I know I seem to be writing a lot about marketing your library lately, but there have been so many good ideas that will help make the library more enticing and make it easier for our patrons to use. 

I just came across this webpage about using bookstore design in your library.  The staff recommendations idea is great and also the tips re where to locate your displays (especially the statistic that items displayed near the front desk can circulate up to 1000 times more than items on the shelf!), lit displays and colors to use on signage.

And while we’re at it, for all you libraries with a Facebook presence but no My Space one, looks like you made the cool choice (at least according to those arbiters of hip – college students)!

OK, I know you’re overwhelmed by the influx of patrons over the last few years, but is that really translating into more support for struggling libraries?  Sometimes I think people just take them for granted. 

Some libraries have come up with drastic ways to let people know what they might have to do without (great idea to even close the website!), but maybe we just need product placement.  Sure public service announcements are one way to go, but how many people see these? 

I also think we aren’t on the radar screens of a lot of people we could be helping, so perhaps we need to strengthen our link to popular culture.  Yes, we’re reaching people with Twitter and blogs and other social media, but television and films are still huge, especially for less technologically advanced people who can really use our services.

We know that the stereotypes of libraries aren’t always what we wish them to be.  Should ALA start lobbying screen and TV writers to include more library references in their productions?  It might go a long way to letting people know what’s available to them for free with a library card.  And I bet Hollywood would be glad to help – in fact they might be a great source for the super supporters we read about in From Awareness to Funding.

So I was enormously pleased when viewing this week’s Parks and Recreation (ironically a government department that’s often one of our biggest fiscal rivals) with the inimitable Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live fame (start about 1 minute, 55 seconds in to avoid an ad and get to the good stuff).  OK, it’s not complimentary, but talk about smashing stereotypes!  Honestly, doesn’t referring to us as “diabolical”, “ruthless”, “punk ass book jockeys” who are “extremely well-read which makes them very dangerous” just add to our allure and coolness factor?

So how about it?  Let’s tell ALA we want to be in pictures!

Book bags and bookmarks come in handy, but I just love it when libraries use marketing tools with more widespread appeal. 

Forgive me if this is old news to you, but I just heard about the license plates the New York State Library is promoting.  Colorado has license plates for just about every group you can image – 10th Mountain Division, Broncos, Greyhounds, Support the Horse… – they even have a plate supporting education, but there isn’t one supporting libraries.  A cursory search shows that Texas also has plates and Massachusetts is trying to get them too.

And while we’re on the subject, these librarian trading cards from the Carlson Library are pretty cool too.

9/2 Montana’s library plates are due to hit the streets this month. 

Thinking like a patron can be really hard to do.  The longer we work in libraries the more entrenched we get in the lingo and practices of our business.  But that doesn’t make it any easier for our users.

I recently attended the ULC Webinar The Future of Library User Experience (I think this isn’t a password protected site – if it is, my apologies).  Nate Bolt, a user experience expert, gave the main presentation, which was great as he freely admits he hasn’t used a library in years, so was able to look at library web sites with fresh eyes.  He stressed that when organizing our collections and websites, we need to place people before systems and pay attention to intuition rather than how things should logically be arranged.  Ignore opinions – just research behavior.

Nate advised that if you really want to make your library user friendly (physically and in cyber space) you should watch three people use your website.  And to give you a taste of what it feels like to be confronted with a new resource, he suggests you try to create a new web page and use an unfamiliar open source tool.  Pay attention to how intuitive it is.  Does the arrangement make sense?  Is it easy to figure out where you want to go and how to do something?

He’s also in favor of using an open architecture so people can customize and manipulate your resources and data to suit their needs.  One great tip – put your marketing (program notices, new services…) on the results pages since this is where patrons will spend most of their time.  And of course, also put links to similar materials, comments and reviews there.

If you’re interested in more on this topic, see my post on the User Centered Design class I took at ALA Midwinter.  Or check out Jesse James Garrett and Adaptive Path (watch the 2.5 minute video) and 37signals.

So how are you ensuring that it’s easy to find things in your library and at your website?  Do articles from your database surface as results when customers do a catalog search?  Do your users just need to login once each visit to access passworded resources?

