How to Encourage Faculty to Use Online Resources

1. How to Encourage Faculty to Use Online Resources Christopher Vallandingham Jim Sherwood

2. What I tried at UF • Posted announcements on the faculty bulletin board • Sent e-mail • Held training/informational sessions • Created “easy access” pages

6. Preliminary Observations • Electronic resources primarily benefit librarians, at least initially, and burden support staff. • Most faculty members don’t know what they need until they need it.

7. Faculty were largely excluded from the selections process. • While the advantages of electronic resources may be obvious, it is not obvious that electronic resources are preferable to print resources in the final analysis.

8. Many librarians are tempted to measure their productivity by statistics. • A faculty liaison program is not conducive to specialization.

9. Nothing works like coercion. • Faculty members generally had fairly primitive technological skills.

13. What is the role of a reference librarian?