april08b.indd


Daisy Benson and Selene Colburn 

Party
photo
phenomenon


Students collaborate to promote reference services 

The University of Vermont (UVM) Libraries recently introduced a student-centered 
campaign to promote our Ask a Librarian ser-
vices. Using a collaborative design and social 
networking tools, the resulting messages meet 
our student user population in the places they 
frequent. 

From almost famous to always famous 
In 1968, Andy Warhol predicted that, “everyone 
will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Today, 
placing a time limit on the democratization 
of fame already seems an antiquated notion. 
Anyone who can sit in front of a computer can 
instantly publish writing, images, and sound 
and video files to a global audience. The result 
is a kind of constant low-level fame in which 
anyone can partake. 

In a recent article in New York Magazine, 
Emily Nussbaum observes that college- and 
high school-aged young adults who have 
grown up interacting with tools such as blogs, 
social networking sites, and streaming audio-
visual files “think of themselves as having an 
audience.” Nussbaum describes her exchange 
with a student at Columbia, who has been 
blogging since she was 13: 

Lately she’s compelled by a new aspect 
of her public life, what she calls, with 
a certain hilarious spokeswoman-for-
the-cause affect, the “party-photo phe-
nomenon.” [she] clicks to her Facebook 
profile, which features 88 photos. Some 
are snapshots. Some are modeling poses 
she took for a friend’s portfolio. And 
then there are her MisShapes shots: 
images from a popular party in Tribeca, 
where photographers shoot attendees 

against a backdrop…“To me, or to a lot 
of people, it’s like, why go to a party 
if you’re not going to get your picture 
taken?”1 

From advertisement to campaign 
In the spring of 2007, the UVM Libraries de-
cided to place an advertisement in the student 
handbook. Previous library outreach efforts 
had often focused on wholesale promotion of 
collections and services, and had featured im-
ages that depicted exactly the kinds of objects 
and activities associated with libraries: students 
and librarians gathered around computers, 
pointing with enthusiasm at something fl ash-
ing on the screen; stacks of books demonstrat-
ing a range of titles; computer terminals; even 
cups of coffee. 

The student handbook already contained 
good general information about the libraries, 
so we chose to experiment with promoting 
a specific service. From our 2005 LibQUAL 
survey results, we knew that users who 
interacted with reference librarians were 
extremely satisfied. At the same time, data 
indicated that patrons were confused about 
how to locate, access, and best use library 
resources. Reference transactions could 
bear increased demand in a way that other 
services could not. Finally, we were about 
to introduce a new iteration of chat refer-
ence services targeted at our undergraduate 
population. All this made UVM’s package of 

Daisy Benson is reference and instruction librarian, 
e-mail: daisy.benson@uvm.edu, and Selene Colburn 
is assistant dean of libraries for external relations, e-
mail: selene.colburn@uvm.edu, at the University of 
Vermont 
© 2008 Daisy Benson and Selene Colburn 

208C&RL News April 2008

mailto:selene.colburn@uvm.edu
mailto:daisy.benson@uvm.edu


Ask a Librarian services an ideal subject for 
promotion. 

We wanted a student-centered approach 
that engaged our users as collaborators. In 
light of data asserting students’ independent 
natures, it was important to take the focus 
off the librarian at the end of the service and 
celebrate both the quest for knowledge and a 
loftier outcome of research: increased creativ-
ity and originality. We also wanted to play on 
our undergraduate population’s desire to see 
and be seen, while echoing the look and feel 
of social networking sites such as Facebook 
and MySpace. 

Our message was distilled to a single word, 
ask, which both directed users to the appropri-
ate services and celebrated the general spirit 
of inquiry that’s fundamental to the UVM Li-
braries’ mission. Students were photographed 
holding a simple sign proclaiming “Ask.” To 
elicit their playfulness, we described our photo 
shoots as comparable to old self-service photo 
booths. 

