Library Marketing and Advocacy- “Promote the Nexus”…07.21.09

Thanks to OPL Plus (not just for OPLs Anymore) for the post “Promote the Nexus” post today which brings to the forefront the following marketing take-away from the recent ALA 2009 conference:

“Peter Persic, Public Relations and Marketing Director, Los Angeles (California) Public Library, presented this marketing/advocacy idea at the annual conference of the American Library Association.

Libraries are known for Information. This need is also filled by Google.
Libraries are known for Reading. This need is also filled by Barnes & Noble.
Libraries are known as Cultural Centers. This need is also filled by museums.
Libraries are know as Community Centers. This need is also filled by Starbucks.

However, the library ‘is uniquely positioned at the nexus of all four needs.’ So he encouraged listeners to ‘promote the nexus.’…”

Libraries – “UNLEASH THE USERS!”…05.12.09

Thanks to Helene Blowers for pointing out this great video from the Aarhus Public Library:

Library Tribes – “Why tribes, not money or factories, will change the world”…05.11.09

This video is new from TED:

“Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so…”

Much More on Library ROI…04.01.09

In the Library with the Lead Pipe has a long but very good post today titled Are You Worth It? What Return on Investment Can and Can’t Tell You About Your Library which I have excerpted below.  This has been a topic in several of my previous postings that is relevant to all libraries as we must justify their existence and support to our stakeholders.

“…While there are many metrics for assessing library value (e.g., LibQual, circulation trends, gate counts, usage statistics trends, ARL Annual Statistics, etc.), this article aims to explore the return on investment (ROI) approach used by libraries to demonstrate value…

Return on investment (ROI) is how much you get back for what you put into something. Strictly speaking, ROI is based on dollars and cents. So, you need to be able to quantify how much money was invested in something and then you need to compare how much money is gained or lost as a result of how the investment was handled. There are two kinds of questions that ROI is good at answering. One is: how much money will be gained by investing in a particular financial asset? The other is: will putting resources into a project or service yield a measurable benefit?…

ROI can be an integral part of the process for evaluating a library’s services, collections, staffing levels, planning for new services and resources, or measuring how valuable your library is to your community and stakeholders…

Most ROI studies in libraries have focused on public libraries. A fantastic inventory and review of value-demonstration methods and metrics is available from the Americans for Libraries Council: Worth their Weight: An Assessment of the Evolving Field of Library Valuation (2007). ..

Special libraries such as those found primarily in the government and corporate sectors tend to focus their ROI metrics on time saved for employees by using library resources and expertise, increases in revenues, decreases in research and development expenses, productivity gains, and cost savings…

There are some reasons why ROI might not be the best tool for demonstrating library value. In some cases, a strict ROI metric may demonstrate that a library is not providing a good return on investment…

There are more subtle reasons to not rely on ROI metrics alone, and to be careful about interpreting ROI. Organizations need resources to survive. Not-for-profit organizations, whose missions are based on soft values or moral ideas rather than monetary profit, must be supported by private donations, government, or by the organizations that they support. The values of the library—ubiquitous access, preservation, and organization of information—are prone to differing interpretations of importance. Put bluntly, the library must show that the Internet has not rendered it obsolete. Libraries will be stronger if they can demonstrate their value in terms which those that provide its funding understand. In the culture and time in which we live, ‘value’ is understood most readily in monetary, economic terms…

It is vital that libraries demonstrate both the monetary value and as well as the social value of their services. ROI is one part of a suite of tools librarians can use to demonstrate performance and value. Relying on ROI alone to communicate and demonstrate the value of libraries may very well undermine the core purposes libraries serve and the indirect benefits they bring. Libraries undertake many tasks that are invisible to the casual user…

It’s up to us to convince our users and our sources of funding that we’re worth it. ROI studies aside, one of the best things we can do to show our worth is to provide great services that help our users work more effectively…”

Library Cost Benefit Analysis and ROI Calculator Tool…03.30.09

The National Network of  Libraries of Medicine MidContinental Region has a cool Library Cost Benefit and ROI Calculator worth checking out and perhap emulating. Here is a description and look at the tool:

“How much benefit does your institution, your user, receive for every dollar spent by the library? What’s the annual return your institution realizes on what you spend on your collection? Cost/Benefit Analysis and Return on Investment are measures often used by financial managers to gauge the efficiency and effectiveness of their budget policies.

