Case Report
Communicating with medical library users during COVID-19
Dana Haugh, MLS1
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2021.1003
Volume 109, Number 1: 107-111
Received 04 2020:
Accepted 08 2020
ABSTRACT
Background:
The Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library serves a community of over 22,000
individuals primarily from the Yale Schools of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing
and the Yale New Haven Hospital. Though they are geographically close to one another,
reaching these disparate populations can be a challenge. Having a clear and thorough
communication plan has proved invaluable in transcending communication chasms, especially
in recent times of crisis.
Case Presentation:
This article describes the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library’s methods
for communicating and promoting its remote resources and services in response to coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19). It details our communication strategies and messages leading
up to, and after, the Yale campus was closed and specifies how we pivoted from reaching
users inside the library to reaching our audiences remotely.
Conclusions:
Our communication plan has provided the foundation for all of our messaging, be it
print or digital media. In recent moments of crisis, it has been especially helpful
for planning and executing large scale messaging. Similarly, knowing whom to contact
around our organization to promote our message in different and broader ways has been
extremely beneficial.
This article has been approved for the Medical Library Association’s Independent Reading Program.
BACKGROUND
How and when library staff communicates with library users reveals much about the
relationship with and understanding of them. Developing effective strategies for reaching
a variety of users is a challenging, iterative process that continues to evolve as
technology and users’ needs grow and change. But the unchanging truth is the indispensability
of these strategies. According to Duhon and Jameson, “at its most basic level, the
purpose of library outreach is universal: to reach as many patrons as possible in
an effort to inform them about authoritative resources, which may be beyond their
awareness or means to access” [1]. This is true regardless of the user librarians are trying to engage with, although
they can usually be assigned to three larger categories: the physical library user,
the online library user, and the library nonuser. Staff in medical or hospital libraries
know reaching users can feel like an arduous task. Researchers, students, and clinicians
have tight, overflowing schedules and high expectations when it comes to assistance.
So how can librarians communicate efficiently and effectively with these populations?
How can they reach all three user categories in the most impactful ways? The key is
through varied communication tactics and department partnerships. According to Swanberg
et al., the latter is especially important: “One of the greatest values of these partnerships
is leveraging partners’ connections to the community in order to reach new audiences
that may not have been participants otherwise” [2]. A partner, in most cases, equals an advocate. Developing relationships with advocates
can help grow awareness of the library and utilizes a varied communication method
to reach individuals who may otherwise be missed. It creates audience buy-in and trust
when an outside party like a department representative recommends a library’s services.
Pozdol reinforces this notion, arguing that “to increase library involvement effectively
and efficiently, it is helpful to determine which people in a school have the most
influence or are best able to make things happen” [3]. Therefore, knowing your library advocates, your most effective communication methods,
and your target audiences are all key to effectively spreading your message.
The Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, part of the Yale Library system,
serves over 22,000 users primarily from the Yale Schools of Medicine, Public Health,
and Nursing; the Physician Associate Program; the Online Physician Assistant Program;
and the Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH). The medical library is located in the Yale
School of Medicine, centrally positioned on Yale’s medical campus. The full-service
library offers clinical, educational, and research support and services as well as
access to a distinguished medical historical collection. On average, the library has
700 visitors each day.
Our communication plan was created in early 2019 by the medical library’s Marketing
and Communications Committee (supplemental Appendix A). The impetus for the plan’s creation came from the committee’s desire to deactivate
the medical library’s Facebook account. Initially, there were concerns about how we
would reach our audiences if we no longer maintained a Facebook profile. To alleviate
concerns, the committee created the communication plan to illustrate the myriad of
ways that we communicated as well as explicitly identify the users we endeavored to
reach.
The plan details our target audiences and segments them into primary, secondary, and
tertiary categories. Each target audience group includes our goals for communication,
methods for reaching these users, frequency of contact, and the library groups or
individuals responsible for communicating with each. The communication plan follows
the traditional format used in other industries; templates can be found through a
simple web search for “communication plan.” Our communication plan complements our
marketing strategy that outlines our goals for marketing and outreach during the upcoming
year. In addition, we also maintain a list of public relations, communication, and
library advocate contacts at Yale and beyond for our primary, secondary, and tertiary
audiences.
In many ways, the plan merely captures and formalizes institutional knowledge of our
audiences and established communication strategies. Though it was initially created
in response to a concern, the utility of this plan has proved valuable in ways that
we did not anticipate. For instance, we shared this document with the central library
communication director to underscore the differences in target audiences between main
campus libraries and the medical library. Being able to share this formalized plan
reinforced our efforts to position our marketing and outreach initiatives with a medical
community focus, instead of relying on central Yale Library initiatives that might
not resonate with our users.
