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Internet Librarian 2009 – Meredith Hammons

m.hammons — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:33:00 +0000

Marketing on the Cheap. I’ve become really fascinated with marketing efforts on the part of the library. I think this is an area that has traditionally been neglected, because of the assumption that everyone knows the library is there and what it has to offer. With the technological changes, and changes in perception of libraries, there are needs to market that we are not just a place of dusty books. OCLC has produced a paper called “From Awareness to Funding” which illustrates some of the concepts that should be emphasized when marketing the library, which include seeing the library as part of the community infrastructure, like police or fire departments, seeing the library as a necessity, rather than a nice thing to have, focusing on the future, rather than the past, etc. The full report can be found here:

http://www.oclc.org/reports/funding/default.htm.

Something I’ve noticed is that single adults with no children are a market that would join the library, but there is no advertising directed toward us. When I started working for the public library, my single thirtysomething friends were all astonished that one could rent DVDs in the library. I know people cut back on spending by canceling subscriptions to audible.com, but were totally unaware that audio books, including playaways, were available at the public library.
With the current budget crisis, one of the speakers emphasized the need for library support marketing, in addition to library use marketing. She mentioned that her community had defeated a number of library bonds, and they realized that they could not simply market a few months before an election. Thus, they are gearing up now for support marketing for the 2012 elections.
There were a few specific suggestions, which included having a plan with specific goals and including Web 2.0 in the plan, considering policies on access, content creation, monitoring, measuring return and a schedule.
Another emphasis was on local marketing, including not just social media, but partnerships with local media, or taking advantage of the skills of community members, to teach classes.
There were a lot of good ideas, for both programming and marketing that came out of this section.

Internet LIbrarian 2009- Meredith Hammons

m.hammons — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:52:12 +0000

This morning, I began my sessions with the awesome title “Selling Tech to Power”. It was a group of tech savvy decision makers advising people on how to persuade administration of the benefits of using new technologies. The first speaker, Danis Kreimeier, Director of the Napa City-County library, pointed out that directors have a large number of people to report to as well, including city/county governments, Friends groups and other donors, etc. She offered a number of questions to ask oneself before beginning any initiative.
What problem are you trying to solve? Whose problem is it? Is it sustainable (i.e. if you leave, is someone else going to be able to run it?) Where does it fit into the library’s goals and objectives?
She also gave a strategy script for communicating to those in power:
1) Tell people where you are headed.
2) Give facts and statistics to support the project.
3) Give the actions you are proposing and show that you have thought them through.
4) Describe how it fits with other plans and strategies (i.e. green initiatives).
5) Take advantage of existing assets and resources.
6) Tell them how and when you’ll know it is successful.
7) Show your passion! Invite them to join you.
Danis said that she had used this script for 18 months in submitting proposals to the board and had yet to be turned down.
The second speaker, Fred Cohn, Assistant City Manager of Monterey, pointed out that technology projects are no different than other business projects. He also offered the point that when times change, we cannot keep doing the same things and expecting different results. He then emphasized the importance of marketing, which he defined as identifying and meeting needs. His primary pieces of advice were to be careful of perspective and make sure you are meeting the community’s needs and interests, not just your own and to see yourself as part of a broader organization.
The last part of the presentation allowed people in the audience to discuss previous attempts to introduce new technologies that hadn’t worked and offer suggestions of how to improve the process. The primary advice was to identify all the stakeholders and speak to their concerns and goals, do research and get concrete information, show how an iniative will save time or moeny, get allies within your organization, focus on activities with low investment and high results.
I’ve been trying to get a Facebook page for our library for several months and this presentation gave me a lot of good ideas of how to get this accepted. It will require some initial research on my part, but will be much more effective.

Internet Librarian 2009- Meredith Hammons

m.hammons — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:43:06 +0000

Blog #3 from the Social Media group.
The third session was “Evaluating, Recommending and Justifying 2.0 Tools” by Marydee Ojala, Editor of ONLINE Magazine.
Marydee pointed out that it is much easier for individuals to adopt to changing technologies than it is for institutions, such as libraries.
She advocated using social media for empowerment and collaboration, as well as having a clear purpose for the tools selected.
Marydee also looking for needs in your community and using Web 2.0 tools to meet those needs. Examples of needs are: meeting customer/patron expectations, marketing the library, product promotion or branding, transmitting information, learning from others’ experience, and monitoring the library’s reputation.
In order to justify tools, she recommends seeing how they might align with the library’s missinon statement, providing research that appeals to the discipline or interest of those you are speaking to, and making sure that you keep your managers informed. A few people in our library have been advocating the use of Facebook for marketing for quite some time. I found this session helpful because it provided avenues for research that will appeal to our administration.