 |
 |
Hi all, In many instances the wording to accompany the logo is often restricted, but quite a few authorities have additional information on their sites, some do not. To help to counter this there is more detail on the question form stating that Enquire is a national service and although they will more likely than not speak to their local library it doesn't mean we can't assist them. Again, this comes back to my point before on setting expectations from the get-go, users can input the first part of their postcode, so this can pre-empt the response. Enquire has been a brand name for over 4 years now, and has in the last 2 years to be tweaked to Enquire: Ask A Librarian 24/7, also the service can be accessed via http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk <http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/> or the newer 'does what it says on the tin' url http://www.askalibrarian.org.uk <http://www.askalibrarian.org.uk/> for me, I think including UK in any name would put up barriers that we are exclusively UK, and those many genealogical and other questions would be lost elsewhere. Whilst a national advertising campaign would be wonderful, these are high cost and then if not to be a one-hit-wonder need to be sustained not just nationally, but locally. For the moment, and whilst other options are being explored, and in this current financial climate the one thing that works well for all of our services is word of mouth, your users appreciate being told of such a service that can be used when you are closed, or they are unable to reach you. Again, this is an ideal opportunity to promote public libraries and the fact that we are able to assist most of the time when the library is closed, or at the very least refer back to you for follow up (if you participate). This type of verbal marketing by you to your user base cannot be underestimated and should always be used to underpin any other marketing offering too. As I mentioned previously, marketing a national reference service is not without its challenges and we are working hard to respond to these challenges in both the physical and digital arenas. Thank you for all of your comments, I shall collate them all for further discussion with the Enquire Steering Group. Regards, Jo Enquire Administrator