HOSPITAL LIBRARIANS SHOW GREAT MARKETING INITIATIVE!

The Health Sciences Library Association of New Jersey sponsored a table display at the Organization of Nursing Executives of New Jersey Research Day held on June 22, 2007. Over 100 members of ONE/NJ stopped by the table to talk to one of nine librarians. There were demonstrations of various databases, bookmarks with contact information stickers attached so that the attendees would know how to reach the librarian at their institution, and fact sheets created by HSLANJ members describing the evidence-based nursing resources available for demonstration at the booth. In addition, the nine health sciences librarians each worked with one breakout group of nurse executives to create working documents to develop strategies for improvement in New Jersey of evidence-based nursing research and practice in the hospital setting, and for the improvement of nurses’ knowledge of, access and use of hospital library services and evidence-based information resources.

Way back when I was working for a living, I had an exhibit at the Instrument Society of America conference one year. I had posters from other corporate libraries in the instrumentation field—our competitors—and Mike Yuen from DIALOG did database searches for anyone that stopped by. I think it was very helpful in raising customer awareness of what their library can do—and, perhaps, to send some of the attendees back to their management to ask, “Why don’t we have a library?”

Go to the Middle Atlantic Region, National Network of Libraries of Medicine website to read more and to see a photo of their display. Then, make plans to do something similar at a conference that your customers attend.

URL: http://nnlm.gov/mar/blog/2007/07/26/in-the-region-hslanj-

participates-in-onenj-research-day