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Library Marketing Ideas Posted to AFPLWATCH

    It's That Time of Year Again
    Posted September 22, 2003

    Did anybody at any AFPL branch, or at the Central Library, put up a display this year for Banned Books Week? Did anybody, as in previous years, receive any materials--like this nifty ALA poster--so they could join all the other libraries across the country doing displays on this topic?


    Let's see: who might've sent us those materials--the library system's Public Information Officer??? Oops! We forgot: a library system the size of AFPL doesn't need one of those, does it?

  • Public Libraries: Time for a New Slogan?     Posted March 15, 2004

    Marylaine Block, in a recent edition of her always-thoughtful Internet newsletter of library-related essays she calls ExLibris, offers some alternatives to the public library’s current business model. Block believes that advertising the library as “the information place,” as many public libraries apparently are still doing, is not as compelling as it might have been before the Internet came along. Block’s alternative models include the library as:
    • a gathering place for the community
    • a self-improvement center
    • an idea factory
    • a culture center
    • a place for kids
    • an education resource (the model-or at least the slogan--adopted by AFPL: “The People’s University”)
    • “a place for reading” (AFPLWATCH’s fave, but way too radical for the likes of Hooker & Co.)

  • Some Libraries Publicize Their Databases-Instead of Cataloging Them   Posted March 30, 2004

    AFPL Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker was recently complaining that not enough library users know about all the information available in GALILEO’s databases. Instead of assigning library employees to “catalog GALILEO” (the latest in a long, long list of ill-conceived notions from the brain of MKH), she should’ve thought twice before running off the library’s Public Information Officer. AFPL’s PIO could’ve written an article like this one in the Seattle Times, that publicizes the riches of databases licensed by public libraries.

  • Some Library Partnerships Make More Sense Than Others   Posted April 4, 2004

    Library commentator Marylaine Block has written another eminently sensible column, this one urging libraries to partner with local museums, historical associations, and arts and educational organizations for the blindingly obvious synergistic benefits their already natural-but usually unexploited-alliances suggest. Block gives specific ways libraries can do this, such as establishing links on the web pages maintained by all the partners. Yet another breathtakingly fundamental idea that has somehow escaped the partnership-crazed mind of AFPL’s directress. Or maybe she’s tried to forge these partnerships, and those institutions just ain’t interested? (At least, not while Hooker remains in charge?)

  • Need a graphic of a librarian?   Posted August 27, 2004

    Canada-born New York City librarian Tracey Friesen has trawled the Web and come up with an assortment of graphics and photos suitable for copying-and-pasting into your next flyer/handout/sign. Tracey provides a link to these graphics on her blog, entitled "InfoMistress."

  • Office Depot Promoting Libraries   Posted September 1, 2004

    Office Depot has teamed up with ALA to promote libraries during this year's back-to-school season. Details of the campaign were reported recently by Library Journal.

  • Dept. of Nifty Optical Illusions   Posted February 1, 2005
    Courtesy the people at Librism.com, here's a clever little invention Dan Brown might be tempted to use in his next bestselling thriller:
  • Dept. of Good Ideas: Web Sites for Friends Groups   Posted May 10, 2005

    As far as we know, the Friends of the Library group at the Ocee Branch is the only Friends group affiliated with AFPL that maintains its own web site.

    We think this is a great idea, and we're also grateful that the friends sensibly call themselves (at least on their web site) the "Ocee Friends" instead of the cumbersome "Friends of the Dr. Robert E. Fulton Regional Library at Ocee."

  • Dept. of Amazing Library Statistics   Posted May 11, 2005

    Librarian-at-Large Marylaine Block is one of "LibraryLand's" primo sources. Recently Marylaine posted the following alert in her Internet newsletter:
    "OCLC provides some snappy charts and commentary on the economic impact of libraries. I'd suggest putting them on prominent display in your library and sending them to your local news media and community leaders."
    The range of different ways these statistics point up, again and again, the economic value of libraries is astonishing. Maybe one day soon, AFPL will be blessed with having a Public Information Officer on its staff again, someone who could get a few of these facts before The Great Unwashed Public, or at least before the Local Keepers of the Library System's Purse Strings?

  • Library Publicity Alert   Posted May 28, 2005

    Here's an interesting web site devoted to ideas libraries have used to promote themselves.

    We hope Mr. Szabo will be hiring someone soon to (among other things) monitor sites like this. AFPL needs to resume periodically reminding local citizens why patronizing the county's libraries is A Good Thing.

  • More Ideas for Publicizing Libraries   Posted June 3, 2005

    Late last month, we posted a link to a nifty library PR web site. Here's another one. (Technically, this one's a blog rather than a web site, but it's still full of wonderful ideas we hope AFPL's next Public Information Officer will consider adapting.)

  • Yet Another Library Publicity Blog   Posted June 7, 2005

    The sheer number of clever ideas being posted to the Internet these days for publicizing what libraries do keeps us wincing about the fact that AFPL has no Public Information Officer (thank you, Mary Kaye Hooker).

    Donna Feddern's "Promote Your Library" is the latest library publicity resource cited by LISNews.com. One of Donna's most recent posts is about "branding" for libraries. While we're not as keen on this particular idea as most other library enthusiasts seem to be, we do admire the categories Donna uses to organize her posts: Advocacy, Branding, Design, Leadership, Programming, and Word of Mouth.

  • Reinventing the Public Library Website   Posted July 19, 2005

    Speaking of library web sites, there’s been buzz lately on several librarian-written blogs about the fabulosity of Ann Arbor District Library’s recently-renovated site.

    AADL decided to devote its entire home page to a blog, using it to communicate useful library-specific news to library users (hey - what a concept!). Doing that with a blog (instead of "broadcasting it" via web content aimed at theoretical rather than actual library users) allows patrons to post comments to the news alerts, and allows staff to quickly respond to those patrons' comments, concerns, and questions.

    A month into the re-do, the experiment seems to be working gloriously. AADL users post comments in large numbers, and various glitches in the library’s services have been improved thereby. And all that other stuff we’re used to seeing splayed across the home pages of library web sites is still there, but it's nicely corralled behind self-evident tabs (“Catalog,” “About Us,” etc.) along the top of the page.

    Even more intriguing, AADL's library director participates in the AADL blog. Now there's an idea with exciting ramifications....we hope AFPL's new director will seriously consider opening such a potentially useful communication mechanism - and one that includes staff as well as patrons - at AFPL.

  • “Wearware” for Librarians   Posted July 20, 2005

    There’s now an online store for librarians who want to wear their profession on their sleeves (or chests or head or elsewhere): The Curmudgeony Librarian Superstore. You can shop by category ("Wenchery Garb," "Stickers," "Kids," etc.), and there are several hilarious designs ("Will Catalog for Food," "Blog Person," etc.) for T-shirts and tote-bags to choose from. The site invites suggestions for additional kinds of merchandise the store might carry.

