Nerd thrill your users: Collaborating with liaisons to create an appealing gateway to digital collections

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a case study in which reference librarians were a catalyst for an innovative web project designed to market digital collections to students and faculty. The web project was titled “Image Cafe´” and offered users a taste of the materials available in the University of Houston Digital Library in an interface and format that was simple to navigate and that encouraged reuse of the materials, specifically in presentations. Design/methodology/approach – The approach to this project was a collaborative strategy in which a team of digital librarians reached out to reference librarians to engage them in more effective promotion of digital collections to students and faculty. Prior to this project, reference librarians were an under-utilized stakeholder group whose feedback about the organization and presentation of digital collections had been difficult to implement. The Image Cafe´ project was an opportunity to pilot ideas directly from the librarians focused on outreach to students and faculty in an effort to make digital collections more approachable and discoverable for that audience. Findings – Based on initial findings, use of Image Cafe´ has been strong and consistently growing. Originality/value – This paper provides a valuable model for building bridges between groups within libraries that do not traditionally collaborate in order to make digital collections intuitive and relevant for users. Keywords Digital collections, Digital libraries, Collaboration, Web project, Technical services, Marketing, Promotion of images and photographs, Outreach, Presentation tools, Access Paper type Case study