Geek the Library campaign is live!

Although aimed at consumers, librarians will also have fun looking through the Geek the Library site and then adding in what you geek.

The ‘Geek the Library’ campaign, made possible by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, highlights what people are passionate about and how libraries can support them, in an effort to heighten awareness about the critical funding issues public libraries face.

Kick-off events happened in Savannah, Georgia, yesterday and will be in Des Moines, Iowa, later this week. Greater Savannah and central Iowa are the two areas selected to begin this community-based campaign pilot set to run through December.

‘Geek the Library’ features local advertising that introduces ‘geek’ as a verb, and encourages the public to talk about what they ‘geek’—whether it’s engineering, superheroes or art. The public awareness campaign illustrates the fact that everyone is passionate about something—everyone ‘geeks’ something—and that the library supports them all.

What do you geek? Submit it to the site!

New York Public campaign: Shout it Out for the Library!

LOVE this new video PSA from the New York Public: "Shout it Out for your Library!" Mario Batali, Amy Tan, Better Midler, Malcolm Gladwell, Barbara Walters and other celebs voice support for the library and reiterate the value of the public library for the community.



Also like the blocker page they have up now about supporting the library monetarily, on NYPL. It's a great way to remind people that while the library is free to use, it isn't free to maintain and run.

Having worked on previous advocacy campaigns with OCLC, I know the challenges of finding the right audience for your we-need-financial-support message. Especially with the down economy, you have to make every marketing dollar count. YouTube and Twitter are great ways to get the word out to new audiences. Using local celebrities isn't all bad, either.

Economic downturn could be uplifting for libraries

I have been sidetracked this morning, reading the headlines about the economy. I started the track by wondering what retail chains were going bankrupt, then mosied over to read about the "how to pay for college" crunch, and then ended up on biofuel and a global food shortage.

Yikes.

When I think about Maslow's hierarchy, food and shelter have to come before such things as problem-solving, community or eventually self-actualization...many of the things the Library (with a capital L) excels at. At least, the Library sets up the environment to make self-actualization more likely.

But people can't get excited about ideas or the life of the mind if they are hungry.

So it may seem like we as a society are heading into a time where we must hunker down and not do anything (translation: spend money). And of course I know all too well the whole "the library is free" mentality is a double-edged sword--it's free but it must be funded adequately.

But I was thinking that the economic downturn could be just the thing for libraries to use as a springboard to make their case to the American public:
1. We are a vital city service--as important as electricity or clean water.
2. Use us in good times and in bad.
3. We welcome ALL the people of the community here for technology access.
4. Hope lives here, at the library. Hope for improvement.

When all the headlines you see are about closing doors and belt-tightening, we can stand out from all the bad news: our doors are open, we are the place to come for education, entertainment, information...basically we are the place to come when you want to hope for a better life.

Is this realistic or am I just searching for a way out of all the bad news headlines?
Happy National Library Week.

National Library Week in South Africa

Meant to post about this a couple of weeks ago (ahem!) but better late than never. I was so cheered to hear that OCLC's latest advocacy ad subject, Neal Petersen, was picked up and used in South Africa for National Library Week 2008. I was looking around quickly for other national library week celebrations from other countries...anyone know where a good list might be?

Traveling traveling

So now that everyone else is finally home from ALA, I am still on the road. I left DC on Monday and have since been in Wichita, Kansas; Huntsville, Alabama and Minneapolis, Minnesota. (with airport stopovers in St. Louis, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee and Dallas, Texas...) We fly to Chicago, Illinois tonight.

Have I signed up for a new position as a Quality Assurance tester for the airline industry?
Not quite, but it's starting to feel like it! We're actually working on the creative concept possibilities for the library advocacy marketing program we're working on, and testing them with consumers in focus groups.

We've heard a lot of inspiring reflections and ideas from these consumers. At this point, ideas seem to be around a combination of thoughts about what your libraries are like now, what people's perceptions of others of what your libraries are like now, what the other infrastructure elements are like in your town (police, schools, fire) and what's been going on in the local media.

For one community, the idea of upgrading your library with newer buildings and materials is really appealing. In another, the libraries are perceived to be already beautiful and the notion is that "they must have enough money, they built a new building last year."

