Analysis of NLB's "Read It" Campaign

8/9/2019 Analysis of NLB's "Read It" Campaign

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DHP Year 4 Language Arts

Project Work

Individual Written Report

Find it Your Trusted Sources

A campaign to showcase and bring greater visibility to the reference services

and rich resources at the National Library

From the Official Find It Website


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Table of Contents

1.

uc

3

2. A u e Lee K g Chian Re e enceLibrary 4

3. Campaign Rationale & Information 5

3.1 Objective 5

3.2 Campaign Length 5

3.3 Target Au ience 5

4. Campaigning Strategies/Methodologies 6

4.1 Public Seminars and Programmes 6

4.2 Partnership with Expertise Organisations 6

4.3Launching of SMS Reference Service 7

5. Campaign Analysis 8

5.1 Resulting Effects 8

5.1.1Library Visitorship Statistics 8

5.1.2Library Enquiries Statistics 9

5.2Meeting of Objectives 10

5.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Campaign 10

5.4 Areas of Improvement 10

6. Conclusion 11

7. Bibliography 12


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Introduction

Find t

Find It is a campaign organised by the National Library Board which aims to introduce resources

and enquiry services of theL Kon

Chi n f n Lib y to different groups of the public.

Through thiscampaign, the National Library aims to encourage people to treat the ReferenceLibrary

as their primary trusted source of information, instead ofsolely the Internet, whenever they need

answers to their enquiries and research questions.

It will be meaningful to see how successful thiscampaign is in promoting theuse of the National

Librarys resources to various groups of the public and encouraging people to view theLibrary as not

just simply a place for reading & borrowing books but a hub for research and information too.


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2. About the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library

TheLeeKong Chian ReferenceLibrary, located at the National

Library Building, occupiesseven floors, each containing

reference materials, mainly books, aimed for research and

learning for local and overseas researchers, professionals and

academics. It was opened on 22 July 2005 and named after Dr

LeeKong Chian, in honour of theLeesFoundations $60 million

donation to the National Library Board. With an area of14,265

square metres, it has a collection of over 530,000 print and non-

print materials. These items, however, cannot be borrowed.

TheLibrary provides referenceservices onsite, or via email, SMS, telephone and fax. Other facilities

include access to electronic databases and document delivery service.Microfilm, reprography and

audio-visual services for viewing special materials are also available. The library has wireless access

to the Internet too, as well as theuse of reading & meeting rooms.

Coll

tions

Level 7 - Social Sciences & Humanities, Science and Technology

Level 8 - TheArts and Business

Level 9 - Chinese, Malay and Tamil

Level 10 - Donors' Collections, Asian Children's

Level 11 - Singapore and Southeast Asian

Levels12 and 13 - RareMaterials (restricted access)


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3. C mp i n Rational & Info mation

3.1 Obj

ti

:

Find It aims to:

-Promote theLeeKong Chian ReferenceLibrary as an informative hub for research and referencing

to various groups of the public, mainly professionals, researchers and tertiary students.

-Encourage people to treat theLeeKong Chian ReferenceLibrary (LKCRL) as their primary trusted

source of information when they need answers to their reference and research questions.

3.2 Campai!

n Runnin!

Period

April 2006 to May 2006; a period of2 months

3.3 TargetAudiene

The targeted groups of the public fall broadly into 4 following communities:

-Heritage

-Involves researchers, heritageenthusiasts, teachers and curriculum planners of Singapore history

and National Education

-Business

-Involves businessmen, market researchers, consultants and businessstudents, entrepreneurs

-Design

-Involves designers, Art students, fashion enthusiasts

-Edu" ation

-Involves teachers, educators, Academics and Tertiarystudents

The NLB chose to focus in these 4 communities as it felt that itscollections and resourcesduring that

timecould play strongly to these areas and hoped to promote the possible value that can be derived

by thesecommunities in utilizing their resources available for research and reference.


