Persuasive Proposals for Increasing Your Electronic Resources and Services

Abstract

In these days of scarce funding and increased pressure for cutting edge services, librarians must learn which strategies work to "sell" their requests for additional funding, new services and electronic resources. Come learn from two experienced managers how to plan and present proposals that take into account critical factors administrators need to make informed decisions about library purchases and present those critical factors in the most compelling way. Most proposals are prepared in a standard framework that presents basic data such as cost, content, audience and interface as the criteria for recommending the purchase of a particular resource or service. By spending a little extra time both gathering data and preparing the proposal, librarians can greatly increase their chances of achieving buy-in from their administration. This session will cover a mix of data collection strategies and proposal preparation techniques that can be utilized by front line librarians to increase administrator buy-in for new resources and services.