Results tagged “public relations” from Wisconsin Library Heritage Center

Marketing Library History

A basic tenet of good library public relations is to seize every possible opportunity to penetrate the consciousness of the general public and community leaders with a positive message about the library. The over arching theme of library history public relations is that the library has been in the business of changing lives and improving the quality of life for the residents of your community for a long time, and that it continues to build on that heritage.

After a basic or compete library history has been compiled (or even before), the library should take advantage opportunities to put your library's history in front of the public.  Special library anniversaries are obviously a major opportunity, but those don't come around that often. Other occasions that lend themselves to promoting your library through history include national events such as  National Library Week, Archives Month. Preservation Month, ALA Preservation Week, National Bookmobile Day, and National History Day. The library can tie its history into other major library anniversaries. In 2000 libraries throughout Wisconsin and the nation helped the Library of Congress celebrate its bicentennial. This year is 175th anniversary of the birth of Andrew Carnegie who helped fund 65 libraries in Wisconsin. This is an opportunity to promote library history if your community benefited from a Carnegie grant. The Wisconsin Library Association will have its 120th anniversary in 2011 and its 125 anniversary in 2016, both provide opportunities to tie your library's history to this influential library organization.

The library doesn't need to have a major anniversary or occasion to promote its history. Library history can be incorporated into the library's ongoing marketing plan especially using Library 2.0 techniques. 

Some ideas for using library history to market the library are provided below.

Traditional Marketing and Public Relations Techniques

Any of the traditional marketing and public relations techniques for promoting libraries can incorporate library history. There is a tremendous amount of information readily available about these techniques.

Although they have not done so to any great extent, state and national library organizations could provide leadership in using library history to promote libraries. The American Library Association sponsorship of National Bookmobile Day  and Preservation Week are two models for doing this.

Marketing Ideas for Your Library's Website and Blog

Include something on the masthead for your website relating to the length of time the library has served your community.  Examples: "Serving the Jonesville Community for over one hundred years" or Making a difference in the lives of Jonesville's residents for more than 5 decades". If possible link the statement to an online history of the library.  This would be especially appropriate for the celebration of a significant anniversary.

At a minimum place a library history timetable or basic history on your website. Use the two click approach. After opening the library's home page it should take only two clicks to get to a library history. It would normally be included in the "About" or "About us" or "About the library" drop down menu. Home - About - Library History. A good example of this is the website of the  L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire.

If your library has a blog, you're probably aware that its success is dependent on regular, interesting posts. Why not create some posts related to your library's history and intersperse them occasionally with your other posts. If you already have a good library history, pull some stories from that history. Examples of library history posts can be found on the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center website and on the Library History Buff Blog.

Create a separate blog for special anniversaries. Although most libraries don't have at their disposal the resources of American Libraries. That publication developed an excellent blog to celebrate its first 100 years. In 2000 to celebrate its 125th anniversary the Madison Public Library collaborated with storyteller Dr. Bob Kann to create a website on which Kann told a different story from the library's history for 125 days. That effort turned into an excellent permanent online library history. You can invite library users to share their memoirs of using the library in the past on a specially created blog. The Appleton Public Library did something similar to celebrate its centennial in 1997. The Library created an "I Remember" scrapbook in which library patrons could write down their special remembrances and the scrapbook was placed online.

Digital Collections

Many libraries are digitizing special collections and loading these into local and state digital collections. Very few are digitizing their own library history collections. The Marathon County Public Library is an exception. See the Libraries and Schools in Marathon and Lincoln Counties collection at http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.EducationFacilities . Once your library history collection has been digitized, images can be incorporated into a number of other marketing efforts including the use of Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. 

Wikipedia

Make use of your written library history on Wikipedia. Using guidelines from the web based encyclopedia Wikipedia develop an article on your library's history. Google and other search engines almost always return Wikipedia articles in their highest ranked search results results.

