Categories:

Corporate library

Corporate libraries are important as they encourage employees to get in the spirit of reading. With more and more reading, we not only increase our general knowledge but also can hone our critical thinking skills.

“Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible” – Barack Obama

It is encouraging to see many companies with physical titles and magazines widely visible for their employees and visitors at reception, meeting rooms or social spaces. Content is typically oriented to personal and professional development and can be consumed at the employees’ pace, either on premises or at home.

But space is limited, workforces are ever so mobile and resources and time are scarce. The need to transition to online corporate libraries is apparent and also offers the best ROI.

So, how can we bring down all these physical barriers and offer the optimal online corporate library?

Here are 10 top tips that will help you create your own digital corporate library:

1. Mission-aligned. All collections must have content well aligned with your corporate mission and key values. A hospitality company might value a strong experience in customer service. A financial services corporation might value employees with strong problem-solving skills.
2. Intuitive. It must be a seamless experience for employees, so that, in a few clicks, they can access all its content.
3. 24/7 Access. The purpose of your corporate library can be to support training on-site, during office hours or promote general reading. Whatever it is, it needs to be available at all times, on-demand and mobile friendly to get maximum utility.
4. “Addictive” and fun. The employees want to find a complete catalog aligned with their own recreational interests, career goals and, otherwise, what they would have purchased themselves. The more relevant it is to them, the more likely they will read the title.
5. Not only books. We should not pigeonhole our library to traditional books. Everyone learns differently whether it is via audio, video, courseware, games, magazines or more. It is always best to offer multi-media that supports all general devices.
6. Family friendly. Include content for all ages so professionals can share the corporate library with their families and encourage reading at home with their loved ones.
7. Your own materials. In addition to the thousands of titles that you can provide to your employees, it is also important to host and distribute also your company’s own training content (manuals, titles to inspire corporate culture and more), in order to have everything in one place to get the most use.
8. Extracurricular focus. It is very important that we associate this activity as a pastime or supplemental learning experience. We should not consider it as another obligation, but as an “extra” benefit or value for employees.
9. Data in real time. With statistical control in real time, we can see who are the most active users and which are the most read books. This data is empowering and will help librarians to decide how to most effectively manage content throughout the year.
10. Corporate book clubs. It is important to also complement the digital reading experience with book clubs to encourage all employees to debate and exchange their thoughts on what they read.

There are hundreds of institutions that have already added their own online corporate library to improve the skills and knowledge of their employees.

We at ODILO are the world’s leading intelligent digital library and virtual book club provider, and not only offer all the elements above but also strive to always personalize each experience for everyone.

We strongly believe that reading is the best benefit you can offer your employees and their families and we hope you agree.

Contact us to learn more and see a demo.

A. Cepeda.