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4. Campaigning Strategies/Methodologies

4.1 Public Seminars and Programmes

The National Library held a few talks and activities for its target participants that aim to present abroad overview and background of thecollections in the 4 areas it is focusing on: Heritage, Business,

Design and Education.Most of theseevents were held at the National Library itself.

These programmes include:

y Information Literacy Programmes & Collection ToursThis is a series of talks that introduces the variouscollections and resources of theLeeKong Chian

ReferenceLibrary to the public. Thesessions will also demonstrate, through different scenarios, how

the resourcescan beused and participants will learn useful search strategies to enable them to seekand find information moreeffectively.

Other seminars and talks also include:

y FIND Heritagey FIND Businessy FIND Designy FIND Education

Each seminar is meant for each of the 4 target groups of the public, and through these programmes,

NLB gives an overview on how the resources at theLeeKong Chian ReferenceLibrary can beused to

assist them in their research under the key areas of heritage, business, design and education.

4.2 Partnership with expertise organisations

During thecampaign period, the NLB partnered up with 16 other organisations with

expertise in information of mainly the 4 targeted segments of Heritage, Business, Design

and Education, such as Bloomberg, SIA and even local institutionssuch as Nanyang

Polytechnic to organise programmes for the public. Experts and Subject Specialists from

these organisations were also invited as panellists and facilitators in theseminars to present

in their areas ofexpertise, such as Singapore heritage, business and finan ce.


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4.3Launching ofSMS Reference Service

Launched during thecampaign period, thisservice allows Customers to SMS their reference queries

to the National Library on their mobile phones free ofcharge. Thisservice also adds to thesuite of

email, fax, phone and onsite referenceservicescurrently provided by reference librarians and give

customers an extra option to pose their queries when on the move.

As quoted from the NLB newsletter, thecampaign hopes that by launching thisservice, the NLB is

able to bring its patrons closerto theirresources and bridge the gap between theresource persons

and theend-user, wherevertheyare, and to display the truevalueofa library-- to be available to

users wherevertheyare.

Sample SMS queries:

y Info on history of Hoover Park Estate in Singapore (related to theHeritageCollection)

y Info about the beauty industry in Middle East. Wherecan I find the info andresources? (related to theBusiness collection)

y I want information on early childhood education, including journal articles. (relatedto theEducation collection)

y What is the role of design in Adidas? What aresome of their famous products andwhat is their design significance? (related to theDesign collection)

-Taken from the NLBs official Find It website


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5. Ca paign Anal sis

5.1 Res # lting Effects

The campaign res # lted in an increase in visitorship and enq# iries posted to the $ ee % ong Chian

Reference $ ibrary& as seen from the following statistics:

5.1.1 Visitorship Statistics from 2005 to 2006

'

s seen from the above statistics, visitorship to the $ ee % ong Chian Reference $ ibrary increased by

149, 468 from one year prior to the campaign period to the year when the campaign took place.

N # mber ofvisitors of the Reference $ ibrary also shifted # p from 8th to 6th highest among all libraries

from 2005 to 2006. However, the a ( ount of change of the Reference $ ibrary is ranked 10th

o # t of 23

libraries (excl # sive ofBishan Comm# nity $ ibrary), which gives itjust a slightly above average placing

in terms of change.


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5.1.2 Enquiries Statistics from 2005 to 2006

From the above statistics, the number of enquiries to the Reference ) ibrary increased by 20,146

from 2005 to 2006, which is again, one year prior to the campaign to the year which the campaign

took place. The increase in enquiries to the Reference ) ibrary gives it the4th highest placing among

all the libraries. This change ofvalue is actually quite impressive as 10 other libraries had a drop in

enquiries in 2006. However, it is also important to note that ) ee 0 ong Chian Reference ) ibrary is still

not the top source of information for questions among all the libraries. Its own placing for enquiries

is 15th in 2005 and 11th in 2006, both which are not even in the top 10.