Fill in the fields in the table and see what you contribute. The Cost/Benefit ratio and the Return on Investment percentage will display at the bottom of the table.

Tip: Tab between entries and do not use commas. Click here for information about each data point.

Salary Information:	User’s Average Annual Salary	$	User Hours Worked Per Year		Library Salary Budget	$

Benefits		Costs		TOTAL Benefit	TOTAL Cost
Books used (print and electronic)				$	$
Number borrowed or used
Average retail cost of a book	$	Book budget	$
User time saved for each book borrowed (in 10ths of an hr)		Portion of all staff time devoted to the book collection (order, receive, catalog, process,shelve,etc) in 10ths
Journals used (print and electronic, in house or checked out)				$	$
Number articles read by all users
Per article price from a vendor	$	Journal budget (print and electronic)	$
User time saved per article available through library (in 10ths of an hr)		Portion of all staff time devoted to journal collection (order, license, receive, process, manage, shelve, etc.) in 10ths
Database use				$	$
Database sessions
Average retail cost of a single search by a broker	$	Library’s Cost for Database(s)	$
User time saved for each search session		Portion of all staff time devoted to supporting the database

	Total Benefits Value:	Total Costs:
	Benefit/Cost Ratio – $ Benefit for each $ spent:	ROI %:

For more information contact Betsy Kelly, Assessment and Evaluation Liaison or Barb Jones, Advocacy Liaison”

QR Codes in 2009…03.23.09

(QR Code for this blog url from the FREE – Kaywa QR Code Generator — You can also download The Kaywa Reader to your mobile device)

QR codes are prevelant in Asia, particulary in Japan were they began. However, Europe and the West are beginning to take notice of their applicability to marketing.  I have blogged about QR code use in libraries and am anxious to see their adoption in marketing in different areas.

Here is an excerpt from The State of QR Codes and What to Expect in 2009 from Mobile Marketing Watch at the beginning of the year which I found interesting and helpful in sharing with others about the potential of QR code marketing uses:

“Though QR (Quick Response) barcodes haven’t been as prolific in 2008 as maybe some of us had hoped, 2009 looks to be a whole different story.  I’ve been following the technology since its inception, and though I knew it would be hard to catch on in the US due the state of our mobile technology compared to elsewhere, I still thought we’d be further along then we currently are.  With that being said, 2008 still brought some large scale innovations with QR as well as some large-scale mobile campaigns that were centered around using QR… As Adena reported on last month, Pepsi introduced one of the first large-scale QR-based mobile campaigns to date in Europe, with over 400 million QR barcodes being distributed on Pepsi cans.  Likewise, Micheal reported on one of Australia’s first large-scale QR deployments in a campaign to help promote the new James Bond movie by way of a ‘treasure hunt’ of sorts. The campaign attracted over 10,000 users without any help from the mainstream media.  If that doesn’t show potential than I don’t know what would. Beyond the obvious uses in mobile marketing, 2008 brought to light many others. CitySearch and Antenna Audio began a program last spring in San Francisco in which they placed QR codes on historical landmarks and restaurants.  The QR codes can then be linked to a public review site, a wiki, or a forum, and anyone can lend a hand in chronicling a certain site’s history. A company called EventBrite tested a new ‘green ticketing’ service along with a barcode-based attendee registration system that will ultimately allow event organizers to ‘check-in’ attendees on-site using a basic webcam.  They’ve even created ‘barcode check-in scanning’ as well to coincide with their QR-based ticketing services…”

Here is an example of billboard advertising using QR codes:

(Image: www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=273)

Skokie Public Library’s Mobile Catalog and Other Services…03.21.09

Because I think it is interesting and important, here is an excerpt of a posting from the theanalogdivide blog post Always. Be. Closing. below. This is important as yet another library begins these new services but also in how the service are marketed blazing the way for others.

