Library Journal Article

"The ABC's of Marketing Promoting your library media center program is a necessity"
by Kathy Schrock
Administrator for Technology for the Nauset Public Schools in Cape Cod, MA

This article appeared in, and is reprinted with permission from, School Library Journal, November, 2003.
www.schoollibraryjournal.com.

How do you keep teachers coming back to your library, update students about the latest resources available, and draw parents to after-school training sessions? The answers lie in effectively promoting your library media center program.

Marketing isn't traditionally taught in library school. But with budget cuts taking center stage nationwide, it's never been more necessary to promote your program as an integral part of the learning process. Marketing your media center program follows the same basic guidelines found in the business world: create a product that people like, target your advertising, build a base of satisfied customers, take time to manage the details, and grow your program slowly so that each stage is a success.

Publicizing library-sponsored events, such as book fairs, booktalks, and author visits, is an easy place to start. By taking advantage of a few simple strategies, your events will run more smoothly and leave teachers and students feeling positive about them.

Before scheduling your events, take a close look at your school's events calendar to ensure there aren't any conflicts with prearranged field trips, concert practices, or other significant school happenings. Schedule your special events during the school day, and, if possible, offer an extra, early-evening session so parents and their kids can attend together. (Parents especially like to attend book fairs and readings with popular authors.) Afterward, create an online news group so parents and students can discuss the event and post their comments.

When scheduling library events for teachers, make sure they receive ample advance notice, and don't forget to give them a last-minute reminder. Given the busy lives of classroom teachers, they'll appreciate the heads-up.

One obvious way to devise creative marketing ideas for your library is to ask fellow library media specialists. Subscribing to online discussion groups, like LM_NET, attending state, regional and national library conferences, and reading trade publications, like School Library Journal, Multimedia Schools, and Library Media Connection, can lead to a lot of helpful ideas. LM_NET -- with more than 14,000 subscribers from 64 different countries -- is a wonderful resource, and you can easily search its archives for information on promoting your library media center.

Providing access to resources is what school media specialists do best. How do you share the new and exciting things you uncover with teachers, parents and students? A tried-and-true method is to include little blurbs in school announcements and home-school newsletters, and to create attractive bulletin boards that students can't resist.

Technology has certainly provided innovative ways to reach potential "customers." One includes sending teachers a brief e-mail each week and highlighting a new book or Web site that will be interest to them. Don't send the same note to all teachers, but, on the other hand, don't just include teachers who are technophiles. Use your e-mail to create two distribution lists: one grouped by grade level and the other by subject. This type of targeted "advertising" provides teachers with the specific resources they need. Your thoughtfulness will make them much more open to working with you on future collaborative projects. They'll also realize that you truly understand their classroom needs and curriculum.

To reach parents and students at home, create a Web page with links to helpful resources (like the ones mentioned above for teachers), organized and annotated in a way that's useful for homework and special projects. Take a look at the many great library media Web sites available by visiting some of the "best of" lists that appear on library-related Web sites. Don't be afraid to copy ideas and tips. Once your own site is up and running, be sure to include your library's Web address on everything you create, including press releases, newsletters, handbooks, how-to guides, printed pathfinders, and bookmarks. Also make sure to ask your Web-page-hosting service to provide monthly statistics on your most visited sites. You can also add a counter to the bottom of your site to monitor the most popular and valuable pages for your users.

These marketing strategies and ideas are easy to follow, and can transform your library media center into a must-visit destination for students, parents, teachers and administrators. You'll also discover and abundance of satisfied visitors -- and a satisfied customer always comes back for more.

Sources of Great Ideas

Library Lovers Month

http://www.librarysupport.net.librarylovers
This fun-filled site, created by a Friends of the Library group, includes a filmography of librarians, poems about the library, and ideas for drawing the public into the library.

Library promotion ideas

http://www.doe.tased.edu.au/0278/issue/031/promotion.htm
Here's a page that includes a series of library promotion ideas from practicing teacher-librarians in Australia. Some of the more innovative ones include sending "ransom" notes to collect end-of-the-year materials and creating a permanent library display in the staff room to promote library events and new items.

Marketing Our Libraries On and Off the Internet

http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/marketinglibs.html
This site contains many marketing ideas related to Web content and design and strategic planning and offers ways to create inviting signs in your library. Marketing strategies include formal and informal assessments of the impact your library has on the school and how to utilize the results to change the way you do "business."

Marketing the Library: A Thematic Approach to Reading Promotion

http://mtn.merit.edu/pdf/f02whitbeck.pdf
Written by Michigan Library Media Specialist Debbie Whitbeck, this article deals with promoting life-long reading. Whitbeck outlines her yearlong reading program, which dovetails with the school's goals, and explains the computer-managed point system used at her school to keep track of student progress.

Motivational Ideas: Children's Book Week and National Library Week

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/bookweek.htm
Here's a helpful page that offers a list of easy activities you can recreate in your library media center, such as a student author project.

Pedagogical Work or Promotional Activity?

http://ebib.oss.wroc.pl/english/grant/stepien.php
Don't be put off by the title. This site, translated from Polish into English, provides fun ways to promote your library. Topics include a school-wide celebration of books and techniques for including parents.

Reaching New Teachers

http://mtn.merit.edu/pdf/f02dobrez.pdf
In this article from MAME's Media Spectrum, Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan show how to draw new teachers into the library media center by emphasizing that you're there to support them in co-teaching information literacy lessons, identifying resources, and working with them to provide support for all areas of teaching and learning.

School Libraries Improve Student Achievement

http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin178.shtm
Here's an overview of the research that proves library media centers are integral to the academic success of students. The results of these articles may come in handy for presentations and grant writing. Having the research to defend your budget may also convince the administration and staff that the media center is an essential part of the school.

School-Libraries.net

http://www.school-libraries.net/
School librarian Peter Milbury's directory of online pages includes links to Web sites created by library media specialists. By examining these sites, you'll gain ideas, tips, and tricks for designing your own library media center.

School Library Media Month Activities

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/libslmday.htm
Looking for good ideas to plug special days in the library? This list of activities was composed by the Virginia Educational Media Association (VEMA) for a school-wide library media center day. The ideas, classified by grade level, can be used for promotional events during the school year. Also included are directions for writing a library press release, using television and radio advertising to promote your events, and developing district-wide activities.

You've Got Mail: Electronic Publications for Your Schools

http://mtn.merit.edu/pdf/w02rutan.pdf
Lynn Rutan, another Michigan library media specialist, explains how she and her staff created a weekly curriculum-related newsletter with links to sites that are of interest to teachers. It includes links for parents and caregivers and incorporates library media center news, technology tips, and new acquisitions.