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    Communications Plan  

    Contents 

  • Introduction 
  • Aims 
  • Target Audience 
  • Means 
  • Schedule 
  • Appendices - these have not been made available publically.
    • A Relevant Journals 
    • B. Timetable of Dissemination Opportunities
    • C. Related projects 

      •  
       
    Introduction 
    This document describes the activities which the project will undertake in order to disseminate information from and about the project to the various stakeholder groups. These activities will publicise the project, generate interest in it and encourage feedback from users and potential users of the service. It will also encourage those who wish to implement this or a similar service in their institution and offer help and support to those who do. Finally communication will be used to share experiences and learning from HeadLine, within partner sites, the eLib and wider LIS and higher education community. 

    Related Documents 
    This report follows the Project Plan (HL-1998-02) and expands on the communications outlined there. This document will explain communications activities more fully than the Project Plan and so supersedes it - it should be regarded as the definitive document for HeadLine's communication activities. 

    The Dissemination Database (in Microsoft Access) which is a working database, is also related to this document, as this records all dissemination opportunities and achievements for HeadLine, for instance conferences, journal articles, internal talks. Output from this database is displayed on the team Website and updated regularly and is also available on request. 

    The Team Website is also related to the Communications Plan. This is a password protected Website for team members and has a dissemination page which displays output from the dissemination database and also provides access to dissemination material. The project flyer, articles sent to journals and presentations given are all available on tis page, together with a 'library' of image files that can be used to brand documents. A general HeadLine presentation is also available on the team Website - team members can use this 'off the shelf' to provide a general introduction to the project and its aims. 

    The Project Document Standards report (HL-1998-01) is also relevant as it provides an explanation of branding and layout for reports and publicity material. 

    Aims 
    The Communication Plan has the following aims: 

    • To raise awareness of the project
    • To contribute to the debate on provision of library services into the next Millennium
    • To contribute to the discussion of international standards in the library environment (eg bibliographic record interchange and unique resource identification)
    • To contribute to research on information management and retrieval
    • To provide insight into and evaluation of an Economics and Business studies library in the next millennium
    • To contribute to the debate on copyright and how copyright issues can be addressed in the hybrid library
    • To promote the use of HeadLine as a resource to library users at the three partner sites
    • To help interested parties adopt the HeadLine system and to provide some support for those who do
    • To share HeadLine's experience, learning and skills to those with their own hybrid library problems to solve. 
    Target Audience 
    It is necessary to disseminate information across the entire Higher Education and Library and Information community – not only the partner sites. Dissemination will also be aimed at the academic community in Economics and Business studies in order to obtain feedback from real users and publicise the project in the most appropriate areas.. The target audience falls into four groups: 

    General Public 
    In particular those interested in the subject areas, such as Economics, Business Studies, Library and Information Services or IT. 

    LIS – Higher Education Academic and Research Librarians 

    • Library directors / librarians
    • Subject libraries – directors and librarians
    • Other eLib project members
    • IT community - i.e. those who are dealing with large-scale information retrieval.
    Academic end-user community 
    • University Managers
    • Economics and business studies lecturers and researchers
    • Economics and business studies students
    Information Providers 
    • Commercial providers, both of economics and business studies information, and of general information vendors
    • Non-commercial suppliers, both of economics and business studies information, and of general material
    • Copyright collecting agencies
    Means  
    The points below cover the activities that will be used to promote the project and tools that may be used in these activities. Appendix B shows the timetable of potential dissemination opportunities (across a range of formats) which may be exploited – providing that the timing of the project matches that of the relevant event) 

    Management of Dissemination and Contact Point 

    • A clear contact point – via email, telephone and address will be included on all public documentation, enabling interested parties to find out more about the project, and inviting them to join mailing lists (via the web or printed).
    • Formally all output from the project should come from the Project Board, although day to day responsibility may be delegated by the Project Board to the Project Manager. The HeadLine Project Officer (based at LSE) will act as a contact point for communication - to ensure that there is one focal point of contact for external users.
    • Dissemination opportunities will be recorded on a database - this will track items such as appropriate journals for articles or press releases, relevant conferences together with deadlines for submission, contact details etc. The database will also record dissemination achievements - so that when project or team members publicise the project - through attendance at conferences, they can report this to the database. In this way all dissemination efforts can be monitored.
    • This database will be updated regularly and it is hoped to provide access to the database via the internal Website in order that team members can monitor opportunities and add their own ideas for dissemination, or contributions to the communications effort. The Project Officer will also manage and update the database.
    Branding 
    In order to create a recognisable image, branding will be used for the project. A logo will be designed and used on literature, press releases, articles, Website etc. This will reinforce the image and create a consistent identity for the project, which will distinguish it from others. This will be available to all partner sites, via the restricted Website and can be modified for inclusion in all literature, either for printed use or web pages. 