“Skokie Public Library’s first set of mobile device-friendly services has just launched,…Scope out the library’s catalog (using the Innovative AirPAC module), the mobile-friendly website, and our text messaging service, with which patrons can stay up-to-date on their account activity, and even renew items via text message… 

Of course, now comes the hard part: creating a marketing push, and working to translate visibility into people signing up for the service…”"

 

Libraries and Other Non-Profits Take Note: “More Than 50% of Marketers Increase Spending on Social”…03.17.09

Here is an interesting excerpt from Despite Recession, More Than 50% of Marketers Increase Spending on Social Media on ReadWriteWeb today relevant not only to businesses:

“In a recession, budgets are tightened, jobs are cut, and those who remain are expected to do more with less. Given this type of economic reality, it’s surprising to hear of an industry reporting an increase in spending on anything, much less on something as new as social media. Yet that’s exactly what’s occurring. According to a new Forrester Research survey of 145 global interactive marketers in both B2B and B2C companies with more than 250 employees, the use of social media as a marketing tool is on the rise. What’s more, Forrester reports that over 50% of marketers said they will be increasing their spending on social media marketing in the coming months.

Part of the reason for this increased spending is the low cost of social media tools. Compared with larger expenditures like advertising, social media requires much less investment. In fact, three-quarters of those surveyed who knew their budgets said they allowed for $100,000 or less for social media tools over a 12-month period…”

Librarian and Library Branding: Measuring Online Influence…03.02.09

This is an excerpt from an interesting Mashable! post today by Micah Baldwin titled HOW TO: Measure Online Influence:

“…Influence is defined as ‘implicit or explicit effect of one thing (or person) on another,’ which online can be further simplified to ‘can someone’s words (and/or video) make you think or do something?’…

It becomes easier to understand influence when it’s broken down into its core components: Brand, Expertise and Trust. While there is much debate around online branding, it is clear that personal branding is important to online influence…

Personal brand is truly an aggregated representation of online activity. Can you build a personal brand by interacting on only one social service? Sort of, but it’s incomplete. It’s impossible to gain a true picture of who you are simply by looking at your photos on Flickr, or just reading your blog. Trust grows by being able to view a person’s social content in aggregate. This is why life streaming applications like FriendFeed have grown so rapidly.

In terms of measuring online influence, the stronger the personal brand, the more influence one wields online. The most important component of online influence is trust. Trust is defined as creating a consistent expectation that a person will always act in your best interest when given information.

Expertise is another core component of influence. One can gain knowledge on a specific topic, but expertise is a title that can only be given…

How does one get the title of expert? In the simplest terms, other people trust the knowledge you have accumulated. It’s why self-proclaimed expertise is not respected.

Personal Brand, Trust and Expertise. Understanding each is imperative to measuring influence, which can be expressed as:

Influence = (Personal Brand * Trust * Expertise)

Of course, since Expertise = (Knowledge * Trust), we can further refine the equation to:

Influence = (Personal Brand * Knowledge * Trust2)

Which shows the increased importance of trust. You could refine it more and extract trust from Personal Brand, but that begins to complicate things…

Now that we have defined Influence mathematically, how do we measure it? Well, it is difficult to apply direct numerical measures to each component, but here is a starting point:

Incoming Traffic - Pageviews, Incoming traffic from search engines, rss subscribers

Incoming Links - Primarily manual links such as blogrolls, in-post deep links

Reader Engagement - Internal searches, time on site

Recommendations - Retweets, share stats

Connections - Number of mutual connections, number of mutual connections on multiple sites

Track Record - Age of domain, number of blog posts, length of engagement

Engagement - How often and long a person has engaged with a service online…”

Denver Public Library’s “Personal Library Value Calculator” or “Individual Return on Investment Calculator”…02.23.09

Stephen Abram on his Stephen’s Lighthouse blog pointed out how the Denver Public Library is showing patrons the monetary value of various library services:

“How much do ‘I’ get out of the public library?

The Denver Public Library has a Library Value Calculator on their website. It just asks cardholders to input some simple data and it will caculate the monthly value of their free card based on the sevices they use.

If course, some folks are going to discover services that they hadn’t been aware of.

It helps that the Denver newspaper wrote about it (here).

