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Communication Chair
©1998, SLA WCC
Marketing Records Management provides some marketing theory
People from different departments meet, chat and exchange ideas
By Connie Dickens
... takes the focus off us and puts it on the users.
Advertising, Newsletters, Tours...
Compiled by Patricia Cia
Managing a special library is similar to managing a small business. Often your immediate superiors are not quite sure what a special library or information centre "does." In these days of downsizing and budget constraints, ensuring decision makers are aware of our services and abilities is vital.
Courses teaching you how to create and implement marketing plans are available through most colleges and universities.
Cathy McBratney’s article on Marketing Records Management provides some marketing theory. And, in our Spring 1998 issue, Pat Cavill will help demystify marketing and present a simple 5 step marketing plan.
Marketing encompasses all aspects of a library from identifying clients to determining the services you offer. Promotion is a slice of that plan, showing your clients know what you can offer. Ways of promoting your services vary with the corporate culture of your organisation. Be adventurous in looking for ideas and be aware of your corporate culture. Some of the following ideas come from our membership, others from a recent discussion on the SOLOLIB listserv .
Open House
Libraries often use special occasions such as holidays (Christmas) or International Special Librarians Day or Reading Awareness Week as an open house theme. Some examples:
Christmas
Coinciding with coffee break time in the building… Via an e-mail message, we invite people to bring their coffee or tea and we (library) provide cookies and door prizes. This year we also had a "guess the number of candies in the jar" game. Many people had good fun trying to scientifically estimate the number of candies...and NO ONE got the exact right answer. So, the two closest "guessers" split the prize. The door prizes are very simple (coffee mugs with a package of special coffee), but it's a fun way to get people involved in the gathering.Many people in the building look forward to this annual event. It's one way that people from the different departments meet to chat and exchange ideas. During the year, particular groups always have coffee together but don't really talk with people from other areas.
International Special Librarians Day
April 23, 1998 -- The Special Libraries Association offers a promotional kit on the SLA Web site which contains camera-ready logos, templates for bookmarks and fliers, as well as an opportunity to order free ISLD pins and other SLA merchandise. The site provides information about the day and offers suggestions on how to promote special libraries for ISLD.Had a successful event? Submit details to SLA at www.sla.org/pr/pr.html to be eligible for Special Librarian's Day Award (Deadline May 1, 1998)
National Library Week (US)
Free Web Clipart for National Library Week National Library Week (April 19-25) Available from ALA's PR-TalkShop!All of this artwork has been specifically designed for WWW use with Web-safe colors and small file sizes for quick download from your site.
National Engineers’ Week (ALA)
Instead of celebrating National LIBRARY Week, celebrate National Engineers' Week (again free promotional kit available). This takes the focus off us and puts it on the users. Most professions have some sort of a week so this should work for anyone.Conferences
International company with many of your clients only a name on the e-mail message or a voice on the phone? Coordinate an open house with a local conference or meeting when off-site staff tend to return to the nest... use their logos too. For example 8th Congress of the International Association of Engineering Geology and the Environment and their logo, the Raven.Honour Organization's Authors
Two hours over lunch... we served small sandwiches, raw vegetables and dip, fresh fruit pieces and fancy cookies done by our cafeteria people. I have books and journals and articles lying open to the parts written by our authors so everyone can see what our people have written. My volunteers hand out bibliographies at the door and count the number of people who come in. They get a kick out of helping at this fun event.I have had excellent response from the authors. I send them special invitations, have special name tags for them, and announce them to everyone in the room if they come in. Some of them come in several times over the two hour open house, so I will announce them each time. Donna Roginski, Edward Hospital Medical Library, Naperville, IL
Joint Ventures
Several years ago the Princeton-Trenton Chapter of SLA had several Open Houses at various libraries and invited our own members, library school students from Rutgers and Drexel, and business people from the community. We wanted to show business people what even a very small library could do for them and to showcase the libraries for other librarians and the students. Most of these libraries are not normally open to the general public.We had four or five libraries (corporate, special branches of academic libraries) open between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. People signed up ahead of time so we had an idea of how many to expect. We finished the day with a reception in one of the libraries, for all the open house attendees and all our chapter members.
I had punch and goodies, gave tours and discussed what our library did and how we did it. I was "Open" in the morning and had a reception for my own company's staff in the afternoon -- more punch and goodies (which always draws a crowd).
Turn out was pretty good although we did not get anybody from the business community. Attendees included library school students who came in groups, perhaps looking for job leads, and our own members. … everyone agreed it had been a marvelous day. However, we have never repeated it, I think because of the work involved.
Anne Frihart, Response Analysis Corp, Princeton, NJ
Advertising
- "word-of-mouth" advertising . . . satisfied clients tell others about us and this keeps the questions rolling in;
- e-mail News Alert service;
- new books received (or published) announcements;
- up-coming conferences or events relevant to your company;
- thank you notes - one local company's library sends thank you notes every year at Thanksgiving / Christmas / Easter to those who help the Library Staff do their jobs. This would range from Information Brokers to secretaries of their executives;
- library-logo pencils, and distributed them to all our customers with a Thanksgiving note printed with a turkey;
- bookmarks - traditional, useful … can be colourful, informative or entertaining;
- create a web page listing URLs relevant to your company - make them available on your intranet or for laptops (of course with your logo and a "mailto" link to your e-mail address prominently displayed.
Newsletters
Create a newsletter including items about your company's business, projects you are undertaking, information on the library and your services, news in the industry.
Participate in your organisation's newsletter ... promote new materials, provide a timely bibliography or "fast fact", provide sample research questions you have recently answered.
Tours
New employees -- the library is always included in their orientation tour. At this time, we give a short (15 minute) introduction to the Library, and encourage the people to come back when they have settled in. Our message to people is "Don't worry about your questions . . . just ASK us!"
Other sources
SLA's Information Resources Center has a Management Documents Collection on Library Brochures, which is a folder of a large number of examples of library brochures sent to us by SLA members. It can be interlibrary loaned at a charge of $10 (Member) or $15 (nonmember).
© All articles are copyright by authors
Last updated: 29 January 1998
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