Dreaming About the Future of Libraries

Dreaming about the future... isn't this something we all do? What will our personal lives be like in the future? Our families? Our libraries?
If you're like me, then you think about the future of libraries a lot -- maybe a little too much. The possibilities are vast. But we need to do more than dream about them -- we need to think hard, study, and then act to create the future of libraries.

**photo of Michael Stephens and Kathryn Greenhill at Library Camp2009, Uploaded to Flickr on October 3, 2009 by rosehortonau, borrowed from Kathryn's blog**

There is a lot of blog & conference chatter out there about this topic. But at the moment I want to point you to a particular post that I liked. It's on Kathryn Greenhill's blog Librarians Matter. If you don't know of Kathryn or her work (she's an Aussie), it's well worth checking out. I had the pleasure of meeting her this past spring and shortly afterward, speaking at a conference with her in Delft.

At any rate, this post, called "Community Dreaming at Library Camp Perth 2009" is full of food for thought. But my personal favorite section is titled "What do we need to stop doing so we can do other things in the future? What to drop." I point to this one on The M Word because, whenever I talk about true marketing and all the work it involves, the message I get back is "we don't have time for that. we're too busy already." My answer is usually, "well then, drop some of the unimportant things you do, because marketing is essential."

So what might librarians drop to make time for more important work? That was something that the folks at Library Camp Perth talked about, and what's in this post. Suggestions include "bean counting" and "recataloging." I can add things like "shelving" (at the risk of sounding snarky -- let the non-MLS folks, student workers, & volunteers do that!), "endless committee meetings" (where little is accomplished), and "filling display cases." Seriously, if you want to have collections and activities that really appeal to your users (and potential users), if you want to convince important people of your value, if you want to keep your funding, then marketing is essential. Is recataloging or shelving as important? Think about it...

What else would you like to give up so you'd have more time for marketing??? Let's discuss!!

Free Marketing Toolkit from ProQuest

You know how your library has scads of amazing information in all sorts of great databases... but the average person doesn't know about them, understand them, or use them? Well, database vendor ProQuest is sending help! It's created a new toolkit to help you to publicize all the info goodness that's in the ProQuest Historical Newspapers collection.

Here's the news, direct from ProQuest:

ProQuest has launched a free library marketing toolkit designed specifically to help librarians create awareness about and usage of their ProQuest Historical Newspapers collection, other historical resources, and the library itself. The Historical Newspapers Marketing Toolkit includes ideas for reaching out to the user community — from the local genealogy society members to student groups on campus — and driving them to the rich resources available at the library.

“Many users start and end online research sessions with the open web,” said Lynda James-Gilboe, senior vice president of marketing and customer care for ProQuest. “Our goal is to help librarians draw users to a better starting point for relevant, reliable, and vetted information: the library, and its carefully selected e-resources.”

The Historical Newspapers Marketing Toolkit combines a wealth of "how-to" advice and print and digital marketing tools that are easy to customize. Among the program's components are:
* A white paper for ideas on how to use online historical resources to promote the library.
* Tips for using blogs, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to promote online historical newspapers and the library.
* Customizable ProQuest Historical Newspapers™ poster
* A guide to searching ProQuest Historical Newspapers
* Descriptions of the types of content within ProQuest Historical Newspapers and examples of types of research possible within each.
* Sample Searches that demonstrate the research potential of your ProQuest Historical Newspapers collection.
* “Plain language” descriptions of ProQuest Historical Databases.
* A flier of “Five Fascinating Things to Do with Historical Newspapers”
* “Free Subscription” flier for Retroview — an entertaining quarterly e-newsletter that explores history as captured in the pages of historical newspapers.

The Historical Newspapers Marketing Toolkit is part of ProQuest's larger mission to understand the core tenets of librarianship, standing shoulder to shoulder with libraries in support of their goals. ProQuest is committed to investing in library education, honoring great educators with awards and sponsorships, supporting schools with free resources, and sharing its marketing expertise and research with libraries.

NOTE THIS (emphasis mine): The Historical Newspapers Marketing Toolkit is the seventh in a series of marketing kits from ProQuest, which include kits tailored for public, academic, corporate, K-12, and military academic and military base libraries.
The toolkit is available for free download

HERE

.

Although the company itself will obviously benefit from having more people use its databases (therefore keeping them off the list of dbs that get cut from the budgets), ProQuest is still doing busy librarians a favor by showing them how to increase database usage. It's a lesson that can be carried over to other under-used online resources as well. Thanks, ProQuest!!

Is Outreach "UnDead"? Just in Time for Halloween...

I'd like to point you all to a thought-provoking post over at In the Library With the Lead Pipe blog. Emily Ford started a good discussion on the word and idea of "outreach" and titled it "Outreach is (un)Dead."

A tiny piece from the post:

Kill your notion of outreach. We should demolish the body of outreach, but keep outreach activities alive. We should disallow outreach a separate body, but fold its spirit into our daily work and activities, for it is this spirit of work that is the very kernel of what makes a library.

To understand, you need to read the whole post. And the 20-some comments add a lot to it. What's your definition of "outreach" and "marketing"? Do they happen in a coordinated, useful fashion in your organization? Go contribute to the discussion!

Deadline Extended for Apps for National Library Week Grants: Now Due Nov. 6

This news comes directly from ALA:

The deadline for the Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week grant has been extended to Friday, November 6, 2009.

U.S. libraries of all types are invited to apply for a $3,000 grant that will be awarded to the best public awareness campaign that promotes the theme “Communities thrive @ your library” during National Library Week (April 11-17, 2010).

The 2010 grant application form and the guidelines can be accessed from the Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Web site.

All proposals must use the “Communities thrive @ your library” theme, which incorporates The Campaign for America's Libraries’ @ your library brand, on promotional and publicity material supporting National Library Week activities. Guidelines for using the brand are available on the campaign Web site under the “download logos” section.

The grant is sponsored by Scholastic Library Publishing, a division of Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company and is administered by the Public Awareness Committee of the American Library Association (ALA).

ACRL Wants to Review the Literature on the Value of Academic Libraries

This news comes directly from the Association of College and Research Libraries:

ACRL is seeking proposals from experienced researchers for the development and delivery of a comprehensive review of the quantitative and qualitative literature, methodologies and best practices currently in place for demonstrating the value of academic libraries. The request for proposals is available on the ACRL Web site . Responses are due by 4:30 p.m. CST on Nov. 2, 2009.

The current economic climate and the increased emphasis on assessment and outcomes have forced academic departments’ higher education administrators to make tough decisions regarding the funding of programs and units at their institutions. The relevance of libraries is under question. Now, more than ever, there is a need for libraries to demonstrate their value in clear, measurable ways to leaders in higher education, information technology, funding agencies and campus decision makers in order to secure adequate funding for their operations.

The primary objective of the comprehensive review is to provide ACRL leaders with a clearer understanding of what research already exists and where gaps occur in research about the performance of academic libraries. Additionally, this review will provide ACRL members with tools and strategies to demonstrate the value of academic libraries to their institutional leadership.

Direct questions to Mary Ellen K. Davis, ACRL executive director, at mdavis@ala.org or (312) 280-3248, or to Kara Malenfant, ACRL scholarly communications/government relations specialist, at kmalenfant@ala.org or (312) 280-2510.