Library History Exhibits

Exhibits, both physical and digital, can be used to make library users and the public aware of the contribution the library has played over the years. These can be in conjunction with special anniversaries and occasions or at any other time.

The Wisconsin Library Heritage Center sponsors a Wisconsin Library Memorabilia exhibit that features a variety of vintage library souvenir items. This exhibit or parts of this exhibit is available to Wisconsin libraries under certain circumstances. If a library makes use of the WLHC exhibit they are strongly encouraged to publicize the exhibit using local media and their website. Contact Larry T. Nix at nix@libraryhistorybuff.org for more information.

A library can develop its own exhibit featuring various in-house artifacts and artifacts from other sources. A good first step is doing an inventory of the artifacts in the library that could be used for this purpose. Thse artifacts could include basic historical documents, photographs, library souvenirs (postcards, china, spoons, paperweights), library tools, equipment, and supplies of the past. The use of an old traveling library book box in a display at the Crandon Public Library led storyteller Stuart Stotts to write Books in a Box: Lutie Stearns and the Traveling Libraries of Wisconsin. An entire exhibit was built around a Tabard Inn Library revolving bookcase at the Menasha Public Library.

When the Fond du Lac Public Library hosted the Wisconsin Library Memorabilia exhibit, it developed its own exhibit of "then and now" photographs. This is a great approach to an exhibit.

More information about library exhibits can be found HERE.

Postal Souvenirs

Work with the local post office to create a pictorial postmark related to the library's anniversary.  Create a souvenir envelope to go with the postmark and include an insert with the history of the library. 

Celebrating significant library anniversaries is a great way to promote libraries and library history.  It's feasible to celebrate anniversaries as often as every five years and certainly every ten years.  A significant celebration should take place every 25 years. Of course, fiftieth anniversaries and centennials call for  even more elaborate celebrations.

Celebrations can occur for a variety of library anniversaries.  These include the legal founding date of the library or organization, the founding date of a predecessor library with a direct connection to the current library, the anniversary of the library's building or one of the library's buildings, or the celebration of a significant event in the history of the library such as the start of bookmobile service.

Tips on celebrating anniversaries

• Validate and document the date of the event on which the anniversary is based.

• Link your anniversary to what was going on in your community during the year on which your anniversary is based.

• Start planning early! The more significant the anniversary the earlier you should start. Three to five years for a centennial celebration is not too early.  Why not make it a multi-year event with a count down to the centennial year.

• Establish a planning committee made up of enthusiastic members.  The committee should include community members as well as library staff and board members.

• Get your Friends of the Library organization involved.

• Involve outside groups and organizations such as the local historical society and the municipal government.

• Establish an overall plan with a timeline. 

• The plan should include a strong public relations/marketing component.

Some ideas for celebrating anniversaries

• Conduct a variety of events and programs throughout the anniversary year.

• Designate one day as the date for the "birthday party" or key special event. Have an open house.  Invite dignitaries. Arrange for entertainment. Have staff where historic clothing. Heavily publicize the event. Prepare a printed event program.

• Develop and utilize a special logo for the anniversary.

• Establish an anniversary blog and seek stories from people in the community about the library's past and their involvement with the library.

• Create a special page on the library's Web site for all anniversary related information.

• Develop an exhibit of historical artifacts related to the library or to the community. Use old library photos.

• Arrange for regular stories in the local media.

• Arrange to have a history of the library written and place a version of it on the library's Web site.

• Work with the local post office to create a pictorial postmark related to the library's anniversary.  Create a souvenir envelope to go with the postmark and include an insert with the history of the library. 

To help celebrate its centennial in 1997 the Appleton Public Library created a "I Remember" scrapbook in which library patrons could write down their special remembrances of using the library. The scrapbook was cataloged and placed permanently in the library's Wisconsin collection. The scrapbook was also placed online.

