Monthly Archives: June 2017

Social Media Group updates

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The Social Media team has been hard at work engaging our users via Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Youtube.

A huge thank you to all of the team that makes our social media continue to grow, and be a vibrant community. The social media team promotes events that live on the Fondren Event calendar: http://library.rice.edu/calendar, as well as, other content that is of interest to our users.

Jeanette Sewell has joined the social media group. Jeanette will be working on a twitter bot with Ted the bookworm as the mascot. The bot will tweet general things such as search tips and links to LibGuides.

Norie Guthrie has taken on an expanded role for Twitter, monitoring any questions that need answered, and adding content as needed, Monday through Friday.

DeAndrea Smither has developed several themes for different days of the week for Snapchat. Our followers have really grown in this communication channel, enjoying the content provided.

Fondren Library snapchat

DeAndrea displays her Snapchat schedule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, we have new emergency social media communications procedures developed in collaboration with Kerry Keck. In the event of an emergency,  such as a hurricane or tropical storm, Kerry Keck will be the primary contact person on Twitter and Facebook. She will post content from the university regarding the emergency. All previously scheduled posts will be put on pause, and will resume after the emergency has passed. We hope this will provide a clear source of information to our users about Fondren Library. We had a trial run this past week, and all seemed to work well!

Twitter (972 Followers) https://twitter.com/fondrenlibrary:

  • Monday: Shannon Kipphut-Smith
  • Tuesday: Debra Kolah
  • Wednesday: Kathy Weimer
  • Thursday: Scott Carlson
  • Friday: Norie Guthrie

Facebook (1,235 Followers) https://www.facebook.com/ricefondren/:

  • Monday: UX Monday (Amanda Thomas)
  • Tuesday: Information Literacy/Reference Events (Joe Goetz)
  • Wednesday: Summer posts: Light library information  Fall: News from Fondren highlight (Melinda Flannery)
  • Thursday: Archives/#TBT item from the Woodson Archive
  • Friday: Rotates with focus on library humor/light reading (Jeanette Sewell)

Instagram (511 Followers): (Michael Chiles/DaVian Smith/Norie Guthrie) (3 x week) https://www.instagram.com/fondrenlibrary/

Snapchat: (DeAndrea Smither)

We have room on the Social Media group for you! If you would like to participate in Fondren Library’s social media efforts, email Debra Kolah (dkolah@rice.edu) and we will get you signed up!

Executive Committee Meeting Summaries April 13-June 8, 2017

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April 13, 2017

The group discussed the Library Service Platform working group report.

April 20, 2017

No meeting.

April 27, 2017

1) Sara reported that President Leebron and Provost Miranda have responded very positively to the library’s “pitches” about future big ideas for the library. Mary offered to visit Seattle libraries to take pictures on an upcoming trip.

2) Sara clarified that the Fondren planning process can gear back up later in the summer, to sync with the university’s planning schedule.

3) The group reviewed the library’s current memberships in collaborative organizations and considered both cuts and new membership opportunities.

4) Kerry shared the need for tightening access policy for LSC items in certain restricted categories.

5) Sara shared recent discussions on the need for signed agreements from users who make use of Fondren’s new lockers.

6) Mary asked about protecting the painting across from Access Services by anchoring any nearby seating or adding a protective railing in front of the artwork. She shared that a member of the Friends of Fondren is interested in doing an online general or art-focused tour to encourage Friends to become more familiar with Fondren. Other members offered to share what has been done in the way of online tours and invited the individual to make use of those building blocks. Mary also shared that the Friends’ Homecoming event will spotlight local music archives in the Woodson Research Center (WRC).

May 4, 2017

No meeting

May 11, 2017

No meeting

May 18, 2017

1) a) Sara shared that Norie and Debra Kolah have been working with Fondren Ambassadors to plan spending $100,000 in money available to the library from the KTRU endowment. The seating areas outside Rm. 156 and in front of Access Services are targeted for improvements. Room 412, to the L of the Studies in English Literature offices, has been assigned as a gathering place to a new association of retired faculty under the sponsorship of the provost.
b) This summer, five Rice Design Alliance staff members will be officing temporarily in Fondren, during the renovation of their offices. The architecture school has made a donation to Fondren in response.
c) Sara shared what she is learning about the university-level planning process. So far, the Fondren process is tracking well with the university process, in terms of elements, level of detail, etc.
d) Sara reported that the Rice Board of Trustees approved the budget and that salary letters should go out before the end of June. The library received an additional $500,000 for collections for FY18 to slow the impact of inflation on our purchasing power.

