KYVL Outreach Work Group Minutes 9/11/03

September 11, 2003

Present: Joy Bozorgzad, Marcia Freyman, Cindy Gaffney, Tanzi Merritt, Sue Patrick, Billie Ann Snodgrass, Winn Theirl, Enid Wohlstein

Sue gave us a historical perspective on KYVU/KYVL marketing efforts. In March 2000, we contracted with the UK Research Center to conduct a survey of 1300 KY residents, 18 years and older. The results showed about a 22% awareness of KYVU, KYVL and KVHS. KYVL had the highest level of awareness but was still in the low 20’s percentile. The results of this survey led to marketing KYVU and KYVL in co-branded brochures and other marketing materials.

Sue suggested we might sponsor one or two questions in the annual education survey conducted by the UK Research Center and see if awareness has increased.

Marcia suggested we create a list of the Education writers at newspapers and other publications in the state and make contact for features on KYVL.

Winn relayed her experiences of teaching throughout the state. She has worked with some 700 adults and very few were familiar with KYVL. If they had awareness, many thought it was for kids only.

Cindy suggested we have a tagline to express KYVL’s mission or purpose, possibly including ‘online’ somehow. She also asked about reaching out to librarians who can do KYVL training in their community. Tanzi said this idea has been bounced around for some time but has not been pursued because of time constraints and quality/coverage concerns.

Enid hoped that the Outreach efforts could bring attention to KYVL resources such as How to Do Research, specific uses of the various databases, the Virtual Reference Desk, and so on. Enid would like to exploit and advertise the diversity of KYVL offerings to get beyond the “KYVL is a website” belief that was expressed many times in the comments received on the Database Usage Survey conducted earlier this year.

Sue recommended a fill-in-the-library-name press release that libraries can use to announce KYVL services.

Joy told us about her efforts with her students. She instructs them on KYVL databases and resources. When her students do projects, they have to complete an evaluation form for non-KYVL resources.