Public relations involves making the library and its programs and services visible to the community. Marketing a library is very much a matter of the individual style of the library's staff and trustees.
CONCLUSION
For example, in a small community that has several video stores competing for customers, the library may choose not to have a collection of entertainment videos. In an active local community, where the residents make many demands on their time, the library can choose not to emphasize adult programming.
PART TWO
THE HUMAN SIDE OF MARKETING
INTRODUCTION
Some librarians in small communities find that an obstacle to community networking is the difficulty of getting away from the library facility. The library board needs to understand that networking with the community is a very important part of the director's job.
MARKETING TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT
It's a great tool for library marketing to people whose support is critical. Both the library staff and the library board must show impeccable courtesy to the local government.
MARKETING TO COMMUNITY LEADERS
By looking for a chance to tell the library's most interesting stories, the librarian can help fill that need. The marketing strategy simply takes this happy state of affairs and makes it a more conscious part of the library's plans for the future.
MARKETING TO LIBRARY USERS
Library users are often so absolutely essential to library services that, paradoxically, they become almost invisible. Turning regular library users into a cadre of active library supporters will pay off if library support is compromised.
MARKETING FOR A TARGET AUDIENCE
Marketing for this program will involve making sure that the community leadership and local government become aware that the library makes this contribution to the community. If the participants are enthusiastic and good teachers are available, the library should very seriously consider continuing the project. The effort it represents should not be wasted, but should be used to benefit the overall image of the library.
The value that the public places on library service can be translated into support for the library through community leadership. But that kind of support only comes from a public that knows what the library does for the community.
PART THREE
MARKETING LIBRARY SERVICES
MARKETING THE FACILITY
Is the library able to support efficient, up-to-date library technology that meets community needs. There are many examples of quite small changes that have given the library greater visibility and appeal in society. A community with an active garden club provided plants, arrangements and decorated evergreens to decorate the library year round.
Grant County in Ulysses was an early adopter of the library computer lab concept and found it dramatically changed library services. One community carpenter donated a large castle to the library to use as a children's playhouse.
MARKETING THE COLLECTIONS
In the spring, a garden center or hardware store can bring a display of flowers and plants to the library to pair with appropriate library materials. In fact, it can build excellent support for the library to market mysteries to mystery readers, westerns to western readers, and popular bestsellers to those flocking to the new book fairs. Public librarians often don't realize that many people don't know how much popular fiction costs the library.
Many small public libraries have worked hard to build their video and audio collections because these are popular services that increase library circulation. They have often found it necessary to supplement library tax dollars with grants or fundraisers to support these services.
MARKETING PUBLIC SERVICES
The library staff must be able to provide the public with a reasonable reference service that includes searching skills with both print and electronic resources. Community information tends to be most effective when the library staff is trained to think in terms of community resources and partnership and when there is some mechanism to review and update the information. If this is one of the library's strengths, it should be marketed alongside other library services.
If this information can be placed online, it is an ideal candidate for a link to a library or community website. Since community information is labor-intensive, yet very valuable, it is often a good project for a good volunteer.
MARKETING THROUGH PROGRAMS
Programs can make the library's collections more visible if exhibitions are part of the program. For a small library, it is better to limit the programming to the programs that the library is good at. If a program is worth the library's time and effort to sponsor, it is worth enough publicity to make it a success.
It is sometimes appropriate to pay presenters, but many do so as a contribution to the library. They should receive a small gift, an honorary membership in the Friends of the Library or some other token.
PART FOUR
TOOLS FOR MARKETING
Marketing through electronic information - Using small groups to design customer service - Marketing through community fundraising.
MARKETING WITH THE MEDIA
If the library submits images, they must be of good quality with clear identification. The news release should be distributed carefully, not too soon, but certainly not too late. If the story has complexity or time sensitivity, there should be a follow-up phone call answering questions.
If the event would be suitable for photos, the press release should be marked "Good photo opportunity". If the question is about the most important part of the topic, let the interviewer know that: "The most important thing I have to say is...".
SELF-PUBLISHING
Annual Report - The library's significant achievements for a year will go on a large bookmark. Bookmarks can be created for a specific audience, but they are usually intended for the larger community. When the library is creating an important brochure, it is wise to seek professional advice from someone who has experience with printing, layout or public relations.
Small library directors often wonder how they can market the library and still have time to manage the library. The library's partnerships with other agencies or organizations - Appreciation for special services to the library.
MARKETING THROUGH ELECTRONIC INFORMATION
Just as the library can generate lists of special books, the library can also share special websites with the public. At the same time, the professional searching skills of the library staff can be marketed. Interesting or especially useful websites can be continuously brought to the attention through a fixed section in the library's newsletter.
This can be a very valuable service, but the library certainly deserves to have effective publicity for it. Pages that are created and/or maintained by library staff should include an acknowledgment to the library.
MEETING WITH GROUPS TO DESIGN CUSTOMER SERVICE
COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING AS A MARKETING TOOL
If the person is not a library user, the librarian should leave a flyer or brochure with important information about the library. Some librarians and administrators strongly believe that the library is a public agency that should be supported by public funds. Many small library directors are more comfortable with this informal, ongoing, low-pressure method of fundraising, especially when they understand it as part of the library's marketing program.
If the library's fiscal problems are so dire, the board should be looking at increased public support, not fundraising. However, if acceptable to the library's service philosophy, community fundraising can become a permanent part of the small library's marketing program.
PART FIVE
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP
STAFF
A special talent for memory book programs, adopt-a-book programs, adopt-a-video programs, reliable magazine donations. A director who knows the staff and has their respect has a much better chance of both meeting their needs and finding out how they can best help the library. But they are also most likely to neglect such useful tools as staff meetings, weekly reviews of projects and quarterly.
The more the staff know about the library's needs, the more likely they are to meet them.
VOLUNTEERS
TRUSTEES
FRIENDS
A Friends group can commit itself to funding extra copies of bestsellers, so that the library's reserve list does not become so overloaded. While many smaller libraries have video collections, it's hard to fund a really good collection. A good video collection can increase the total circulation of the library and attract people who are not into recreational reading to the library.
But audiobooks are a weapon against any boring routine work and can be marketed that way. Note: Libraries interested in starting a Friends of the Library should contact their local system or the Friends of Kansas Libraries Board.
ACTIVE LIBRARY USERS
Such a project must be marketed to the public from the moment the exciting idea is clear to the moment the service is established and popular. Often, a library user's occupation can give a clue as to what they might be qualified to do to work in a library. An avid gardener who reads all the garden and landscape books the library has, might enjoy helping organize the library or contributing beautiful flower arrangements.
They are so absolutely essential to the success of the library that they are taken for granted. But library staff in a small library often have the opportunity to recognize these.
COMPUTER BUFFS
A young adult with a bottomless appetite for imagination may be delighted to be asked for reviews or a program. Many of them have not contributed to the library, mainly because they have never been asked. They can serve as tutors for library staff or volunteers trying to learn new skills.
Computer buffs can help the library staff become as technically proficient as they need to be for effective library service. But they can also stretch the resources of the library staff beyond what they would have the time and talents to accomplish themselves.
LOCAL ARTISTS
SPEAKERS
If the library director or a board member enjoys public speaking and does it well, the word can be spread, benefiting both the library and the community.
FUNDRAISERS
MEMBERS OF THE TARGET AUDIENCE
