Teams needed for FY2012 projects
This year, like our first year, we submitted a grant application to LSTA outlining the projects we would undertake this fiscal year (2012). Below are the projects, timeline and statement as laid out in the application and some ideas on what each looks like. Timelines are loose and only listed as s guide to when the project would be started and completed. August (ongoing) is listed for items that are to be sustained throughout normal AUN operations once up to standards created by the teams.
The only way these projects are going to be sustainable is if we have a team of people working on them. There are over 250 active providers of AskUsNow! including 39 liaisons which is more than enough people to have between 2-5 people on each item without overburdening any one person. Please fill out the form below to let Julie & Cathay know of your interest. We assume already that you've gotten any necessary permission from your liaison/supervisor as needed. Thanks!!
The Projects
One-on-One community chats
January - August (ongoing)
"Look for new ways to use our technology (eg community chats with authors and other public figures)."
The idea for this came from a webinar done in August 2011 with Jo John who runs the Enquire service in the UK. The whole webinar is excellent and worth you time, but minutes 20:30 - 28:52, & a question from Julie about this at 30:00 are specifically about this idea. How can this be utilized in Maryland? What does it look like for us?
Targeted Promotion
December - August (ongoing)
"Release more targeted promotion to under served populations including seniors, parents, kids, and those affected by the digital divide."
With an increase in the FY2012 budget for promotion, we want to be specifically targeting audiences instead of just throwing our message to the wind, hoping it catches. Similarly, it's not enough to market AskUsNow! to those folks who are in the library or who use your website - we want to capture everyone, perhaps turning folks on to the library, too. Seniors, parents and those affected by the digital divide are among our targets. How do we do this? What does this look like?
Social Media Marketing
February - April
Our last three interns have done amazing work with Social Media ideas and strategies. We need to take their ideas and products and turn them into actions and plans and then implement them.
Sustainable School Partnerships
November - August (ongoing)
"Develop a more sustainable relationship with our local schools and school media specialists in order to partner in the success of our children's information literacy."
Our latest intern did work in this area to see how schools and libraries can partner better for the success of both our institutions/professions. There are a few goals for this project: better partnerships and better communication will help us help students better because we'll know their assignments, resources, etc; we'll be promoting information literacy and the local resources of the school/curriculum and be able to continually market AskUsNow! and the local library as classes and grades change.
Needed to be done first: intake of who's already doing what with their schools. Does someone already have a model we can build on for the state?
Refresher Training
October - January
"Provide in-depth refresher training to our staff to ensure the excellent service to our customers continues."
What trainings are needed? (subjects, customer service, interpersonal communication, software refreshers?) Who's already done them? (don't reinvent the wheel). How will these be provided? (f2f, synchronous online, asynchronous screencast/video). Can the "mandatory refresher training" concept be built on this (see December 2010 and March 2011 liaison meeting minutes)?
Mobile Interface
March - June
"Focus on providing additional access to our customers via an interface that works with mobile phones and other on-the-go devices."
We can have a mobile interface with use of the qwidget (borrowing AskWA's coding) but the qwidget doesn't provide roll-up to the cooperative and therefore isn't a 24/7 interface. Does this matter? (yes). How can we design around this? What does it look like? Do we look outside of QP?
AskUsNow! Sustainability Plan
April - July
"Additionally this year we hope to be able to finally answer the question services like ours around the globe have been trying to figure out for years: how can we be self-sufficient with a sustainable funding source?"
Other projects:
These are projects we noted in the LSTA application but that don't need teams at the moment since they're already up and running smoothly.
Volunteer Program
"Continue expanding our volunteer and internship Programs" We've already launched this program and it's kicking well. The goal is to have 5 at any time in the beginning and add more slowly as providers get more experience and don't need to be watched so closely. Our 6 month review period for how this is going and any changes that might need to be made is February. The Operations Assistant is also the Volunteer Coordinator and can elicit help as needed.
Internship Program
"Continue expanding our volunteer and internship Programs" This is also an ongoing program. We are intern-less this semester but will release another announcement before Thanksgiving. The Statewide Coordinator is in charge of the Interns.