Database Promotion at the Intersection of Electronic Resource Management and Outreach

Abstract

During the electronic resource management cycle, library staff review, acquire, evaluate, and deactivate databases based on a number of factors that include usage statistics, collection development decisions, and budgetary factors. One aspect of electronic resource management that has increased in the Government Information and Library Services division is our promotion of new, updated, or existing databases to our state employee users. This article discusses a pilot project designed to promote the use of the Safari database (now known as O’Reilly). It shares the steps we took to plan and implement outreach activities focused on the database, along with how we created goals and measures to evaluate and assess the success of the promotion. After the pilot database promotion, we gained experience and information to design additional database promotions, which has helped us improve our communications and outreach to state employees.