Let your patrons do some of the marketing FOR you.

I read an article that gave a bit of a different perspective on the idea of library marketing. The article recommended letting your patrons get involved in the marketing, too. From the article:

“Traditional marketing involves conducting market

research with your customers to find out what

they might want or need, developing products

Relationship marketing involves giving up some of

the control and giving patrons a sense of ownership.

Allow patrons to create displays; post book reviews

on your website, bulletin boards, or library blog;

help plan library events; and help design or rearrange

the library space. Ease up on some of the strict rules,

and let them relax in the space. No, this doesn’t

mean that you just allow them to run the whole

place. You’re needed for a reason—^you have the

expertise to make the final decisions and to guide

and shape the program so that you’re ultimately

able to achieve the library’s mission. But allowing

patrons to play a more active role in developing the

program will make them much more likely to use it.”

It’s an interesting perspective. How many libraries out there make the decision as to what their community wants without ever really including them in the process? What’s the harm in using the public to help market? Who knows better what will bring the public in than the public themselves? Challenge yourself to find ways to include patrons in the whole process. Let them sit in on a committee or offer titles for a themed display. Marketing is all about bringing patrons through the doors so what’s the harm in letting the ones that are already there draw in a few more?

If you get a chance, read the article yourself:

Schmidt, C. (2010). Cheers to Your Library! How Marketing Can Make Your Library the Place to Be. Library Media Connection,28(6), 22. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

New Yorkers market their libraries like no one else!

Central New Yorkers are suffering in this economy much like the rest of us are. The difference is that they’re not ready to give up just yet. State legislators have proposed yet another cut in funding to public libraries, a cut that would amount to the fifth that these libraries have faced in just four years. In an effort to stop the cuts from happening, the libraries at risk have begun to market themselves even more fully, both to their patrons and to the legislators as well. From an article posted at Syracuse.com:

To help show state legislators the impact libraries have on the public, the New York Library Association launched the campaign SnapShotNY: A Day in the Life of a Library. The campaign asked libraries across the state to take photos, videos and track data for one day.

Librarians have had some freedom in deciding how to progress and have risen to the challenge, putting cameras, web cams, door counts and any other tools available to use in proving to the state that what they’re doing matters enough that budgets shouldn’t be cut AGAIN. Take a look at what they’re doing and see if you can’t learn something that you can put to use BEFORE the next round of budget cuts comes up. Your library deserves it.

Central New York libraries mobilize to protest gov’s plan to cut state aid

Remind your patrons where their favorite movies and TV shows came from!

I’ve read a few mentions in random places on the net and noticed in the library that I work in that movies and TV shows that are based on books are some of today’s most popular forms of entertainment. The more I check out the DVDs to folks, the more I want to shout from the rafters that there are BOOKS that are most likely even better than the movies/TV shows that they might like to try, especially if they’re sitting on a waiting list to get their copy of the DVD. So why not remind patrons of the possibilities? Set up a display on an endcap in the AV area or somewhere close to where all of those people will see it when they’re picking their DVDs for the week. Maybe they just didn’t know it was an option. Here’s a list of some that you might have in both your AV and book areas:

TV show or series

• Bones – based on a series of books written by Kathy Reichs
• Dexter – based on a series of books written by Jeff Lindsay
• True Blood – based on the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris
• Legend of the Seeker – based on the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
• Friday Night Lights – based on the book by H.G. Bissinger
• The Vampire Diaries – based on the young adult series by L.J. Smith
• FlashForward – based on the book by Robert Sawyer

Older Movies

• Fight Club – based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk
• Silence of the Lambs – based on the book by Thomas Harris
• Trainspotting – based on the book by Irvine Welsh
• No Country for Old Men – based on the book by Cormac McCarthy
• The Road – also based on the book by Cormac McCarthy
• Schindler’s List – based on the book by Thomas Kineally

2009 Movies

• The Lovely Bones – based on the book by Alice Sebold
• Confessions of a Shopaholic – based on the book by Sophie Kinsella
• The Blind Side – based on the book by Michael Lewis
• My Sister’s Keeper – based on the book by Jodi Picoult
• Precious – based on the book Push, by Sapphire
• Slumdog Millionaire – based on the book by Vikas Swarup
• The Time Traveler’s Wife – based on the book by Audrey Nifenegger
• Up in the Air – based on the book by Walter Kim
• Whip It – based on the book Derby Girl, by Shauna Cross

2010 Movies – Now or Soon in Theaters!

• Dear John – based on the book by Nicholas Sparks
• Shutter Island – based on the book by Dennis Lehane
• Dark Fields – based on the book by Alan Glynn
• The Associate – based on the book by John Grisham
• Eat, Pray, Love – based on the book by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Ghost Writer – based on the book The Ghost by Robert Harris

It’s not always easy to come up with a way to keep patrons from JUST checking out those DVDs but maybe when they’ve run out of new discs to watch, you can point them in the direction of a display that’ll get them back to reading a bit, too. What can be bad about keeping your book circulation up at the same time your DVD circulation is steadily increasing?

Why settle for what’s walking through your doors?