All very very interesting. People DO CARE about what's going on in their libraries in their towns and neighborhoods. But sometimes the caring only comes out, once you ask them if they care.

I WILL post my notes and photos from the Symposium and other associated OCLC at ALA events...plus it was AWESOME to see so many people in person at the Blog Salon!!

When in Washington on Tuesday...

If you're going to ALA and you'll still be in town on Tuesday (unfortunately, I will not be...), the ALA Washington office has organized the opportunity for Library Day on the Hill. Now before you start envisioning Jack and Jill fetching a pail of water, this sounds like a great way to join forces with other librarians in your region and make your voice heard.

At the very least, it is a chance to remind your national elected official that you indeed have a voice. Here's the PDF letter you can use to invite your elected official to go to the Gold Room, see the bookmobiles or--this seems pretty cool--have their own READ poster made. Now if you could work a deal, where your elected official would ALSO provide a copy of their unique READ poster for your library...what a better way to give them a spotlight in your library, with constituents, and help remind them of why your library is so important and needs their support.

Speaking of library support, I just saw the LJXpress about the House Subcommittee slashing LSTA and IMLS funds. Not exactly a rosy outlook. But at least you'll have something to talk about, when you're on the Hill.

Warm summer days

We are having such a gorgeously warm day here. I couldn't resist taking a break from the task list to say hello and check in with IAG readers. Like everyone lately, I've been on the road.

I did a presentation on "How to Market the Archives" at the MAC/SOA conference in Columbus, OH last week. It was really fun to think about archivists for a bit (as opposed to my usual dominant thought-audience, librarians). Note to self: Archivists Do Not Necessarily Identify with Librarians.

The Brand is not necessarily the same, and the public's perceptions of the Archives are not necessarily the same. It sparked a really good conversation about what IS the Archive Brand, and how is it differentiated from libraries, museums or historical societies. And how is it relevant to today's users (esp. if the original source materials are NOT digitized!)?

Any archivists or would-be archivists, chime in here.

What else have I been doing? I spent about a week and a half crossing the country from east coast to west for our National Library Advocacy project, listening to people talk about libraries, their library experience and what they think about library funding.

The results have been very very interesting. We did indeed go to Jackson County, Oregon, to hear what people had to say. We also went to Minneapolis, Minnesota--because the library funding there has been a hot topic for the community and community leaders. We went to small towns, big towns, and many places in between.

In reflecting back on it, many people in this country deeply value what the Library has to offer, and the richness that librarians bring to their knowledge-seeking endeavors. Of course, many people wonder what the right answer is, for library funding in their communities, too.

Next week I am off to Dublin and then Maryland, to talk about DataSPIKE and more DataSPIKE with the UpCounty Libraries. Should be fun!

Ernest Gallo passes on

After 97 ripe years of living, Ernest Gallo has passed on. His passing is noteworthy here, because the Gallo brothers (Ernest and Julio) found their original wine recipe in the Stanislaus County Public Library. (Side note: I like their library ROI calculator there, too!)

Loyal IAG readers may remember that the Gallo family graciously agreed to help us kick off our library advocacy campaign. You'll find the PDF of the Gallo ad on the OCLC Advocacy site. The Gallo family--and in fact, all the Gallo staff we've ever worked with--have been absolutely top-notch and wonderfully supportive.

I'll toast to you, Mr. Gallo, next time I raise my glass!

Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries

ALA has an advocacy site for Rural, Native and Tribal libraries. This is cool--I didn't know they had this sort of specialization, but I am enthused to know it has been going on for awhile now.

I knew WebJunction had a special team of people doing work with rural and tribal (First Nation) libraries. Of course George and Chrystie will know more than me on this! (And it gets top billing on the page for Best Practices.)

In particular, the ALA site has a nice PDF tip sheet that gives you A Small but Powerful Guide to Winning Big Support for Your Rural Library. This is great!

I am thinking about advocacy in particular because I just sat in on a call with the Reference Interest Group at OCLC Members Council--where I know Eric and George are, right now, in Quebec City. The group was interested to hear what we're doing on advocacy, and of course gave us some good guidance on what OCLC should concentrate on, from the members' perspective! For all of us not in Quebec City, chime in here and I will make sure your voice is heard!

