I couldn't resist following up on a comment to my recent "Marketing on a budget" post that mentioned how librarians at the Richard Bland College Library of the College of William and Mary have mastered the art of marketing with minimal resources. I was quite impressed with what I discovered! Library Director Dr. Virginia Cherry has found numerous creative ways to incorporate ALA's @ your library slogan without breaking the bank or exhausting staff.
"How do we do it?," Dr. Cherry explains, "Each summer, we select a slogan and incorporate ALA's @your library slogan with it. We decide what to highlight each month and produce the posters, flyers, table tents during the summer months when student demand is not as high. Then we are ready with the core publicity before September.
Since we have been doing this for several years, it is easy to have a marketing campaign and rather effortless."
Below is a sample of publicity from this year's campaign theme, "Lights, Camera, Action! @ your library." More publicity items from this and previous years can be found on RBC Library's Library Events page.
At the bottom of the Library Events page, Dr. Cherry has included her PowerPoint from a presentation she gave at ALA along with a description of how she and her staff pull this off. For those of you who are concerned about finding the time to do marketing, Dr. Cherry's project description could provide some consolation. RBC has a staff of 3 librarians and no on-campus printing facilities. To top it off, RBC has no funds for marketing, relying on their Friends of RBC Library to pay for events.
Thank you to Dr. Cherry for sharing this information and her insights!
Libraries are more than just collections of books and other materials. Libraries are dynamic forces in their communities with the power to improve lives. Modern marketing demands that librarians look beyond their traditional roles ("outside the book") to find new ways to connect with people and further their success.
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