Wet books!

My library is currently in an older structure. It was a rough winter up here. There were ice dam issues all over the region.

Have you guessed where I'm going yet?

Oh yes. A few weeks ago, we had a leak in the stacks. Although I am by no means trained in book preservation, I thought I'd share the story and lessons learned here in case they're useful to someone else.

First, let's discuss the scope of the problem. We were actually relatively lucky. The water came down the inside of a wall and seeped out starting at the top of a short built-in bookcase 4 or 5 shelves high. It wet the bottom of several oversized books shelved along the top of the bookcase and dripped/leaked down the shelves. The bookcase is only about a foot or 18" wide, so the damage was confined to a relatively narrow area. Most of the water went off the bottom of the bookcase into the carpet, which was soaked through for a couple of feet; a little leaked along the very bottom shelf onto an adjacent shelf and dampened a few books.


My/our initial response upon discovering the leak:

• Get help. I called to my colleague in the back room and ran upstairs to get a volunteer who was doing a nonessential task.
• Get the books out of the water, and triage. My colleague and I did a rough sort of books into those that were okay, those that were a little wet, those that were quite wet but possibly savable, and those that were an immediate loss. All told, there were about 20 books that were an obvious loss, and another 30-40 that would need to be dried and evaluated.
• Preserve what's possible. I ferried the books that were wet-but-savable to the volunteer to get paper towels inserted between the pages. (This is a trick I picked up from friends taking an archival preservation class in grad school. We went through several rolls.) Too-wet-to-save got tossed on a shelf to be inventoried and discarded later. Books that were damp but not wet enough to have to be dealt with immediately also got tossed on a separate shelf, to be dealt with when the wetter ones were done. Books that were wet along the covers under the Mylar got their covers taken off ASAP.
• Sop up water continuing to leak in and leave paper towels there to absorb additional seepage.
• Contact facilities.

In the subsequent weeks, I've been:

• Drying the books initially interleaved with paper towels. We have heat/AC vents at the bottom of several shelves and they provide nice airflow. I've been propping books up in front of them and fanning the pages out, a few at a time, till things are dry. Dried books go under a nice big stack of heavy oversize books to flatten out again, which has been working surprisingly well.
• Assessing the books that were only damp, and interleaving with paper towels/drying out in front of vents as needed.
• Creating an inventory of what got wet. Thank goodness for Evergreen, which made this really easy - a volunteer scanned everything into a bucket, then I chose the columns/fields I needed, exported to a .csv, and saved it to Excel. This is very useful for our insurance claim. I could even include the price listed in our ILS for each book - though that isn't always the same as list price, so we're going through Ingram to check for current prices and whether a given book is still available.
• Still yet to happen: actually going through, book by book, and finalizing discards in the ILS/determining what I'm actually going to replace.

Next post: Lessons learned!

Catching up

It appears to have been nearly a year since I last posted. Goodness gracious.

I hope to have more time to post in the future because I am no longer spending 3 hours per day in the car getting to and from work. That's right... I got a new job! (New commute is in the 30-40 minute range and I am loving that, thank you very much.) In October, I started work as the Adult Services Librarian in Hopkinton, MA.

It's a positive move, though bittersweet in many ways. I learned so much in my four years at Howe Library and left behind many wonderful colleagues. But this job is going to teach me a lot of new things too, and my new co-workers are welcoming, dedicated, and hardworking. I'm also pleased to be geographically closer to some of my friends and family and back in the general area where I grew up. (I got to re-use my old Minuteman Library Network card from ca. 1991 when getting an account at my new hometown library! It was very exciting.)

Overall, this new position is a step up for me in terms of responsibility. Before, though I was planning programs fairly autonomously, I was one of a department of several librarians under a department head. Now I'm the "head" of the Adult Services department (of one), working immediately under my director and taking on some of the kinds of things that might be done by an assistant director if we had one. Since I ultimately want to be a library director, this means I'm getting some good chances to observe, learn, and do things that will give me valuable experience going forward. I've got a very supportive director who tries to include me in a lot of things, which is great!

