Professional & Personal Development

Promoting Your Library

2008 CONTEST: Who's Your InfoPro Inspiration?
CONTEST RESULTS! View the list of winners and those who were recognized. THANK YOU for sharing how your relationships and mentors have helped you in your career.

Creating Your Marketing Plan
Successful promotions begin with planning. Schedule the time you need to evaluate, organize and execute promotions. Define the objectives of the promotion and allocate the proper resources to ensure its success. Consider planning for a year, is a monthly event realistic? Is a quarterly promotion possible? Are there daily or weekly occurrences that the library can piggyback on, like a newsletter or blog? You know your culture and your resources best, so tap into those!

Opening Your Library to Your Patrons and Have Some Fun
Open Houses and other events provide a reason to invite your patrons to come see your library. They can be held during National Library Week or anytime throughout the year. In today's world of online impersonal communications, there are not as many opportunities for your patrons to actually see the resources and meet the people who work in the library. Putting a face to a name (or an e-mail address) creates a more personal work environment and helps to build a bond between the library staff and the patrons.

Reaching Your Patrons
Technology has created some great opportunities for librarians to reach out to their patrons. Gone are the days of spending time mimeographing or actually cutting and pasting and then photocopying in order to create a library newsletter. With all the easy to use software available, a professional looking newsletter is within every library's reach. These newsletters can be used to highlight new acquisitions, upcoming events, and policies. They can also be used as a teaching tool to share useful URL's, mini-pathfinders and research tips. Finally, they can include humorous clip art, statistics about the library, a director's column, puzzles and other creative ways to spread the news about what is going on in the library.

Spreading Your Library's Message
Your ability to spread the library's message is limited only by your imagination. You can create free give-aways such as bookmarks or with a small budget you can purchase customized pens, sticky pads or other desk accessories with the library's branding and promotional message on them. When your patrons use the materials they will think of you thus expanding your reach in your organization.