When I attended this session on Thursday afternoon, I had spent the day in the press room for PLA, blogging and stuff. So I was there while the camera man downloaded his pictures, I was there when people were trying to find out where Nancy Pearl was, I was there, writing my 500 words (591 in the end) on lunch with Jon Scieszka. (Which got published in the daily conference paper the next day!!)
But writing a newspaper column doesn’t require being in the press room. You can do it from the quiet (or noise) of your library desk. Two of the presenters were able to make the trip, the coordinator, Julie Winkelstein, a librarian in Alemeda County, California and Lauren Stara, a librarian in Friday Harbor, Washington State; one was sick, Jeffrey Donlan, a librarian in Salida, Colorado.
There are two types of columns you can write (actually, there are three or more)
- personal (which is the style espoused by the three presenters and can be found at x)
- only about the library and its programs
- book reviews
- etc. (I’m sure there is another type…)
- some librarians write as a team: six librarians write a book review column, which means each librarian only has to write one book review every six weeks.
Since our presenters used the personal style, this is what they mainly spoke about. Advantages to having a library column:
- You are writing about the library (not a reporter who has his/her own/their newspaper’s agenda)
- You have regular readers (who will respond when you tell them about programs, b/c they have gotten used to reading your column–it won’t have to be a johnny come lately press release deal every time you have to publicize a big or small event.)
- Jeff, (the absent presenter) said that a library column is an “ongoing conversation” and that we get to “delight our readers.”
- It gives a platform for you to explain your policies and procedures (or why you should never put AV in the book drop or why it takes so long or not so long to get ILL books into the library. Why you should always put a book on hold instead of waiting for it to “be there next time I come in” (a pet peeve of mine and one of the first things I’d probably want to address if I had a library column)
Advice on how to get your own column: (which is probably easier if you are in a small community, but try to find a niche market like a free weekly or an online newspaper)
- Read and get to know other columns in the newspaper you are pitching to.
- Write a letter (editors get too much email and phone calls don’t give them time to think about the proposal).
- In the letter, mention the value to the readers of having a library column. Sell yourself and your library. Propose a trial period.
- If you know someone that knows the editor, get them to introduce you.
- Whichever of these you do, follow up in a week with a phone call.
What else?
JUST START WRITING!
Lauren and Julie had some great ideas for columns. You can also read their columns online at JulieWinkelstein.com; View from the Library. (I’m still looking for my notes on Jeffrey Donlan’s location of online articles.) The idea I remember most vividly was to sit on a skateboard and look at the library from the viewpoint of your smallest patrons. Are the counters too high? What do kids see that adults miss and vice versa?
Don’t worry about word count in your first draft. Write until you wrote it all and then edit. (A writing teacher instilled in me at a seminal age: “All writing is re-writing.”)
KISS (They said Keep it Simple, but I always remember mnemonics better, so I’ll add the extra S: Keep It Simple, Sweetie.)
Accuracy is KEY! If you don’t remember a quote, don’t put quotes around it. If you use a fact, check it! You’re a librarian!! If you use a statistic, double check it!! (You have all the resources at your fingertips, remember?)
A library column represents your library. This is not your own personal soapbox. Be as judgementaless as possible. Make it personal but balanced. Represent the library first, yourself second.
ALWAYS read it out loud. This is where you hear/see that you’ve skipped words, that the sentences flow well or poorly.
Library columns range in word count from 300 to 800 words. Write more, then shrink it down. Microsoft Word has Word Count as one of their Tools. If you don’t know where that is, ask someone!
If you need to justify the time you spend on the library column to your director or co-workers, remind them that a library column is a “wonderful marketing and publicity tool.”
Lauren spoke about the library column as a part of their library’s focus as the “library as commons”
- where people gather
- where people run into each other
- where people plan to meet one another
A library column, if it is indeed in an extra-library publication (ie not your library newsletter), is an excellent way to reach out to non-users. Now, of course, as librarians, we always hope to convert those non-users to users, but even if they stay non-users, they will know a little bit more about the library and what a librarian does besides sitting at a reference desk.
Lauren’s column appears in the local online paper, which comes out daily. But the library (pays for, I think) has a weekly ad in the print newspaper, which comes out weekly.
Some thoughts about online/print columns:
- print: you reach people who read a print format
- online: you presuppose that your audience has Internet access and technical acuity.
- online: less a concern for room as physical layout on a printed page is not the issue here.
Lauren’s email appears at the end of each colum she writes. She has gotten email from Australia, library students, and Julie, who coordinated this program for the conference. Most of her emails are from the community. From the community, she sometimes gets negative comments. Her advice here:
- Not everyone has a sense of humor.
- Negative comments can become the fodder for a new column
Think about what to name your column: “At the library” is a common title.