In an earlier post, I mentioned a brief study that I completed while in graduate school. In that study, I tried to get to the heart of why some libraries and librarians choose not to actively market their services and materials in any way. The predominant answer that I got back from the participants was both shocking and disappointing to me. Some of the librarians that I interviewed work in libraries that have a very high per capita circulation and therefore, these folks believe there’s no reason to market. Since when is settling for what walks through the door good enough? Libraries are still a business. If you’re able to say that you have a healthy number of patrons coming through the door without any effort, can you imagine what you’d have if you actually tried? If you were throwing a birthday party for your best friend and five people showed up without an invitation just because they knew it was that friend’s birthday, would you stop there? Or would you take the time to invite people? Sounds silly, right? So what’s any different about inviting people to THIS party? Letting people know what you have to offer just makes sense, as does setting up a library that’s easy to maneuver and that allows patrons to find what they’re looking for without needing a staff member to show them the way. And since there are so many libraries out there doing so many wonderful things to help boost their circulation, it’s easy to get started. Read a little. Find out what people are doing that works. And then…. just do it. Improve your signage. Ask your patrons what they want or need. Let the community know about your programs and other offerings. But try! Your patrons and your community deserve it.

Good background on marketing from American Libraries

While contemplating starting this blog, the latest issue of American Libraries from the ALA showed up in my mailbox. While I sometimes find myself skimming this article or that headline, I was thrilled to find an article that gets right to the heart of where I think libraries should be focusing their energy. From the article:

While it may seem optimistic, hidden in this “good news/bad news” scenario most libraries are now enduring is a rare opportunity: Figure out what people really want from our libraries in order to turn novice users into loyal customers. Even if they only come in to check out DVDs or print a boarding pass, these new library users may discover an attractive alternative to the bookstores and internet cafés where they’ve been spending their money and time—if they like what they see when they walk through your doors. It might mean changing the way you staff your service points or how you display your collections, but with a little imagination and some diligent attention to detail, you can make a library visit as essential to nontraditional visitors as a trip to the grocery store.

The article goes on to discuss how libraries in Hayward and San Jose, California were able to use retail practices and ideas to fine tune the way that they do business. It’s so much more simple than many folks think. The conclusions that they came to were so accessible to even the most budget-strapped libraries. Use clear signage. Encourage staff to cruise the stacks and offer assistance to patrons rather than forcing patrons to walk up to reference, circulation and information desks since any or all of those can be intimidating to even the most seasoned library patrons. Don’t inundate patrons with information as they come in the doors; instead, offer an uncluttered, clear area to allow patrons to get their bearings before seeking out information and resources.

Read the article. I’d love to know what you think and if you’ve tried any of these simple techniques in your own libraries.

How to Thrive by Design in Tough Times, by Lisa Rosenblum

Nice to know I’m not alone in this

So I hit the internet and was looking around to see who else has something to say about the whole idea of getting the word out there about the benefits of your local public library. I came across an article by Toby Greenwalt, a librarian and blogger, and was impressed by what he had to say as well as by his call for input from readers. He ends his post with the same sort of question that I’ve been trying to answer myself, both in my own career as well as for every public library out there:

So I put the question to you, Huffington Post readers. If you are a regular library user (and once again, thank you), what about the experience works for you? How would you push our services to non-library users?

If you’re not a library user, how can we prove ourselves to you?

And maybe that’s what I really want to know. What’s it going to take to bring people into the library and to keep them there for more than just checking out a handful of DVDs? Sure, we want them there for those DVDs, but there has to be more, right? Something less fleeting than whether we have a decent movie to watch or not. There has to be something that keeps the doors open and the staff working and the people coming back for more. I’ll keep looking if you will!

Read Toby Greenwalt’s entire post here.

Why bother to market the public library?

Maybe I’m a bit of an idealist. Having just graduated with a Masters in Library Science, I’m even more certain now that libraries deserve a place in the community and that both as a librarian and as a concerned member of the community, everything should be done to guarantee that no library ever closes its doors. Yet in today’s economy, that happens far too often. We hear of branch libraries closing down either temporarily or permanently, of libraries cutting staff, hours and services. It’s heartbreaking.

Throughout the two and a half years that I was in school, I had plenty of opportunities to see how libraries are run. But beyond that, I had a chance to see that there are two distinct ways to run them, either as a government agency or as a business. I can understand why some public libraries go the route of the government agency, but to what end? If you work in the tag office, you know that you provide a particular service to the community, one with little variation and no need for marketing. But we’re talking about the library here. The community will assume that they can check out books, read magazines and use computers at their local library. But do they know about the computer training classes that they offer? Or about the downloadable audio books? Or the resources for job seekers? Do they know that the library is every bit the gathering place that the local big-box bookstore has become, with comfortable seating and tons of new books and materials to choose from? And how will they know… if not for marketing?

While earning my degree, I had the chance to complete a small study on the topic of marketing in public libraries. This blog is a result of what I learned during that study. Would you be surprised to learn that simply by putting a book on a display shelf where patrons see its cover as they’re looking for books, that you can increase the circulation of that item by as much as 400%. That’s marketing. It’s as simple as that. So start from there. Display what you have to offer. Tell the public about the products and services that you’re there to provide. By any means necessary, right? Do what it takes to keep the doors open and the staff on the payroll. It may not always work. But it just might.