Thursday, May 20, 2010

How Libraries Stack UP


Yesterday was "Hats off to Libraries" Day here in Raleigh. Many of our public library directors, friends, and trustees donned wonderful, colorful hats and visited with their legislators to encourage them to maintain state aid. One handout which impressed many legislators was the recently ALA published report - How Libraries Stack Up. I've attached the link so that you can adopt it for your community and share with your funders.
http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/214109usf_how_libraries_stack_up.pdf

Monday, May 3, 2010

Telling Your Story

During these challenging times we hear how important it is to tell our story. We've been working on this for quite some time - using the advocacy toolkit by PLA; holding workshops and developing key stories. Recently one of our consultants compiled some key stats for our public libraries and used those stats to capture some interesting thoughts. I wanted to share some of them with you and encourage you to think of ways you could do this for your library.



North Carolinians visited public libraries 44 million times last year, which is equivalent to filling the Dean Dome 2,023 times, the RBC Center 2,231 times, or Carter Finley Stadium 733 times.



There were almost 5 times as many visitors to North Carolina's public libraries (44.1 million) than visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (9.2 million --the most visited national park in the coutnry.)



Fifteen times more people attended library programs than the record attendance at an ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.



So what community comparisons can you make in regards to your library services?

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