Abstract
Librarians recognized an opportunity to grow the number of RefWorks users on campus and launched an initiative to more aggressively market the software. Barriers to growth were recognized, staff training was undertaken, and targeted services and programming were infused with more content centered on the citation management software (CMS). After a year and a half, the library assessed the popularity and impact of the program. While RefWorks is now much more widely used on campus, it has also led to additional instructional classes, workshops, and reference transactions. These additional and unanticipated benefits have greatly enhanced the reputation of the software among librarians. In addition, students, faculty, and university administrators have all responded positively to the results of the initiative, enhancing the reputation of the library on campus. Other academic libraries may benefit from a similar campaign based on their own subscription CMS.
Highlights
Academic librarians know citation management software (CMS) is essential for conducting efficient scholarly research
The Franco Library at Alvernia University discovered that RefWorks, the CMS we have subscribed to for the last six years, can serve another vital purpose—to generally drive traffic to the reference desk, formal information literacy courses, workshops, and more
This article reviews how we grew our base of RefWorks users beginning in January 2017, and how the CMS became central to our broader mission
Summary
Librarians recognized an opportunity to grow the number of RefWorks users on campus and launched an initiative to more aggressively market the software. Barriers to growth were recognized, staff training was undertaken, and targeted services and programming were infused with more content centered on the citation management software (CMS). While RefWorks is much more widely used on campus, it has led to additional instructional classes, workshops, and reference transactions. These additional and unanticipated benefits have greatly enhanced the reputation of the software among librarians. Students, faculty, and university administrators have all responded positively to the results of the initiative, enhancing the reputation of the library on campus. Other academic libraries may benefit from a similar campaign based on their own subscription CMS
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