Steal this idea.“

Marketing 2.0 for Libraries and Librarians…02.13.09

The following “Social media & Library Marketing” notes from The Connecting Librarian from a Library 2.0 “masterclass” with Helene Blowers that will be helpul to consider:

“The strength of our libraries is our unique brand – which is the specific communities we each serve.  Mass marketing is no longer the key, it is now niche marketing…

8 Steps to Marketing 2.0:

1. Educate – learn about social media
2. Experience – participate and join in the conversation
3. Envision – develop a 2.0 marketing plan
4. Engage – create social celebrations
5. Enable – help your library brand & content travel
6. Expand – play with multimedia
7. Explore – learn as you go & track success
8. Experiment, experiment, experiment

And to top it all off: ‘The best way to get your customers to market your brand is to allow them to promote (the library) by marketing themselves!’…

[Check out If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's - great example of an "unauthorized commercial" by a customer that has now turned viral--LW]

Innovative ideas come from focussing on quantity – not quality, collecting everything, getting out of the comfort zone and adding constraints to your thinking.

However, it can be not so much the ideas you need to focus on, but how to move those ideas through the organisation.

• Sell it – tie it to your mission and vision statements
• Create alliances – build relationships that will give you support
• Don’t ask for permission – either ask for forgiveness where the risk is all yours, or ask for support and share the risk
• Sell your vision personally – if you have to produce a report, follow it up personally – you can’t sell a vision on a piece of paper
• Find a champion – if not a supervisor, find a mentor – even if they are outside your line of authority

Implementation requires time, resources and scope. If there is a problem here, you need to revisit the strategy. The profitability comes with how the idea is enacted within your organisation…”

Libraries and Librarians-”Unconventional Times Call for Unconventional Paths”…02.10.09

Below is an excerpt from a good article today on the Advertising Age website entitled Unconventional Times Call for Unconventional Marketing by David Armano which I think is helpful to libraries and librarians as well as others to consider.

As an individual, my blog is one of the most effective manifestations of “marketing” I could have produced for myself. I have a respectable audience that comes back as opposed to visiting it once, never to return again. People participate through comments and the content is distributable. But imagine if I started it the same way many large organizations launch conventional marketing initiatives. What would that have looked like?… 

A learn-as-you-go process 
For example, when I started posting visuals, I would check my stats and could see that people from all sorts of other sites and blogs began referencing them and linking back – so I realized the visuals were providing something people wanted and that if I wanted to continue to build an audience, this was a good way to do it. Secondly, I thought that my primary audience would be designers, when in fact the blog started attracting an eclectic audience of planners, marketers, librarians — even evangelists. After each cycle of launching content or functionality in the sidebars, I was learning about my audience and why they were coming. This required me to periodically have more frequent checkpoints of ‘little strategy’ where I would plan the direction of where I wanted to go and make the appropriate adjustments to get there. And it felt less like a straight path and more like a meandering one, because the ‘focus group’ was happening in real time after the initial launch. 

I’ve been thinking about this for a while because after having some exposure to large organizations, it occurred to me that there is a desire to do more ‘unconventional marketing’ but the machine that’s in place is actually ‘conventional’ — all the things that have been done in the past. For example, it’s common and understandable for the ‘What’s the ROI?’ question to be raised during an unconventional marketing initiative, but that question could derail the entire effort before it has a chance to ever get off the ground. Sometimes the ROI is simply insights and lessons that are gleaned from actually doing the initiative. Other times, the direction of the initiative changes midway through in unexpected ways that could not have been predicted. Many times for the better — let’s not forget that Twitter was never meant to be what it ended up being today. 

Unconventional times call for unconventional paths 
Speaking from personal experience, I could not have predicted many of the outcomes I have had since launching a blog, but I believe following a much more ‘unconventional’ path is a core reason behind everything that I’ve learned from it. For a couple of hundred dollars a year and a whole lot of dedication and effort it’s priceless to me. So as I think about how times are becoming more unconventional — with unpredictable financial markets and political change in the air — I can’t help but think that it’s more important than ever to get serious about what it takes to do these types of initiatives right. It just doesn’t look like conventional marketing — it’s different. And unconventional times call for unconventional tactics.” 

Copyright © 1992-2009 Crain Communications

Library Messaging–”Choosing the Right Words”…02.06.09

I found the following from the Delta Point people truly is “essential” and worth posting to a wider audience, including those in libraries:

“Choosing the right words is essential to how you communicate your message. You want to choose the words that will matter most. 

