A Way-Cool Video Promo

If you haven't seen this this video promotion yet, watch it! It's way too cool on so many levels. Not only is the Collingswood (NJ) Public Library making a 5k race part of its Book Festival this fall, but it's turned that into a fundraiser with a twist. From its website:

Last year’s Collingswood Book Festival kicked off with the Friends of the Library-sponsored “Meet the Director,” a discussion with new library director, Brett Bonfield. To kick off this year’s Book Festival, the Friends are sponsoring a 5K race around Knight Park at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 26.

Registration is $25 and the proceeds from the race will be used to set up a new teen area in the Library. However, if runners finish ahead of Brett—if they “Beat the Director”—they’ll be given $10 back.

Here are some of the things I like about this, from a promotional aspect:

* the continuity: last year was "meet the [new] director" and this year is "beat the director." hmmm, what could that mean for next year??
* the registration fee for the race goes right to creating a teen space in the library.
* there's a big challenge: do well enough and you can get some hard-earned cash back.
* it shows the whole organization, esp the director, in a non-traditional light.
* it demonstrates a great sense of humor.
* it uses popular technology (well-made video on YouTube) to promote the race, the book festival, the library, and its dedication to teens.
* it is funny as heck!!

Readers, what do you think? And how could you use an idea like this to promote your own libraries?

New technology - new ads. But will it work?

A new ad term is emerging, VIP- video in print. Will it take off and become a standard? That remains to be seen but Wired Magazine reports CBS is embedding a video player in a print ad in Entertainment Weekly that plays a full-motion video at a crisp resolution. The ad works like an audio greeting card. "Opening the page activates the player, which is a quarter-inch–thick screen seen through a cutaway between two pages concealing the larger circuit board underneath."

The author of the article, John Abel, says "The audio quality is equally good (extremely poor video shot by this reporter notwithstanding), but beware: There are no volume controls, and in a quiet environment, it’s quite loud. This is surely a intentional design feature, aimed at getting the attention of people nearby."

While this may be a fun and creative use of technology that could bring the dollars back to print ads, I dread the idea of listening to a bus filled with people listening to the sound blast of different ads at the same time. Maybe the next invention will allow people to plug in their headphones to listen. But this is interesting because we are seeing the emergence of ideas to bring video and audio in disposable formats - the QR code comes to mind as well. [A code is generated and printed in ads that can be scanned by a cell phone and will communicate information to it.] Does this play into the "information needs to be free" concept? Will we begin to see an effort to try to get video and audio content into the hands of consumers without requiring them to own a device such as an iPod or video player? Stay tuned ... the future is coming.

Handouts Available from ALA's PR Forums

From ALA's Public Info Office:

If you can't afford to go to ALA Annual, or get there but can't attend every session you want, here's great news that I just became aware of: You can download the handouts from the annual Sunday-morning PR Forums at this site.

Handouts are there for the PR Forums at the conferences from 2005 - 2009. What a great resource! Thanks, ALA, for making these freely available!

NYPL Fights Cutbacks -- And Wins

From The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

The New York Public Library successfully used an online fundraising and advocacy campaign to fight the city’s plan to slash its municipal support by $28 million this year—and now it has won back $23 million in subsidies. Key to the library’s success was an urgent alert message that the institution used to replace what viewers typically see when they visit its main website....

(Make sure to read the first comment under the article -- this surely was not as easy as getting people to write in support of NYPL for a couple weeks.)

Then NYPL thanked its supporters and encouraged donations. Nicely done.

MJ: 'Pop' Culture in the Library

From Channel 13, WJZ TV:

As millions watched the Michael Jackson memorial service on TV around the world, hundreds of people gathered at the Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore), where the memorial was streamed live on big screens.

Talk about being aware of pop culture & public interest! Enoch Pratt drew in people by showing Michael Jackson's televised memorial service on its big screens -- and got TV coverage itself for doing so. This also demonstrates how flexible the organization is (arranging something quickly) and how empowered decision-makers are (I doubt they had to hold 10 meetings and wait for Board permission to do this).

Doing what interests the public, creating a sense of community, using their technology & space to full advantage -- wow.

What does your library contribute to the bottom line?

From the National Network of Libraries of Medicine:

Cost Benefit and ROI Calculator

How much benefit does your institution, your user, receive for every dollar spent by the library? What's the annual return your institution realizes on what you spend on your collection? Cost/Benefit Analysis and Return on Investment are measures often used by financial managers to gauge the efficiency and effectiveness of their budget policies.

If you haven't looked into value / ROI calculators yet, you need to. Using them is one of the best ways to prove your value to the people who control your money. Don't wait till they're trying to cut your budget!! Start using value calculators now! They don't take perfect measurements, but they can be quite eye-opening to those who wonder why libraries should continue to eat up precious funding: Libraries historically have greater ROIs than many other organizations.

This particular calculator measures the library's value to each medical employee who uses it. This site also has a link to:

* a Retail Value Calculator to demonstrate the benefit of all library services and resources
and
* a Database ROI Calculator that shows the value of your book and journal collections

It's important that you be using tools like these and collecting data to defend your budgets!