    [AFPLWATCH thanks Marylaine Block for mentioning this site in her July 15th installment of her always-informative "Neat New Things I Found on the Web This Week".]

  • Another Source of Librarian-Themed Merchandise   Posted July 26, 2005

    Alert readers will remember our recently-posted plug for the online store for library workers operated by Canadian librarian Gary Bauman, aka The Curmudgeonly Librarian. Gary has written to urge our readers to also check out another online bazaar that offers additional fun stuff (mostly T-shirts) for library folk: Librarian Gear. Our thanks to Gary for his uncurmudgeonly tip.

  • Public Library Web Sites On Parade   Posted August 2, 2005

    David King, one of the planet's zillion librarian bloggers, had taken upon himself the daunting task of reviewing library web sites, and here's Dave's first review. (The web site he examines, incidentally, is the same public library system web site AFPLWATCH mentioned last month.)

    Reviews of library web sites is a great idea, although we hope AFPL takes the initiative to further refine its own web site before Blogger Dave takes a critical gander at it. The recent tweakings of AFPL's site implemented by the ad hoc website committee did make it more user-friendly, but www.afplweb.com is still a long way from being the site AFPL's users deserve. Which is why we were mortified when the organization's website committee notified library staff on July 7th that "the committee does not intend on making any further changes to the design and functionality of the website."

    We realize the committee is probably worn out trying to fill in for so many months for a nonexistent full-time webmaster. On the other hand, every library system certainly needs someone, or a small group of someones, to continue making improvements and enhancements to its web site.

  • A Patron Blog for Branch Libraries?   Posted August 2, 2005

    Speaking of useful library web sites, librarian blogger Meredith Farker was recently wondering why more public libraries haven't set up blogs for their patrons to communicate with each other.     Meredith's idea is that such a blog - which by definition would be interactive - could constitute
    "...a one-stop-shop for information about the community. There would be a page on restaurants with people writing their opinions of each place (good or bad). There would be a page where people could talk about who their favorite mechanics are. There would be a page for each community group where they could list the times and locations of their meetings for members. The local government could provide timely information on the wiki about school closings and whatnot. It would become whatever the community wanted it to become. And yes, there would probably be spam. And yes, there would be idiots who posted rude comments. But when you have enough people working on the wiki, they will enforce the community norms by removing those things from the wiki....It would be a great way to make the library more visible in the community, to change the public’s perceptions of what libraries are, and to develop a fantastic resource for the community."
    Sounds like a great "library program" idea that some tech-savvy person working in some AFPL branch might be able to pioneer for one of Atlanta's many neighborhoods. Granted, the aforementioned lack of a full-time, on-staff webmaster would be an obstacle, but perhaps a way could be found around said obstacle...or perhaps AFPL's new director will be successful in recruiting a webmaster for an organization whose web presence is (to put it mildly) not very impressive for an organization its size.

  • AFPLWATCH Ponders Mysterious Void in the Blogosphere   Posted August 4, 2005

    Over on Phil’s Bradley’s blog are some interesting figures about blogging that Phil found in the “State of the Blogosphere: Blog Growth” report posted by Dave Sifry on one of the most well-known blogs, Technorati:

    • A new weblog is created every second.
    • The blogosphere doubles every 5.5 months.
    • 55% of all blogs (over 14.2 million) are active.
    • 13% are updated at least weekly.

    With so much blogging going on among librarians and others who work in libraries, our question is why we don’t know of a single library-related blog maintained by an AFPL employee. Does any frequent reader of “LibraryLand” have a theory about why there are no known bloggers among AFPL’s vast work force? We figured there might be a dozen or so by now.

  • Dept. of Intriguing Library Art (Missouri Division)   Posted August 16, 2005

    Here's a photo (courtesy LISNews.com's weekly harvesting library-related blogposts, this one from the French-language BiblioAcid) of the award-winning mural painted on the side of the parking garage of the Kansas City Public Library's central library:



    How refreshing to see that some cities not only dramatically and creatively advertise the existence of their libraries, but provide the patrons of their downtown branches with convenient parking!

  • Exemplary Library Web Sites…and AFPL’s   Posted August 19, 2005

    “Librarian Without Walls” Marylaine Block recently posted an essay about library web sites in her always-excellent Internet newsletter, Ex Libris.

    Alas, AFPL’s web site features none of the things Block was specifically hoping to find on any library web site:

    • photo tours.
    • jargon-free links and labels.
    • information about the library’s service area.
    • links to information about local hot topics.
    • a list of the library goals and a copy of its annual report.
    • a list of who’s in charge of various library services and ways for patrons to get in touch with each of them.
    • information about donations.
    • an engagingly-written library-sponsored blog.

    Reading Block’s essay will give you an idea of how far AFPL still needs to go before it can be proud of its “web presence.”

    As we’ve said before, that’s unlikely to happen until AFPL obtains - like every other library of its size in this country - its own full-time, on-staff webmaster. (AFPL used to employ a webmaster, but that position and its incumbent fell into the great maw of Fulton County’s Information Technology Department during Hooker’s watch not too long after she had paid a consultant $30,000 to for a site re-design that, fortunately, never saw the light of day).

  • Why Libraries Should Sponsor Blogs   Posted August 30, 2005

    Indiana-based reference librarian Scott Pfitzinger explains. Our favorite bit:
    "A blog can allow a library to provide book reviews, announcements of new displays or activities or changes in hours open, readers advisories, tips for searching or doing research...the possibilities are limited only by the imaginations of the librarians....Plus, all these articles have built-in feedback collectors-something that libraries often lack."
    Read Scott's entire blogpost.

  • Why Library Administrators Should Stop Underestimating
    the Importance of Library Websites       Posted September 27, 2005

    Ohio-based blogger Laura Solomon has posted some intriguing reflections, plus links to some equally-interesting reflections of others - including an arresting mathematical calculation on this subject. Read Solomon's blogpost.

  • Dept. of Hugely Appropriate Library Co-Sponsorships   Posted October 3, 2005

    AFPL's Roswell Regional Library, along with the City of Roswell, the Friends of the Roswell Library, and various local bookstores, are co-sponsoring a community-wide reading event called "Roswell Reads." Information about the event is available on AFPL's website and in the city's press release.

    This sounds like a worthwhile effort, is certainly being properly advertised, and will expose more Roswellians to the fact that they have a public library at their disposal.

    Wouldn't it be wonderful if AFPL's Powers That Be could pull off something like this for Atlanta, Georgia?

  • Public Library Blogs On Parade   Posted October 10, 2005

    As we've mentioned before (for example, here and here), more and more public library systems are launching blogs as a way of engaging their patrons in a more dynamic relationship with their local libraries.

    At least two librarians are trying to keep up with which public libraries currently sponsor blogs, and providing hyperlinks to them. If you'd like to see what a public library blog looks like, link to a few of them on one of these lists:


    The Public Library Association has posted to the Internet an excellent article about blogs for public libraries (advantages, software needed, content ideas, etc.). A similar article, "Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services" by Darlene Fichter is available here.