2) The group discussed the draft of the strategic planning document, making revisions and inviting Lee to provide language to represent WRC strategic directions where appropriate in the document. The strategic planning group will host additional staff meetings to discuss the new version of the plan, and will also be sharing a draft with some university departments in the fall.

3. The group discussed the request of the Horizon Group for a clarification of its charge following the valuable advice shared on the planning process. Currently, members do not have a new research need.

4. Updates: There will be a Town Hall meeting May 24 to share the “pitches” to President Leebron. The Kyle Morrow Room will be out of commission for tech upgrades for the month of June. Scott Vieira will co-chair the Web Team. The report of the Library Service Platform (LSP) group is being reviewed. The Friends gala net profits are not yet final but seem to be approaching $185,000. The 2018 gala will be held March 23 at the River Oaks Country Club and will honor the Crownovers. Catherine and Brian James will co-chair the event; student workers will be needed. Other events are being slotted into the Friends calendar for the upcoming year.

May 25, 2017

No meeting.

June 1, 2017

The group discussed the report of the Communications Task Force. This report will be made public with plans for action once Executive Committee discussion is completed. Main recommendations include increased visibility of administration, a review and simplification of committee structures and improved tools for staff communication.

June 8, 2017

The group continued discussion of the communications report and began to propose plans of action to address recommendations. Additional issues raised in the report include adding a communications officer, improving staff orientation, improving staff knowledge of the work of departments other than their own, more training in the areas of communication and running meetings, and better communication among managers.

At the next meeting, the group will review Fondren’s current committee structures. Sara has asked Denis to draft a proposal for improving online staff information tools; this proposal will also be discussed at an upcoming meeting.

Promoting Upcoming Events

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If you have an upcoming event and need to promote it, C-MACS can help with the promotion of an event while you create, manage, and operate it. Before we can do anything, though, we need some information about the event.

The questions on this form (also seen below) can help you plan your event, and will give us some background information so we can help promote it.

  1. Who is your audience?
  2. What date have you chosen? Does this conflict with other major events on campus or holidays?
  3. What specific activities are you planning?
  4. What kinds of advertisement do you want? Flyers, website graphics, table toppers? Based on your answers to the questions above, you should be able to formulate some visual ideas. You should now contact Jeff Koffler and communicate your ideas to him. He can create a unique image that can be used for your posters, flyers, website promotion, emails, etc.
  5. After getting your image, you can now communicate it to your intended audience, which you defined above.
    1. For reaching students, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and (coming soon) Snapchat are all great communication pathways. You can also send an email to ustudents-l@mailman.rice.edu, put up posters near the entrance, and contact Jeff about placing the image on the website calendar and website scroll.
    2. For university employees, use ALLDEPTS, our social media channels, put up posters near the entrance, and contact Jeff about placing the image on the website calendar and website scroll.
    3. For the outside community, use our social media channels, put up posters near the entrance, and contact Jeff about placing the image on the website calendar and website scroll.
    4. For grad students, use our social media channels and submit info to their weekly newsletter. You can also put up posters near the entrance and contact Jeff about placing the image on the website calendar and website scroll.
  6. If you need to post to our social media channels, please submit a request via the library’s website and select “Suggest a News Item or Feature for Fondren’s Homepage.” Please be sure to tell us which social media you want us to post to and follow standard rules for posting to social media sites (for example Twitter character limits).

Much of this information is on the C-MACS Wiki, as well. Feel free to browse it.

After following the steps above, if you need to meet with C-MACS about additional planning ideas, please feel free to contact the co-chairs, Michael Chiles and Norie Guthrie.

Originally published September 29, 2016 @ 14:19