Public library seeking connections with college students

Our small public library branch is located in a rural county that has no universities and only a couple of extremely small technical commuter colleges. We would like to better connect with college students in our area. Many students are not aware of the services and resources we have to offer. We are a quiet place to study close to home, offer free internet via both wifi and public computers, and have a knowledgeable staff who can assist in quality internet research. We would also like to be a supportive social outlet to commuters who often lack student life opportunities, by offering organized, and impromptu, study groups and recreational activities.

We have the support of our technical schools but are still having difficulty reaching students who commute outside the county. We held a study hall during finals, although the turn out was poor, those who attended were very appreciative. We have started a blog, College Connections at the Commerce Library, but it has had abysmal readership.

We would appreciate hearing from other public libraries cooperating with colleges and academic libraries cooperating with public libraries. What programs have you tried? What was successful, what was not? How do you publicize?

Thanks for all input!

Tami McClung

Assistant Librarian,

Commerce Public Library,

a branch library of the PINES System of Georgia

Tags: college, commuter, hall, libraries, life, public, student, students, study

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Aston Mushowani on February 1, 2012 at 3:50am

I would suggest that you carry out a study to determine a number of things before you can zero in on any particular marketing strategy. First and foremost conduct a survey that is targeted at understanding the information seeking behaviours of you prospective library users taking note of the kind of information they require, the coverage and scope of that information, e.t.c. Set out to know when the prospective clients most need information and the type of information they will be highly interested in:- see if your library has that information.

consider some of the following aspects in your study/market survey

have an understanding of your targeted readership's values, culture, social make-up
examine the values, missions and objectives of the commuter colleges and compare them to your own
examine other libraries or information centres and draw a comparative with your own library
identify community based social network groups that are associated with your town/county
identify social media tools that are used by most of your prospective patrons
identify commuter colleges and information centres that you can collaborate or network with (emphasis should be on their weaknesses after you have conducted a SWOT analysis)
identify information gaps in the information provision environment
identify means and ways of conveying news in the town/county you serve
identify scholarly current affairs that the students frequently get involved in

it is after you have a clear picture of the environment you are in, draw up a strategy that derives form the needs of your users. It is from such a background that you know the information seeking patterns of the intended audience and you match these to the information in your holdings. From there you look at the gaps that do exist in other information centres and you take advantage of them.
on publicising your services,

collaborate with the colleges and other information centres
have information material that is centred on the needs of your target clientèle
join social media forums that are frequented by the students
start social forums that target the college students and link them up with their groups of interest
use the most convenient medium of communication to reach out to the students directly (maybe through current affairs programs)
look for champion persons from amongst your target readership that are going to preach the message to others inasmuch as they can be made into flag bearers

wish you success