The School Paper Said What About the Library? | From the Bell Tower
There's little guidance for academic librarians on dealing with the media, but we can change that. Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA Mar 17, 2011
You know the feeling. There you are reading your institution's student newspaper when you come to an article or opinion piece that refers to the library or research matters. Even if the article is factually correct, you may wonder why the student reporter made no effort to reach out and communicate with someone at the library. If what you read is factually nowhere near correct, that raises a whole other set of concerns. And if someone from the library is quoted, and no one, particularly in the administrative office, was aware a student reporter was interviewing staff, that can indicate an entirely different problem that needs attention.
What's in your school paper?
If your campus is like mine, there's a good student daily or weekly student newspaper. Feature articles about the library are rare, but there are stories that mention the library or discuss research related subjects. Let me share a few examples that may sound familiar to you. Just within the last year our student paper had an article about the best and worst bathrooms on campus; one of our library bathrooms ended up on the worst list—deservedly so (hey, it's an old building). We all got a big kick out of the investigative report about sex in the stacks. At least the reporter did contact me; had I ever seen students having sex in the library? Oh sure, all the time, it's a regular orgy over here—no, not really.
An article about Wikipedia was of more concern because it addressed how students were using it for research, and while a few professors were interviewed the librarians' viewpoint was conspicuously absent—at least from our perspective. Then there was the columnist who commented on the harsh, dismal experience of using the research databases. Those last two are the ones where you'd like to have answered a few questions from the reporter.
How to respond
What do we do to improve our local media relations to improve the odds that student reporters will more readily contact their academic librarians? For starters, library administration should be sure that every issue of the student paper is thoroughly read for mentions of the library. They can turn up anywhere. When I come across mentions of the library that deserve a response, I immediately send an email to the reporter to politely offer a library perspective.
For example, I invited the columnist who had some negative remarks about our research environment to come by for a chat. I especially wanted to show her our "currently in development" website and discovery engine. Wouldn't it be great to have the school newspaper do a feature on how we are working to improve what we know can present real challenges for researchers. Guess what happened? Yep. Never heard back from her. In fact, my track record in hearing back from reporters is terrible, as in not a one has responded.
We need to be proactive
I'm now coming to the realization that merely responding to these articles is not effective. I'm not implying that student reporters never contact us. They will if the story features the library in a fairly significant way, as when our Library Dean announced he was leaving for a new position and a reporter sought out several library staff members for comment. But I'm coming to realize that the library staff needs to take a proactive stance so that reporters, or their editors, are more likely to recognize when it's appropriate to contact a library staff member.
I asked Ray Betzner, assistant VP for University Communications at Temple University, for his advice on working with student newspaper reporters. Betzner says to treat your student reporter with respect and as you would a reporter from the local paper. He reminds us to ask to get a set of questions in advance. And to help the reporter get the facts straight, "even if you do a one-on-one interview, offer to send your most important points to the reporter via email. And don't be surprised if they get a few things wrong—they are student reporters, and like all students, they're learning." So, in addition to being proactive in building a relationship with the reporters, go out of your way to help the student reporters to help themselves—and you.
Is there a policy?
What about those student reporters who are savvy enough to know when to contact a library staff member but may simply contact anyone on the staff directory. This happened when the student reporter working on story about the dean mentioned above contacted multiple staff members and asked for interviews. Several of them emailed me or their supervisors to ask if they were allowed to talk to the reporter. At first I found that puzzling. Why would administrators prevent staff from speaking to a student reporter? We wouldn't, but two things occurred to me.
First, media relations has never come up as a topic for staff discussion. Second, we have no official policy on staff interaction with members of the media that would address how to respond to a request to speak with a media representative. The library administration must appropriately acknowledge the right of staff members to speak to the media. However, all staff should know there are occasional issues loaded with the potential for controversy, and at times it is best to direct all media requests to a designated spokesperson prepared to respond in a way that will minimize any potential for damage to the reputation of the library or institution. But without a clear policy, how is anyone supposed to know what to do?
Keep PR in the loop
I used to work at an institution that did have a policy that clearly stated that staff was required to report any media contact to our public relations department prior to any interview. It wasn't that the PR folks wanted to control what we said, they just wanted to know that it was happening. I will admit to not always conforming to the policy. When a Chronicle reporter calls and wants some sound bites for a piece with a rush deadline, he or she will hardly wait while you get clearance.
That said, it's always important to let the PR folks know whenever there's contact with the media. According to Betzner, "your PR office is in the business of avoiding surprises (especially the bad kind) and will love you for letting them know that you've been contacted by a reporter. Seek out their advice before and after the interview. If you deal with reporters often, ask your PR folks for media training." Betzner suggestion about media training is a good one. There is a real art to mastering the instant interview and being highly quotable. Too few of us academic librarians have opportunities to develop these skills. I once spent an entire day in media training, and I've never regretted it.
Building good media relations together
Whether the media, be it the student journalist or the seasoned professional, is our friend or foe is really up to us. Oscar Wilde is credited with saying, "the only thing worse than someone talking about you is no one talking about you." We do want the media to help us create positive messages about our great library resources and services. When it ignores us or even worse, creates a negative media image about the library, it hurts our efforts to promote the academic librarian as the student's friend and partner in achieving academic success.
With some advance planning and consultation with the campus PR experts, the academic library can implement a sensible media policy that will guide all staff on when and how to respond to media interaction. Combined with outreach to the student newspaper and the campus news outlets, the academic library can establish beneficial media relationships that should help to avoid those jaw dropping "they said what about the library?" moments we all dread.
Steven Bell is Associate University Librarian, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. For more from Steven visit his blogs, Kept-Up Academic Librarian, ACRLog and Designing Better Libraries or visit his website.
