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Communication Chair
©1998, SLA WCC

In conjunction with International Special Librarians Day April 23, 1998, the British Columbia Securities Commission Library decided to host an Open House – an opportunity to demonstrate new products and promote existing library services. The Commission Library has been developing a strong Intranet presence as well as expanding the availability of electronic resources and we wanted to showcase our progress.

Three key steps to success: promote the event, encourage participation, and follow up!

Promotion
People must be aware of the event itself in order for it to be a success. Therefore, you must advertise and promote in a variety of ways to ensure the widest possible distribution:

• Email (at least three)
• Library Bulletin Board (Back to the Basics)
• Monthly In-house Publication
• Intranet Postings
• Personal Reminders & Encouragement (Don't forget the power of persuasion!)

Participation & Incentives
We designed two sets of questions (novice and expert) and encouraged people to answer them during the week before the Open House. The Questions were posted on the Intranet and were also delivered in print to Commission staff. The novice questions were easily answered using the information contained within the Library Web Pages and were intended to familiarize people with the various resources available to them at their desktops. The expert questions encouraged people to use the stand alone CD-Rom products in the library as well as the networked CD products.

... key is to increase their knowledge of library resources

During the Open House we used the four work stations to demonstrate separate products: our Library Intranet site, two CD ROM Securities products and an online service. We developed a plan to conduct small training sessions for each workstation as people entered the library. People will visit the library during an open house, but the key is to increase their knowledge of library resources.

In addition, we played a video from the 1997 SLA annual conference. It is important to place Special Librarians within a larger context and Bill Gate's presence and interest in Librarians can be useful in demonstrating this point. This video also helped illustrate the importance and size of the Special Libraries Association.

Thanks to Carol Williams' efforts we had lots of prizes to give away. These were generously donated by a number of vendors. Credit to the vendors was given via the email postings and on the Library bulletin board. The vendors support also helped raise the awareness of the numerous contacts the library must have to operate effectively.

At the conclusion of the open house the number of correct answers was tallied and an email message listing all of the winners was sent throughout the Commission. The names of the winners, participants and vendors were also posted on the Intranet. We also used this opportunity to reward the best efforts todate on department homepages on our Intranet.

Summary

... be proactive in promoting the library information centre

We work in an environment in which people frequently suffer from information overload. As librarians and information professionals it is our job to evaluate the newest products and determine which ones will be the most effective in our respective organizations. It is important to recognize the fact that people are typically resistant to change and will not readily learn new software or research techniques unless they are proven timesavers. Thus, we must be proactive in promoting the library information centre and look for ways to demonstrate new products.

The Library Open House -- my first International Special Librarian's Day working as a Special Librarian -- is one way of doing this and proved to be a great success! Commission Staff were enthusiastic and interested in the new products and we were able to set up a number of personal desktop training sessions for a later date. This experience proved Special Librarians Day offers a perfect opportunity to increase your Library's profile!