It’s an interesting challenge to promote and advocate for the use of an external product without branding it and bringing it under the corporate wing, while being an internal member of staff. I have to admit, I didn’t consider the effect my being a member of staff would have on the process of promoting ORCID.
I found this especially true when I attended one of the first events – I was talking about ORCID to our new postgraduates and promoting it by relating it to work they would be doing, which was quite successful in gaining enthusiasm and encouraging numbers of interested parties. The problem with this is that by knowing what they would be doing, it was fairly obvious that I was a member of staff, which led a number of people to ask about the ‘external applications’ of this product after they leave the Uni.
This was very revealing, helped greatly in forming the explanation of ORCID I was giving throughout the event, and in turn the approach we are taking to support and promotion internally.
We have since created an internal web page on the library website, in a section dedicated to research. It comes alongside advice about Open Access publishing, research resources and online thesis submission.
http://www.kent.ac.uk/library/research/orcid
Keeping within the style guidelines of the website, we were able to follow our previous decision to utilise the messages provided by ORCID themselves, while making the content relevant to an internal audience. The fine balance is making it relevant, while still being externally focussed. Small elements have been introduced, such as videos and logos from ORCID’s outreach resources page, and even the internal email address we have created for people to send queries to (ORCIDsupport@kent.ac.uk) is an indication that we are supporting it’s use, rather than administering it as a system. We are also using the page to advertise the advocate positions, with the advert being held externally on our news system, which is going well, we have 3 positions filled so far.
All in all, its been a good and very productive week!