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Volume
3, Issue 2 (Summer 2019)
Leveraging Failure to Inform Practice: How do Students Learn about Library Events and Services?
Jylisa Doney, Assistant Professor & Social Sciences Librarian University of IdahoJessica Martinez Assistant Professor & Science Librarian University of Idaho
Marketing
Libraries Journal, volume 3, issue 2, pages 43-63
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Abstract: Is
it possible for librarians and librarianship to learn from research
projects that do not meet expectations or fail outright? This article
answers with a resounding “yes” and uses the authors’ experiences
developing a “failed” research project to demonstrate how failure can
inform practice in valuable ways. The failed project discussed in this
article grew out of a desire to understand how students learn about
library and university events and services: Are libraries’ attempts to
engage with students on the platforms they use effective? To examine
this question, the authors used several mechanisms to distribute a
survey to students enrolled at the University of Idaho. This effort
resulted in a survey response rate of only 0.45 percent of enrolled
students. As disheartening as this statistically insignificant response
rate was—and recognizing that it is impossible to generalize from such
a poor response rate—the authors determined that they could still learn
from and leverage the perspectives of a mere 53 student respondents
without much risk. This article will share the arc of their research
study and detail how they made the best of a failed project by
incorporating the new marketing and outreach strategies suggested by
students into library social media and outreach practices.
Citation
to article:
Doney, J., & Martinez, J. (2019). Leveraging Failure to Inform Practice: How do Students Learn about Library Events and Services? Marketing Libraries Journal, 3(2), 43-63. Retrieved from http://journal.marketinglibraries.org/summer2019/05_MLJv3i2_Feature_Doney_Martinez.pdf
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