Here are some of things, large and small, that I'm involved in:

• Perhaps the biggest: we're about to be renovated and substantially expanded. I came in after the town approvals were dealt with but I'm getting to participate in lots of planning and logistics related to renovating the building, moving to a temporary space, etc. It's fascinating work and I'm really pleased to be able to "ride along" on a major building project before having to actually be in charge of one.
• Substantial weeding of the nonfiction collection, preparatory to moving. I honestly really love weeding. It's so satisfying to remove the old, worn out, irrelevant materials and have a collection that looks shiny and fresh and interesting.
• We relaunched our eNewsletter using Vertical Response (we were using Bookletters previously; I only had to do a couple of newsletters that way but I was deeply unimpressed). It seems that these were sent sporadically before; I've established a standard once-per-month schedule.
• I've started doing displays! This is something I didn't have much time/opportunity to do at my previous job so I've been having a lot of fun with it.
• Collection development. We have what is to me a somewhat odd system for collection development here - something for a later post, perhaps. I'm in charge of collecting everyone's suggestions, adding some of my own, and doing the actual ordering for adult books, DVDs, and music.
• Programs - this is similar work to what I was doing previously, just in a different library. I'm still having fun with it, though it's much less of my job than it was before.
• Managing technology, with the assistance of town IT. One of the more frustrating elements of the job when things aren't working properly (our computers were just down for nearly a week due to seeming malicious activity, so this is particularly fresh in my mind). But I get to learn things like how to re-image a computer and burnish other skills and knowledge that are underdeveloped or rusty, which is good. We've got a very friendly and helpful IT guy, which is an absolute blessing.
• Reference work, of course! Volume is variable but usually pretty light. I do almost no readers' advisory, which I'd like to change - but it's hard because the reference desk is a bit out of the way and people usually chat with the circulation staff (who are fabulous readers' advisors) about books up front.

There's lots of other things, but that's just off the top of my head.

It's been an adjustment - Hopkinton is a much smaller library than Howe and in many ways a less formal/formalized one as well. It took me a little while to really suss out the culture. But I'm learning a lot, really enjoying what I do and the people I work with, and looking forward to the next several years - it will be a very exciting time as the library grows!

Read Something! THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King

THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE

Laurie R. King

 

Mystery

[First in a series]

Fifteen-year-old Mary Russell is out for a walk on the Sussex Downs when she literally stumbles into one of the greatest minds of her time. Sherlock Holmes, retired to a quieter rural life, is irritated and then intrigued to find sharp observational skills and an intellect to rival his own in this orphaned young woman. With that moment begins an apprenticeship that eventually becomes a partnership as Russell and Holmes confront cunning adversaries in their first cases together. In this series opener, King deftly brings Sherlock Holmes out of the gaslight and into a world on the cusp of the modern era while creating a thoroughly modern young woman as a new foil for the legendary detective.

Three descriptors: woman-focused (i.e. lots of strong female characters, basically all important characters who weren't in the Holmes canon are women), well-written, witty

Readalikes/watchalikes:

• the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Julia Quinn romances - feature strong women, British setting, light, witty writing; perhaps not a good readalike for people who enjoy the intellectual/suspenseful elements of The Beekeeper's Apprentice
• For those who enjoy the new perspective on Holmes, modern TV adaptations/re-envisionings of Holmes stories that maintain the intellectual/problem-solving feel, including the BBC series featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, "Elementary", possibly "House"
• possibly the Flavia de Luce books (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, etc.) by Alan Bradley? Both feature a young, smart female amateur detective coming into her own in the English countryside

Be ready for anything...

During my most recent reference desk shift, I...

• Captured a wasp that had found its way into our quiet room, for release outside
• Informed three teenage boys that they should not be on the roof of our recycling shed (and asked how on earth they got up there in the first place)
• Was treated to a poetry reading by a patron who is known for being extremely cranky most of the time - and who then asked for my opinion of his poetry - I'm not touching that with a ten-foot pole!