    Our favorite public library blog at the moment is the Weblog of Literary and Library News and Resources operated by the constantly-amazing Waterboro (Maine) Public Library.

    Given how useful a library-sponsored blog could be to spreading the gospel of ye local public library system and all its obvious and not-so-obvious glories, we remain astounded that AFPL is not exploiting this particular Internet technology to help rehabilitate its standing among AFPL users, potential users, and potentially-more-efficient users. Must the institution wait for the hiring of a full-time PR person and/or a full-time webmaster to get something like this off the ground and onto AFPL's website?

  • Museums: Natural "Partners" for Libraries?   Posted November 16, 2005

    As we learned to our dismay from The Hooker Era, "partnering" the library with some other institution is often a completely superficial public relations stunt that doesn't "leverage" either organization's "strengths" or create "synergies" or do anything else that really benefits anybody and in fact ends up draining staff energies instead of inaugurating some alleged "new initiative."

    On the other hand, some partnerships make a lot more sense to attempt than others, and AFPLWATCH has mentioned before that partnerships between public libraries and local museums seem to us to have a lot of potential.

    Now there's a blog devoted to exploring the affinities between museums and libraries. Take a look. (And our thanks to another blog, Library Stuff, for alerting the library community to this resource.)

  • "Change on the Cheap"   Posted November 18, 2005

    While sudden infusions of cash doubtless dance in library administrators' heads like visions of sugarplum fairies, some quantum improvements to library service don't require elaborate funding campaigns.

    Library consultant Marylaine Block, of "Ex Libris" and "Neat New Stuff I Found on the Internet This Week" fame, recently delivered her "Change on the Cheap: Big Payoffs from Modest Investments" presentation at statewide library conferences in California and Hawaii. Then Marylaine helpfully posted her outline (with hyperlinks) to the Internet.

    Block's latest panoply of great ideas - like so much else Block has over the past few years been exhorting forward-looking libraries to adapt to their own circumstances - is, in our opinion, the latest required reading for all public library directors.

    The best thing about Block's ideas? Several of them could be instituted at AFPL next week.

  • Dept. of Warm Fuzzies: Life-Changing Library Experiences   Posted December 15, 2005

    Marylaine Block at Ex Libris called her readers' (including AFPLWATCH's) attention to a collection of award-winning essays written by Canadian citizens on the theme “How the Library Changed My Life.” The essays (all 350 of them!), along with accompanying (and hugely flattering-to-libraries) quotations, are collected at their own handsomely-designed website.

    We can (barely) imagine that, one day, somebody at AFPL might wrangle a grant to sponsor a similar competition here in Atlanta, and we think such a project would be a swell idea.

  • "Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs..." (or Not)   Posted January 6, 2006

    Here's a little hint to the managers of AFPL's 34 library facilities, including the next (hopefully feng-shui-indifferent) Central Library Administrator:
    “Signs need to be grounded in a hierarchy of what they’re meant to do (navigate, advertise, educate, label) and then imstalled where users can see them, read them, and use them. The hierarchy should include a design template (e.g., all navigation signs look the same) and description of the kind of information that must be included (e.g., all navigation signs include area names and arrows that direct).”
    Source: “Power Users” by Beth Dempsey, Library Journal, December 2005, pages 72-75.

  • What Libraries Could Learn from Gestalt Psychology   Posted March 16, 2006

    An interesting paragraph written by Tom Peters as part of a recent ALA TechSource blogpost:
    “…During the user's experience of a bricks-and-mortar library, the weakest link in the experience chain can cloud that user's opinion of the entire experience. If the user cannot find a convenient place to park her car, her bike, or her carcass, that's a problem. If the signage is poorly designed-although the service point, once she finds it, is great-that's a problem that negatively affects her sense and value of the entire experience. It doesn't matter to the user that the library cannot control all the factors that coalesce in mysterious ways to form, in each user, a sense of a complete experience. Most users form a sense of the gestalt experience first, then look for responsible parties second-if ever.”
  • Dept. of Library Techno-Innovation Envy   Posted February 21, 2006

    If you want to know why the few techno-savvy library workers at AFPL are in the slough of despond, all you need do is read through this recent summary of how other public library systems are already using various Internet-based technologies to strengthen the link between library collections and programs and their constituencies…while AFPL isn’t.

    Read it and weep…and congratulations to those of you toiling away at AFPL who are young enough to maybe be around when AFPL's Powers That Be finally implement some of these 21st century methods of relating to the library system's [Internet-connected] users.

  • Readers Advisory Services Taking Quantum Leaps Forward...Elsewhere
    Posted March 29, 2006

    Excerpt from a recent Library Journal article:
    “Library web sites boast an alluring array of R[eaders] A[dvisory] features these days: staff-written reviews, annotated lists, readalikes, discussion forums.”
    Alas, AFPL’s website doesn’t boast any of these features. But read the entire article if you’d like to see examples of the sort of web-based services AFPL patrons are doing without these days - services other library systems - presumably, library systems with their own webmasters - have somehow managed to provide for many months now.

  • Luring Library Users onto Library Websites   Posted April 19, 2006

    In one of her recent newsletters, library commentator Marylaine Block brought her readers' attention to an essay by Stephen Abram entitled "The Shop Window: Compelling and Dynamic Library Portals".

  • Recorded Phone Messages a Bad Idea for Libraries?   Posted April 25, 2006

    AFPL Library Express Manager James Taylor has a fine speaking voice, but we hate, hate, hate being forced to listening to the phone menu recorded by Mr. Taylor that one must endure whenever one calls AFPL's Central Library. Former Library Journal editor John Berry explains why libraries' use of recordings for its phone-in customers is so annoying in a recent editorial entitled "Humans Do a Better Job":
    “When you telephone a library these days you rarely get a live person. Most often you get a recorded menu that offers a litany of options, making your wait and listen to the whole list, and almost always the referral to a live person is the last choice offered....Remember the importance of human contact to library users. That is the factor that separates the library from the department of motor vehicles or other government bureaucracies.”
  • "The Cluetrain Manifesto" and The Public Library   Posted April 26, 2006

    Most library workers who've been happily splashing about in the biblioblogosphere for awhile now are probably familiar with (or have at least heard about) the now six-year-old bestseller entitled The Cluetrain Manifesto, but we don't remember bringing it to the attention of AFPLWATCH readers before.

    The Manifesto's delightful website contains, among other things, the Manifesto itself plus a link to the book's entire text. (Does your library's collection have a printed copy of the book in its collection?)

    We think at least half of the individual precepts of the Manifesto - originally targeted for corporate communication executives - have particularly relevance to the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, or to any public library. (We especially agree with precepts #51, #52, #53, and #89.)

    After all, more and more AFPL users are people who visit the library system's website more often than - or at least before - they enter one of AFPL's buildings, and whose impressions of their public library is largely shaped by the quality and usefulness (or defects therein) of the library's website.

