Download - Lessons learnt from the Observatory project
JISC Collections 16 June 2010 | Project Board Meeting | Slide 1
Lessons learnt from the Observatory project
JISC Collections
5 Themes
1.Know your users
2.Go out and get what they want
3.Tell them you’ve got it
4.Keep on connecting
5.Share your knowledge
JISC Collections
1. Know your users
“Know who controls your destiny and focus on their needs relentlessly”
(Prichard, Ingram Digital)
Be creative about gathering knowledge on user behaviours
JISC Collections
2. Go out and get it
Will an e-book that only allows one person to access it meet your users needs?
Do you users care if an e-book will disappear off their e-reader after a month?
What do your users want to do with the content?
Are you getting what you need as a librarian?
What about preservation?
Does the licence cover all your users or just some?
Can you clearly articulate to your users what they can and cant do?
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2. Go out and get it
Negotiating licenses and business models is time consuming
Stay in control
Don’t assume – know that the e-book product will meet your needs
“Effective promotion requires effective products”
(Librarian)
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3. Tell them you’ve got it
“Students are navigating from one system to another – all of which have different functionalities and
different bells and whistles with respect to searching, limiting, indexing, saving etc, and it is confusing for
users….they literally have to reframe their minds when moving from one system to another and this
requires patience, persistence and is time consuming”
(UBiRD)
Take control of your catalogue and library website! Simplify.
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4. Keep on connecting
Analyse your usage statistics
Continue to do surveys
Engage your users
Find out what they like about the e-book products you have
Consider if too much choice is paralysing them
Always keep on an eye on the periphery
Tell them what you have done for them!
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5. Share your knowledge
Experiment
Collaborate
Discuss
Use your collective influence to get what you and your users need
Yes you can!
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Caren Milloy
Head of Projects
JISC Collections
Twitter / carenmilloy