Just goes to show that when you deal with the public, you've got to be ready for anything.

Read Something! THE RIME OF THE MODERN MARINER by Nick Hayes

THE RIME OF THE MODERN MARINER
Nick Hayes

Graphic novel / poetry

This timely update of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's classic poem recasts the wedding guest as a cynical divorcee and the mariner as a harbinger of environmental doom. This mariner's murder of an albatross curses him to sail becalmed waters in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, witness the destruction wreaked upon our oceans and their wildlife by our discarded plastics and other garbage, confront the horrors of our lust for oil, and see for himself the devastating effect of humanity's actions upon our planet. But will his listener actually listen? With eye-catching visuals and a powerful message, this graphic novel brings home the need for change in our relationship with our planet while attaining some degree of literary/poetic merit in its own right. 

Readalikes:

• "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", Samuel Taylor Coleridge - the poem upon which this graphic novel is based
• Moby-Duck by Donovan Hohn - nonfiction, but touches on many of the same topics and issues; told through the perspective of one man traveling the world to learn more
• Sin City by Frank Miller - for those attracted to the unusual and striking visuals of the book, Sin City's stark illustrations will provide a similar reading experience although the subject matter is quite different (and violent)

Read Something! DIARY by Chuck Palahnuik

DIARY
Chuck Palahnuik

Literary (?) fiction

Misty Wilmot was supposed to be a famous artist, but somehow that didn't quite work out. Somehow she ended up with a husband and a daughter and a dead-end waitressing job at the run-down hotel on Waytansea Island, where she's found herself living after marriage and pregnancy deferred her dreams. Somehow she's supposed to manage things alone after her husband, a building contractor, put himself in a coma through a failed suicide attempt. After his clients started calling, complaining of rooms in their houses found boarded-up, of strange obscene messages left inside.

All Misty wanted was to be an artist, before married motherhood on this picturesque island distracted her. Now, she's at the end of her rope. It doesn't help that all her mother-in-law wants her to do is take up her long-forgotten paints. It's what Misty's daughter wants, too. And many of the old island families are asking after her art... Something begins to seem not quite right as everyone on the island goes to increasing lengths to spark Misty's creativity. It's not clear what her art is supposed to accomplish - but it's becoming increasingly evident that she won't be allowed to not paint.

This is a dark and snappily written little novel for those of us interested in just how far people will go, and how awful the things they do will be, to ensure their own survival. It's by the author of Fight Club - so expect a healthy dose of meta and a plot twist or seven thrown in for good measure.

Read Something! REDSHIRTS by John Scalzi

REDSHIRTS
John Scalzi

Science fiction

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been posted to the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union fleet. It's a prestigious post, but when Dahl arrives on board, he finds that life aboard the Intrepid is just a little... well, strange. To start off, it seems like the crew avoids their senior officers. Those that don't tend to get assigned to away teams, and those assigned to away teams... often end up dead. Then there's the Box, a device of unknown provenance that consistently offers solutions to insoluble problems just in the nick of time. Something isn't right on the Intrepid, and Dahl and his friends are going to get to the bottom of it - even if it means their world will never be the same.

Scalzi has written a fast-paced, entertaining narrative great for fans of Star Trek and similar sci-fi shows as well as people who enjoy a healthy dose of "meta" in their fiction.

 

Read Something! LOVE AND REVOLUTIONARY GREETINGS by Laurie Levinger

LOVE AND REVOLUTIONARY GREETINGS: AN OHIO BOY IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Laurie Levinger

Nonfiction / history / biography

Laurie Levinger never met her uncle Sam, though his pictures were in every house she lived in growing up. Sam died in 1937 in the Spanish Civil War, to which he had gone as one of the three thousand Americans who joined the International Brigades fighting Fascism. In 2001, Laurie's father gave her a box of letters and other memorabilia about Sam - and Laurie's journey to discover who her uncle was began.

