Calling all Illinois libraries – would you like people in your community or school to have an opportunity to win $1,000?

Would you like your library to have an opportunity to win an iPad2?

Do you want to help the sharing of great environmental ideas?

All these great elements converge in Go Green, Win Green, an Illinois Library Association contest and project. It is simple for all Illinois libraries to participate in the contest. It starts Oct. 18.

What is your library planning for Snapshot Day this year?

How can we get more Illinois libraries participating in Snapshot Day this year?

DISCUSS IN THE COMMENTS!

You know you’re all doing it.

Recycling that is.

Just about every library these days is participating in “going green” in some format or another. The Des Plaines Public Library has been offering Technotrash Recycling for several years now. Good stuff, but to really reap the marketing benefits from these efforts, promoting both the service and the benefits to the community is key.

Check out two ways the Des Plaines Public Library has done it, below:

DPPL Plaintalk Blog Post:  Technotrash Adventures!

and

Over the past four years my colleagues and I have taken what we affectionately call the Library Road Show to various locations within the Schaumburg Township District community. We’ve extolled the virtues of downloadable media to commuters at the Metra Train Station and to fitness enthusiasts at recreation centers, explained how to create a mailing list using a database such as ReferenceUSA to business people at business expos and chamber of commerce meetings, told parents about storytimes and online Tutoring services at the local farmers’ market. We’ve been to senior centers, Septemberfest celebrations, high school open houses, and the list goes on. Has all this time spent on the road been worth it? Ultimately, I’d say absolutely yes. Not only have we seen increases in some of our online resources, but we’ve made connections with people who otherwise would not come into the library and make use of our resources.

My colleague John Ericson and I wrote an article about our first experiences with the Road Show in the August 2007 issue of the ILA Reporter. When we first started going out into the community we pulled out all the stops. We made scratch off tickets, we chose a variety of prizes for people to win, and we had drawings to win MP3 players.  While we still have a small prize for people as a lure to get them to come over and talk with us, we’ve simplified the experience considerably. It’s now usually just two people, a laptop with an aircard (so we can demonstrate the library’s resources no matter where we are), a trifold stand promoting some aspect of the library’s services, handouts and some giveaways. (See pictures below)

Ultimately, we discovered that the important thing was to connect with people one on one and promote the resources that made the most sense to them, rather than just pushing one thing, regardless of the audience. That ability to adapt was one of the most important lessons we learned during these outreach efforts. Rather than promote downloadable media for someone who declared they didn’t enjoy audiobooks, for example, we took the time to find out what their needs were and to see if there was some library product or service we could educate them about. More often than not we were able to inform people about some aspect of the library’s services of which they were not aware.

In terms of seeing real results as an effect of our outreach efforts, I would point to the year to year increases for just one of our online resources: MyMediaMall, the OverDrive driven downloadable media service our library subscribes to as part of the North Suburban Library System Consortium. Looking at the statistics in just the month of September for each year we’ve been part of the MyMediaMall consortium (2005-present), you can see the significant growth in circulation from year to year:

We went from 70 downloads in the month of September 2005 to 859 in September 2010. That’s an overall percentage increase of 1,127%, but even looking at the numbers from a short-term perspective there is at least a 40% increase in downloads from year to year. This increase cannot, of course, be attributed only to our outreach efforts, but I do believe that the active promotion of a resource that is essentially an invisible collection was one of the driving factors for increasing both patron and staff awareness of the service.

I would recommend doing a Library Road Show for any library who wants to make a connection to their community and promote resources, events, or a new service about which people are likely unaware. It’s also a great way to hear about the concerns of people the library serves or find out some of the reasons why they do not make use of the library. So, take the show on the road.

Amy Peterson

Popular Services Librarian

Schaumburg Township District Library

Exhibits work to inform, promote and entertain.  It’s a unique way to tell a story – in a three-dimensional way, in descriptive panels, in tactile presentations and more.  All of our libraries need to engage our communities in multiple ways and creating an exhibit – telling that story and defining that space – works.

And if you tell that story well people will notice – patrons will respond in positive ways such as increased attendance and circulation. 

