Crafting Messages That Grab Faculty Attention (ACRL Pre-Conference Workshop)

Crafting Messages for Faculty

I attended a pre-conference workshop at ACRL in March 2009 entitled “Crafting Messages that Grab Faculty Attention.” The first speaker, Jon Wergin, is a Professor of Education Studies at Antioch University. Dr. Wergin focused on techniques for having conversations with faculty. In particular, Dr. Wergin drew an interesting comparison between have a conversation and conducting an interview. Thus, he emphasized trying to have “conversations with a purpose,” which was defined as talking with faculty rather than talking to faculty. As such, this requires developing and employing strong listening skills during interactions. Furthermore, this includes developing an awareness of how you are reacting to what you are hearing. I thought this distinction was intriguing and particularly relevant to ongoing relationships with WSU faculty that we work hard to cultivate.

The second speaker addressed marketing and communication aspects. Alane Wilson, Executive Director of the British Columbia Library Association, talked about creating and communicating messages. With regards to crafting messages, I learned that messages should include several components. Components of effective messages include three key parts: the problem statement, the solution, and the action you would like the audience to take. Again, I found this insight to be very useful and applicable to a range of library initiatives. In particular, I found that some of these techniques for crafting messages could be beneficial whenever framing and communicating issues, library services, etc. with faculty.

Submitted by: Deborah Charbonneau