Love and Revolutionary Greetings is the story of a young man, idealistic and courageous, who fought and died in an attempt to create a better world. It is the story, too, of Sam's mother, of the family he left behind, and of one of the great convulsions preceding World War II. Levinger has edited an affecting collection of first-hand descriptions of the war and its aftermath - mostly Sam's letters and his mother's written attempts to understand his life and his fate, but also primary source material from others who were in the war and Laurie and her family's own thoughts about Sam.

Readalikes:

• World War II Remembered by the residents of Kendal at Hanover? - also first-person stories of wartime

Read Something! A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ
Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Science fiction / postapocalyptic fiction / literary fiction

In the centuries after nuclear apocalypse, human society rebuilds itself almost from scratch. Told in three sections, each set several centuries after the previous story, A Canticle for Leibowitz shows us the lives of three men in the Order of Saint Leibowitz, an order of monks dedicated to preserving what books and papers remain of the civilization that existed before global thermonuclear war destroyed much of human society and precipitated a violent backlash against the educated, technologically advanced culture that had made nuclear weapons possible. As Miller brings the reader into the hearts, minds, hopes, and dreams of relatively ordinary people, and as the world moves from a dark age through a new renaissance into another technological era, the unavoidable question looms: will humanity avoid its past mistakes?

Warning [and spoiler warning]: This is not a happy ending.

Readalikes:

• Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban - similar post-nuclear-apocalyptic Dark Ages setting, questions of what society would look like after a nuclear holocaust, themes of history repeating itself
• Miller wrote a sequel, Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman.
• 1984 - similar for sheer bleakness

Read Something! THREE PARTS DEAD by Max Gladstone

THRE PARTS DEAD
Max Gladstone 

Fantasy / thriller

Kos Everburning, god of fire, is dead. Without Him, the great city of Alt Coulumb, dependent on his powers, will soon die as well.

Tara Abernathy left the Hidden Schools in fire and lightning, expelled post-graduation in a great battle with her former professors. Despite her irregular method of departure, she's caught the eye of the prestigious firm Kelethras, Albrecht, and Ao, and now she's an entry-level associate tasked with finding out who killed Kos, how, and why. Soon Tara, her only-somewhat-human boss, and their temporary assistant, the chain-smoking priest Abelard, are avoiding assassination attempts, chasing vampires, fending off attacks by gargoyles, and uncovering a web of intrigue that brings them before the reincarnation of Justice Herself to argue their case.

This is that too-rare work of speculative fiction that combines carefully detailed world-building with well-realized characters who feel like real people. Add a thrilling plot with plenty of twists, turns, and adventure, and Gladstone's debut novel (!) is a winner. This book has it all: murder, magic, intrigue, treachery, power, love - and I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, coming in October 2013.

Readalikes:

• The book jacket invokes Zelazny, Gaiman, and Grisham. I haven't read Zelazny and I'm not sure I concur with Grisham (the legal thriller aspects are there, but I don't really know that it's the same), but Gaiman's writing seems to have a very similar atmosphere/feeling to it.
• Might be a good stretch for mystery/thriller readers who could be induced to read something in a more fantastic setting.

Read Something! AFFINITY by Sarah Waters

AFFINITY 
Sarah Waters

Historical fiction / literary fiction / horror

Surfacing from a deep depression brought on by her father's death, Margaret Prior takes a family friend's advice and volunteers as a "lady visitor" at Millbank, a women's prison, where she hopes to become a positive influence on some of the inmates. In those dreary surroundings she meets the spiritualist medium Selina Dawes, sentenced to Millbank after a seance gone wrong resulted in a woman's death. Margaret and Selina are drawn to each other, but does Selina really talk to spirits? And what really happened in her past? Alternating passages from Margaret and Selina's diaries bring us closer and closer to the truth of the night that drastically changed Selina's life - and to a night that will forever change Margaret's. This is a dark, psychological novel about loss and grief, and about living in a world into which one will never quite fit neatly.

Slight warnings for mentions of attempted suicide, some nonexplicit but non-"vanilla" eroticism.