  • Tools for Libraries Who Care About Internet-Savvy Patrons   Posted May 5, 2006

    Some genius named John Diep has created a one-stop tool shed for, among others, library webmasters whose library administrations and funders are interested in exploiting the latest wave of Internet technologies. Diep's comprehensive website contains links to explanations and instructions for the entire range of interaction-enabling "Web 2.0" software that we've seen (other) public libraries installing on their websites over the past few years - blogs, community event calendars, document sharing utilities, podcasting, RSS, social networking, audio and video streaming, wikis, and on and on.

    Scrolling down through Diep's long list of Web-based customer services will give you a rough idea of just how many exciting, useful library-promoting ideas the hapless patrons of the webmaster-less AFPL continue to do without.

  • Friends Groups + Library Blog = Big Benefits   Posted May 9, 2006

    Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba are co-authors of the book Creating Customer Evangelists). In their "Church of the Customer" blog, McConnell and Huba constantly trumpet the advantages enjoyed by companies and organizations who use blogs and other interaction-encouraging mechanisms to tap into the considerable energies of their most enthusiastic supporters.

    Recently, these marketing experts recently posted a mini-essay entitled "Zen and the Art of Fan Clubs." Plug in "Library Friends Groups" for "fan clubs" and their blogpost should give library administrators and managers plenty to think about.

  • Dept. of Great Ideas: Acknowledge Book Donors in the Library Catalog   Posted May 23, 2006

    MIT's library is already doing this, why not AFPL? Why not now, or soon?

    [AFPLWATCH spotted this idea at the latest "Carnival of the InfoSciences," sponsored this week by Library Garden, who saw it at Catalogablog, whose author saw it posted on a librarians' electronic discussion list.]

  • (Other) Public Libraries Busily Blogging Away...   Posted June 3, 2006

    ...while AFPL's administrators continue to ignore this amazing opportunity for conveniently (and inexpensively!) communicating with - and capturing the praise, wisdom, and advice - of AFPL's most passionate fans and critics.

    We earnestly hope that it won't be too much longer before AFPL eventually joins the burgeoning list of public libraries sponsoring blogs for their users - or, perhaps even sooner, the list of libraries (including several public libraries) sponsoring staff blogs for internal communication.

  • British Library Enthusiasts Launch "Love Libraries" Campaign   Posted June 5, 2006

    Here's what a partnership of fanatical supporters of public libraries can do. And with plans for "radical makeovers" of three different local libraries, the project's plans are as ambitious as they are creative.

    Interesting fact: this campaign was conceived by a bunch of publishers, rather than by librarians. Be sure to read the section of the "Love Libraries" website that describes the background and evolution of the project.

    (Our thanks to Alane at OCLC's It's All Good for bringing this story to AFPLWATCH's attention.)


  • Ann Arbor PL Website Wins ALA Award   Posted June 19, 2006

    AFPLWATCH readers may remember reading previous LibraryLand bulletins about Ann Arbor PL's website, which, among other things, allows library patrons to participate in a library-operated blog.

    The American Library Association, after examining over 360 websites operated by large library systems, has determined that the website maintained by Ann Arbor, Michigan's public library is the best.

    Brief details from the Ann Arbor News.

  • Princeton PL Starts an Adult Summer Reading Club   Posted June 19, 2006

    The best news: the library has started an interactive webpage so club members can post reviews of the books they're reading. How cool is that?

    Details.

    Also extremely cool: Princton PL employs someone whose job title is "Reader Services Librarian."

  • Public Libraries Venturing into Internet's MySpace   Posted June 28, 2006

    As blogger Dave Hardwick notes, MySpace is an emerging Internet technology used by 72 million people - more than the population of 213 countries.

    Blogger Stephen Abrams’ most recent blogpost on MySpace includes links to some public library systems whose employees are using MySpace to offer (or at least advertise) library services.

    MySpace is yet another Internet technology (along with RSS, blogging, podcasting, and all the rest of what "Free Range Librarian" Karen Schneider calls “the Library 2.0 cafeteria”) that’s APFL administrators are, alas, not exploring.

  • Denver PL Website Includes Reading Recommendations   Posted July 14, 2006

    Denver posts to its website not only staff-recommended books, movies, and music, but patron picks as well. Each recommendation comes with a thumbnail photo, the name of the recommender, and a short annotation.

    And AFPL isn't doing something like this because....???

  • Iowa State Library Office Sponsoring Readers Advisory Website   Posted July 19, 2006

    Although still in its infancy (mostly a bunch of booklists, and not very interesting visually), this bare-bones website is an example of something that other state library offices could be providing to public libraries. State library offices that did a good job of this could invite their state's public libraries to include a link on each of their own websites to the state site, and save a lot of people a lot of local wheel-reinventing.

    Meanwhile, many public libraries haven't been waiting around for state government bureaucrats to help their libraries' patrons quickly identify that Next Great Read.

    A tiny, random sample of public library systems elsewhere that include readers advisory features on their websites:



  • Dept. of Nifty Library Advertising Ideas: Billboards on Buses   Posted July 19, 2006

    Courtesy The Travelin' Librarian, here's a photo of how a Friends of the Library group in Nebraska spent some of its funds promoting its library (and one of its award-winning librarians).

  • Air Conditioning a Neglected Marketing Factor for Public Libraries?   Posted July 22, 2006

    Marylaine Block’s latest Ex Libris essay is about how some public libraries are advertising themselves during this heat wave as (literally) cool places to flee to in hot weather.

  • Why Libraries Must Find Better Ways to Advertise Their Wares   Posted August 9, 2006

    Excerpts from a recent blogpost by OCLC's Lorcan Dempsey:
    "If you want something to be discovered it has to be disclosed to a discovery environment....If I want people to know that I am a plumber available for hire, I do not simply put a note on my door. I disclose my availability through the yellow pages, the local newspaper, Google ads: all those places where I know that I am going to be discovered.... So, if I want the stuff in my library to be discovered by those to whom it will be useful, I have to disclose its existence in those discovery environments that people actually use....I can expect some of them to find their way to my door - the library catalog or website - but if people are having discovery experiences elsewhere what should I do [with the data in my library's catalog]?"
  • GSU Creates Photo-Blog to Keep Library Users Up to Date on Renovation
    Posted August 14, 2006

    So why can’t AFPL do something like this for the next library it builds…or, better still, for the finally-resumed progress on the Central Library plaza?

  • Library Signage: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly   Posted August 15, 2006

    Librarian blogger Michael Sauers (aka The Travelin' Librarian) has created a Flikr site with photos of (and comments about) various signs posted in libraries around the country that contributors have seen fit to email to the site. There aren't many examples yet, although the sign from an Idaho public library that started the whole thing is a doozie!

  • Another Tale of Two Cities (i.e., Two Library Systems)   Posted August 16, 2006

    Number of blogs sponsored by the Darien, Connecticut public library: 10 (including one written by the library director). Number of blogs sponsored by the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library (written by the director or by anyone else on AFPL's staff): 0.