CASE PRESENTATION
Before building shutdown
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by a strain of coronavirus
originating in China, quickly became a pandemic as it spread across the globe in early
2020 [4]. It entered the United States on January 15, 2020 [5]. By March, preparations for its imminent arrival in New Haven were underway across
campus. Communication was essential during the week leading up to the first positive
case at Yale, as many campus and library policies were updated daily, if not hourly.
During this week, the medical library focused heavily on communicating virus prevention
strategies and service changes to our users through website updates and signage in
the library.
On March 10, Yale classes were moved online, and students were asked not to return
to campus. On March 11, access to all libraries was restricted to Yale ID holders
and expanded to include YNHH ID holders for the medical library.
Following these announcements, our immediate priority was to communicate the library’s
reduced hours of operation and new building access restrictions to users and potential
visitors (mainly our primary and secondary audiences, and to a lesser extent, our
tertiary audiences). To reach as many potential visitors as possible, our strategies
were twofold: physical signage and website notices. We placed a large sign at the
entrance of the medical library to inform users that access to the medical library
was limited to Yale and hospital ID holders. We also added a notice to the top of
the medical library website and created a “COVID-19 Library Update” blog post that
detailed the changes to building access and provided an area to aggregate links to
online resources like interlibrary loan, remote access, course reserves, and librarian
consultations (supplemental Appendix B). This blog post became the central hub for all COVID-19 related library service
updates and resources. Every time new content was added, the time stamp at the top
of the page was updated.
Our next priority was to convey public health–focused guidelines for in-person visitors.
Given the new access restrictions, visitors were limited to our primary audiences
(i.e., users from the Yale medical center and YNHH). To encourage social distancing,
hand washing, and other disease prevention methods, we printed large, informative
posters and placed them near restrooms and high traffic areas. We also adjusted seating
configurations in meeting rooms, classrooms, and study spaces in alignment with social
distancing protocols (limiting conference rooms to three people instead of six, or
table capacity to two instead of four), with signs explaining the new configurations.
Digital signage near the library entrance displayed rotating banners with messages
like “wash your hands frequently for at least twenty seconds” to reinforce guidelines
recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the spread
of COVID-19 [6]. To limit possible exposure, circulation staff members remained in an office behind
the circulation desk, and signs were displayed asking users who needed assistance
to ring the bell.
The effectiveness of these signs varied from space to space. In our silent reading
rooms, users adhered to the new seating configurations as most were doing independent
work. In our more collaborative spaces (like conference rooms or computer pods), we
found users ignored the adjusted configurations and moved chairs back into these spaces
or continued to sit in close proximity to one another. As COVID-19 was not “officially”
in New Haven, users might not have felt an imminent threat.
On March 12, we moved all medical library workshops and office hours online. To signal
this change, we added “Online Session” to the titles of each calendar event and emailed
workshop registrants about the new format. As it was quickly becoming clear that a
building closure was forthcoming, liaison librarians sent emails to faculty and instructors
reinforcing that the medical library was ready to support them in online teaching.
The first positive case of COVID-19 at Yale was announced on Saturday, March 14, 2020
[7]. Shortly after, all Yale library buildings were closed until further notice.
After building shutdown
Following the announcement of Yale’s first COVID-19 case and the subsequent building
closures, our priorities pivoted to communicating continuity of services and how to
access remote resources.
The medical library’s leadership team and communications coordinator had an emergency
Zoom meeting immediately after the Saturday afternoon announcement to discuss next
steps for communicating with our users. Our goals were to ensure that the community
not only knew about the building’s closure, but also about the plethora of online
resources and services that library staff were still able to support remotely. After
consulting the communication plan, we agreed the most effective way to communicate
would be through an email. Using our Salesforce email platform, YaleMessage, we targeted
15,000 subscribers who had opted in to communications from the medical library, normally
for quarterly updates on library news. This subscriber list enabled us to reach a
large portion of our primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences.
On the afternoon of Sunday March 15, we sent an email to 15,329 subscribers (supplemental Appendix C). The message focused on how to get virtual support from library staff, how to set
up remote access, how to access online collections, a list of available services and
tools, and free COVID-19 related literature from publishers. Our intention was to
reinforce our continued support while being as succinct as possible. The final word
count was 501. Despite being sent on a Sunday, the email achieved a 47.8% open rate,
with the majority of opens occurring within the first 24 hours.