While The Librarian is IN is exclusively about public libraries, BCR has several other blogs with much content  relevant to public librarians, especially catalogers, trainers and local historians as well as marketing, public relations, IT and e-resources staff. 

I’ve already mentioned Get Used, our marketing blog, but Trailhead and Scanning the Horizon both debuted recently. Take a look and make sure your coworkers in the appropriate areas know of these sources.  There’s a lot there that will be of interest to them.

Trailhead is written by Heather Clark, Shelly Drumm, Linda Gonzalez, Anne Marie Lyons and Marisa Wood in our training department and covers a variety of training related topics as well as subjects in their various areas of expertise.  Recent posts have discussed cataloging, copyright, digitization, interlibrary loan, resource sharing, technology (including lots of free web tools to make anyone’s life easier) and work flow analysis. 

Scanning the Horizon is from our digital and preservation services department and covers news, trends and cutting-edge tools for the cultural heritage community.  Liz Bishoff, Leigh Grinstead, Anne Marie Lyons and Steve Wrede have blogged about art displays, storage, innovation, audio, digital rights management, the World Digital Library and the American Alpine Club Library among other things.

So check it out and pass on this tip – your colleagues will be glad you did.

Many of us have had the opportunity to do (or have at least heard about) the 23 Things training originally developed by Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.  It’s a training program developed to give library staff experience with Web 2.0 technologies.  It’s great that we are getting the chance to understand newer technologies used and offered in our libraries and by tech savvy patrons.

But, in this economy, so many of our customers are having to reinvent themselves and learn new technologies to be employable.  For some of these patrons, Web 2.0 concepts and terms, the internet, and even computers are a whole new world that they just don’t understand.  Sure, we offer computer classes and assist them with Flickr and YouTube and help them download audio books, but I haven’t heard of a public library that has done a 23 Things program for patrons.  For so many of us, continuing education is part of our missions and what better way to educate your residents in what they need to know to avoid becoming obsolete.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Technology Playground event is certainly a great start.  And the Aarhus Public Libraries in Denmark’s amazing Transformation Lab gives us an extreme version of how to introduce new technologies to the public (but could any US libraries afford to create this?) and really involve them in the library.

In the March issue of American Libraries, Chrystie Hill tells us in Inside, Outside & ONLINE (see p. 38 and especially p. 39 Where is the library?) that between 2005 and 2007, using a library website was the only online activity that declined among regular internet users!  While ideally a 23 Things for Patrons event would be done in the physical library space so confused users would have a staff member close by to help them, perhaps creating an online version of the program (and linking to some of the Web 2.0 technologies used on our websites) would be a way to improve our online usage.  It would also give patrons who can’t make an in-house program convenient 24 hour access to an opportunity to learn about Web 2.0.

So are you contemplating doing a 23 Things for your users?  Or have you already done one?  If so, please share it so we can learn from your experience.

We had the second meeting of the Public Libraries Advisory Group at the end of April (for more information on this group see my 1/30/09 blog post).  After the first meeting, we did a survey about potential topics and the top two topics we were concerned about involved;

-Marketing our resources and finding meaningful ways to show how important we are to our communities, as well as the value we provide to them and how we serve all comers equitably

-Finding ways to measure, compare and benchmark usage of our websites and online resources

We’re all concerned about funding, and being able to advocate effectively will help the people who hold the purse strings understand how vital we are to a healthy local economy.  And of course, since money is so tight, there’s more concern than ever that our expensive databases earn their keep.  Plus many libraries have as much online as in-person use, so organization of our websites is just as important as the way our physical buildings are laid out.

Some of the issues we identified for marketing were assessing the needs of our customer bases (including non users and untraditional users), making our resources surface first in a Google search and what to do when a service becomes too popular (some of the member’s libraries mail holds to patrons’ homes – wouldn’t you just love that if you weren’t already working at the library!).  

We also discussed Pivotal Points – times when residents are most likely to use the library (e.g. when they’re new to town or have a baby).  Since high school freshmen don’t get much mail and are entering a new and challenging educational phase, Betsy Thompson told us how the Sioux City Public Library sends a letter advertising their homework and job search resources and offers a clean start – all fines on their account will be waived if they bring their letter to the library!