Jackson County Library

Being the up-to-date librarians you are, I am sure you've already heard about the Jackson County Library's closing.
NPR covered it this morning. Listen to the story from Jeff Brady. National media is great for raising national attention.

Of course I, in my rose-colored-glasses world, wish the national media would pay attention when things are going great and we're serving more people than ever before in more ways than ever before...but I guess headlines like LIBRARY THREATENED TO CLOSE sells more papers/attracts more listeners than LIBRARY CREATES SMARTER CITIZENRY. Which headline inspires you to read it?

Incidentally, the Jackson County Library created a nice calculator page on their site to help you put a dollar value on their services. I am sure they would be happy to share the back-end of their coding with your library's Webmaster, should you want to implement a tool like this on YOUR site.

Their blog is also well worth reading. Especially see the "My Library" stories from library users.

I hope our National Advocacy project with the Gates Foundation can help raise awareness about the importance of library funding, with both consumers and elected officials. That's the idea, anyway. Did I mention I am the project manager for this, on the OCLC side?

Side note: As part of our project, we actually talked to State Librarian of Oregon, Jim Scheppke.

New blogger

So I have a big list of blog topics brewing--currently the list is at 8 and it keeps growing!

Some of my catch-up topics that I'd planned to blog and are now old news :

• Apple iPhone (already lots of chatter out there in blogland)
• Windows Vista (a somewhat lack of enthusiasm here? Article from FT about the end of an era)
• ALA MW 07 rocked (I will post photos here and to Flickr. I know...sometimes that pesky day job gets in the way. Oh wait, you're saying that blogging IS part of my day job? Oh, and then there's that... (Fun Symposium pics from other people...) Tags to search on are OCLC_symposium, ALA_MW_2007, MW2007, ala2007
  (and Michael, I agree with you--I don't like underscores in tags either)
• Speaking of tags, hey hey we were able to upgrade to the new blogger tonight finally. They have been teasing me for quite awhile that I could try it out...but I couldn't post to IAG from the new system. So going forward we'll be able to integrate all the "DUH" elements like tagging and labeling posts. It will make us much easier to find good tidbits. Interesting--I wonder if we'll naturally fall out along authorship lines, as well? This will be an interesting exercise if we go back and classify all 991 posts! (And yes, I have brought up the idea of a Controlled Vocabulary but dunno how Web 2.0 it is...but for a multi-person corporate blog--anyone have recommendations to share?)
• Americans for Libraries Council (ALC) has released a fantastic new site called Act for Libraries. It's meant to promote ideas, research, action and investment to strengthen America's libraries. (Sorry Alane, I think they mean U.S. America, not North America). Lots of good videos and mini-case studies there. You will be inspired here! (Plus I met some of their staff at MW...shout out to Chris and Bruce!)
• Urban Libraries Council (ULC) has also just released an awesome-sounding report, Making Cities Stronger (PDF). Although I admit. I swiped Liz's copy from the WJ HQ when I went to go visit, and I have not actually cracked it more than page 2 yet. The title alone makes me want to read it cover to cover. It is right up my alley!

Not old news, but Michael Gorman (yes, THAT Michael Gorman) is hosting The Chronicle's Brown Bag discussion tomorrow (Feb 1 at noon EST). This news make make your blood boil or you may be relieved to know that we bloggers have not hacked him to itty-bitty-digital bits (yet). The topic is rather large and vast--they would appreciate your questions and comments, I am certain:

The Changing Role of Academic Libraries in the Information Age

Finally, welcome QuestionPoint to the OCLC family of blogs! They've been blogging for the QP user group for some time now--but they decided to flip the switch and let anyone read it. Rock on! (Of course I read this with some amusement, because we have an internal discussion going on about blogs and product blogs, legal necessities, etc. and I had just told two other services to "please hold off starting your blog quite yet" because our internal "Blogfather" (no lie, this is what we are calling him) was still scratching around with some possible policies. So...good things come to those who wait, right?

Speaking of waiting, you've had to wait for me, to get all this juicy info! Thanks for waiting...