Nell McCreadie – Group Marketing Manager for the SAGE Library team outlines the work below:

In 2012 SAGE commissioned and published ‘Working together: evolving value for academic libraries’, a study which investigated library value and reported on findings from the UK, US and Scandinavia. We are now extending this report with a similar study in developing countries. The team undertaking this study include staff from SAGE and LISU, a national research and information centre based in the Research School of Informatics and the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University (UK). A finding of the 2012 study was that general marketing of the library raises its profile amongst teaching and research staff. This is seen as an increasingly essential activity. To this end, ‘Library Value in the Developing World’ will also include a marketing case study which will examine the effectiveness of marketing techniques to drive awareness, usage, and perception of the services and support libraries offer their academics in teaching and research roles.

‘Library Value in the Developing World’ will investigate the value of academic libraries for teaching and research staff. Twelve institutions have been selected from countries classified by the World Bank as low income and middle income economies (ie with a GNI less than $4035). The aim of the study is to provide the academic library community in developing countries with a better understanding of the connections between academic libraries and academic departments, and to identify practical ways to enhance their working relationship. ‘Library Value in the Developing World’ will examine the similarities and differences between each participant institution, and also between findings from UK, US and Scandinavia and findings from developing countries.

Case study volunteers were invited from countries with a GNI of less than $4035. We received 75 nominations and selected 12 based on:

• Geographical location and spread
• Stage of development of institution / country
• Size of institution
• Support of the Library Director to participate in the study
• That a named senior librarian will take part in a one-hour telephone interview
• That the institution is able to facilitate the dissemination of information about online surveys to library and academic staff
• That they are willing to work with SAGE to implement, and monitor the effectiveness of, a range of awareness-raising campaigns

The selection process has produced the following participant universities:

• Ghana (University of Cape Coast)
• Georgia (National Scientific Library)
• Honduras (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras)
• Indonesia (Indonesian Research Institute)
• Kenya (Maseno University)
• Nigeria (Convenant University)
• Nigeria (Obafemi Awolowo University)
• Philippines (University of the Philippines Visayas)
• Senegal (University of Thies)
• Uganda (Makerere University)
• Ukraine (Institute of Intellectual Property of National University, Kiev)
• Zimbabwe (University of Zimbabwe)

The research is being conducted as follows:

• Quantitative survey of library staff within 12 case study institutions
• Qualitative research with library staff – one hour telephone interviews with nominated case study librarians
• Quantitative survey of users/academic staff within case study institutions – survey completion was incentivised using prize draw methodology
• Marketing case study to measure effectiveness of Publisher supported techniques used to influence perception, usage and awareness

The results of the research project will be published in the summer of 2013 and Publishers for Development will be sharing information via our networks and also plan to have a presentation and panel discussion at the Publishers for Development conference in October 2013.

Publishers for Development Newsletter Vol. 4 Issue 1 (PDF 608kb)

David Osei, the Association of Commonwealth Universities’ Digital Communications Officer, outlines how they designed a new website that focuses on reducing bandwidth use through ease of navigation as well as page size. This case study is the first to come from our Bandwidth Challenge.

A user-centred approach to low bandwidth (PDF 436kb)