The 2013 John Cotton Dana Winners

One of my favorite awards at ALA is the John Cotton Dana Award ceremony. When I was working in libraries I dreamed of winning the award and finally did a few years back. I still proudly display a copy of the certificate in my office. Now I am working for NoveList and am happy to say that my parent company, EBSCO Information Services, is working in conjunction with the H.W. Wilson Foundation and the American Library Association's Library Leadership and Management Association section (LLAMA) to honor outstanding library public relations. There's an added sense of pride for me knowing my president, Tim Collins, is the one giving out these awards. The past two years the application process was streamlined to allow libraries to easily submit their campaigns without a mandatory portfolio. 

    “This was a very difficult judging year,” said John Cotton Dana Award committee chair Kim Terry. “The quality was outstanding. We had entries from a variety of libraries. Many of the submissions came from small-to medium-sized libraries.  In these challenging economic times, It’s amazing how wonderfully gifted libraries are at leveraging what they have to produce effective marketing campaigns.”

Kathy and I think this year’s winners were amazing!

Here they are with their awards! 

The Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library - Arkansas

 

The copy was funny and engaging - which is your favorite?

“Meme Your Library” campaign engaged their community in a new way and positioned them as a 21st Century Library. 

The campaign, styled after popular ecards, resulted in increases in usage both physically and virtually, including an increase in mobile site visits by 118 percent and program participation by more than 100 percent. 

I met Ben Bizzle, director of technology, at Computers in Libraries last April (Kathy had met him previously), and we knew he had something amazing going on in his library.

Check out the story over at MLS that Kathy had Ben write for her. 

In 2010 Hood River County Library, Oregon 

Pictured from left: Tim Collins, President of EBSCO Information Services;
Buzzy Nielsen, Hood River County Library Director;
and  Kim Terry, JCD Award committee 

The district closed due to lack of funding. One 

year later, after a ballot measure to reopen the libraries passed by only 53 percent, the libraries reopened as an independent government agency needing to reboot their relationship with the community. Simply looking at transformation of their logos will give you a sense of this library's transformation!

The library’s outreach efforts included hiring bilingual staff, joining community organizations and bringing library services out into the neighborhoods. Despite being open only 25 hours per week for several months, circulation increased 5.2 percent and program attendance was up 20 percent.

The Lawrence Public Library, Kansas

The Winning Team from Lawrence Public Library 

Lawrence Public Library engaged the community in the celebration of Banned Books Week by having local artists competitively design a week’s worth of trading cards. When Susan Brown  (pictured right with the cards) shared them with us on PRTalk, we all went wild!

These unique cards succeeded in actively involving the arts community, putting a new marketing twist on typical banned books activities. 

They were truly a perfect combination of community involvement, creativity and advocacy.

The campaign attracted collectors and nationwide media attention.

Mid-Continent Public Library, Missouri  

Mid-Continent Public Library JCD award winners accept their award.

Mid-Continent developed a cohesive and comprehensive rebranding campaign around the concept of “access” to help shift the perceptions of libraries in their community. The creative “Access Your World” campaign was embraced by library staff and community members alike, indicated by increased usage of online services and customers proudly touting their Access Passes (formerly known as library cards).

Richland Library, South Carolina

Richland used customer experience workshops with 400 staff members to “change from the inside out,” identifying the Library’s brand promises to the Richland community. The brand promises became the Library’s foundation for defining what the customer can expect from the library.

Texas Tech University Library, Texas 

Pictured from left: Tim Collins, President of EBSCO Information Services;
Kaley Daniel, Texas Tech Director, Libraries Communication & Marketing;
and  Kim Terry, JCD Award committee 

Texas Tech University Library used several print and electronic channels—even 3-D animation—to successfully reach its student population through six keywords:

Action

Create

Help

Relax

Green

Connect

The creative graphical representations of these words could be seen all over campus.





The Robert E. Kennedy Library at Cal Poly, California

Pictured from left: Tim Collins, President of EBSCO Information Services;
Kristen Thorp, Cal Poly Student Assistant Coordinator;
and  Kim Terry, JCD Award committee chair

Cal Poly inspired its students and others around the world to declare, “I’m with the Banned,” through virtual outreach and library programming during 2012 Banned Books Week. 

An interactive website invited participation from more than 6,000 visitors, and dozens of libraries across the nation linked to the site. 

Cal Poly students gained awareness of the issue of banned books through multiple channels, including craftwork, t-shirts, exhibits and interviews and a capacity crowd of 500-plus community members attended author Stephen Chbosky’s week-ending talk.

The Santa Clara City Library California 

Pictured from left: Tim Collins, President, EBSCO Publishing; Angela Ocana, Project Best Coordinator; Mary Boyle, Librarian with job training responsibilities; and Kim Terry, JCD Awards Chair

Santa Clara launched the Project BEST campaign to educate the community about a new California law mandating that all food service employees complete the Food Handler Certification Program. As part of this campaign, the library positioned itself as a resource for job skills development. To this end, the library held 26 food handler classes resulting in 130 students obtaining food handler certification, assisted more than 550 people at job workshops and held a job fair attended by 13 companies and 375 potential job seekers.

Photos from the JCD Award Ceremony courtesy of EBSCO