In 2000 the Madison Public Library celebrated its 125th anniversary. In collaboration with storyteller Dr. Bob Kann the library created a website on which Kann told a different story from the library's history for 125 days. These stories led to a more comprehensive online history of the library which is located at http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/kann/index.html. The introduction to the history tells how this all came about.

Resources to Help You Celebrate

LHRT Guidelines for Writing Local Library Histories
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/lhrt/governance/lhrtpositions/guidelineswriting.cfm

The Hippest History by Bernadette A. Lear (Library Journal article)
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA601034.html#web 

Wisconsin Library History Links on the Web (includes examples of of local library histories)
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/historylinks.htm

Library Exhibits
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/exhibits.htm

The unveiling of the Wisconsin Libraries Say Cheese! publicity promotion takes place today. The promotion is part of the Campaign for Wisconsin Libraries of the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) Foundation. It is another in a long history of library public relations efforts in Wisconsin. In 1896, at the American Library Association Conference in Cleveland, Lutie Stearns, Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame member, said: “There is no stratum of society not reached and influenced by some form of advertising. 'Nine-tenths of the world would rather be interested than educated, and the other tenth likes to be interested too.' The librarian, then must first interest the masses, to bring them within her doors, and then attempt to educate. 'She must first capture the eye. The eye is the sentinel of the will. Capture the sentinel and you will capture the will. The feet follow the eyes.' It is the untiring, unremitting, keeping-everlastingly-at-it-and never-taking-no-for-an answer appeal to the eyes of the people that will bring them within your portals.”
 
 It was not until 1938 that the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) got around to establishing its first formal Publicity Committee. In 1958 the National Book Committee and the American Library Association conducted the first annual National Library Week campaign with the theme “Wake Up and Read”. In 1964 under the leadership of Gerry Somers, Director of the Brown County Public Library, WLA was given the first $1,000 Grolier Award for most effective state National Library Week program in the nation.
 
As a spin off of the 1962 National Library Week campaign in Wisconsin, Mrs. Bruno Bitker of Milwaukee provided the leadership for founding in 1963, the Friends of Wisconsin Libraries or FOWL. That organization was the model for the national Friends of Libraries USA which was also founded in Wisconsin.
 
In 1961-62 the WLA public relations committee initiated a statewide effort to “spread the word of what good library service is and can be, with a special effort to reach persons of influence.” In this effort the PR committee worked with a television station in Wausau to develop TV slides and audios, it prepared and distributed flyers explaining regional library service, contacted clubs and other organizations about including free library advertisements and articles in their publications. It prepared an exhibit of public relations materials for the annual WLA conference, and conducted public relations workshops at all the district library association meetings.

The 1970s saw the creation of a multi-year library public relations effort in Wisconsin funded with grants from the Library Services and Construction Act. This public relations project was called the Cooperative Library Information Project or CLIP. It was directed by Meriam Edsall. A major outcome of this effort was the creation of Wisconsin’s annual summer library program which became a model for the nation.

In 1995, the Council on Wisconsin Libraries (COWL) put together an ambitious cooperative public relations effort involving COWL, WLA, and the Wisconsin Educational Media Association. It resulted in the theme “Wisconsin Libraries – More than books. More than ever.” This PR effort received support from a professional public relations firm and three years of LSTA funding totaling $55,000. A highlight of this campaign was several celebrity TV ads paid for by commercial sponsors.

In 2000, the WLA Public Relations Committee coordinated Wisconsin’s celebration of the bicentennial of the Library of Congress by promoting Second Day of Issue Events around the state in conjunction with the issuing of the Library of Congress postage stamp. The committee also promoted the involvement of Wisconsin libraries in the ALA @your library public relations campaign.

In 2004, the Library Advocacy Round Table of WLA came up with an idea to tie in library promotion with the local, state, and national elections for that year. This resulted in the “I Love Libraries and I Vote” campaign and the designation by the Governor of February as Library Lovers Month in Wisconsin.

Note: Much of the content of this post was included in a presentation that I made at the Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries Conference in the Spring of 2006.