Internet Librarian - Libraries in a 2.0 World (Part 1)

Weekend are for catching up with the previous week. Here is the first in a series of posts about cool tools and strategies for marketing libraries that I picked up from just one day at the Internet Librarian and http://www.infotoday.com/il2008/ Librarian conference October 20-22, 2008, Monterey, CA. The 2008 conference theme was "Beyond 2.0: User-Focused Tools & Practices". My notes are in bullets following each presentation.

Lots to learn, so I stayed with Track #2: Outreach & Marketing Public Libraries in a 2.0 World.

Nancy Dowd, Director of Marketing, New Jersey State Library, presented on "Giving Your Marketing and Advocacy a Second Life" She referred to a blog called "The M Word" -- Marketing Libraries. Here is the description of her presentation:
You’re using Flickr and blogs. You’ve created social networks on MySpace and Facebook. You’re IMing, texting, and twittering all day long. You’ve even gained some notoriety on YouTube. Before your avatar drops from exhaustion, isn’t it time you asked what all this 2.0 technology is really doing for your library? Learn the tricks to turn your mad Web 2.0 skills into effective marketing and advocacy results to increase exposure and support for your library. Dowd takes you to the next level by illustrating how to incorporate Web 2.0 technologies with traditional marketing and advocacy tools to produce effective results.

I captured many of Nancy's trends and suggestions:

1. Online databases. 2+1=success. Public libraries should use Google Ads for their local community. Makes sense! Bring in money for the library, while promoting local business. Buy eDatabases from the perspective of a library patron and DEMAND A MARKETING CAMPAIGN for the database from the vendor.
2. Interactive Mobile. Think also of Guitar Hero and other video games.
3. Green.
4. I write. You contribute. Write and tell library stories. Send to iCNN and other online mainstream publications (my note: be visible!) Easy to do. Get (library) teens to do it. Library interns are great for story/video interviews.
5. Stories - Drive customers to the library website with stories. Stories on HOW libraries are TRANSFORMING lives and communities. (Referred to Library Roadtrip across America DVD by Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer. See ShanachieTour: A Library Road Trip Across America )
6. Market to VOTERS. See OCLC "Fighting to awareness" report. See list of key voting issues. NJ Library will take each issue and create stories on the issues -- (my note: this is a most excellent and strategic suggestion. It is a mix of issues management and outreach.)

Great to see a Marketing Position at a State Library. Taxpayers fund their state and local public libraries, so it makes sense to have someone devoted to promoting the these public resources.