Marketing via social media

Polar marketing with a sense of humour, Norwegian Meteorological Station,
Jan Mayen (Polar adventurer, June 2010)

Roughly translated this reads: Theory is when you understand everything but nothing works. Practice is when everything works, but nobody understands why. On this station, we combine theory and practice - nothing works and nobody understands why!

I plan to continue marketing special collections at the Centre of South Asian studies and RCS library via the SAALG blog and via RSS feeds, as well as via our web pages and catalogues, and at meetings, conferences and workshops. I have found online exhibitions a particularly good way of marketing the collections as people can link to them via their blogs, web pages, Camtools sites, Facebook pages and even tweet about them.   I hope to produce more joint exhibitions with academic colleagues especially.

I am also participating in this year's Open Cambridge/Open Library weekend, with a 'Glimpse of India' - an opportunity for the public to view photographs, art work and home movies shot in Indian 1911-1956, and listen to archive recordings in which men an women reflect on events and issues they experienced during that period.

The University's Press Office helped market our home movies, by assisting us in creating a promotional filmed interview.  I may also create RCS and CSAS photostreams on Flickr to assist with the identification of people and places on old photographs in the collections.

All the above tried methods have resulted in increased interest and use in our collections.  However it is becoming increasing difficult to cope with this increased use - the down-side of too much marketing at a time of budget restraint.

PS I have just heard that the RCS collections will appear in the credits of Who Do You Think You Are? this evening - tracing Rupert Penry-Jones' family roots to India - photographs from the Queen Mary photograph collection on India.

LinkedIn or not?

Image captured in Pathankot, Punjab by
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan,
 (Flickr, Creative Commons)

My experience of LinkedIn has been a frustrating one.  The Times of India recently published an article on a devastating fire at the photographic studio of Bourne and Shepherd in Kolkata, and the current owner's attempt to trace surviving historic images by the studio, known to be held in libraries and museums in the UK.  The RCS collections in Cambridge University Library hold over 500 images by Bourne and Shepherd so I tried to make contact with the Times of India special correspondent, Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay, who wrote the article.  I tried first to contact him via the newspaper and had to complete an online Letter to the Editor form, as there was no general email facility.  However, I also located him on LinkedIn via Google, so hoped to be able to make contact that way.  I signed up and opened an account (yes, another password required), but to my horror discovered that I could only email him if I upgraded my account.  Naively, I started to complete more online forms, only to discover that I would be charged monthly for the upgrade.  My experience of LinkedIn ended there, until today when I have briefly checked out the profiles of Libby Tilley, Andy Priestner and Sarah Stamford on LinkedIn.  I looked at their lists of connections, membership of Groups, but am not convinced that I shall use LinkedIn again.  I have found more relevant support from, for example, my membership of SAALG.

Cambridge libraries on Facebook

Vacation borrowing at the Marshall Library, March 2009

 

 

 

I enjoyed viewing the video of vacation borrowing at the Marshall Library of Economics, March 2009, which is linked from the Library's Facebook page under the Boxes tag.  I must admit I would have expected it under the Photos tag, but that linked only to stills. It is a great way of showing how valuable the library is to the student community. I also liked the way the library has used Facebook to tell current students/researchers about its history and archives.

The Judge Business School Library uses Facebook to promote its electronic resources, with video tutorials and links to its Delicious bookmarks.  It also promotes new and recommended books using  Bookshare (also linked under the Boxes tag).

The English Faculty Library has used Facebook to promote a topical library exhibition, promoting the novels of Sir Wilson Harris, a Caribbean novelist on the 2010 Queen's honours list. Some of his novels form part of the Tasker collection donated to the University by Miss Joyce Trotman. The message is powerfully and simply told using photographs.

By contrast the Classics Faculty library uses Facebook to inform its Friends which new journal issues arrive, giving their classmarks.

Facebook can also be used to promote the latest gadgetry and software. The Cambridge Libraries page promotes the libraries widget, a device for iPhones, IPod Touch and Smartphones designed by Huw Jones, and links to a video showing how to use it. Ed Chamberlain awards it 5 stars in his review.

Finally, if you are a juice and cookies fan (sorry, not me!), then check out the Jerwood Library's Facebook page! They also use Bookshare Books to promote their new accessions and have added friendly photographs - all very inviting to new students.