Re online usage we’d love it if there was an easy and reliable way to see how effective our databases are and to analyze our websites for ease of use.  Vendors all measure database usage differently so it’s often impossible to compare statistics from one to another. 

We’d also like a cheap and easily customizable Amazon style library catalog, federated searching that can quickly search across all our resources, and to eliminate barriers like patron authentication (or at least make it so users just need to login in once to use everything).  There, we’re not asking too much are we?

The meeting was a great chance to hear about some really cool stuff.  When King County Library System realized the kids who participated in their summer reading program would be reading anyway they partnered with summer schools to get their at-risk students involved.  And Julie Williams also mentioned that since getting to the library was a barrier to use, KCLS has a cybermobile with computers and a children’s librarian that goes around to family day care centers.  Another system advertises their auto repair databases on NPR right before Car Talk comes on.  Washoe County Library System is suffering under severe budget cuts but Corinne Dickman reports they have drive-through holds pick up windows at four of their branches.  Since less staff is needed, the windows can potentially have longer hours than the building.

David King said that Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library got the phone company to print their url on the front page of the phone book.   Caleb Tucker-Raymond makes sure Oregon’s statewide virtual reference services’ online resources are designed so they’ll come up quickly in web searches.  

Some members’ libraries are helping the environment.  Barb Brattin told us that Wilkinson Public Library is installing a solar electricity system in June that includes an electricity meter for customers to watch as the meter goes backwards.   And Multnomah County Library is viewed as an innovator in their city because of their green roof.

Wow, where do we get all these ideas from?  What are you doing that’s new and different?  And are you concerned about marketing and online usage?

Thanks to Tame the Web for highlighting this great library promotion idea. 

This would be so easy to implement at your library, just have a Tell Us Your Story link on your home page that brings up a form where your patrons can submit testimonies of what your library means to them or how it has helped them help themselves or change their lives.  Voters respond to stories about how the library transforms lives and public officials respond to stories of how we solve community issues. 

So, start collecting stories right now for the next time you need to justify your budget.  You could even make some money at this if after they submit their story a form comes up asking them for donations (of course if you want the donations to be tax deductible you’ll need to run the money through a 501(c)3 organization).  And include a link to language that people can add to their will to make bequests to the library.

I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty impressed by the Portland Public Library’s plans for a 30 foot wide urban screen to broadcast audio and video to passers-by.  What a great way to market the library and draw customers in.  And talk about community outreach – it’s not just librarians but the building itself that’s reaching out to the community!  Here’s a library that’s ahead of the curve.  This isn’t even a very common site in large cities, let alone one with a population of just 230,000 people!

I just came across a marketing blog from Library Journal, Alison Circle’s Bubble Room.  As someone new to the profession, but not to marketing, she has some really helpful tips about how to get your message out and how to show the value of the public library. 

One of my favorites is turning your Homework Help Center into a Job Help Center during the school day.  Advertise (and perhaps partner) with your local private employment agencies, workforce centers and unemployment offices to get the word out and maximize resources (including staffing), then keep statistics on how many people have successfully landed a job with your assistance.  If you can garner salary information too you can even show the increased tax money that you’ve helped to bring in.  That ought to impress those who hold your purse strings, since they’re probably just as worried as you about declining revenue and decreased spending in the local economy.

She also discusses the Library Value (or ROI) Calculator, which many libraries have already implemented.  It lets patrons plug in the number of items they borrow and see how much they’re saving.  I’d love to see someone take a more proactive approach on this one by hooking it up to their self check systems so your due dates receipt shows how much you saved that day by using your library card, just like they do at Safeway.  Anyone out there willing to write a program for this? 

She also highlights the fabulous marketing efforts of the Wyoming Libraries.  They are truly inspired, turning iconic slogans and images on their head.  I love the reading mud flap girl, and have the “You can have my book when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.” bumper sticker on my car.

And if you’re interested in marketing – which we all need to be right now – we have our very own marketing whizzes at BCR, Meg Blum and Gillian Harrison, who give you great tips on their blog Get Used.

Check these two blogs out, but I think we’d all love to see some comments about some of your successful and inspired marketing efforts too – so let me know, what’s worked for you?