Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Marketing First Impressions: Academic Libraries Creating Partnerships And Connections At New Student Orientations, James G. Rhoades Jr., Arianne Hartsell

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Academic libraries look for successful marketing strategies to promote positive perceptions among students. To do this, librarians need to find venues and partnerships outside the library. Florida State University Libraries discovered that participating in new student orientation networking sessions creates opportunities to generate lasting first impressions among incoming freshmen and their families. After analyzing three years of successive student and family evaluations, which measured presentation rankings and attendance, the library was able to determine the utility and effectiveness of participating in the orientation program. Related literature and an analysis of the evaluations both indicate that universities and students benefit when …