RE: Lobbying for support for your digital branch

2009-09-16T15:31:43Z

"In this time of funding cutbacks, how do you suggest those of us responsible for the "digital branch" lobby for support...especially if many still see the website as a non-essential service?"

Funding cutbacks - most digital branch stuff costs no actual money, other than staff and time. So no new servers/software licenses, etc. Then, you need to show HOW the digital branch is essential. Stories of patron success, examples from other libraries and other organizations all work well.

"Question for David: When I ask/demand/beg library staff to participate in our dynamic digital content (news blogs, book recommendations, audio, video, Tweets, etc.) I am often told "I don't have any time," but what I'm really hearing is "It's not a high priority for me or my boss." Do you have any suggestions for how to motivate and excite library staff to participate in the our dynamic digital content?"

Ultimately, you need to work with managers to make digital branch work part of staff's formal job descriptions. Then they are required to work on the digital branch as part of their jobs.

Otherwise ... sometimes people simply aren't scheduling their time well. So doing some simple things like setting a task/appointment in their calendar to write blog posts for 30 minutes every Thursday at 3:30, for example, works well.

But yeah - ultimately managers need to make this stuff a priority for their staff.

Lobbying for support for your digital branch

2009-09-15T21:13:16Z

David addressed this question a bit in his webinar: Building the Digital Branch for the 21st Century but I think it's worthy of additional suggestions and strategies.

"In this time of funding cutbacks, how do you suggest those of us responsible for the "digital branch" lobby for support...especially if many still see the website as a non-essential service?"

"Question for David: When I ask/demand/beg library staff to participate in our dynamic digital content (news blogs, book recommendations, audio, video, Tweets, etc.) I am often told "I don't have any time," but what I'm really hearing is "It's not a high priority for me or my boss." Do you have any suggestions for how to motivate and excite library staff to participate in the our dynamic digital content?"