  • Dept. of Ideas Whose Time Has Long Since Come:
    More Convenient Patron Access to Library Managers       Posted August 16, 2006

    The ever-innovative Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenberg has come up with a simple, customer-friendly, put-a-human-face-on-the-library idea to include include on its website. County.

  • Dept. of Extremely Kewl Ideas for Public Libraries   Posted August 18, 2006

    At her other always-equally-interesting website, Ex Libris, Marylaine Block recently mentioned the fact that the Denver Public Library provides a link on its website that allows a library user to automatically install a DPL toolbar on his/her home computer if they use Internet Explorer as their web browser. The toolbar eliminates the need to type in the library’s website address before searching its catalog or databases.

    Minimizing the hassle of - and thus the hesitancy to - place a Hold on a library item from home would, all by itself, seem a great justification for offering this nifty tool to AFPL computer-owning cardholders.

    But into whose AFPL administrative bailiwick would such a decision fall into, we wonder? Alas, the answer to that question reminds us of our favorite cartoon in the current (August 21, 2006) issue of the     New Yorker, which shows an executive at a desk talking on the telephone. Caption: “And you can rest assured that your problem is being ignored at the very highest levels.”

  • Dept. of Great Library Promotion Ideas: Enhanced Book Receipts   Posted August 28, 2006

    'Brary Web Diva recently posted this arresting suggestion (among others):
    Do you print receipts of what a patron just checked out? Customize it to feature upcoming events!
  • Another Blogger Weighs in on How to Make Libraries More "Welcoming"   Posted August 29, 2006

    The recently-revived weekly roundup of library-related blogs at LISNews mentions another set of suggestions on improving library signage, this set posted by Christopher Harris at Infomancy.

  • Numerous Library Websites to Feature "Pearl's Picks" for Readers   Posted August 31, 2006

    Beginning tomorrow, the website of the Seattle-area Kings County Public Library will include a link to Nancy Pearl's latest book recommendations. Pearl, the author of Book Lust and More Book Lust, is a much-sought-after speaker at literary events.

    According this press release, eight other library systems have also agreed to include the "Pearl's Picks" link on their websites.

    AFPL's website woefully lacks the kind of "Good Reads" section - or, for that matter, any of the other reader advisory sections - featured on the KCPL website. Perhaps some AFPL administrator would be willing to persuade The Website Powers That Be to create a link on AFPL's website to "Pearl's Picks" until AFPL achieves the wherewithal to prominently feature the reading recommendations of its own library staff?

  • "Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs..."   Posted September 5, 2006

    Massachusetts-based librarianship student Jennifer Macaulay has conveniently brought together links to many of the commentaries that have recently been posted to the biblioblogosphere about library signage (the good, the bad, and the ugly). As with most blogs, the comments to Jennifer's post are as useful as the blogpost itself and the links it contains.

  • Marylaine Block's Advice on Library Signage   Posted September 19, 2006

    The always-thoughtful and user-conscious Marylaine has posted her considered opinions about "user-intelligible" library signage to the ongoing discussion in the biblioblogosphere about this topic. Read them here.

  • "Mediocrity is not a formula for holding attention."   Posted September 20, 2006

    Thus writes Kathy Sierra at the "Creating Passionate Users" blog. It's interesting to think about how this statement applies to public library operations, and to library communication channels like websites. The rest of Kathy's blogpost is equally thought-provoking.

  • Dept. of Doable Ideas: More Photos on Library System Websites   Posted September 20, 2006

    Over at Tame the Web, blogger Michael Stephens has posted Mickey Coalwell's "16 Ways to Use Flikr at Your Library."

    We don't see why AFPL shouldn't substantially enrich its website by immediately implementing suggestions #11, #12, and #15.

  • Estimating the Value of Library Services Used per Household   Posted October 4, 2006

    The State Library of Maine's website has posted an online spreadsheet that calculates the dollar value of services provided to a library-using household. Take a look at this interesting idea, which we found via LISNews.

  • Dept. of Nifty Library PR Ideas: READ Posters Featuring Local Leaders   Posted October 31, 2006

    The public library in Lansing, Illinois garnered itself a heap o' free publicity by asking two dozen local community leaders (including a few of the library's board members) to pose for individual photos of themselves reading their favorite books. The photos were converted into posters and hung on the library's walls. The library also uploaded photos of the posters onto its Flikr account on the Internet. The campaign was so successful that the local newspaper ran a story on it, and reproduced some of the "homemade" READ posters as part of the story.

    Sounds like a win-win situation all around, especially in terms of creating positive library-related (and ego-boosting!) experiences with the aforementioned community leaders.

    AFPL's Powers That Be need should consider scheduling a bunch of photo-shoots - and getting themselves a (free) Flikr account (for this and other reasons)!

  • More Praise for Book Review Blogs Sponsored by Public Libraries   Posted November 8, 2006

    Illinois public library blogger Rick Roche recently described what he likes about the online book review blog offered (since 1998!) by North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenberg Public Library.

    Earlier this month Rick pointed out what he likes about a similar book review service (this one limited to staff-written reviews) that Wisconsin's Madison Public Library operates on its website.

    CMPL's "Reader's Club" and MPL's "MADreads" are the kind of thing that AFPL should be experimenting with on its own website. Such a blog would demonstrate the library system's tangible support of, and guidance for, library users who intend to continue using their local libraries for (drum roll, please) Good Reading Material instead of (or in addition to) free Internet connections.

  • Libraries in Ohio Quantify $$$ Value of Public Libraries   Posted December 4, 2006

    Last week, OCLC blogger Alice Sneary alerted the readers of OCLC's blog It's All Good to the fact that a group of Ohio libraries spent $25,000 on a study to figure out how much citizens who invest a buck in public library service get back in service. Here's what the study found.

    Perhaps AFPL will consider citing these figures when it comes time to promote the bond referendum it hopes will pay for implementing its Master Facilities Plan. Such an appeal to economic bargainhood might help convince citizens unmoved by the billboard images of allegedly book-starved children that AFPL used during the previous library referendum.

    Come to think of it, why wait for the bond referendum? These (or comparable) figures should probably be posted somewhere on the library system's website.

  • Building Dynamic Websites for Libraries   Posted January 20, 2007

    Librarian/Technie Karen Coombs describes in a Computers in Libraries article six "Web 2.0" principles that guided a radical re-do of the website at the University of Houston library. The six principles:

    1. Radical decentralization
    2. Small pieces loosely joined
    3. Perpetual beta
    4. Remixable content
    5. User as contributor
    6. Rich user experience

    Sounds good to us. Unfortunately, AFPL still doesn't have a full-time Tech Services manager on staff, or, for that matter, its own webmaster. Or, for that matter, guidelines in place for how an AFPL staff member could go about getting something posted to the website. And AFPL patrons are totally shut out of the process (whatever that process is).