Mobile phone wallet of the future?

Interesting article from CNN:
Wallet of the future? Your mobile phone
-Analysts say mobile phones in U.S. may act like wallets in 5 years
-Phones in Asian countries are scanned to make payments and serve as ID
-Idea has been tested here for a decade but never adopted
-Technology could cause privacy, security and logistical concerns

Some analysts say that within five years, mobile phones in the United States will be able to make electronic payments, open doors, access subways, clip coupons and possibly act as another form of identification.

These futuristic uses for phones are becoming reality in countries like South Korea and Japan, which typically are ahead of the United States when it comes to mobile technology

Full Story

ProQuest Calls Kathy a 'True Marketing Hero'

Unbeknownst to me at the time, mega-vendor ProQuest praised me in a luncheon presentation that it hosted for its customers during ALA (July 13). The program, Marketing Your Library, had Maria Ziemer explaining the basic tenets of marketing, then giving tips on each and citing real-life examples of people and organizations that had done each step well. I am thrilled that ProQuest called me a “true marketing hero”! Ziemer said I was someone whose work listeners might want to follow, and she recommended my MLS newletter, my website, and my book to the crowd. Wow. I think I'm blushing over here...

With the company’s permission, you can download the PDF (I’m slides 21 & 22, in case you care). You can also watch a video of the event. Watching the whole talk is well worth your time, but if you just can’t wait to see the 2 minutes about me (haha!), it’s in Chapter 3, starting at 8:20.

I like how the video appears online--in small, easy-to-watch chapters, with the additional matter linked in so you can see that as well. This way you can fully understand the discussion.

This is a seriously good presentation about what the proper marketing steps are with good examples of how your peers have done them up right. Nice job, ProQuest! And thanks for recognizing my work.

Go to ProQuest's home page and check out the section called Marketing Your Library for toolkits for all types of libraries. This company cares about marketing!

Are we holding our customers captive?

Andy created this drawing and it got me thinking about the whole idea of "information captivity" and that led me to thinking about other things we hold captive in libraries - like our customers.

When I was growing up the Post WWII values were all about borrowing. Our country was still adjusting from rationing, factories were trying to churn out goods and neighbors didn't have the money to buy everything they needed so they borrowed. My Uncle Cal had the only freezer in the village with room for ice and everyone was always borrowing a bag of ice. It was normal. Neighbors borrowed wheel barrows and shovels and whatever else was needed. We lived in a world where everyone borrowed. But as our world changed into one of ownership, borrowing began to take on another connotation. People who borrowed were different than those who could afford to own. Perhaps even considered lower on the economic ladder. In some social circles borrowers were considered "cheap" and for some people it no longer felt comfortable to be a lender.

Did we in the library field subconsciously make that shift as well? Does it show up in our customer service policies and attitudes? Do we hold our borrowers captive behind the bars of a deep seated belief that since we are providing services and resources our customers can't afford, we are more important to them, then they are to us?

I was imagining what we might look like if saw our customers in another light. If we considered developing "Borrowing Plans".

Imagine if someone returned overdue books and instead of being charged a fine, that person was offered different borrowing options that matched their lifestyle. For those who liked to borrow a certain amount of books without time limits they could choose a Netflix plan, for those who tended to borrow books before buying they could have a different plan. The idea would be instead of having an inflexible, fine based system that uses fines as the negative motivation to make people fit into our borrowing models, we work to create a system that fits the needs of our customers. Our job would be to look at those borrowing trends and find solutions that work for our customers.

Valuing our customers requires us to go deeper than finding the right resources for them, it demands that we recognize what they want, need and desire and begin creating solutions that work for them and stop holding them captive to systems that meet our needs.

Philadelphia Library Budget Battles Will Continue

Many of you may saw the articles in the media last fall about the Mayor of Philadelphia trimming money from the library budget that threatened to close 11 branches. I published a cover story in Marketing Library Services (but it is not online in full text) about how the library's Friends group spearheaded grassroots efforts that stopped the closures.

However, a couple days ago, I got word from the Free Library of Philadelphia that its budget is in danger again. Advocates are urging Philly-area residents to send this letter to their representatives:

July, 2009

Dear [Legislator's Name Here]

We have just heard our Mayor announce the possible closing of many of our public libraries if the State does not end the budget impasse very soon.

The Free Libraries in Philadelphia are in every one of our neighborhoods and provide essential services in these communities. Use of Library resources has increased dramatically this year as job seekers come to use the Library's free public computers to do job searches, children seek homework help in a safe environment after school (most Philadelphia public schools have no libraries!), and seniors come to access information about social security and other federal benefits--information now found only online. Almost half of Philadelphians are without internet access at home.

This crucial resource cannot and should not be taken away!

I urge you to pass the budget and restore the cut to library services. Now more than ever, we need libraries to serve the under-served and those challenged by this economy.

Please keep our vital libraries open!

Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]

Read the latest budget news here. And here you'll find a list of news articles relating to Friends of the Free Library and its work on behalf of all branches of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Follow the saga as it continues...