Questionpoint.org : Promote Your Service : By Region : U.S. Midwestern

     Mark Beatty, of the Wisconsin AskAway cooperative library reference service, offers the wiki their librarians use to keep up to date with issues of interest to the Wisconsin cooperative.  See especially the two following sites, for promotional materials used in Wisconsin: http://askaway.pbwiki.com/pr and http://askaway.pbwiki.com/Fall+2007+PR+Materials

 The Wisconsin service, AskAway, has two sample press releases that might interest you: http://askaway.pbwiki.com/f/Fall+Press+Release+1.doc and http://askaway.pbwiki.com/f/Fall+Press+Release+2.doc

Bill Pardue, of Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Illinois, found that 70% of his library's virtual reference sessions originated from places other than the library home page and catalog!

At ALA annual 2007, in Washington, DC, Bill discussed tips for promoting their virtual reference service. See his presentation at http://questionpoint.blogs.com/questionpoint_247_referen/2007/06/ala-2007-best-p.html. He focused on how libraries can place a link to their ask-a service to increase usage - he calls it "tripping over reference".   Bill's tips include: 

§         Place the link to your service on the library home page, but be sure it is above the fold (to check that, use 800X600 resolution). 

§         Be sure and brand the service so people know what it is (e.g., “Ask a Question Live     Online” or “Get Live Online Help”).

§         If possible, make sure that link is part of the basic page template, so    wherever the user is on the library website, the Ask link will be there too.

Don't stop with the library web page!  Bill discussed how he has placed links to his Ask Away service in the catalog and database pages (he demonstrated the link he has in his Gale databases).  He also described how to surface your service through Worldcat.org.