  • Other Libraries Successfully Providing a Multitude of Web-Based Services
    Posted February 12, 2007

    Examples cited by The Shifted Librarian of how other U.S. public libraries have joined the 21st century:
    Unfortunately, AFPL is doing none of these things, nor have the AFPL Powers-That-Be established any mechanism to even explore any of them for possible implementation on behalf of AFPL’s patrons.

  • Dept. of Oh-So-Simple and Not-Terribly-Expensive Library Marketing Ideas
    Posted February 23, 2007

    Excerpt from a recent Britannica Blog blogpost:
    In the Netherlands, the Spijkenisse city library won a marketing award from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions last year for its campaign to attract nonusers to the library with a simple postcard and the slogan “Wij missen u" (”We miss you”).
    Found via the 65th installment of The Carnival of the Infosciences.

  • More Web-Exploiting U.S. Public Libraries   Posted February 28, 2007

    New Jersey librarian Marie Radford has posted to Library Garden "a preliminary list of Innovative Library [Web] Sites... for public libraries." Here's Marie's list as of the end of February:

    • Ann Arbor District Library (MI) uses the open source Drupal content management system with incorporates blogging, tagging, user comments, and RSS feeds. Its location page is tied into Google Maps.

    • Arlington Heights Memorial Library (IL) features "Vlogs" - video casts.

    • Atlantic City Public Library (NJ) features podcasts as well as RSS feeds.

    • Denver Public Library (CO) has RSS feeds for library news and local events, podcasts, teen MySpace Account.

    • Goshen Public Library & Historical Society (NY) maintains several blogs on various topics - book reviews, computers, library news, and also has a MySpace page.

    • Hennepin County Library (MN) has blogs for library news and teens, RSS feeds built into the catalog along with user reviews/comments, a MySpace account and, podcasts.

    • Memorial Hall Library (MA) - Library director maintains a Blog and site has a wiki with an accumulated collection of reference question called "Andover Answers," teen podcasts, and a MySpace page and an online community calendars.

    • Mesa County Public Library District (CO) has a library director blog, a staff "librarian's love" blog, and links to online book clubs.

    • Salida Regional Library (CO) links to Library Elf which allows users to track due dates on checked out items; local digital archive link, downloadable audio books, director (weekly) newspaper articles, and staff recommendations.

    • Stevens County Rural Library District (WA) maintains a library news blog and a public wiki project designed to create a guide to Stevens County, including local history.

    • Westerville Public Library (OH) features director, teen and adult services blogs, library Flickr and MySpace presence, RSS feeds, podcasts and videocasts, user rating of catalog items with links to Amazon, B&N, NoveList, and Syndetics for reviews.

    • Worthington Libraries (OH) has a teen blog along with an associated MySpace site.

    Only two of the libraries in Marie's list appear in a similar list compiled by The Shifted Librarian that AFPLWATCH posted earlier this month.

    Sadly, AFPL appears on neither list, because, seven years into the 21st century and 10 years after the introducing the Internet into its libraries, AFPL offers none of these web-based services to AFPL's computer-owning users. None, zero, nada.

  • Local Library Providing Web-Based Videos on How to Use Library   Posted March 3, 2007

    Just over the Fulton County border - and therefore convenient to any AFPL employee who might want to replicate this for AFPL's website - the Acworth-based North Metro Technical College Library has posted eight tutorials to YouTube to explain to its library users how to exploit various library resources.

    One of the eight videos is something AFPL should "immediately-if-not-sooner" consider adapting for AFPL's computer-owning audiobook users: how to sign up for a free NetLibrary account.

    Found via the OCLC blog It's All Good.

  • More Ideas for Making Public Library Websites
    More Interesting Destinations for Library Patrons       Posted March 15, 2007

    Two California public library website features recently mentioned at OCLC’s blog It’s All Good:

    • The blog written for library patrons by employees of the Burbank Public Library. The blog covers a wide range of subjects, and includes the occasional obituary of a well-known author (recently, one highlighting the career of, and books written by, the late Arthur Schlesinger).

    • The Yorba Linda Public Library devotes the upper left-hand corner of its website with an interesting feature: a constantly-scrolling list of each item just returned to the library. Further down on the screen appears another nifty feature: a list of the 10 most popular items in its collection (updated every day).

    Meanwhile, back at AFPL's website...oh, never mind.

  • Another Free Venue for Promoting Library-Sponsored Events   Posted March 28, 2007

    Something the hopefully-soon-to-be-hired next appointee to AFPL's still-vacant public relations honcho position might want to explore: a website devoted to listing local events nationwide. The site currently lists a multitude of Atlanta-based events, but AFPL isn't one of the site's participating Atlanta-based organizations.

    Libraries in other U.S. towns are already using the website to promote their events and services. If the eventually-hired PR person decides it's worth the time and energy to use the website, we hope he/she can convince the site's owners to add Alpharetta, College Park, East Point, Fairburn, Hapeville, John's Creek, and Roswell to the cities the site covers, in addition to Atlanta.

    Found via the Librarian in Black.

  • Dept. of Intriguing Public Library Art: New York City Division   Posted June 6, 2007

    We missed the news about the unveiling of this elaborate project two years ago, nor have we seen it yet, so we're grateful to Fade Theory for bringing to our attention the existence of the "Library Way" in New York City:
    "GCP [Grand Central Partnership] has transformed East 41st Street between Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue into an entertaining and illuminating promenade to the majestic New York Public Library Humanities and Social Sciences Library by displaying 96 bronze sidewalk plaques featuring quotations from literature and poetry. Known as “Library Way,” this initiative was being undertaken by GCP with the assistance and support of the New York Public Library, the property owners and commercial tenants along 41st Street, library organizations, and the New York City Department of Transportation. Library Way was officially dedicated on May 27, 2004."
    One of our favorite plaques:
    The design, as well as the content, of each plaque, is different. Enlargable photos of the 96 plaques are available here, should any AFPL employee want to trawl through these quotations for posting somewhere in an AFPL branch (or branch newsletter).

    Fade Theory's reminder (and the photo shown above) came courtesy logostoni.

  • Flikr Bursting with Photos of Libraries and Librarians!   Posted July 17, 2007

    Michael Porter (aka Libraryman) notes that the Internet's most well-known (but certainly not the only) photo-posting site now has over 10,000 images of libraries and/or librarians, submitted by over 1,500 different amateur photographers? See for yourself!

  • Posting Library Users' Suggestions (with Staff Replies)   Posted July 18, 2007

    Here's an idea from an academic library in Virginia that public libraries everywhere should be experimenting with: posting on the library's website comments (via email inquiries, phone calls, service desk interactions, and suggestion boxes) made by library users, with each posted inquiry/suggestion/complaint followed by an appropriate staff member's response.

    What a great way to (a) demonstrate that the library staff welcomes its users' comments, suggestions, and complaints (b) simultaneously and conveniently explain to lots of people which user suggestions have been/will be implemented, and which ones won't be, and why.

