Marketing and Workshops; Teen Read Week; Flannelboard: Emperor's New Clothes
Earlier this week I attended the Professional Reading Roundtable at the Shenandoah Library, joining librarians from the area in discussing ideas from books of our choice. We discussed oral history (an interesting project is in the works--you might be hearing about it at a later date), customer service, reader's advisory for teens, staff development, early childhood learning spaces, and marketing. (Oh, and a side note--Carole listened to the customer service book, downloading it from WILBOR, rather than reading it.) At the end of the day we had found several topics for workshops in the spring, so be watching for those.
As we talked about marketing I was struck by the incredible range of marketing that we could be doing, and the wealth of tools that we have to help us to do that. First of all, the experience and ideas of our colleagues--from conversation, from observation as we visit other libraries or read journals, from books, from blogs. We'll find ideas for marketing new services and special events, for marketing to groups that aren't using the library as much as we'd like, marketing within the library--merchandising, really--and here we can learn from our colleagues in retail, marketing through the media, through print in the library and around the community, and marketing through the web.
As with many things, a plan is a good starting point. Even if you end up changing the plan, it's a good place to start. We'll be planning a series of workshops on the various aspects of marketing, starting with developing a marketing plan, and following through with the plan. You'll be "doing" as we move through the series, and will hopefully have a marketing plan and action steps by the end of the series.
As for the workshops on the other topics--there's a new "Creating a Reader's Advisory Service" workshop starting July 31. The oral history project might sprout a workshop or two, and customer service and staff development are definitely on our list for the spring. (And though I didn't mention it in the podcast, we're working on a reference interview workshop, as well. ) Stay tuned! --Karen
Links from Today's Podcast:
SWILSA Youth Services
Teen Read Week
WrestleMania Reading Challenge
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