Readalikes:

• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - similar slightly spooky atmosphere, unreliable narrators; both stories are deliberately vague as to the reality of the ghosts/spirits (at least for most of the narrative); both set in Britain in times past; both very focused on characters' psychology
• "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - potentially unbalanced female narrators, similar time setting, themes of entrapment/imprisonment and haunting, atmospherically similar
  

I'm published on the ILA Marketing Committee blog!

I seem to be writing for other blogs much more than I'm writing for this one! As of this morning, I have a post up on the Illinois Library Association Marketing Committee blog about cultivating staff buy-in. You can find it here.

Read Something! DEAR CREATURE (Jonathan Case)

Dear Creature
JONATHAN CASE
Graphic novel, pulp, horror, romance

Summary 

This quirky, absurd mashup of romantic comedy, "B" horror flicks, and Shakespeare has to be read to be believed. Grue, a mutant horror from the deep, has discovered Shakespeare through a series of cola bottles cast adrift with the Bard's plays inside. Inspired, he renounces his flesh-eating ways and sets off in search of a lady love. Hilarious and sweet, this book will keep you hanging as you wait to see how Grue's quest for love will turn out. Don't miss the appendix, "An Invertebrate's Guide to Iambic Pentameter", in which Grue's Greek chorus of sarcastic crabs explain the poetic meter using the immortal phrase, "Ba-donk a-donk a-donk a-donk a-donk."

Appeal Characteristics

• Visuals: dramatic use of black and white
• Visuals: generally realistic art (although Grue is depicted less realistically)
• Visuals: fairly clean art, but panels are sometimes hard to decipher due to being very busy and not having shading
• Frame: silly/absurd tone
• Frame: main character is the character who is usually the "bad guy"
• Frame/plot/characterization: characters and situations are mostly stereotypes drawn from "B" movies/pulp horror
• Plot: romance/lovers who the world wants to keep apart
• Plot: happy ending
• Plot: loose ends are all tied up at the end
• Plot: plot is not very fleshed out and often relies on pointers/gestures to conventions and stereotypes of a typical pulp horror story
• Pacing: moves fairly fast; each chapter presents a new challenge to Grue's quest

Readalikes

• ???

I'm on Programming Librarian!

I was recently asked to write a post for the Programming Librarian blog about a cool program we do with the local art museum. It went up earlier this week - you can read it here, if you're interested.

PLA 2012 session notes: Get Involved: Powered by Your Library -- Successful Engagement of High Impact Volunteers

Following are my notes from the "Get Involved: Powered by Your Library -- Successful Engagement of High Impact Volunteers" session at PLA 2012, held on Saturday, March 17 at 8:30.

------------

 

Statewide volunteerism campaign in CA: "Get Involved powered by your library"

- Aim = get high-impact volunteers and make them advocates

- Volunteer recruitment aimed at baby boomers, who are different from senior volunteers

- Goals: train public libraries in recruiting and engaging skilled high-impact volunteers, position libraries as centers for civic engagement, help people find opportunities that match their skills and interests

Baby boomers and volunteerism

Why should we care?

* Lots of them (77 million)

* Most educated and financially secure generation in history

* Volunteer at higher rates than past generations did at the same age

* Nearly 2/3 of Boomer non- volunteers want to get involved but don’t know how

* Have been in workforce & have professional skills they want to share to make high level of impact

Right now, ages 48-66 – not silver-haired

Different from senior volunteers

* More physical ability than previous generations; 4 of 5 expect to work past 65; "feel younger"

* View retirement very differently -- see second half of life as a source of social and individual renewal, not as a time to just rest and relax

* Think some of their most important contributions lie ahead

* Not simply extending the years of working and volunteering -- looking to add deeper meaning

* Different perception of aging -- don’t want to be called “Seniors,” “Retirees,” “Elderly” or “Older Adults”

Attracting baby boomers

Offer flexibility and a wide variety of options, including virtual volunteering

Engage their skills and expertise

Show them impact on mission -- how will their work make a difference?

Provide clear expectations of time, tasks and training

Go beyond volunteer management – look at engagement in meaningful ways

See Get Involved: Powered By Your Library website for resources (library.ca.gov/lds/getinvolved.html?)