My background, before the library, was in the exhibit world – museums, tradeshows and experiential marketing events.  I started at Waukegan Public Library as a volunteer and a year later was hired to do marketing and exhibits.  What a wonderful place to use my experience!

The first big project was to celebrate the first year anniversary of our award winning Early Learning Center (ELC).  Elizabeth Stearns, Assistant  Director of Community Services, put together a great team from the library’s children’s department and volunteers – an experienced museum curator, a talented set builder and designer and me.  “Dig the Dinosaurs” was born.  Our audience was toddlers to 7 year-olds.

Dinosaur heads mounted to the wall, informative wall-size murals that show size comparisons and dino diets and life size skeleton of a smaller dino (5 feet long).  There were dino costumes in the ELC Theater and crafts and programs that engaged and entertained the children.  And it worked:

The Early Learning Center has shown an increase in attendance in all of its functions and programs since the Dino exhibit opened November 15, 2009.  Total Children’s Department (including the ELC) attendance from 8/09 to 9/10 was 36,601.

In addition, it opened up a whole new line of programming that the community has embraced:  Dinosauria!!; Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Reptiles from the Mesozoic Era; Making Dinosaurs – Paleo-modeling;  Disappearing Dinosaurs;  The Extinction of Dinosaurs and  How to Draw Dinosaurs.

The success of “Dig the Dinosaurs” has led us to create a new themed exhibit every year for the ELC and Children’s Department.  On December 5^th, 2010 we will have the grand opening of our new exhibit: “Under the Sea”.

That’s an example of a major exhibit effort.  Not all exhibits that work need to be that grand.  We repurposed a diorama structure used for the dino exhibit to promote the 90^th birthday party we had for Ray Bradbury, a Waukegan native and supporter.  Ray lives in Los Angeles now and said hi via a taped video, there was storytelling, and Bradbury readings by the mayor and others.  We created an exhibit that was in the entry area of the library and featured an interactive media screen that allowed patrons to select a topic and hear Ray discuss his views and memories of Waukegan.   An 8 foot mural and shelves for Bradbury books was also part of the display.  In addition it promoted our 5^th Annual Ray Bradbury Storytelling Festival that was held a couple of months after his birthday.  Many more of our patrons now know about one of local heroes and our Storytelling Festival was a huge success.

 Define a space – tell a story – entertain and inform – exhibits work.  And they can be an exciting and integral part of the mix that makes libraries a great asset to their communities.

Mitch Siegel     
Marketing and Exhibits Coordinator

mitchsiegel@waukeganpl.info

www.waukeganpl.org

Here are some photos of the exhibit.

The exhibit is a project I inherited when I started this position in January.  The grant application had already been approved, Dr. Roberts had attended the training, and the agenda had been set.  Dr. Roberts met with me, provided copies of the materials, and ensured that I was involved in any discussion regarding the exhibit and lecture series.  The exhibit would be housed in the library, and the speaker series would take place at various locations across campus.  As the time for the exhibit approached we continued to keep each other informed of our actions, who I distributed posters to, who was invited to the opening receptions, press releases, website updates.  The collaboration was essential to the success of this exhibit.

Once the exhibit opened, that was not the end of the collaboration.  In fact, it spurred additional collaboration with Admissions.  Dr. Roberts worked tirelessly to inform the area high school history teachers this exhibit was here and encouraged them to bring their class for a tour.  Four area high schools signed up to bring their high school junior and seniors through the exhibit.  One even requested some library research instruction, and we were able to accommodate their request.  Wanting to ensure the students were exposed to campus life here, we involved the Admissions office in these tours.  The students were able to tour the exhibit, meet with Dr. Roberts to talk about it, and then hear from admissions about their entry requirements.  This was such a success that University Libraries is hoping to incorporate more collaboration with Admissions and other departments on campus in future events.

I am truly indebted to Dr. Roberts for all that he has done to ensure the success of this exhibit.  If he had not been willing to collaborate with me, I am certain we would not have had as many visitors through the exhibit and success would have been minimal.

Tammy J. Sayles, MLIS