Marketing the Library

One of the requirements of my evaluation is to develop a student learning objective (SLO) that relates to something measurable in the library.  I pondered and pondered what I could do to collect data. Through the years, I have been doing visitor counts to see how many people come in on a daily basis to use the library.  I decided to use that as my SLO, to show growth in visits.

This made me realize that to get people here, you have to make people want to come here.  As I have mentioned time and again, I do a lot of things to make the library a better place.  I have changed the layout, added tons of new books, weeded old books, organized, cleaned, you name it.  Another thing I have done a lot is market.

I majored in Journalism at one point in college and ended up minoring in it instead, but, I was fortunate enough to take a class in Public Relations and a class in graphic design.  I have really used a lot of that knowledge to make tools for the marketing of the library.   Here are a few of the things I have been working on:

1. Weekly posts about new releases which are emailed to the students.  (I use Animoto to make short videos, link them to YouTube and embed the content on the library website.)  It takes about 10 minutes to do each week, but, the kids are starting to catch on and new releases are starting to disappear off the shelves.
2. Posters:  I made simple but clean cut posters to hang around the school featuring information about our social media campaign.  They were printed on 11"x 17"paper in color and laminated.  I hung them everywhere kids go (bathrooms, above water fountains, in the cafeteria and in classrooms.)  I also made posters reminding kids about checking email and about things they can get in the library.
3. Genre specific fliers and posters: I made posters that compare books. "If you liked this, try this".  I hang those around the library and plan to make more over the summer to put in different places in the school (particularly English classrooms).
4. Newsletters: I can't take credit for this one- a library media specialist in a district here in Indiana shared a copy of hers with the state listserv and I LOVED the idea. I now do a quarterly newsletter via Smore.com that features current hot titles, a special tip and some basic information.  It gets emailed to the staff and students.
5. Press releases: It pays to know people in print.  Our local newspaper owner (printing about 500-1000 papers a week) has asked me to write a small column about the library, about programs, promotions, what's hot, etc. to be printed each week in the paper.  What a way to get the community aware of what we do.
6. Teacher reads posters:  I am still working on this one, but, I am going to make a poster for each teacher that they will jot down what they are currently reading and the author.  I am hoping kids will see the adults they look up to reading and decide to do the same. (Fingers crossed!)

These are a start of my plans.  I am still working to develop more ideas and ways to promote the school library.  Since I have started this, my numbers of visitors has increased dramatically.  In 2014, I had 17,000 visits during the school year from August to July.  So far, since August 1, I have 16,000.  We still have 35 days left of school so I can already see an increase in my numbers.  Doing that little extra has really paid off.

Displays and social media in the library

It has been three long weeks since I have been at school so my brain function is way below the norm.

This post may be short but I thought it would be a good time to talk about our displays and use of social media to share things with our students.   We moved to the genre format three years back, but we found that there were still genre that were not being checked out so we put our heads together and started creating inventive ways to share our genre with the students.  We started developing bulletin board displays in the hallway and making a selection of books available to the students in the media center.  We pulled titles that don't circulate a lot, but would be well loved if they did and voilà, a great way to share with students our selection of the month.

A few months we have gone way overboard.  We joined forces with the Student Council/ Spirit Club and made our theme go along with their spirit week.  We had a Zombie themed October and the Spirit Club had a Zombie war the last week of the month.  Kids tried to turn each other into zombies.  It was awesome!  We even had a few kids show up wearing zombie makeup.  

No matter what we do to share our displays, we rely heavily on several social media platforms to present the information to as many as we can.  We have a twitter account (@hamiltoncommlib) that is linked to our YouTube account and our Facebook account.   We have a Pinterest account as well. I am also working on a Flickr account or Picasa to keep track of all of the images I take.  I feel sharing as much information as I can makes people more aware of what is out there for them. It makes me feel like I am doing something right for our students.   Each week, we make an animoto video with our new releases and put it on our school library blog/website. 

We have some hits and some people check them out.  All in all, I am pleased with the use of social media and how it is helping build PR for the library.

My new years resolutions

I think it was an edutopia article that talked about becoming connected and things every teacher could do to be tech savvy. I felt that article really hit close to home. I work in a small district where few people have embraced our 1:1 program. I think part of the reason is because the coaching side of things isn't present. I decided as I reflected on the last two years of being 1:1, there are a few personal resolutions I need to make to make 1:1 possibly be a success.

