Staff First

It's a suspense story played out in public libraries thousands of times a day. A customer presents a librarian with a question. Will the librarian take the customer to the reference shelves, the circulating collection, the periodical stacks, or to web sites? Will the library's valuable database subscriptions even come to mind?

Ultimately, our customers must produce the return on our database investments. For most public library customers, however, a database still seems like the brainy kid in high school: willing and able to help you but a little intimidating.

At the Cuyahoga County Public Library, a 28-branch public library system in northeast Ohio, we have rich database resources. Between our own subscriptions and those available from the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) and other statewide cooperatives, we can access more than 130 databases. As the first step to getting customers to accept databases, we decided to increase staff awareness, knowledge, and use of databases. Nothing works better to connect customers to databases than a personal introduction.

Our icebreaking efforts are paying off. In 2003, our database searches increased 14 percent over 2002, and item requests (items viewed, printed, emailed, or downloaded) increased 20 percent. Some credit for that growth goes to an increased number of databases and improved statistical reports from vendors. However, first quarter 2004 statistics confirm that our efforts are working: from January through March, searches increased 36 percent over the same period in 2003, and item requests increased 56 percent.

How did we help our busy staff, with many kinds of resources to choose from, learn about databases? It's been a three-pronged approach: promotion, training, and developing tools.

The idea of promoting databases to staff started small. We produced a weekly materials selection publication for staff and decided to add a piece about the databases. Two-and-a-half years later, we still have plenty of ideas for the next Database Data, our column of database tips and ideas.

One edition might be about finding prescription drug information. The next could tackle the perennial "What happened on the day I was born?" Database Data, produced in Microsoft Word with a piece of clip art for a logo, covers one database or topic at a time, addresses a frequent reference need, and often suggests practice searches. The topics vary to interest adult, teen, and children's services librarians. Upbeat, practical, relevant, and weekly, Database Data helps keep databases in the forefront.

But sometimes we can't wait a whole week to get the word out about a new database, a change in content, or, occasionally, the end of a database subscription. Database News, a brief email announcement, is sent to staff as needed. The two complement each other. While Database Data reads like a feature story, Database News is just that: the main point appears in the first line, in case a staff member is scanning email to save time.

For a super-busy reference staff, these simple and regular communications fulfill a craving for information and support. Staff members keep binders of Database Data and News for later reference—very flattering. When we launched our intranet, we created a Database Data & News page, with the latest column or email front and center. Archives take staff back to every item written since 2002. Hyperlinks within each article connect readers to the database in question. A list of databases on one side of the screen links readers to database vendors' users guides and tutorials—a one-stop way for staff to learn a new database quickly.

There's a link to our database menus—A–Z, subject list, etc.—and our new feature, a database of the print resources contained in our databases. A cooperative effort between the materials selection department and information technology, this database, created with Microsoft Access, addresses the common situation, "I know this reference book is in one of the databases, but I can't remember which one." For example, a librarian searches for Contemporary Authors and discovers that it is in our subscription to Gale's Literature Resource Center. A hot link to the database allows the librarian to jump in and start searching. Or, the librarian can retrieve a list of all of the reference works in a database by typing its name into a different search box.

As budgets tighten, it's important to alert staff to the reference content of databases. Our library system regularly compares what's on our shelves to what's online and seeks to minimize overlaps. These efforts—the weekly column, the emails, the intranet page—keep databases on a librarian's radar screen. They're also ways to train staff on databases, albeit a bit at a time.

For more intensive training, the library takes advantage of free, on-location, vendor-taught workshops. We also provide new staff with half-day database training as part of our week-long Orientation Center. Current staff who would like a database refresher are invited, too.

Training is designed to help staff "get a handle" on the database collection in three ways. We introduce "families" of databases from the same company (e.g., EBSCO) that look and work alike. We look at the key databases in various subject areas. And we spend time studying common search, navigation, and retrieval techniques.

Probably our most unusual training initiative is our annual Database Fair. The first fair in 2002 was quite an affair with balloons, popcorn, and sideshows. It included a continuously repeating recorded database quiz, a hands-on display of web tablets and other computer technology, and stations where a dozen subject specialists demonstrated specific databases. Last fall, to conserve funds and create a more sustainable program, the Database Fair took a different form. Over three months our subject specialists presented eight two-hour workshops. At each workshop, two subject specialists presented two or three databases in their specialties.

As a one-on-one approach to training, a few afternoons each month I work alongside children's, teen, and adult services staff in our branches. Between customers, we talk about those reference questions that linger in librarians' memories and how databases might be helpful "next time." I also assist customers with databases, gaining valuable insights into how the content and the interfaces hold up under the heat of real reference questions.

With increased knowledge and confidence, our staff is eager to introduce customers to databases. To assist them, our web site includes a database FAQ and a page that explains how to continue research remotely. Last fall, we developed a pamphlet that staff can put into customers' hands. Databases, what's in them for you? answers the big questions (What's the difference between a database and a web site? What can you do with a database?).

A series of bookmarks complement the pamphlet and highlight a database appropriate for each topic: homework help, business intelligence, genealogy research, health information, auto repair, and more. Our web site (www.cuyahogalibrary.org ) includes "Database of the Month," and our quarterly magazine features a database in The Inside Page. We plan more publicity methods, including speaking engagements, workshops, advertising, and online communications.

First our staff, then the world.