Marketing the Library - 1

Seems some subdivisions in our local library district have discovered that they can disconnect from the district. The focus -- immediate cost savings on property taxes. Some households have been long-time library patrons. How can the library deal with this domino effect as groups of homeowners decide to back away from the community? There is no perfect solution to this situation. But what I believe can help is to tell the story of how the library provides value to residents and patrons. Can you tell the story with statistics, like how many books have been checked out, or how many patrons have walked through the door? Not really. People need to know that there are people being helped, they need to know the stories.

The blog posting in the next paragraph speaks to this way of marketing. I think this is one of the best ways to showcase the value of the library. Our library has had patrons tell the director or the board or the librarian on check-out duty stories of what the library has meant to them, or what it has done. We've seen letters from authors whose work was researched in conjunction with our research staff. We've had people attend board meetings and reading notes of appreciation about their favorite librarians. We've had graduates of our award winning literacy program tell us how they appreciate learning to speak English. We know of people that have found jobs using the job club we hosted and using our computers to write resumes. But we don't really keep track of these success stories, these "value stories". It's time we did.

The 'M' Word - Marketing Libraries: Speaking up about libraries: "Whenever libraries are under attack, there is always a huge cry for librarians to speak up. As a marketer, I want to concentrate on the ways..."

I think the library should start collecting these stories and making sure people know about them. The library is a builder of community. Letting patrons know about how the library is providing real value to people in their community may be the only way to show the opposite side of the case - why the community, and its library, should continue to be funded.

For my part, I will ask the library to start collecting these stories and the rights to republish them, in newsletters, the web, newpapers, etc. I will also ask the library to showcase these on a regular basis. On the web, perhaps a blog by the director/board would be a start.