Messaging is taking the core messages about your product/brand/ subject matter and communicating them effectively. This means choosing words that are reflective of how your audience/customer will understand what you are trying to say. It is how we communicate that message with words that really matter. We want to have our WORDS MATTER MOST and be so compelling that they engender thinking and change behavior! This should be our goal whether we are selling a product or persuading associates to adapt our business idea. When we speak, our goal should be to have our audience/customers recognize our interactive language as:

 
And if that is the case, we should expect the interaction to be: 

WORDS MATTER! 

Whether you are involved in selling, influencing, or persuading, words are your tools. After all, Mark Twain once noted, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” 

When we consistently say the right thing…at the right time…in the right way we are more persuasive, we ‘sell’ more, and we are more effective. So what is the right thing? How do we get to the point where our words have the effect we want on a more consistent basis? 

When it comes to crafting messages, the right thing is driven by a combination of the right intent and the right content. We need to think about the information we seek, the atmosphere, the climate, and the mood we hope to create with the words we use. Select the right words to create a positive mood, movement, atmosphere, climate, and feeling. You can only select the right words by comprehensively thinking through the condition and content for the conversation. This is what DELTA POINT, Inc. helps its clients do….determine what specific combination and sequence of words or language will engender the change in behavior we are seeking. It isn’t easy to do but when it works, it is like magic! 

Finding and using effective words requires preparation… lots of preparation. The right words require practice. You may not create another Gettysburg Address, but you will create powerful and persuasive messages that are more likely to change behavior.”

© Copyright 2009 DELTA POINT, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Libraries and Librarians “Learning from the Obama Campaign”…02.05.09

This is another exceptionally valuable and insightful post entitled Learning from the Obama Campaign from the Stephen’s Lighthouse blog: 

“Does your library have a campaign planned?

Is it a library card / membership campaign?

Are you wanting more attendees at storytimes and programs?

Are you looking to support your budget, library muniicipal bond or building campaign?

Who isn’t campaigning for something?

If the last US election proved anything, it’s that it’s not business as usual for campaiging for civic involvement! (or money!)

So read this report by The Social Pulpit

Barack Obama’s Social Media Toolkit

Key ‘Social media lessons from the Obama campaign

• Start early 
• Build to scale 
• Innovate where necessary; do everything else incrementally better 
• Make it easy to find, forward and act 
• Pick where you want to play 
• Channel online enthusiasm into specific, targeted activities that further the campaign’s goals 
• Integrate online advocacy into every element of the campaign‘

I think there’s much to learn here and lots of opportunities for success.”

Upcoming FREE OPAL Marketing for Libraries Online Event…02.04.09

This FREE event seems like it would be good for participation from librarians from all backgrounds and libraries from Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) :

Friday, March 6, 2009 at noon Eastern Time, 11:00 a.m. Central, 10:00 Mountain, 9:00 Pacific, and 5:00 p.m. GMT:

Cruise to Success: Marketing for Libraries

Loreen Phillips, the Head of Information Literacy Services at McDermott Library at the University of Texas-Dallas, has written a recently published book about marketing for libraries, Cruise to Success: How to Steer Your Way Through the Murky Waters of Marketing Your Library, published in Dec. 2008 by Chandos Publishing. Phillips provides clear, step-by-step instructions and guidelines for developing a successful library marketing program. We will speak with her about how libraries of all types, but especially academic libraries, can improve their marketing strategies, activities, and results.

Host: TAP Information Services

Location: OPAL Auditorium

Note: OPAL is an international collaborative effort by libraries of all types to provide web-based programs and training for library users and library staff members.

These live events are held in online rooms where participants can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting, and synchronized browsing.

Everyone is welcome to participate in OPAL programs. Usually there is no need to register. Nearly all OPAL programs are offered free of charge to participants. 

New Pew Report “Generations Online in 2009″…01.29.09

This new Pew Internet: Generations Online in 2009  report is worth reviewing:

Generations Online in 2009

1/28/2009 | Report  | Sydney Jones Susannah Fox

Over half of the adult internet population is between 18 and 44 years old. But larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online, according to surveys taken from 2006-2008.

Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the “Net Generation,” internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).

View PDF of Report

 

Other Demographics Resources

Memo  | A Portrait of Early Adopters

Memo  | China’s Online Population Explosion

Report  | Latinos Online

Memo  | Are “Wired Seniors” Sitting Ducks?

Memo  | Generations Online

 Related Topic Areas

Online Activities & Pursuits

© 2000 – 2009 Pew Internet & American Life Project

“What Marketers Actually Sell” from Seth Godin…01.20.09

My library is in the Marketing Department of a non-profit and a portion of my job which is not stated in my formal job description is product production/development project management.  Anyway, I really like the post today by marketer Seth Godin on Seth’s Blog [http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/] titled  What marketers actually sell because it relates to librarians, professional marketers and everyone else.  Although Seth is basically referencing the “hope” brought to many by our new president and people that “sell” things, there are much broader implications.  

Here is the short but profound What marketers actually sell:

“Not powder or chemicals or rubber or steel or silicon or talk or installations or even sugary water.

What marketers sell is hope.

The reason is simple: people need more. We run out. We need it replenished. Hope is almost always in short supply.

The magical thing about selling hope is that it makes everything else work better, every day get better, every project work better, every relationship feel better. If you can actually deliver on the hope you sell, there will be a line out the door.

Hope cures cynicism. Hope increases productivity. Hope needs no justification.”

I might add a familiar but timeless truth which is not just a perfunctory platitude said at weddings or referenced in flowery sermons:

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

I Corinthians 13:13 NIV

“Advocating [Libraries] in a Tough Economy Toolkit” from ALA…01.14.09

Good resources entitled “Advocating [Libraries] in a Tough Economy Toolkit” from ALA [http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/advocacyuniversity/toolkit/index.cfm]:

Contents:

Introduction

I. Talking Points

II. Making the Case

III. Outreach to Patrons and the Public

IV. Talking to the Media

V. Working with Government Officials and Legislators

VI. Staging a Rally

VII. Library Checklist

Contacts

Resources

2009 © American Library Association

9 Relevant Marketing “Predictions” for 2009…01.02.09

Below are marketing specialist Tom Asacker’s “Nine Predictions for 2009″. Check out the for details about his prognostications which are relevant for all librarians as well: http://www.acleareye.com/thoughts/Article_Nine_Predictions_for_2009.pdf

#1 The Earth will complete its 584 million mile, 67,000 mph trip around the Sun without incident

#2 Many things will change, but many people will not

#3 Most people will sit quietly in their seats and watch life unfold around them

#4 A lot of people and businesses will fail

#5 Many “friends” will be lost and many new ones made

#6 The passionate will not only survive, they will thrive

#7 Success will go to those with the best questions, not those with the cleverest answers

#8 Execution is the new strategy

#9 Making a difference will trump making a buck

Top 10 for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation…12.28.08

Stephen Abram posted the following on “Stephen’s Lighthouse” on how to monitor your brand reputation [http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2008/12/monitoring_your_2.html]:

“…When you have a reputuation (personal or institutinal) or brand to protect it’s worth reviewing the best ways to monitor the ‘BUZZ’ and the ‘buzz’ out there.

Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation

1. Google
2. Blog Posts
3. Blog Comments
4. Social Comments
5. Discussion Boards
6. Twitter
7. FriendFeed
8. Social Search
9. Interactive Search
10. Your personal network

Learn more in the post…”

Marketing the Value of the Library by Listening to the User Community…09.18.08

A very good post from Lorcan Dempsey called “Public Library Value” [http://orweblog.oclc.org/] is relevant for all libraries and worthy of careful thought by all librarians is quoted in its entirty below:

“I wrote a blog entry from the fine public library in Cheyenne last year. I was interested to come across an article mentioning this same library in this week’s Economist.

Laramie County’s libraries are the best of an excellent lot. Their flagship is a three-storey, zinc-clad edifice in Cheyenne, a town best-known for its annual rodeo. In addition to a third of a million volumes, the building contains well-equipped meeting rooms and computer labs. It has a large area oriented towards teenagers which is often busy, in part because of the librarians’ tolerant attitude to food. In all, about three-quarters of Laramie County’s 86,000 residents hold library cards. [Public libraries in Wyoming | Why cowboys read | The Economist]

And this being the Economist there is a punchline ….