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5.2Meeting of Campaign Objectives

Based on thestatistics in 5.1.1 and 5.1.2, the Find It campaign has, to a relatively largeextent

managed to meet its objective of promoting theLeeKong Chian ReferenceLibrary as a hub for

research and referencing to the public and encouraging people to treat theLeeKong Chian

ReferenceLibrary (LKCRL) as their primary trusted source of information when they need answers to

their reference and research questions. Thesecan beseen from thestatistics as there is a prominent

increase in the number of people visiting the ReferenceLibrary and posting ofenquiries.

While thecampaign has managed to create a positiveeffect in achieving the desired goals, it did not

produceexceptional results.Among the libraries, theLeeKong Chian ReferenceLibrary still loses out

to the others in terms of, for example, theenquiries received. This indicates room for improvement

in making theLeeKong Chian ReferenceLibrary as a primary trusted source of information.

5.3 Strengths & Weaknesses of the Campaign

Strengths:

y Organisation of public programmessuch as talks is a good way of promoting and also givesthe target audience a broad overview on how theLibrarys resources and databasescan be

utilised to help them in their own research.

y Partnership with organisationsspecialising in information service from the 4 targetedsegments of Heritage, Design, Business and Education, such as Bloomberg, allows not only

sharing ofexpertise but also further promotes theLibrary as a trusted and informative hub

for research.

y Launch of free SMS service iseffective in providing a convenient platform for users to posttheir enquiries to the library. This is also a stepping stone in encouraging users to treat NLB

as a good source of information.

Weaknesses:

y Little advertising was done. Only certain businesses, corporations and tertiary institutesknew about theevent.

y All of thecampaigns programmes were only held once, and in the National Library. Talkscould be held more than once and also in other locations to reach out to more people.

5.4.Areas of improvement

y Better promotion of thecampaign could have been created by raising awareness throughadvertising in the media, e.g. television adverts and posters

y Talkscan be held more than once and in separate locations to attract a greater audience.Other locationssuch as tertiary institutes and corporate buildings with auditoriumscould

have been used as well to spread thecampaigns message further.


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6. Conclusion

The Find It campaign is relatively successful in promoting theLeeKong Chian ReferenceLibrary as

a research hub through its methodologies of organising public programmes and launching of a free

ofcharge SMS enquiry-posting service, which isseen from the increase in visitorship and number of

enquiries to the ReferenceLibrary in thestatistics.

However, there isstill room for improvement for thecampaign to reach its peak performance,

especially in the area of advertising and raising public awareness.


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Bibliography

1.

Kim, T. J. (2006).NLB SMS Reference Service. Retrieved Feb 2009, from Clapping Tree's Web2.0: http://www.clappingtrees.com/archives/2006/04/nlb-sms-reference-service/

2. National Library Board. (2006, April)."Find It"Home. Retrieved Feb 2009, from "Find It" NLB:http://campaigns.nlb.gov.sg/index.htm

3. National Library Board. (2007).Enquiries StatisticalReportforFY2005 to FY2006.RetrievedFeb 2009, from Our NLB Annual Report 06/07:

http://www.nlb.gov.sg/annualreport/fy06/stats04.htm

4. National Library Board. (2006, April).SMS NLB and Find It!. Retrieved Feb 2009, fromNewsletter@theLibrary:

http://newsletter.nlb.gov.sg/back_jun_jul06/features/active/index09.asp

5. National Library Board. (2007).Visitorship StatisticalReportforFY2005 to FY2006. RetrievedFeb 2009, from Our NLB Annual Report 06/07:

http://www.nlb.gov.sg/annualreport/fy06/stats03.htm

6. Raffles Design Institute. (2006, April).NationalLibraryBoardlaunched"Find IT"Campaign.Retrieved April 2009, from Raffles Design Istitute, What's New: http://www.raffles-design-

institute.edu.sg/whatsnew/findit.htm

7. Wang, D. (2006).OfficialLaunch of"Find It"Campaign. Retrieved Feb 2009, from TresureTrove of Useless Information: http://damienwang.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html

8. WLIC durban. (2007).Managing NationalLibrariesin an interconnectingfuture:insightsonan inclusivereferenceservice and networking - the Singaporeexperience.


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Analysis of NLB's "Read It" Campaign

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