Recruitment techniques played on (and 
hopefully subverted) reality television’s notion 
of star making by seeking students to serve as 
“UVM Libraries’ Top Models,” while emphasiz-
ing our commitment to portraying a diverse 
group of individuals. Text from a recruitment 
poster read: 

The Libraries’ Top Models will be: 
expressive, diverse, creative, all shapes 
and sizes, funny, passionate (and a 
bunch of adjectives we haven’t thought 
of yet, because we are waiting for you 
to show us). 

Early on in our process, we realized that the 
life of resulting images need not be confi ned 
to a single advertisement, but could be used 
to construct a campaign of some duration 
across media. 

The photo shoots 
To date we’ve held three photo shoots, re-
sulting in photographs of approximately 89 
students: two in the spring of 2007 at the 
Bailey/Howe Library’s Cybercafé, and one at 

a student activities fair in the fall of 2007. Our 
first two photo shoots required very little prep-
aration. We hung promotional posters outside 
the café in the library on the day of the events 
and posted a notice to the libraries’ Web site. 
Students waiting in line for coffee and snacks 
were recruited and photographed against a 
simple white backdrop pinned to a nearby 
bulletin board. It quickly became apparent 
that the event itself was an important form 
of outreach. As participants signed release 
forms, we described the services they were 
being asked to promote, sharing the address 
of the Ask a Librarian Web page. Daisy Ben-
son, assistant library faculty in the Instruction 
and Information Department, photographed 
students while chatting briefly to put them at 
ease. In the following weeks, a number of our 
“models” approached Daisy at the reference 
desk with questions. 

At the student activities fair, we further 
optimized the event’s outreach potential. We 
staffed a booth for several hours prior to the 
photo shoot, highlighting past images in the 
form of posters and handouts promoting both 
the upcoming photo shoot and the service 
itself. Even students who had no interest in 
being photographed left with information 
about how to contact reference librarians. 
Many students responded to the images with 
admiration, exclaiming “Cool!” as they recog-
nized friends and acquaintances. Surprising 
numbers returned at the appointed time to get 
their pictures taken. After models were photo-
graphed, they were given sample promotional 
materials and a handout about how to view 
the resulting photos. 

Students’ genuine enthusiasm for being 
photographed has been widespread and 
impressive. When asked to participate, one 

Online extra 

Visit the April 2008 issue of C&RL News 
online at www.acrl.org/c&rlnews for a 
podcast interview with article authors 
Daisy Benson and Selene Colburn. 

April 2008  209 C&RL News 

www.acrl.org/c&rlnews


young man asked with hesitation, “Will a lot 
of people see these?” 

“Well, yes,” we told him apologetically, 
preparing ourselves for his refusal. 

“Oh, sure then,” he said. 
Another student responded to our request 

by assuring us that he was “really good at this 
kind of thing.” 

Our evolving group of models are, indeed, 
really good at spending time in front of the 
camera. They have shown a capacity for 
self-expression and candor that continues to 
astonish and inspire us. 

“Ask” Campaign Vehicles 
The advertisement we created for the student 
handbook featured 12 stu-

images will be incorporated into professional 
signage directing Bailey/Howe Library visi-
tors to the reference desk. We’re preparing to 
place versions of the advertisement designed 
for the handbook in The Cynic, UVM’s student 
newspaper, and to engage the assistance of 
library student workers in hanging fl yers across 
campus at regular intervals. We’re preparing 
to create a similar set of images depicting 
users of our Dana Medical Library, so the 
campaign can be adapted to promote their 
parallel services. 

The “Ask” Campaign Goes 2.0 
In addition to the more traditional communica-
tion vehicles described above, social network-

ing sites are an integral part 
dents and the simple text “Ask of this project. We knew from 
questions @ your library,” ac- the outset that we wanted to 
companied by the address for be able to share photographs 
the Ask a Librarian Web page. with our models and their 
It appeared in the fall of 2007. friends. The participants’ re-
The advertisement was also quests to see the images and 
enlarged to a poster-sized im- obtain copies furthered our 
age, along with photographs commitment. We use both 
of individual models, and Flickr and Facebook as tools 
used at orientations for faculty to facilitate this process. 
and graduate students. Flickr is a photo sharing 

Multiple images of the utility that allows its users to 
same models were used to store and share photographs. 
create popular bookmarks Additional features, such as 
replicating photo booth strips, the ability to comment upon, 
with further information about 
Ask a Librarian services on the reverse. 