Many medical students are unlikely to subscribe to the medical library’s newsletter
and, therefore, would not have received Sunday’s email, so we crafted a separate email
for medical students to remind them of the library’s resources, of how to access them
remotely, and that we were there to help. Additionally, we highlighted specific items
we licensed like board review materials. We focused on brevity and included only the
most important resources and information. The final word count was 340 (supplemental Appendix D). Because we were targeting a much smaller number of recipients, this email was sent
from the students’ personal librarians through Outlook, which also gave the email
a more personalized touch.
Finally, to reach our primary audience of clinicians and users at YNHH, we partnered
with colleagues at YNHH to distribute a clinical resource–focused email. Once again,
we aimed to make the email as short as possible, including only key resources and
tools. This email totaled just 204 words (supplemental Appendix E).
During this time, Yale Library’s communication director was also planning to send
an email to the Yale community regarding service continuity and remote resources at
main campus libraries. Here again, we found unexpected utility in our communication
plan. Many of our policies and procedures differed from those at the main campus libraries,
so we made a case for segmented campus emails. Using our communication plan, we emphasized
the differences between the target audiences for the medical library and the main
campus libraries and demonstrated how and when we communicated with our community.
The communication director agreed to leave the medical community off the main campus
library emails, which in turn meant our audiences did not receive conflicting or redundant
information.
DISCUSSION
When faced with an unpredictable situation, we are best served by being nimble and
innovative. Though we make every effort to be proactive and plan for a variety of
scenarios, sometimes reacting is all we can do. In the case of COVID-19 and its impact
on the Yale community, knowing our audience and how we could reach them was essential.
Argenti et al. encourage carefully considering the objectives for each communication
in order to understand what type of message to deliver (will it be one of utility?
educational? promotional?) and then using the most effective channel to reach each
specific audience [8].
Before the library was shut down, our immediate concern was communicating with users
inside the building. We focused on physical and digital signage for in-person visitors,
informing them about ways to prevent COVID-19 transmission as well as changes in library
access. We updated our website frequently to inform online visitors about changes
to policies and hours and began cultivating a list of remote resources for when the
building was eventually closed. When the library was shut down, our focus shifted
to reaching our audiences remotely. In both situations, we considered how our community
already communicated and coordinated with our parent organization to ensure we reached
our users through their preferred ways, a method detailed in Rossmann’s article on
strategic communications in libraries [9]. We used websites, library advocates, and the university’s email platform to ensure
we reached our users where they would be listening.
Though many of our initial communications were reactive (responding to the building
closure and questions from users regarding services and collections), as time went
on, they became more proactive. In each of these communication methods, we kept our
message consistent and clear: though everyone is dealing with uncertainty, we are
here to help. Argenti et al. reinforce that messages must all sound like they are
coming from the same place with one clear direction [8]. We used a variety of channels to spread our announcements, but we remained consistent
in tone and message.
Looking ahead, we are confronting the economic impacts of the virus on our budget
in the fiscal years to come. Cuts to our collections budget and other spending will
have ramifications across our medical campus and larger community, and communicating
these decisions will be difficult. However, the same strategies will apply: a direct,
brief, and supportive voice in the face of hardship. Effective strategic communication
is based on truth [8]. Proactive communications about reductions are crucial to maintaining the trust
we have developed with our community over time. Managing expectations from the start
can help prevent frustrating discoveries later.
The key in all of these situations is knowing exactly how and whom to contact to make
sure messages reach the people who need to hear them. We cannot overstate the value
of a detailed communication plan and cultivating relationships with communications
partners around an organization. Our communication plan has provided the foundation
for all of our messaging, be it print or digital media. In these moments of crisis,
it has been especially helpful for planning and executing large scale messaging. Similarly,
knowing whom to contact around our organization to promote our messages in different
and broader ways has been extremely beneficial. The medical library’s communication
plan coupled with communications connections in the larger Yale community were critical
to ensuring this process was successful.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
There are no data associated with this article.
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SUPPLEMENTAL FILES
Appendix A: Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library communication plan
Appendix B: Original “COVID-19 Library Update” blog post on the medical library website
Appendix C: Email from John Gallagher to the medical community, March 15, 2020
Appendix D: Email from personal librarian to medical students, March 17, 2020
Appendix E: Email to Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) community, March 20, 2020
Dana Haugh, MLS, dana.haugh@yale.edu, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3343-4027, Web Services Librarian, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University,
New Haven, CT
Copyright © 2021 Dana Haugh
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Journal of the Medical Library Association, VOLUME 109, NUMBER 1, January 2021