    Wouldn't it be interesting if the folks at AFPL who handle the monthly deluge of "customer comment" postcards, emails, and phone calls from AFPL users would be willing to funnel those efforts into such a communication/educational tool? Even if only selected comments were replied to publicly on AFPL's website, this would be an advance over the current way AFPL administrators now handle complaints and suggestions.

    Found at Meredith Farkas' Information Wants to Be Free.

  • Good Idea: A "Recommended Titles" Tab on Library Websites   Posted July 25, 2007

    Though hardly a first in this respect, New Jersey's Princeton Public Library is one of many whose website includes a prominent tab near the top of the site labeled "Recommended." Website users who click on this tab are taken to a lists of recommended titles grouped in a respectable number of various categories, as well as to lists of new books in various categories. (Better, each title in each list is accompanied by book jacket images, short descriptions, and links to the relevant PPL catalog records.)

    Although AFPL administrators have so far failed to enhance the usefulness of AFPL's website, we hope the current reluctance for radically improving the usefulness of the website by identifying and allocating the staff resources necessary for doing so will eventually be replaced by something more customer-supportive.

    We also hope that, when and if such a staff investment-shift finally occurs at AFPL, that such a "Recommended" feature, while displayed as prominently as PPL displays theirs, will be slightly re-named to be a bit more accurate (i.e., "New or Recommended Titles", rather than the ambiguous "Recommended." In fact, we think there's a need for two separate tabs (placed not only high on the page but side-by-side): one tab for "New Titles" and another tab for "Recommended Titles." After all, those are often very different animals.

    Unfortunately, without a full-time webmaster on its own payroll, AFPL's entrance to the ranks of Excellent Library Websites is going to be a long time coming.

  • Another Resource for Library PR Efforts   Posted July 31, 2007

    The chronic lack of a full-time library system public relations position at AFPL hasn't made it any easier for AFPL staffers to effectively publicize their libraries' services, collections, and programs.

    While everyone continues to wait for a PR honcho to finally be hired to help with this important, never-ending task, those in the trenches who've been doing what they can (on top of their other duties) to fill in the breach could benefit from the numerous tips and warnings supplied by Get to the Po!nt.

    Found via LibTalk Blog, which often links to nifty library-publicizing ideas.

  • Dept. of Library Promotion Campaigns: Merchant Discounts for Library Cardholders
    Posted August 6, 2007

    According to the New Jersey-based Library Garden, Kentucky's Kenton Public Library will soon be "partnering" (hated word) with a bevy of local merchants who've agreed to offer temporary discounts to library cardholders to publicize the value of libraries to the life of the local community.

    Perhaps AFPL's PR person - once he/she's finally hired - could consider mounting a similar campaign here in Fulton County, Georgia, where there are plenty o' local merchants to "partner" with.

  • Onwards and Upwards Towards Better Brochures!   Posted August 7, 2007

    If you work in a library, you are constantly distributing various kinds of brochures, most of them created by people who are not you. But the day will come when somebody's going to expect you to create a brrochure about this, that, or the other thing that library users are also constantly asking you and your colleagues about. In fact, that day will probably come more than once.

    Take pity on your library's users and make your first, second, or hundredth brochure a good one. The Ohio-based LibTalk Blog has posted a heedworthy list of brochure-creating tips and links to examples of superior library brochures.

  • PR Toolbox Alert: Make Your Own "Hollywood" Graphic   Posted August 8, 2007
    Perhaps the allegedly-soon-to-be-hired PR honcho for AFPL could create something similar to insert in some of the inevitable "Vote YES on the library referendum!" propaganda (the printed kind and the electronic kind) that will need to be produced (if all goes according to plan) around this time a year from now?

    Found via Library Stuff via Marketing Begins at Home.

  • Dept. of Nifty PR Ideas: Spray-Painting Announcements on Library Parking Lots
    Posted August 31, 2007

    The Johnson County (Kansas) Public Library enlisted a bunch of teenagers to advertise its new website by spray-painting messages on the parking lots of multiple branch libraries:



    We think this is a great idea for libraries to consider using, and for news other than improved library websites. If some sort of non-permanent spray paint could be found (or colored chalk was used instead), libraries could use this lo-tech method of communication often - at least during the non-rainier seasons of the year.

    Found at The Goblin in the Library.

  • Dept. of Super-Duper Public Library Websites   Posted September 14, 2007

    One of these days, some organization is going to sponsor an annual award for Best Public Library Website in the Galaxy. (It might be equally useful for someone to regularly publish a list of The Galaxy's Most Unappealing Public Library Websites, so other public libraries can steer theirs away from emulating mediocre examples.)

    Until then, alerts about extraordinary public library websites will continue to surface from time to time in various library lit articles and biblioblogosphere blogposts.

    The latest cheerleading we've seen for a public library website is the one maintained by the Lakewood (Ohio) Public Library, and the person who's highlighting that website is library commentator-at-large Marylaine Block, who's posted her comments on Lakewood's site at her excellent e-newsletter Ex Libris. Definitely worth a look-see (both the Lakewood site itself and Marylaine's analysis).

  • NYPL's Redesigned Website   Posted October 19, 2007



    [Found via a new blog hosted by NYPL's tech people via Librarian.net, who credits "pk" for the alert.]

    Maybe whoever's empowered to revamp AFPL's website could take a few clues from NYPL's site re-design - after all, the current AFPL site was virtually a copy of NYPL's previous design.

    Besides the fact that the color scheme used on AFPL's website colors don't match the colors adopted for the recently-introduced AFPL borrower's card, we've been hearing more and more staff and patrons complain about some glaring flaws in AFPL's homepage. Some of the most frequently-voiced complaints:

    • the homepage is way too cluttered (too many nonessentials thrown in with essentials)
    • the catalog search link - like so many other links - is buried way too far down the page, leading most users to search the catalog via the search bar in the upper left-hand corner (with unfortunate results)
    • some of the links along the left-hand side of AFPL's homepage don't look like links because they're displayed in a shadow-text format that, in 99% of all websites means THIS IS NOT A LINK, IT'S JUST PLAIN TEXT

    The biggest problems with AFPL's website, of course, are the facts that the huge AFPL system doesn't have on its staff a full-time webmaster, and that there are no published guidelines for how staff members throughout the library can get information quickly posted to the website.

  • Dept. of Reader-Support Ideas: Posting Photos of Patrons Reading   Posted October 18, 2007

    Here's yet another great community-building idea from the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Public Library worth adopting at AFPL: setting up a library Flikr account, and making it easy for library webpage-visiting patrons to submit photos of themselves...reading.

    AFPL's webpage-people (whoever they are) could even consider posting a "Local Reader of the Week" photo on AFPL's main web page. Much more interesting than, say, reproducing yet another celebrity-celebrating READ poster from ALA.

    Found via So Many Books via Tame the Web, which had earlier blogged a similar set of Flikr photos of University of Michigan library staff publicizing Banned Books Week.

