OLA Quarterly

Volume 28 Issue 1 Table of Contents

2024-01-12T14:52:46-08:00

From the Guest Editor

2024-01-12T14:59:13-08:00

“Marketing and Outreach: Connecting to Our Communities” is the theme of this issue of the OLA Quarterly. As we continue to shape what our library services look like post-pandemic, we are also finding a need to connect or reconnect with communities we serve. In a world transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, libraries have emerged as resilient institutions, evolving to meet the changing needs of their communities. As we navigate the post-pandemic landscape, libraries are redefining their roles and focusing on marketing and outreach strategies that connect them more intimately with the diverse communities they serve.

Connecting with Our Communities with Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness

2024-01-12T15:17:41-08:00

By listening to and understanding the perspectives of people in their communities, libraries can gain valuable insight into their patrons’ needs. Through thoughtful outreach and marketing, libraries can ensure that patrons feel seen and heard, creating an environment of trust and understanding. Libraries can also use this insight to create programming and services tailored to the needs of their communities.

Making Space, Engaging Students

2024-01-12T15:27:09-08:00

Reed College is a small liberal arts college located in Portland, Oregon. Students work and study on a mostly residential campus and the library has historically been the heart of academic and campus life. This relationship was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic as Reed shifted to online learning and library staff worked remotely. After more than a year, students and library staff returned to campus but other disruptions impacted student use of services and physical library space. A major seismic renovation closed a large section of the library. During this 18-month renovation, almost 40 percent of library seating and assigned desks were unavailable for student use. These major disruptions meant that both incoming and some upper-level students had no established relationship to the library beyond virtual interactions. It became evident there was a need to re-engage and re-energize students’ relationship with all aspects of library spaces and services.

Survivorship Bias, Or How Outreach Will Help Win the War on Libraries

2024-01-12T15:49:28-08:00

Evidence of survivorship bias is present in all fields, including librarianship. This is especially true when searching for ways to attract new patrons. Libraries focus on the successes, that is, the patrons who come back. At all levels, from front-line staff to directors to board members, we focus on the current users, thinking that focus will bring new patrons. We want a higher percentage of community members to have library cards, so we look at what the current patrons are doing in our spaces and with the resources they are using. We dedicate our marketing and promotional efforts to programs with the highest attendance. We purchase more materials like the ones with the highest circulation. We look at when patrons will likely be in the building to schedule programs. This makes our current library users happy but misses the mark with our non-users. Outreach services can bridge the gap, though, and help libraries connect better with non-users.

Thank You, OER Champion

2024-01-12T15:57:11-08:00

As the cost of textbooks continue to rise for students, Open educational resources (OER), which are openly licensed course materials that are free to use and share, have become a particularly popular textbook affordability initiative among college faculty. In order to market textbook affordability and OER, Clackamas Community College used a "gratitude campaign" to showcase faculty who had transitioned to teaching with OER, even with limited time and resources.

Bibliotequitas para Tualatin

2024-01-12T16:03:49-08:00

The City of Tualatin is home to around 5,000 individuals who identify as Hispanic or Latino (US Census Bureau, 2020). Uniquely, many of the Spanish speakers who immigrated to Tualatin are from Guerrero. Guerrero is located in the southwest region of the Mexican west coast, sandwiched between the Mexican states of Jalisco and Oaxaca. Although many Mexican immigrants in Tualatin are from this particular region, we have a growing community from all over Central America and South America. This shift in immigration shows us the increasing need to provide relevant Spanish-language programs and materials for our community. Tualatin Public Library decided to address this need by creating Little Free Libraries or "bibliotequitas" for underserved, Spanish-speaking communities in the area.

Flexibility in Outreach

2024-01-12T16:13:57-08:00

When COVID-19 shut down college libraries across the country, Central Oregon Community College (COCC) was no exception. In the ensuing scramble to close all in-person services and spaces during finals week, COCC library staff also were faced with closing the doors on a location that had not yet opened: a space that was almost 10 years in the making on an auxiliary campus. COVID taught librarians a lot about how flexible we can be and the value of delivering highly accessible remote service options. We also learned the value of our physical spaces and that an open door can literally and figuratively guide students to our services, especially on an outlying community college campus where nontraditional students already experience significant barriers finding, navigating, and using library resources. This article chronicles the development of the library space on one of COCC’s satellite campuses, how that development stalled and evolved in the wake of COVID, and the role this space plays in COCC library’s strategic outreach efforts moving forward.

Volume 28 Issue 1 Back Matter

2024-01-12T16:16:35-08:00