I asked a couple of opinion questions during the course of my presentation. What do you think about them? I would love to hear your opinion on either or both of the following:
How much should we let our audience determine what they need? When is it appropriate for us to convince them they need what we have?
Free pizza while you learn! Is it a good idea to offer these kinds of added incentives? Does that take away from the content of the course by focusing on food, or does it ensure a larger audience?
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- Eva P.
- I've kept a journal since I was little. Now I'm going to post it all on the internet and look at those big feelings through grown-up eyes.
6 comments:
I think that this is definitely a tricky question, that involves quite a balancing act on the part of the librarian. Perhaps the best way achieve this would be to focus on the students' needs in a general way. The means by which these needs could be best developed by librarians themselves. i.e. Student: "I need to know how to get my free pizza."
Librarian: Applies mad reference skills to the appropriate databases and reference materials to tell the student where to get free pizza.
Determining need is a delicate matter on both the part of instructor and the part of the student. It's almost like the proverbial chicken and egg. If instructors are solely determining need, and not asking the students, what is their basis for determining what to teach? Likewise, if the students are solely responsible for describing what they need--well, suffice it to say "If you don't know what IT is, how can you ask for IT?"
As far as free incentives to draw in learners, it works...to a point. In the end, I believe it boils down to cost. If you can afford to provide food, trinkets, or give-aways in order to entice student participation and believe it will bring them in, then try it. If you can't afford it, or it doesn't work...try something else.
The concept of prizes and free food can be a double edged sword. Are you attracting new people with it or really just rewarding those that use the library already? Our library set out candy and pens at the circulation desk and more patrons seemed to be upset when we ran out than appreciative when we had them in the first place. You can only offer so much to get people in the door until they start expecting the free stuff instead of seeing the value of the services.
The beauty of a library is that it offers a variety of resources and that librarians are able to connect patrons with resources that they did not know existed or that they needed. If we allowed our audience (patrons) to determine what they need, the scope of what the library offers, potentially, becomes slim. Library patrons are not always the best judge of what the library needs because one patron cannot gauge the needs of all patrons.
I think that if an additional incentive brings more patrons into the library the result of which is that we've reached a wider audience and gained potentially gained patrons who will return, more frequently, then I say mission accomplished. It's hard not feel as though you are cheapening the value of the program, but in the long run, gaining more library users is the goal.
So who decides what patrons need? Do we poll the patrons or do we make our own assumptions. What about patron wants vs. patron needs? I think it is important to consider patron wants and needs and then use the library mission to guide decisions about what services and materials the library will provide. I think give aways are a nice way to draw attention to new services but if we have to resort to give aways to get patrons to use our regular services, then perhaps we need to reassess the value of those services.
In my opinion there are some “basics” that patron don’t necessarily want but do need. I think things like basic catalog and database searching strategies or even just teaching the difference between the catalog and a database are needs. At some point one does have to determine the few basic bits of library knowledge students will need to be successful in college, and the academic libraries should provide them. I hate to make the library sound totalitarian, but how many freshmen really know what then need to research that first paper appropriately? Librarians should have a good idea of students needs. After satisfying needs, the library could focus on the wants of students in terms of instructions, even tailoring instructional sessions to particular groups of patrons.
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