    Branding and the use of logos is explained fully in the Project Document Standards report (HL-1998-01) 

    Website 
    Dissemination of information to the general public will be effected via a Website. The url for the public Website is www.headline.ac.uk. This will be used as the focus for all public documentation produced by the project team and will provide the following: 

    • Branding (the HeadLine logo)
    • Contact details – including address, telephone number, email address
    • Links to consortium partners and the funding body
    • Details of project aims and objectives, including detailed project plan – also project personnel with contact details
    • Press releases, journal articles and conference papers (subject to agreement by publishers)
    • Public deliverables – including final and interim reports
    • Information on discussion groups for Headline Users and other relevant interest groups – including registration access for inclusion into these
    • Links to other eLib projects
    • Test site, where interested users can try out a demonstration model
    • Invitations for interested parties to join the user panel and participate in surveys, demos, discussion lists
    • The opportunity to dowload or order the HeadLine portable system and help and support for those who have it, also links or contacts for help or advice for other institutions seeking to develop hybrid libraries of their own.
    Email Lists and Discussion Groups 
    Discussion lists will be used to promote the project and discussion about relevant issues, both by use of a HeadLine list and team members' participation on general lists, as follows: 

    Public Project List  
    The Headline-users list (headline-users@mailbase.ac.uk) has been established for discussion amongst the user community and other interested parties – this will be used to promote the project, incorporating press releases, announcements about the project, relevant news etc, and also to encourage discussion and monitor relevant views on this project. The list will be accessible to anyone with access to mailbase lists (although some people may be actively encouraged to join). 

    This list will also be used to discuss HeadLine and hybrid library issues with interested parties, for instance those who are attempting to implement a similar system, or other eLib hybrid library projects. HeadLine team members can share experience and learning and gain feedback and information from other projects or institutions with similar systems. 

    Other lists  
    Promotion of the project and dissemination of ideas and results will also be achieved through participation in relevant lists, such as eLib project lists and other relevant interest lists. These will enable project team to draw on the experiences and views of others and to contribute to debate, as well as publicising HeadLine 

    Press releases 
    Regular press releases will be distributed to relevant sources. They will provide information on: 

    • Key developments in the project – such as completion of phases, achievement of goals
    • Availability of key deliverables (reports, test site etc)
    • Announcements of conferences – either participation in conferences or hosting them (alone or in collaboration with other eLib projects)
     
    These will be distributed to relevant journals in the following key areas: 
    • Academic libraries and research journals
    • Information retrieval related IT journals
    • Economics and business studies journals
    (See listing of potential journals in Appendix A) 

    Journal Articles 
    Articles will be submitted to academic journals on various aspects of the project, such as: 

    • Copyright issues
    • User authentication
    • Bibliographic record interchange
     
    These will be submitted to journals in the following key areas – although the focus is slightly different from that of press releases, as more academic journals will be used in each category, rather than general publications: 
    • Academic libraries and research journals
    • Information retrieval related IT journals
    • Economics and business studies journals
    (See listing of potential journals in Appendix A) 

    Literature 
    Promotional literature will be distributed in the form of flyers and posters circulated to the following: 

    • Project sites – libraries and student areas (to reach academic, student and LIS population)
    • Other eLib sites – to raise awareness and interest in project
    • Information vendors and publishers (commercial and non-commercial)
    • Academic libraries – particularly in subject areas of business and/or economics
    Conferences 
    Conferences will be used as a means of communicating information from the project, for instance: 
    • News and developments in the project
    • Discussion of key issues (copyright, technical standards, etc)
    • Presentation of results or results of particular phase or project
    • ‘Launch’ of test site, presentation of findings
    • Sharing of results or experiences and offering advice and guidelines for those in similar situations or implementing a hybrid library system. A planned event in Leeds for October 1998 seeks to discuss access and security issues, offering solutions to these problems.
     
    Conferences will be used in the following ways: 
    • Attendance at relevant conferences – to add to discussion, promote project by attendance
    • Submission of papers to conferences
    • Possible hosting of conference (perhaps in collaboration with another Hybrid Library project)
    • Possible hiring of an exhibition stand (jointly with another eLib project)
    It is not envisaged that participation in conferences will be restricted to the final phase of the project, rather that this method of dissemination will be used throughout the project to raise topics throughout the project’s lifespan and ensure the project becomes well known in the information and academic community. See Appendix B for potential conferences – these will fall mainly in the information environment although some in the IT or academic (in the subject areas of economics and business Studies) may be relevant. 

