Proactive outreach

The Ubiquitous Librarian writes about how they’re using FaceBook at the Georgia Tech to connect to the incoming freshmen class. Students have responded favorably to (what might be seen as) an authority figure posting on the Georgia Tech Class of 2011 message board.

I’m not using FaceBook (yet - I might take the leap soon), but if I were I’d be thrilled to find another method of getting to the information I need. I’ve run into several academic web sites that aren’t as intuitive or informative as you’d expect of institutions of higher education. Sometimes information is buried deep into the site structure, and getting to it requires clicking through seemingly endless menus.

If I had the option of asking someone instead of tearing my hair off trying to navigate a complex site - and I’m not one to give up easily - I would take the chance. Perhaps most appealing about the Ubiquitous Librarian’s approach is that he seems to do it on the students’ terms. Fantastic!