This attention to outreach and meeting local demands is partly the legacy of a long campaign to build Cheyenne’s library. In 2003, after more than ten years’ work, the librarians managed to put an initiative on the county ballot that allocated $27m in additional sales taxes to the new building. Tax increases are always a tough sell in Wyoming, so the librarians were forced to find out exactly what the people of Laramie County wanted for their libraries, and give it to them. In southern Wyoming, at least, an excellent library system was not built in the face of resistance to public spending. The interesting truth is that it is excellent precisely because of it. [Public libraries in Wyoming | Why cowboys read | The Economist]

I am reminded of a piece I have quoted before from Eleanor Jo Rodger in the September 2007 Library Journal.

Creating value for our host systems always involves three things: Librarians must understand their host systems; they must understand the source of their claim to being a legitimate part of their system; and they must do their work well so the system is better because they are there. It’s usually far more a matter of asking and listening than it is of telling and pleading.

Also relevant is the recent OCLC membership report From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America.

Related entry:

• Knowing about libraries and services in the network“

Outsell Report on What Executives Think About Information Management…09.10.08

Cara Schatz’s SLA blog post below about a new report available really piques my interest.  For the special librarian, professional success–at least in terms of keeping your job and remuneration potential–is all about executive management perception of the value of information management.  Cara reports [http://slaconnections.typepad.com/insidethebox/2008/09/outsell-report.html]:

“Information managers continuously search for the best ways to measure and communicate their function’s value to the organization. They often know their users’ needs but find it challenging to connect to the upper echelons. This report provides a directional view of how executives perceive their organizations’ information management (IM) functions and the role of information in furthering organizational objectives. It also considers executives’ information use habits to reveal the gaps that IM leaders must address to fortify IM’s value proposition and to uncover opportunities that await information professionals who commit to taking their IM functions to the next level.

The Outsell report addresses key themes surfaced by executives, including:

• Good decisions depend on good information
• Executives view information holistically
• Numbers alone don’t resonate when it comes to performance measures

The Briefing reveals some surprises about executives’ preferences for and behaviors with information and considers what information professionals can do to leverage such findings as:

• 80% of executives use wireless handheld devices
• 65% of executives use the internet as their first choice for information, compared with 52% of other workers
• 40% of executives cite the lack of competitive information as the highest-ranked information gap

The Briefing also provides:

• An analysis of how executives view IM, with quotes from executives who participated in Outsell research and interviews
• Data from Outsell’s Information Management Benchmarks survey and User Market survey
• Analysis of gaps in executives’ knowledge about IM activities and opportunities for closing those gaps
• Imperatives for information managers who want to understand how executives think

The full briefing can be purchased on Outsell‘s Web site. Click here for more information about a discount for SLA members.”

Marketing Corporate Libraries Brochure from ProQuest Helpful…07.28.08

Through an unrelated online search today, I found a concise but helpful and relevant new brochure from ProQuest geared toward corporate special libraries called the “The Visible Corporate Library: Marketing Ideas for Promoting Your Resources and Services.” The letter from the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Customer Care describes the contents as follows:  “…This booklet, The Visible Corporate Library, contains tips for identifying marketing opportunities, ideas for promoting your services, notes on how to help your users have a good experience when they come to you for help, tips on what to measure and how to communicate your library’s value, and some networking and support ideas. In addition to this booklet, you will find the ‘Corporate Library Toolkit’ at www.proquest.com. Click on ‘Library Marketing Tools’…”  I will take a closer look and consider how I might implement some of these marketing ideas in my special library.  You can find it here: http://www.proquest.com/division/docs/visible_corporatelibrary.pdf

Video Explaining Free Use of TexShare Dabases…07.22.08

I recently shared the with my department about the TexShare databases that are available for free searching through local public libraries or online from anywhere using a user name and password obtained from local public libraries. The above video posted on YouTube is a good introductory marketing tool for the service. Periodic unsolicited information sent to patrons from library resources highlights and reinforces the value of library and/or information services.