedule), it is much easier to design alternatives
• It’s easy: There’s no real trick. That best optimized sites are making subtle changes. Just tiny little changes in how information is presented can have big results. And since I know librarians love books. . .Check out the book Nudge for an example of the psychology of small pushes.
• It’s efficient: Imagine if you could have every patron that walked into the library fill out a quick survey. That is the beauty part of optimization. Since it is automatic, patrons will give lots and lots of feedback without needing to be inconvenienced.

For more information on creating a optimzation strategy, check out this white paper.

Next week, I’ll start with the ever confusing problem of Social Network analytics. And, as always, drop me a ling in the comments or at twitter @joesmorgan.

Photos available under cc license:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/topekalibrary/3404009907/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/extraketchup/748443511

Websites are Real Estate

As I’ve said before (and I’ll likely say again) websites are probably some of the most valuable real estate that libraries have. It is an intro point and main area of engagement for many many patrons. In the case of academic libraries it may even be the only point of engagement. Why is it, then, that the amount of effort that goes into planning and developing websites is often less than buildings? When a building is going up, you know there will be management involvement. It is guaranteed that they will hire an outside consultant. The process takes years and lots and lots of time.

Granted, buildings are around a lot longer than websites, still a prime point of access for patrons should involve constant attention. The beauty part of websites is that there are so many tools that can help us analyze, understand, and test what works for patrons. Imagine if you could build a new library and then slide around the bathrooms or computer areas to find out what best works for patrons as if we were in some type of library Hogwarts. That would be pretty sweet.

So without further adieu, here’s a quick guide to web analytics for libraries.

Gathering Information and Understanding Visitors

The easiest and quickest way to begin analyzing a webpage is with Google Analytics. Do you have access to you pages html code? Can you copy and paste? Great, than you can begin to analyze visitors. With google analytics, you can paste a small piece of JavaScript into each page and it will gather information on visitors, where they are from, how long they stay, and so on.

Here’s a view of traffic sources at the limnology library.

There are, of course, plenty of other analytics options out there. Many of them are free. This is just the one that I am most comfortable with. And it will have most of what a library needs to begin analyzing their website.

Bounce Rate and Conversion. A quick look at site efficiency

So there are plenty of different stats out there, but we’ll look quickly at a couple of the most revealing; Bounce Rate and Site Conversion.

The bounce rate is essentially the page from which users leave. This, of course, is not good. This means we’ve lost patrons. They aren’t engaging our site anymore and, in the worst case, left without the information they wanted in the first place.

The prime cause of bounce rates, according to analytics guru and Google’s analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik, is a disconnect between customer intent and webpage purpose. So pages with a high bounce rate mean the patron came expecting to find something and left because they could not find/do what they intended.

Our goal in optimizing our web site is to align our webpage purpose with customer intent (of course figuring that out is hard).

The more we can align, the better our webpage. An overlap like this is good, but can be made better.

How Do We Lower Bounce Rate: A Solution

So how can we make that match? Well, here’s a quick and dirty solution proposed by Galen DeYoung of Search Engine Land.

In short, we find the keywords patrons use to land on our site, and multiply the bounce rate of each keyword with the number of visits using that word. This will give us a list in order of importance of what users expect.

Here’s an example from the (admittedly low traffic limnology library). Click to the larger image shows that, not surprisingly, ‘limnology library’ does not bounce while ‘thesis binding’ has a high bounce rate. This suggests that I should make information about thesis binding more prevalent and easy to use.

Galen suggests that on top landing pages we can use the keyword information to make a targeted piece of information available to encourage users to stay and click through to another page.

What’s Next

Of course, gathering statistics is only so helpful. It is necessary to turn these statistics into actions. Next week I’ll talk a little more about turning stats into change through web optimization.

Comments, Suggestions?

So, did I leave anything out? Does your library have an analytics program? How does it work? Drop a line in the comments or hit me on twitter @joesmorgan.

See you next week.

Photos from http://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/3171601721/

New Media vs. Old

One of the greatest challenges libraries, or any organization, has with social media is recognizing how it’s so fundamentally different than what we are used to. Most noticeably, many library blogs, twitter accounts, etc. read like an extended marketing efforts. The posts are mere announcements and serve only as a broadcast of information, not a conversation. But that’ missing the best part, the social nature of the web. Don’t feel too bad, it’s easy to forget how social always trumps technological. Even Yahoo missed out on this one. And history is full of other examples. Alexander Graham Bell thought the telephone would be a great way to broadcast symphonies. Here are a few easy ways to actively engage patrons.

Always (always, always!) invite feedback

This is probably the fundamental difference between “newsletter” type writing and active engagement. Sure most, if not all, blogs have space for comments, but actively asking for feedback does a couple of things. It lets patrons know that you really are interested in their feedback, that you are listening (in addition, its best to respond to comments). And it creates an opportunity for patrons to talk to each other via our space. So we are, in essence, creating a new social sphere. Never doubt the value of the third place.

Use Ideas from Patrons

Probably my favorite form of user engagement lately is Starbuck’s “my starbucks idea” campaign. Its brilliant, a simple place for users to upload their ideas to make Starbucks better. Users can submit something simple (bring back the walnut scone) and other users can vote, comment on, and share these ideas. It’s a simple idea. After all, its merely an extension of the comment box, right? Well, the big difference is that users can see their ideas in action. They aren’t dropped off and then forgotten forever. Its a form of active listening. The best part. Starbucks will actually use ideas and the users have seen the full circle of their engagement.

This is an easy and very simple way to engage patrons. There can be suggestions for speakers, reading programs, events, “book of the week”, anything really. The point is not to mine ideas from patrons, but to create an opportunity for people to engage a project and shape it from start to finish.

Incorporate All Aspects of The Library

Its important to work as much as possible with all departments and programs in the library. A colleague of mine was sending around this article from the Boston Globe about a private school that is getting rid of its books and replacing the library with a multimedia learning space. The sad fact is that many librarians think this is the end result of social media and the web. Its important than to keep web engagement and space engagement (such a speakers) entwined. In many ways the value of the library in the public mind is tied to the buildings. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Active promotion can work both ways. Promote web resources at events. Promote events from the web.

Edit: D’oh. Way to not follow your own advice. Please, leave me a comment let me know what you think! Or hit me on twitter @joesmorgan

photo credits:http://www.flickr.com/photos/p_kirn/1218994391/sizes/m/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgi/280789933/sizes/m/