How to Approach a Library Vendor

As library technicians and graduate students near the end of a term, many of them are working on their final projects.

As a matter of becoming a library technician or librarian, there is always at least one course that requires students to approach a library vendor.

The assignment typically involves asking a group of students to approach more than one library vendor with a scenario, such as a law firm library seeking a library system.

As library and knowledge management vendors, we collectively have a responsibility to assist these students for many reasons:

(a) These students will be our future clients.
(b) These students may be our future employees.
(c) These projects are an opportunity for us to see requests for future features

Students should not feel intimidated about contacting a library vendor for the reasons above, since you are doing us a favour. As major vendors employ several consultant librarians and library technicians, you will find a friendly voice on the other end.

For instructors and students, we have the following suggestions to make the most of your assignment.

• Instruct students to contact us as soon as possible

Here is what we eventually want to see in our e-mail correspondence:

o Your contact information
o Your school, course, and instructor
o The due date for a response
o Some key facts about your library
o Your reason for approaching us

The last point – your reason for approaching us – is the most often overlooked item, but it has the most impact on how responsive the vendor will be to assisting you.

Whether it is a student project involving a library vendor, or walking into a job interview with a library, we all want to know why you have approached us.

• Contact us as soon as possible

Most students approach vendors through a sales or support phone numbers, and it will take time for your request to find its way to the best staff person.

• Instructors should compile a list of contacts for the students

One of the best approaches we have seen to helping students with these projects is where the instructor has already screened the vendors that are willing to help. Generally, every major vendor has a designated staff person(s) for these types of student outreach projects.

• Instructors should try to time the assignments where there is a lull for vendors

While this will vary, the major vendors will be busier during conference season, particularly major conferences, such as SLA, ALA (e.g. June).

Some vendors will disagree with the following statement, but in our experience serving special libraries, there is a lull during September, October, and January.

• Follow up with your library vendor after the project

We understand that for many students, the assignment to approach a vendor may be the “final project,” and the last item on your agenda is more work. You are probably tired from your studies and need a break, but similar to any job interview you will leave a lasting impression for yourself and your school, if you send us a quick update.

• Send us a list of questions

For many libraries searching for systems, there is a RFI or RFP (Request For Information/Proposal), which is a formal document asking for detailed information.

While you would not want to send something that expansive to a vendor for a student assignment, sending us a form with a few questions (e.g. 10 questions) is fine.

Vendors are less responsive when you send us a general request for “brochures and marketing literature” because many of us now support numerous products and platforms.

• Consider scheduling a demonstration for the class

In the past, we have had students ask for a tour of our facilities, which required a lot of planning in advance. We have even sent our consultant librarians to the school for a demonstration. Nonetheless, the library vendor may not be able to provide a demo in response to every request from a student group. Consider a demo for your whole class.

Best of luck to the students that SydneyPLUS International has assisted this year!