Attracting New Customers to the Library

28 October 2019
Mary Witt
Comments: 0

In the survey RAILS conducted earlier this year, we asked members to rate major challenges they faced when trying to tell their library’s story. The number one challenge identified by academic, public, and special libraries, was attracting nonusers and making sure that potential customers are aware of all the library has to offer. (This challenge was rated #6 by school libraries.)

While attracting nonusers may sound like a monumental task, there are six steps almost any library can take to get started:

    ...
Quincy Public Library Advocacy Video

How Quincy Public Library Used Videos to Show Their Community Support

16 September 2019
Dan Bostrom
Comments: 0

To better advocate for Quincy Public Library, we decided to ask patrons and library users if they would be willing to speak at City Council meetings in support of library programs.

Our goal was to have people speak about different services that were important to each of them. Admittedly, speaking in public to the City Council can be a daunting experience and some patrons with wonderful stories were reluctant to speak publicly. Nevertheless, the people who did step up were able to present compelling stories that had a positive impact on council members and the public in attendance at...

Rendering of new East Moline Public Library building; photo credit: East Moline Public Library

Campaign for East Moline Public Library

10 September 2019
Dan Bostrom
Comments: 0

Early in 2019, the East Moline Public Library launched a capital campaign to make the case for their new building. To learn more about it, East Moline Public Library Executive Director Laura Long answered our questions on the success of the campaign so far.

Can you start by telling me a little bit about how this campaign began? ...

The library candidate; photo credit:Emily Gilbert

Library Workers in Public Office

13 August 2019
Dan Bostrom
Comments: 1

“I’m not really a joiner.” The words fell out of my mouth before I really knew what I was saying. I had said the same thing so many times in my life that it felt like a cliche, but I realized in that moment that it had been a while since I had given it much thought. It was late 2017, I was at the ILA Annual Conference and someone had just suggested I join an organizational committee to get more involved in professional development, but I didn’t feel like I had enough to offer. I had hung back from similar opportunities throughout my academic and professional careers, always thinking I was...

Germantown Hill Branch Library

Forming Partnerships for Library Advocacy

31 July 2019
Dan Bostrom
Comments: 0

I really just wanted to host the Skylab from the Peoria Riverfront Museum. That’s all.

And how can you blame me? Have you seen it? It’s this giant inflatable dome and, once inside, it’s a planetarium.

Anyway, it turns out, there’s a space requirement. And, at 25 by 25 feet, it’s not a small requirement for a rural library. Of course, I can’t meet that requirement, so I can’t host. And, somehow this comes up in conversation.

“You know you can host events at the senior center, right?”

This is, turns out, how the best partnerships are formed.

After an...

Library Escape Room; photo credit: Marist High School

Communicating Library Value to Teachers

30 July 2019
Dan Bostrom
Comments: 0

Over the past 10 years, I have utilized a number of strategies to engage my teachers and communicate the value and importance of library resources, especially the value of a certified teacher librarian. I created a library menu, using humor and visuals to offer choices from quick lessons all the way through fully co-taught units. Our teachers are split-up into subject and tracked level teams to best align curriculum and standards. I get to attend these meetings as well as occasionally present on topics like useful Google cheats, Destiny hosted OERs, specific print or electronic resources...

Why the My Library Is... Campaign?

11 June 2019
Mary Witt
Comments: 0

RAILS provides programs and services to approximately 1,300 academic, public, school, and special libraries in the north and west-central part of Illinois. A very frequent request from all types of members is for help telling their stories and proving their value to their different stakeholders. Because this topic is so important to our members, the second goal in RAILS new strategic plan (revised in 2018) is to Work with libraries of all types to tell the library story.

Earlier this year, RAILS conducted a survey of all of our libraries to discover how we could best help...

Woman standing in library stacks with a lit-up book.

Connect Your Patrons' Library Stories

7 May 2019
My Library Is ...
Comments: 0

Do you want your visitors to share their stories about your library on MyLibraryIs.org? You can put a link for our "Tell Your Library Story" submission form, with your library's name already filled in, on your website.

Here's the HTML code to use for your link:

<a href="https://www.mylibraryis.org/node/add/library-story?edit[field_library_relationship][und][28]=28&edit[field_library_name][und][0][value]=YOUR LIBRARY NAME">Tell Your Story</a>

(Replace "YOUR LIBRARY NAME" with your library's name.)

After your patrons have started to post their...

Pages