The document outlines strategies for generating buy-in and excitement from the campus library at California State University, Fullerton, highlighting the unique culture and challenges of academic libraries. It discusses the importance of involving librarians in design, training, and content strategy, emphasizing the need for minimalistic, user-friendly library websites. The document also details the role of the library homepage as a digital branch and stresses effective training approaches tailored to the needs of academic librarians.

1. How to Generate Buy-In and
Excitement from Your Campus
Library
Colleen Greene, MLIS
Systems Librarian & Communications Coordinator
Pollak Library
California State University, Fullerton

2. Frustrations & Challenges
• Libraries are different
• Library websites are different
• OU Campus won’t work for a library website
• The answer to each is sometimes YES.
• The answer to each is sometimes NO.

3. Understanding Library Culture

4. Most Academic Librarians Are
Faculty
• Focus on research, education, and access
• Shared governance
• Academic freedom
• RTP (Retention, Tenure & Promotion) is
including more digital work
– Campus service
– Scholarly & creative work
– Faculty assignments

5. Libraries & Librarians Are, In
General, Early Adopters
Likely 1st
on campus to:
•Have a website
•Use a CMS
•Understand & use social media
•Focus on metadata & SEO
•Use embedded & interactive media
•Work with RSS, APIs, widgets

6. Professional & Ethical
Philosophy of “Open”
• Intellectual freedom
• Open access
• Open source
• Open data
• Rights-free

7. Understanding Library Websites

8. Typical Library Website
• Informational pages
• Discovery tools
• Proprietary licensed electronic resources
• Research & instruction guides
• Institutional repositories & digital archives
• Custom apps, databases & web services
• Blogs
• Widgets, RSS feeds, APIs

9. OU Campus is Only One Part of a
Library Website
• Examples
– Home page
– Informational pages
– News/Alert pages (if no blog)
• Why?
– Bulk of our content is proprietary research
databases, journals, ebooks, media, etc.
– Industry-standard tools that support library
metadata standards & interoperability standards

10. The Pollak Library Website
• 17+ different major websites
• 1000s of databases & journal interfaces
• Some allow us full CSS control, some allow
moderate CSS control, others little or no CSS
• Make heavy use of repurposing between web
services & OU Campus, and between OU
Campus via APIs, RSS, Assets (looking at XSL
for external databases)
• www.library.fullerton.edu

11. Patrons Have An Emotional Tie
to Library Websites
• Students & faculty stress out when our
“website” changes, runs slow, goes down
– Blockers to getting research & assignments done
– Even if bookmark discovery tools or other
interfaces, have to do proxy check to access
proprietary licensed research materials
• Instruction librarians teach from live site
• Professors include library site in LMS

12. Ways to help Your Library

13. Timing
• NEVER implement a redesign or upgrade
rollout during the academic year, unless an
emergency
– Grateful that OmniUpdate extended the V10
migration deadline through 2014.
– Librarians carry very heavy instruction loads,
which allows for no training time
– If something goes wrong, blocker for students &
faculty doing research & assignments

14. Branding & Visual Identity
• Less is better (used Ohio State model)
• But campus can provide resources to help
brand across library sites and interfaces
– Header graphic choices
– Quality stock photos
– Well-documented parent CSS
– No parent CSS changes without advanced
notifications
– Style guide for typography & colors

15. Library & Librarian Culture
• Include us in business requirements, design
stages & mockups, content strategy, training
– Many are experienced in XML, PHP, JS, etc.
– Information Architecture, metadata, SEO expertise
– While OU Campus is not open, it supports flavors of
open source that can be integrated with open systems
– We are educators, use us as campus trainers
• Use terms like consistent & more seamless “user
experience” vs. branding & identity

16. Library & Librarian Culture
• Custom librarian-centric Profile pages
– Faculty AND staff, some student assistants
– More freedom with content and formatting
– Use template logic to show/hide widgets
– Allow embedded content
• Heavy focus on education & outreach
• Each Profile is actually a directory folder.
– Profile page is index
– Store conference handouts, presentations, etc.
– Provides a mini professional portfolio space

17. Understanding the Role of the
Library Home Page
• Functions as a digital branch of the library
• Gateway to electronic resources & directory to
information about/inside the library
– Don’t want visitors hanging out here a long time
– High Analytics bounce rates means we are doing our
job > visitors are finding what they need
• Current trend is very minimalistic
– Simple, few, key visuals
– Primary emphasis on Search tools

18. Repurpose Content & Services
• General OU Campus Content (Assets)
– Related Content widgets > tagged
– Related Policies & Pages widgets > tagged
– Related Stock Images > tagged
– WNL & Library Alerts
• Third Party Services
– LibGuides & LibAnswers APIs > tagged
– Blogs > RSS + WNL > tagged
– Institutional Repositories and Digital Archives > RSS or
APIs

19. Point-Of-Need Repurposing
• Use Asset tagging to target selected content
to related library pages in OU Campus (feeds
specific widgets built into templates)
• Use Asset tagging to target selected OU
Campus sites and pages across campus (wish
list, not happening yet)
• Have campus sites make use of library RSS
(wish list, not happening yet)

20. OU Campus Template Guidance
• Using XSL to display data from custom &
third party databases
• Integrating Google Analytics event handlers
throughout site, links, forms

21. Training approaches

22. Newsroom Approach
• Few System Administrators (L 10)
• Few Super Users (L 7)
• Assign “beats” across operational units
– OU Campus Groups & Directories
– Content Team Leaders / managing editors (L 4)
– Content Team Members / reporters (L 3)
• Few spot checkers / copy editors (L 3)

23. Start With Profile Pages
• Almost everyone has more interest in Profiles
• Allows for a personal “sandbox” approach to
learning OU Campus
– Not end of world if Profile page blows up
– Allows them to learn OU Campus admin interface
– Allows them to learn OU Campus workflows
– Allows them to learn template widgets
• Required prerequisite for those moving on to
part 2 (Content Team) training

24. Contextual Training
• Academic librarians & all faculty are very
focused on learning models & pedagogy
– One-size-fits-all training not effective
– Contextual & point-of-need training preferred
• Train by operational/functional areas
– Groups, Template Groups, Directories
– Workflows (Editors & Reporters, best practices)
– More advanced training for Super Users
• Content strategy (writing for web, SEO,
content flow, content ideas)

25. Contact Information
Colleen Greene, MLIS
•cgreene@fullerton.edu
•@colleengreene
•www.colleengreene.com
•Pollak Library Faculty Profile Page
Class Link List: http://bit.ly/cgreene-outc14