VIVA Outreach Committee Meeting

Report to the Steering Committee

December 2, 1999

The VIVA Outreach Committee met on Monday, November 1, 1999 in Charlottesville.

For Approval

VIVA Brochure

The committee is in the process of updating and redesigning the VIVA brochure. A graphic artist from William and Mary has been retained to help with the design work. The intended audience for the brochure is the legislature, conference attendees and the general public rather than students and faculty at VIVA member institutions. Our goal is to have the VIVA brochure ready for distribution in January. The brochure will continue to be laid out as a 3-fold landscape format with six panels. Each panel will emphasize a different aspect of VIVA. The emphasis for each panel follows:

For Information and Discussion

VIVA Spotlight

The committee has developed a new web service called VIVA Spotlight. VIVA Spotlight will have a somewhat broader focus than VIVA in Action and will be updated regularly by members of the committee and interested volunteers. As soon as we have finished a graphic for VIVA Spotlight we would like to encourage VIVA libraries to paste the graphic into their own web sites. The graphic will include a stable URL that will link to the most recent VIVA spotlight, which will itself include a link to an archive of previous features.

On VIVA Resources

VIVA Spotlight will emphasize specific VIVA resources, share faculty and student success stories and highlight ways in which VIVA has improved the quality of library resources and services. The first VIVA Spotlight was written by Jack Bales and it is intended to provide a brief introduction and focus interest on Periodical Contents Index, an underutilized VIVA resource. Potential topics for future VIVA Spotlights include VIVA as a source of quality information, the OED, an interview with William and Mary students who helped create HarpWeek, and faculty use of VIVA resources. VIVA Spotlight can be found at: http://www.vivalib.org/viva/outreach/spotlight/

 

Outreach Committee Responsibilities

Members of the committee agreed that the primary responsibility of the committee is public relations. Activities of the committee will center on documenting VIVA's successes, developing press releases for new VIVA services, and updating promotional materials such as the VIVA brochure. The Outreach Committee will not be involved in user training.

Outreach Committee Web Site

The committee has developed a web site which may be found at the following URL: http://www.vivalib.org/viva/outreach/ The web site includes information about the committee, VIVA Spotlight, press releases on VIVA resources and an archive of publicity and promotional material about VIVA. The committee will seek permission from Library Trends, Virginia Librarian and other publications in which VIVA has been cited to post articles about VIVA on the web. The Outreach Committee welcomes contributions of promotional materials or local articles about VIVA from librarians at VIVA institutions. Members of the committee will be preparing press releases on HighWire electronic journals and FirstSearch interface changes. Those press releases will be announced on the VIVA listserv immediately following the implementation of those services.

Legislative Outreach

The committee discussed ideas on how to generate support for VIVA among the legislature and SCHEV council member. The idea of compiling legislative contact information and cross-referencing it with the list of VIVA libraries was rejected. Members of the committee are willing to help with a demonstration of VIVA resources for representatives in the General Assembly and their staff if there is legislative interest in such a demo.

Submitted by Ralph Alberico, VIVA Outreach Committee Chair, 12/2/1999