Digital Minute Newsletter Highlights Contributors and Brings in New Ones
By Brad Matthies, Head of Access Services, Butler University Irwin Library
Too many times in my career I’ve seen great initiatives flounder due to poor publicity. It was this concern that motivated me to develop a newsletter for our institutional repository, which began development in late 2008. The newsletter, Digital Minute, was inspired by the DC Subscriber Newsletter and a business-related newsletter that my colleague, Teresa Williams, created for her college (http://libguides.butler.edu/content.php?pid=1922&sid=9351).
At one page, the Digital Minute is a short, succinct way to showcase repository-related information. Past issues have featured such topics as digital profiles for academics, worldwide repository statistics, and how to update SelectedWorks photos. Digital Minute is published in MS Word and distributed to my own exclusive subscriber list via e-mail. Membership is simple: Contribute to our Digital Commons and you are added to the subscriber list.
IR contributors are central to the newsletter. In each issue I make it a point to highlight outstanding contributors and their content. Doing this is an easy and effective way to thank contributors for trusting us with their work, and our library has benefited in terms of good will and repository growth. After seeing their work featured many contributors now send us notes of appreciation. In addition, being featured inspires contributors to share the newsletter with their colleagues. This, in turn, has led to new contributors who want their content added to our repository.
Looking for an easy way to build momentum or breathe new life into your repository? Take a look at past issues of Digital Minute here: http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/digital_minute/.
If you’re interested in viewing another example of an IR newsletter, please visit Glyndŵr University’s Graduate School Researcher Newsletter and World Transit Research Newsletter.
Digital Minute – Butler University Libraries – University Libraries – Butler University
