Summer Reading Promotion Sparks Interest of Local Businesses

Each December the North Carolina Public Library Directors Association hosts an awards presentation at their annual banquet recognizing both libraries and individuals. Libraries receive awards for programming, promotions, service, staff development and new or improved facilities. I attended this year's banquet and was so impressed with the many creative ideas. Thought I'd highlight one which can easily be replicated and is such a great way to involve the business community in your library.

The staff at Mauney Memorial Library was looking for ways to involve downtown businesses and demonstrate the amount of foot traffic library activities can generate. Their concept is simple, easy to replicate and inexpensive. For their summer reading program downtown partners were selected and agreed to host the mascot for one week during the six weeks of the summer reading program. The library mascot, Bobbie the Butterfly, was positioned at a different business each week. Each week a new riddle was posted in the library. The riddle is solved by identifying the business that Bobbie was visiting. When children, moms and dads visit the business they are awarded a reading buck. The reading buck can be spent at the Summer Reading Store at the library.

The program increased door traffic for each business partner and was an easy way for the library to demonstrate their community involvement. This can be easily replicated in libraries and communities of all sizes.

Holidays at Your Library

A busy time for all, but it might be a good time to try a few creative things in your library to entice new customers. I've seen some interesting promotional ideas recently that tie to the holidays. Here are just a few ideas - if you have others, please share.

• Special book displays about holidays in other countries.
• Favorite recipes from the staff - tied to a display of cookbooks.
• Special hours for students studying for exams, offering refreshments.
• Holiday gift ideas - books that make great presents
• Teens having a virtual holiday celebration - sharing ideas of what to do over the holiday, tie in to the library's facebook page
• Highlight travel books for those travelling over the holidays
• Information on databases that provide consumer reviews for gift buying
• Suggested books for parents to share with their children
• Highlight the PBS series on NC LIVE - great for watching over the holidays.

Customer Service in the Retail World

I had an interesting conversation with a friend this weekend who works for Coldwater Creek. She was sharing some of their policies on customer service. I found it very interesting to hear how they focus on "touchpoints" - touching each customer. No not physically, but making a connection with everyone who comes in their store. Employees are assigned certain areas of the store and when someone is in their section they make sure to make a connection. I was thinking how effective that could be in our libraries. I picture staff having certain areas and roaming, connecting with customers in their area. I'm sure many do this and if you do I'd love to hear about it. I remember while at ALA a few years ago and we visited libraries that had pods instead of large reference desks. The pod allowed the customer and staff to work together in close proximity.

Swap and Chat at NCLA

Swap and Chat was great fun at NCLA. Special thanks to all the libraries who shared their pr materials. I spent time video taping participants who shared some of the good ideas they picked up while browsing.

NCLA Conference

Currently attending the North Carolina Library Association conference in Greenville. Today was a busy day - starting out with our morning session with Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director. Keith shared his thoughts about the future of libraries. I loved his comment," if we predict the future we can create the future." So let's make positive predictions! And of course what I liked was his focus on the importance of increasing public awareness for libraries. Following along the same lines, David Singleton, Director of Customer Experience at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, spoke in the afternoon about the challenging times facing our libraries, emphasing the importance of communication not only to our customers, but also our staff. David shared the following quote, "during challenging times, make asset scarcity a source of innovation, not enervation." by John Ulmschneider.
Tomorrow I plan to continue collecting video clips of great pr ideas from out participants at the Swap and Chat - so watch for more postings.

Dewey or Do We Not?

I just returned from the Association of Rural and Small Libraries Annual Conference (www.arsl.info) in Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg's new library, the Anna Porter Public Library, is a beautiful building on the outskirts of town and is the pride of all residents. Kenton Temple, Director, hosted a preconference and shared the Gatlinburg Story. It was fascinating how they involved the community to raise funds to build this new library. Another interesting fact is that their library arranges their nonfiction like a bookstore - not by dewey numbers. They still use the dewey classification, but the nonfiction is arranged by topic - ie: health, money matter, self help, etc. It's an interesting concept and one that is working very well for them - the community loves it! Included in their catalog is an extra column that lists the location of the book by topic.

Check out the library's website for more information. http://www.annaporterpl.org/

Promotional Video

I was thinking about our new category in the Best of Show this year - videos. This one from the Colingswood Library is fabulous - funny, creative, promotional! What a great way to advertise a fundraiser. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Wx25Mk-Ek