  • Dept. of Nifty Text-Themed Advertisements   Posted October 25, 2007

    Although we wonder if the universe might not be more congenial if humans had never invented advertising, we must admit that advertisers have created some arresting images. Like this one created by someone working for Australia's postal service:


    Too bad this ad was commissioned by a postal service instead of by some library somewhere....

    [Found via Bibliophile Bullpen via Flikr.]

  • How Comment-Enabled Library Websites Prove You Care about Your Customers
    Posted November 7, 2007

    Library 2.0 advocate David Lee King recently posted a convincing rationale for allowing library users to comment on just about anything a library would post to its website.

  • Library PR Idea: Prizes for Trying Out Self-Checkout Machines   Posted November 7, 2007

    Installing self-checkout machines in public libraries isn't anything newsworthy, but the idea of publicizing their installation and offering a chance to win prizes for trying them out sounds like one of those proverbial win-win propositions.

    Since AFPL is on the verge of installing eleven self-checkout machines in various branches soon, perhaps a few AFPL branch managers could consider doing something like this at their locations?

  • Memo to Library Administrators, Managers, Program Planners, and PR People:
    How to Persuade People to Use and Support Their Public Library
    Posted November 13, 2007

    “Beyond the Code” blogger Rajesh Setty recently re-posted marketing consultant Henry Beckwith’s list of “What Motivates People.” Many of Beckwith’s 40 precepts have a lot to say about how to “sell” public library services, programs, and collections to library users (or potential users). Read the list.

    Found via Candi Clevenger’s Lib Talk Blog.

  • Making the Most of a Library’s Website   Posted November 20, 2007

    While researching her book The Thriving Library, library consultant Marylaine Block looked at a bunch of library websites to see which ones stood out from the crowd of mediocre ones. Block has posted to the Internet an updated summary (with examples) of what she learned, and anyone at AFPL who'd like to do something about improving its website should take a look at this.

  • Nashville Public Library's Website Links Library Events with Its Collections
    Posted November 30, 2007

    Excerpt from a biblioblogger's recent description of NPL's drool-worthy enhancement of its website:
    "Visitors to the Library’s website are able to see a brief and visually attractive listing of a few featured events. If they choose the link for a specific author event, they jump to a description of the event, can click on a link to have an email reminder sent to them shortly before the event takes place, and can use additional links to find other “Books & Writers” events connected to the Library's collections.

    ...The same Library home page can help readers make other similar connections: following a link from a brief news item about novelist Ann Patchett receiving the 2007 Nashville Public Library Literary Award leads to a more detailed press release which allows readers to check on the availability, through Nashville's online catalog, of any of her works which are owned by the Library."
    Enhancing AFPL's website like this would be (to put it mildly) a quantum leap in its website's usefulness.

    The improvements in Nashville's site were instigated by its PR administrator. Hmmm. We wonder if AFPL's new PR person might be up to the challenge of revamping AFPL's website     a la NPL's??? (Lord knows no one else in AFPL's administration has been up to the task. Maybe AFPL's other administrators were all waiting for the new person to be brought on board?)

    [The description of the Nashville website is posted by Paul Signorelli at Infoblog; we found his blogpost via Sarah Houghton-Jan, the Librarian in Black.]

  • Best Way to Publicize a Library Construction Site?   Posted December 4, 2007



    Hey, AFPL administrators: when y'all get around to building those new liberries, howzabout considering this sort of way-cool advance publicity for them?

    Found at Deputy Dog via LISNews.

  • Dept. of Excellent Library Website Features:
    Calculator for Determining the Cash Value of a Public Library's Services
    Posted January 8, 2008

    Here's an idea worth emulating by every public library in the galaxy, including AFPL: the Chelmsford, Massachusetts library's template library patrons can use to estimate the cash value of the library services they enjoy every year.

    The calculator is based on a format devised by the Massachusetts Library Association, but the good people at Chelmsford invite other library webmasters to adopt their idea for their own library systems' websites.

    [Found via LISNews.]

    Oh, dear: AFPL doesn't have its own webmaster...so we guess he/she couldn't readily adopt anything from anywhere, no matter how potentially beneficial to the library system and its users. Too bad about that.

  • Dept. of Wonderful Website Ideas for Public Libraries   Posted March 4, 2008

    Is there a more compelling way to highlight a library's various services than to post a series of hyperlinked photos and statements by actual users of that library?

    That's what the Vancouver Public Library's doing. Take a look.

    Library staff at every AFPL facility probably know several loyal users who'd love to have their photos taken and used in this very public, supportive way.

    Found via Librarian in Black via Walking Paper.

  • Ways Libraries Could Be Using RSS   Posted April 2, 2008

    Tampa, Florida-based Cheryl Wolfe, aka The Moxie Librarian, can think of at least 10 ways.

    And AFPL isn't using any of them. Why is that?

    Found via the Librarian in Black.

  • Library Publications Alert: Another Free Image Resource   Posted June 26, 2008

    Attention all library brochure/flyer/booklist/poster makers: the ever-creative people at Flikr have created a searchable database of copyright-free images that anyone can use.

    With images available like these (the results for a search on the word "Atlanta"), boring clip-art illustrations for the aforementioned brochures, flyers, booklists, and posters are no longer excuseable.


  • Another Resource for Advertising Libraries   Posted July 3, 2008

    Last month, Susan G. Akers, Marketing Communications Manager at Ball State University, created a blog devoted to ideas for marketing libraries.

    Found via LISNews.

  • Ways Libraries Can Help You in a Bad Economy   Posted July 23, 2008

    A website called The Consumerist has posted a list of seven ways to save money by using your public library.

    The most valuable thing about this blogpost is not the list itself, but the comments posted by readers.

    Want a sampling of what people in the U.S. think of their public libraries - from what they value most about them to why some people avoid them like the plague? Read the frank, compelling, and sometimes hilarious reader comments to this blogpost.

    Then think long and hard about what AFPL needs to do to improve its rep among county residents - including how it needs to focus its marketing - once it finally begins getting any marketing.

    With another library bond referendum coming up, maybe there'll be another round of emphasis on improving the range and/or the quality and/or the efficiency of what AFPL does for its users (and funders)?

    In the meantime, it's fascinating to read about which public library systems have produced citizen cheerleaders (and why), and where people feel pretty miserable about their public library (and why).

    Found via LISNews.

  • A Bad Economy: Just Another Marketing Opportunity for Public Libraries?
    Posted August 4, 2008

    Excerpt from a recent Queens Public Library press release:
    "Public library usage is expected to rise dramatically in the coming months. Traditionally, people turn to public libraries during hard economic times for free entertainment, free after-school child care, to help with employment, for free access to the public use computers and to help them save money by doing things themselves, such as home and auto repairs."
    Found via LISNews.

  • Library PR Alert: Online Sources of Free Photos   Posted August 6, 2008

    Digital Image Magazine has posted an annotated list of 25 sources of free stock photos that library workers (among others) could search for nifty images to enhance their booklists, brochures, flyers, websites, etc.

    Found via the Librarian in Black via Phil Bradley's Weblog.



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