Postcard-sized advertisements were de-
signed for tabletops in the popular dining areas 
of UVM’s new student center. These featured 
images from the student activities fair photo 
shoot and appeared only days later. We were 
able to tell models about this use of the im-
ages both at the shoot itself and in a follow-up 
e-mail they received almost immediately, thus 
capitalizing on their interest. 

Images have also appeared on a fl at screen 
in the Bailey/Howe Library lobby, and we’re 
hoping to syndicate these to similar presenta-
tions in other campus facilities, such as resi-
dential and dining spaces, the student center, 
and administrative buildings. Some of the 

tag, and mark images as 
favorites, add a layer of social interactivity. 
We have posted the majority of the photos 
to Flickr2 (excluding a handful of unfl attering 
shots) and shared the site with models via e-
mail notification. This allows students to easily 
download images in the size of their choice, 
which they have put to some surprising uses of 
their own. Flickr is not simply a place to store 
the images, it is another channel by which to 
promote the Ask services. 

With more than 16,000 members in its UVM 
network, Facebook cannot be ignored as a 
communication vehicle. Facebook is a social 
networking site that allows users to create pro-
fi les; connect to friends; send messages; form 
groups around common interests; and share 

210C&RL News April 2008



links, photographs, event We used the cost-effec-
information, and notes. tive flyer feature to design 

Prior to the student activ- mini-advertisements that 
ities fair, we created a Face- display as UVM student us-
book group called UVM ers are navigating through 
Libraries’ Top Models and Facebook. The fl yers ran 
used Facebook’s event fea- over a period of six days, 
ture to ensure that the up- across two weeks, were 
coming photo shoot would displayed 45,000 times to 
appear in the UVM network current UVM students, and 
calendar. When students featured a unique image 
were photographed at the each day, accompanied by 
fair, we invited them to text that read “Ask Ques-
join the Facebook group to tions. Ask a librarian for 
see examples of how their help to save time and re-
images were used and to duce frustration. Join the 
learn about future events. UVM Libraries’ Top Models 
From the group, we were group to learn more.” The 
able to upload examples of flyers linked to the Ask a 
print advertisements, further Librarian Web page. 
promote the Ask a Librarian 
Web page, and post links to Conclusion 
Flickr photo sets. We are currently logging the 

The link to the student appearance and duration of 
activities fair photos posted each new iteration of “Ask” 
on Flickr briefly became one images and messages, so we can cross-refer-
of the most popular posted items in the UVM ence these with reference transaction statis-
network, as student models shared it with tics for the fall 2007 semester as a means of 
their large collections of friends. Students who measuring success and are preparing a survey 
have joined the Facebook group to ascertain what directed users to 
have downloaded “Ask” campaign reference services. 
images into their Facebook albums, As the UVM Libraries move to-
occasionally even using them as ward increasingly strategic commu-
profile pictures. They have tagged nications, the “Ask” campaign is an 
themselves and one another in important pilot to help us discover 
images and commented on the what resonates with student users 
photos. One model commented and which communication vehicles 
on a photo of herself with some have the most impact. Without the 
friends, “Awww look how cute we participation and creativity of our 
are! We’re such good models.” And students, such a campaign could 
another commented on a photo not exist. 
of herself, “I’m a model! (For the 
library).” All of their Facebook Notes 
friends are notified of these actions 1. Emily Nussbaum, “Say Ev-
via the newsfeed that serves as erything,” New York Magazine, 
each user’s customized homepage, February 12, 2007: 29. 
resulting in a second wave of user- 2. UVM Libraries Top Models 
generated marketing for the Librar- Flickr sets, www.fl ickr.com/photos 
ies and the “Ask” campaign. /uvmlibraries/sets. 

April 2008  211 C&RL News