    Open days, workshops, summer schools 
    As with conferences, the project will actively seek opportunities to present information about HeadLine and will look for opportunities to participate in other relevant events, especially those focused on institutions that teach LIS subjects. 

    • The International Summer School for librarians at Tilburg University would be an ideal opportunity for this activity and the organisers will be approached with a view to holding a HeadLine workshop there (during 1999 or 2000)
    • Another possible opportunity would be to launch or promote the project at library schools throughout the UK - either at an open day or as part of the taught course - this could also be arranged in collaboration with another eLib project.
    • The project may also run separate workshops in one or more of the partner sites specifically for the project – in order to test the project, raise awareness, offer advice to other hybrid library sites, or gain feedback from users. These workshops may be aimed at the general academic and student community of the partner sites, or external participants.
    Demonstration site 
    • All partner sites will have the system available to the user population – with training sessions and help available together with announcements and news about project developments.
    • It is envisaged that one or more of the sites will have a working system with the latest release of the model and some material open for access to external interested parties – subject to agreement by publishers. If this is impossible then a restricted system for demonstration will be established – although it will not have access to full text commercial documents.
    Final Report or Conference 
    The final report will be disseminated as widely as possible, via various channels, such as: 
    • The public Website
    • A printed report
    • Papers at conferences
    • Journal articles
    • Discussion lists
    The launch of the final system may be accompanied by a workshop (or series of workshops) to assist implementation of the system to other institutions and to offer support for those adopting the HeadLine system. 

    Collaboration 
    Interest has been shown by several eLib projects in joint events or dissemination activities. Many of the activities mentioned could be performed in conjunction with another appropriate project. For instance, a joint conference or roadshow would enable costs to be shared and communication opportunities maximised. (Potential collaboration partners are listed in Appendix C - not available here) 

    Some collaboration has already been effected at events both with the project as a whole and as individual members promoting the project. HeadLine has collaborated with other projects hosted at the LSE, and has given joint presentations with Decomate and the M25 Link project - both of which have elements in common with HeadLine. Externally, HeadLine has collaborated with other eLib projects, through meetings, joint articles (for instance dLib) also through participation at the eLib 'concertation day'. 

    Schedule 
    HeadLine is scheduled into three phases, spanning the three years' lifespan of the project. Dissemination activities will follow the schedule of the workplan and focus on the various issues as they appear in the schedule and as material becomes ready for dissemination. 

    The project will not allow dissemination opportunities to drive the timescale of the project but will try to match them where possible to allow results of project to be reused in dissemination activities. 

    Phase 1 (1998) – Analysis and Prototyping 
    During this phase, dissemination will be restricted somewhat as there will be no product or results to communicate. Dissemination will still be useful and necessary and will fall into the following areas: 

    • General awareness - publicising the project within partner sites and academic and library community via the use of Website, discussion lists, press releases and articles, literature, participation in conferences (where appropriate) - and with the use of branding in all publications.
    • Contribution to debate - by participating in discussion lists, conferences etc, the project team can communicate the outline of the project and its aims, even though it is unlikely that there will be any deliverable conclusions at this stage.
    • Year 1 Annual Report, Year 2 technical workplan - publication of these reports at the end of the second phase.
    Phase 2 (1999) – Production and Testing of the Hybrid Library Model 
    During the second phase it is anticipated that dissemination will combine general awareness raising and some communication of findings. Communication will fall into the following areas: 
    • General awareness - as above.
    • Contribution to debate - as above, although there may be some findings or issues to communicate to conferences as production and testing will be underway.
    • Year 2 Annual Report, Year 3 technical workplan - publication of these reports at the end of the second phase.
    Phase 3 (2000) – Enhancements and Dissemination of Results 
    This will be the major phase of dissemination, as findings of the project will be available for dissemination, in the forms of papers, articles, press releases and reports. Communication will therefore be as follows: 
    • General awareness – as above.
    • Contribution to debate – Since there will be results to communicate, it is anticipated that articles, conference papers and press releases will feature more heavily than in the previous stages.
    • Demonstration model – this will enable users (in the partner sites and possibly externally) to test the product.
    • Final reports, seminars – these will be distributed through the channels discussed earlier, with the possibility of a HeadLine conference or seminar (jointly with another eLib project).
     
    For paper copies of this document or any more information about the project please email. 
 
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