MLA-Phil

Thanks to everyone—and there were a lot of you—who responded to the communications survey! Since launching the new site last Summer, this is the first formal investigation into its use. Our site is powered by WordPress which allows any chapter member to contribute. One person wrote that the chapter wants members to use the blog. Just to clarify: the chapter wants its members to communicate using whatever technology is appropriate. (Talking is good.) But, yes, please do try the blog out. Let’s all learn together. Please consider promoting your work on the website. Are you promoting Women’s History Month with an exhibition in your library? Did you talk to a community group about health information? Toot your own horn. Post about it to let your colleagues know and to let the public see the great work we do. While our website’s main target audience is its members, the public and our stakeholders—employers, vendors, users—are also important. We get a lot more hits than are accounted for by the 64 people who responded that they’ve viewed the site. Many of our visitors come from search engine queries on names of our members and their institutions; consider this as a way to publicize your information services and the value you add to your organizations.

The survey addressed readership, authorship, and value. Full results are summarized here.

Readership

Almost everyone (56, 97%) had seen the website with 25 (43%) visiting once a month or more. Thirty-one people (56%) visit less than once a month. One person commented that “[m]any hospital IT depts. block blogs so the listserv is sometimes the only way to get information at work.” If you are in that position, please contact Gary (215-503-7676).

Authorship

All chapter members are eligible for an account on mlaphil.org that allows posting. Eleven people (20%) indicated that they had posted to the website (not a bad response rate out of the 15 who actually have posted) and 11 indicated they would do so again. As one person commented, it’s “easy to do.”

Value

The survey asked how much you value each of 12 content areas of the website. No surprises about the areas most frequently chosen as very important: chapter information (75%), the Chronicle (67%), the home page (68%), event calendar (61%), news (61%), and the membership directory (54%). The items people were most unsure about were the MARquee MAR RML blog (26%) and the Only Connect blog (22%). Just to clarify, our website runs feeds of the latest headlines from these and other blogs. You’ll see them in the right column towards the bottom (see figure). They provide a way to connect with news from MLA national and medical libraries in the region. If you’d like to include your feed let me know!

Figure: Headlines from several relevant partner sites are displayed in the right column. Let Gary know if you would like yours included.

Thanks to everyone who responded. It’s clear that all our modes of communication are important. This survey will be useful as the web committee explores ways to improve the site.