University of Maine Social Sciences and Humanities Librarian Jen Bonnet recently submitted designs that she and her colleagues at the Raymond H. Fogler Library created to introduce faculty and grad students to the idea of altmetrics, or non-traditional metrics usually measured by downloads, social media mentions, saves, and citations. Jen explains:

Through conversations across campus, librarians at UMaine noticed that faculty were unfamiliar with altmetrics as a form of measuring scholarly impact. In the spring of 2016, we designed a workshop to introduce faculty and graduate students to scholarly impact tracking on the social web.

The first are examples of publicity we disseminated through various channels, which include our workshop information and library branding.

altmet2

altmet1

To pique interest, we used pop culture references that we found cheeky and entertaining. Fun fact: we quickly learned that “Netflix and chill?” was considered cute to some of our faculty, but it didn’t register for most. However, graduate students and fellow librarians loved the idea, so we thought we’d share!

altmet3

The workshop was well received, and has led to interest in additional sessions, as well as broader investment in the library’s role in scholarly communications education.

Way to bring humor into the lives of the researchers!  The informational designs designs were used in posts on the library’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as in messages to relevant email lists.  These were made by Public Relations Manager Brad Beauregard using InDesign with creative input from librarians Marisa Méndez-Brady and Jen Bonnet. The Nexflix and Chill screen shots were designed by Jen Bonnet and Marisa Méndez-Brady using iPhoneTextGenerator. The librarians have made the original InDesign files and the non-branded screenshots available in the Librarian Google Drive, and you can feel free to contact any of the UMaine librarians for more information.

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