RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
8.1.2 Ideas for involving individual users
Individual users can be involved in a number of ways, such as:
• asking them to give new users an introductory talk or reference interview
(see Section 7.4: Advisory services), and encouraging them to ask questions
• asking users to help identify gaps in the collection and suggest materials to
add
• inviting users to take part in planning meetings
• asking users to distribute an annual report or regular newsletter – this is
particularly relevant to those who work in the community or are members
of teams or committees, as it helps to publicise the resource centre more
widely
• encouraging users to write down their comments on the services provided
and suggestions for how to improve them, and putting these in a
‘suggestions box’ in the resource centre.
Giving introductory talks or reference interviews is especially useful for people
who are running training courses, as they can then encourage participants to
use the materials as part of their training, and they themselves will develop a
good knowledge of what is available on the subject area. Carrying out reference
interviews with new students or staff also helps trainers to know more about
the current knowledge and information and training needs of the user.
4 SECTION 8: MAKING LINKS