1) Data collection/staff technology survey I came across a matrix a school corporation developed based on SAMR (another resolution I need to master) and the tech coaches required all teachers take the survey to find out exactly where they stand on technology. The results were astounding. It helped plan how tech coaches approached teachers. It also led to a lot of discussion with administration about professional development needs, evaluation and funding.

2) Roam the school offering my services. I think part of the improvement in 1:1 can happen if I make myself available to the teachers. Maybe if I stop in rooms and ask them for a needs assessment I can prove to them that I am there to help and that a 1:1 program isn't a bad thing.

3) Keep experimenting with tech tools. I need to spend a little time trying tools to see what can be done with them. Not all tools are good and some teachers may not realize that. They may try something new if there is proof that it's easy and will work for them.

4) Keep blogging. I set a goal last year to blog twice a week. I have managed that well, I think. I am going to keep at it and share my experiences.

I hope my drive and ambition will continue and I can keep my resolutions going.

Marketing my Library

Part of the responsibility of being an effective school librarian is making a library a place that is welcoming and accommodating. It is also important to spend a little time marketing the library to everyone who should be using it.

Since my French classes are dwindling and fading out, I have had a little more time to focus on that very thing:  Marketing the library.  I spent my summer developing some ideas and ways to make the library more visible to everyone, including students, teachers, community and beyond.  I decided early on that I was going to start a blog or a website to promote what we are doing. I also decided I needed to promote our new releases and our current programs.  I spent a lot of time organizing Aminoto videos and making google presentations that can be embedded into numerous platforms.

I decided to use Blogger to create my website.  I started with Google Sites, but I didn't like the idea of the page just growing and not making a nice archive on the sidebar.  Blogger allowed for an archive so people could only see a limited amount of information and be able to look to the side for more.  I wanted information to remain and not be deleted.  I looked at other sites as well, but since I use Blogger for my main blog, I found it easier to build it all there.

I made a fancy movie about getting to know the library.  It is merely photos of different places.  I have done several screencasts as well.  All of them are posted on my library YouTube channel. My goal is to market as well as teach everyone.  I started doing Tech Tuesdays this year, inviting teachers to come to the library to learn tools. I have been sending the students emails with little tips and tricks.  I even started making little surveys to get kids to check their emails.  We give away little prizes here and there for answering the surveys.

Aside from making videos, I make a lot of signage and do a lot of advertising on social media.  In fact, I am a little bit of a social media guru.  Everything is mingled. I post on one, then all the others post the info. I have placed QR codes around the library and other parts of the school.  Hopefully my students are accessing the information and looking at what we have.

It takes a lot to make the school library a place for everyone and hopefully, these little efforts of mine will make mine an even better place.

Marketing my State's Award books

This school year, I have made a dedicated point to spend more time marketing the library.  I have been very focused on doing whatever it takes to increase student library usage.  I have spent a lot of time checking out things other people do, talking to other media specialists, googling ideas, attending webinars, twitter chats and conferences; whatever it takes. I am finding that my efforts are not only fun, but starting to pay off.

It started when a colleague sent a message on the Indiana Librarians listserv asking for ways schools were promoting the state award books.   I had been doing a few things in the library and getting them interested, but her challenge drove me to find some other outlets. I decided to start making videos.

I spent a little time walking about the media center looking for pictures of the books, the signage, the prizes (I give away prizes via drawing for voting on the books.) and where to find the materials.  I used my trusty Animoto account and voilà, a quick, fun video that identified all of the things we had to offer. I shared it with my YouTube account and emailed it to all of the students.  They saw what I had to offer and what we were doing for the students who participated.

When the second nine weeks started, I posted a new video, featuring the winners from round one, the prizes we had and how they could win. I posted the video on YouTube and sent it to the kids.  I am seeing a lot of positive changes in circulation. Last year only 8 of the state award books were checked out and voted upon.  This year, I have already had 30.  *I know this sounds like a very low number but in a school of 200, it is a good percentage.

I am not sure how much impact my newly found marketing strategies will work, but I am sure with time, persistence and a little patience, the students in my school will have a part in voting for the Indiana nominated books.