Idaho is now coming in on this project

VolunteerMatch created search widget that gives back multiple results – library opportunities, then literacy opportunities, than general opportunities near your zip code

Last 2 or 3 years, 27% increase in volunteers in California

General insights/thoughts from putting this in practice

One library no longer collects applications for generic volunteers, only for specific positions

High impact volunteers have leadership roles, may train and supervise other volunteers

Putting volunteers in teams helps in case of turnover (volunteers often have unpredictable time commitments)

Interview volunteers extensively and basically treat them like job applicants

Volunteer management software exists

Lessons

A good job description is key

- Make it very clear what skills and commitment you're looking for

For high impact volunteers, this is a real job

- Approach them personally to recruit them

- Professional level interviewing

- Look for a good fit, and give them a chance to say no

- Remain flexible

Communication is critical

- Trust your volunteers, keep them in the loop, facilitate networks, share successes and outcomes

- Feedback matters (from patrons and staff)

You can still  have volunteers doing more rote tasks – high impact volunteers don't exclude your having more traditional volunteer work

Make it fun, and include the volunteers in the process

PLA 2012 session notes: Engaging Customers in an Online Environment

Following are my notes from the "Engaging Customers in an Online Environment" session at PLA 2012, held on Thursday, March 15 at 8:15.

------------

Three basic levels of online engagement

1) Social media as primarily a promotional tool – one-sided

2) Online engagement: customer-focused communication

- have conversations with them on topics they’re interested in

- quality more important than the number of people you reach

- personalizes the organization, shows you care about what customers have to say

3) Customers feel comfortable starting conversations with you and others in your network

Have an online strategy and policy

Strategy = road map – where you’re going and how you’re going to get there

Policy = rules of the road

Include: goals and measurements, strategy for publicizing your online presence, an exit strategy (how do we handle it if we decide to leave a social networking site?)

First, survey the online environment and your current presence on social media (whether deliberate or inadvertent)

Metrics are more than followers; consider interactions and responses

Think carefully about how many platforms you can support (don’t overextend)

Who can post? Do you need a coordinator/moderator?

Make sure your branding is consistent across sites

Legal considerations

This is still a fuzzy area; talk to your lawyer

Look carefully at sites’ TOS documents

Finding your voice

Think of your library as a character/persona – what would its personality be?

If you have many people posting, sign tweets with the poster’s name?

“columns” on Facebook – a staff member posting regularly on a given topic

Engaging customers online

Go to meetups and tweetups locally and talk up your social media

Try to use Trending Topics hashtags on Twitter

Create and use your own hashtags

Surveys, questions, staff columns

- first person to answer correctly gets a prize (to be picked up at an event IRL?)

- Make sure you’re being authentic (“question of the week” fizzled out b/c it was too formulaic)

Being engaging = sharing personalized info – share inside information (statistics?) – have exclusive content for followers

Hey girl, let’s jump on a meme

- Andy Woodward got Old Spice guy to talk about libraries

- library created video of Old Spice guy

- failblog.org – Memebase category

Listening to the crowd – sometimes the conversation isn’t happening in your feed/on your Facebook page/etc

- set up Google Alerts

Platforms

Look for what your patrons are using (and how it correlates with demographics)

Initiate/develop partnerships w/community organizations

Friend potential partners with your personal account, and communicate with them that way

“Like” local organizations

Measuring success

Stop if you aren’t meeting objectives, or if it isn’t interesting to you anymore

Look at other organizations to establish baselines

Online book club for teens done via Ning chat (Ning also offers message boards) – but Ning is now paid service

“Where in the world is the bookmobile?”

* Library has laminated cutout of bookmobile; staff take it on trips and post photos, asking patrons to guess where the bookmobile is

Pinterest

Create booklists (covers link to reviews?)

What’s next?

Facebook app letting people reserve and check out books

One library shares “how to” videos from YouTube – start creating them?

