Representatives from Quincy Public Library (QPL) recently sat down and Zoomed in for a RAILS Sparks podcast to discuss their successful marketing campaign to stave off library budget cuts.

QPL’s Executive Director Kathleen Helsabeck and Assistant Director & Marketing Coordinator Burgundy Hill talked with RAILS Executive Director Deirdre Brennan about how budget cuts in previous years made it clear to the staff at QPL that they had to do something meaningful and impactful. They worked with patrons willing to share their library experiences and, over a period of months, filmed each time someone spoke at the city council meetings in support of the library. They then posted those videos to social media to gain extra support and buy-in from the community. 

In the podcast, Helsabeck and Hill lay out how they used simple, low-cost methods in their campaign. They discussed methods used to approach patrons to share their library experiences and they shared their simple, but very effective, marketing methods for this successful campaign.  

This is a wonderful story about the importance of advocating for your library. You can view or listen to the podcast on the RAILS website. Read QPL’s blog about the videos that made their project so effective and watch the patron videos from the city council meetings on the My Library Is… website.