Giving patrons the opportunity to create content, or finding content they’re creating and promoting it

Make your personal use of social media professional – connect with other librarians etc. through your personal accounts

Q&A

What if you’re doing “everything right” (asking questions, etc) and people still aren’t engaging/answering?

* Find a couple of people to engage regularly – it breaks the ice – maybe even staff?

* Promote sites in person to make people feel a more personalized connection to your social media

PLA 2012 session notes: Building Your Base (& Your Budget)

Following are my notes from the "Building Your Base (& Your Budget)" session at PLA 2012, held on Thursday, March 15 at 4:15.

------------

Speaker is from NY's Mid-Hudson Library System

You can't just sit back and see what happens in library votes – you need to actively tell supporters you need them to vote/act/speak up

MHLS created campaign structure to get the vote out

* midhudson.org/vote – Public Library Vote Toolbox (works for general advocacy to boards, etc. too)

When a vote fails, who voted no? Who actually came out to vote? Do you know them? What are their characteristics/what are they like?

* The day after a no vote, you have to get right back to convincing them

Garnering support has to happen year round

Start "inside" – know who is using the library

* What are they into?

* Where do they live?

* What do they do when not at the library?

"Magic Quadrant"

* Most important = heavy library users, registered to vote – supporters – ensure that they vote

* Heavy library users not registered to vote – supporters – get them to register and vote

* Registered voters who don't use the library – neutral/potential supporters – reach out to them

* Try to figure out who they are, and segment the market

2 basic tenets: Tweak what you're already doing, harness others to work for you

Don't avoid publicity b/c you couldn't handle popularity – if you can't handle the demand, make an argument to your community that if they want x, this is what it costs/will take

1) Gain more supporters and goodwill

* Do this even among current users, who may not know about all services/have all background info, etc.

2) Create and build a sense of loyalty

* Don't aim for everyone and don't aim to make them all weekly users – just make sure they understand your value

3) Work smarter, not harder

* Be as simple as possible

6 basics

Regular communication w/current users/supporters (not just when you need something)

Consistent effort to gain new users/supporters

* Yearly townwide mailing?

* Include the VIPs in town

Increased visibility in the community

Proactive communication with community leaders

Strategic thinking about everything you do

* How can you add a value-added message to everything? Programs, services, etc

Practice word of mouth marketing

* Know what you want to say

* All internal constituents – staff, trustees, etc should be saying the same thing at the same times

* Tried this system-wide with Mango, doubled usage in a few months

* Everyone should have some little factoid for grocery-store-line conversations

* Prep a packet in advance including talking points, a video, etc. to help train/prepare people

4 steps

Choose

* Choose a group – who isn't using the library?

* Think lifestyles rather than demographics

* Who is ready to hear your message and help out?

* ESRI tapestry segmentation chart: http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/tapestry.html -- freely available, describes many market segments very specifically [note: I requested a copy of this poster in late March and I haven't heard a peep since]

* Go where the people already are

* Take advantage of already extant communication networks

* Find social groups that don't have a high rate of library use

Explore

* Learn about chosen groups to tailor your message to their needs and perspectives

* "Stalk" them online? (Facebook pages etc)

Contact

* Be genuine

* Investigate their communication network, get in touch, explain what you're doing

* "why do you want to talk to us?" "because you're members of the community and we want to serve our community"

* Ask what they need

Partner

* Reach out, show and inform, market, educate

* Think about repackaging – talking slightly differently about what you have to communicate its appeal to a particular group

Toolkit: midhudson.org/byb

How to do this in an online environment

Website = fundamental landing point for online searching for info about your library

* Needs to load fast, have info easy to find

Keep an eye on online reviews

Find local groups with Facebook pages, promote your stuff through them (with permission)

Think backwards – start with them and work from there

I'm famous? -- part 2

Part two of the interview I mentioned in my previous post is up here: http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/2012/04/10/the-role-of-social-media-for-libraries-part-ii/

(Needless to say, all statements made therein are my own opinions and do not represent the position of my employer. This isn't an "official" statement, just my own personal thoughts on the eBook situation.)