It’s an asset to the community as a whole, but not for me.
Posted by: Emily in Library MarketingOK, here’s another one I had read, nodded at in agreement, then forgotten about until Bloglines randomly spit it back out at me again.
Here’s the deal, folks. Libraries have a pretty big image problem. I think we all realize that. But I don’t think many librarians have a good sense of how deeply that image problem may be impacting the amount of “business” we’re getting from our customers.
It’s not just that the patrons coming in the door need to be better informed of what services we have to offer. It’s also that the community as a whole need to be presented with a better image of what the library is and how that can fit with who they are. That’s a much taller order.
Let me put it this way. Most of my friends and family are not library users. Why not? As a group, they are educated, intelligent people who read, watch movies, need and use information, enjoy educational and social activities, and don’t like spending a whole lot of their hard earned cash on these things. So why don’t we see them at the library?
Because libraries are for the poor, the old, and children.
At least, that’s the gut feeling a lot of the people I know, and it doesn’t fit with their own sense of personal identity.
Now before anyone jumps all over me for this, of course I don’t really think this is who libraries are for. And when the people I’m talking about actually think about it, they don’t really believe that either. But it’s the gut impression that many people get when libraries are mentioned – the impression some folks get when they are not thinking real hard about it. It’s an asset to the community as a whole, but not for me. They don’t envision themselves as library users, so they never get so far as to walk in the door and see what the place is really all about.
So what are we doing about it???
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June 13th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
My opinion is that offering interesting, fun, enriching programming for adults is one of the keys to making the library relevant in people’s eyes. Someone who might not have any interest in visiting the library to check out books, dvds, or whatever still might come into the library to watch a documentary, attend a lecture, participate in a book discussion, or take a class on things like using Flickr or starting a blog. The same can be said for innovative web 2.0ish features on a library website. Once they’re in the door, so to speak, the library might enter their mental radar more often and they’ll start seeing the library as relevant to them, and not just the poor, the old, and children. Who knows? Maybe they’ll even check out an actual book shared by thousands of other people!
June 13th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I made some generalizations based on my own experiences with public libraries in the communities I’ve lived in (the main branch was always run down and when people thought of “library” they thought of the main branch). Here’s what I’d like to know: Y’all at libraries with big shiny new main branch libraries, do you find a broader spectrum of patronage? If so, do you think this was a result of the publicity surrounding the building of the library, or the nicer facilities, or getting people to “own” their library (as in participation) because they voted on it and their tax dollars paid for it? Or something else?
June 14th, 2007 at 12:52 am
[…] the day about how libraries need to become good at this kind of marketing. I came home and saw this post in my feed reader., in which Emily at Library Revolution talked about the insanely poor job […]
June 14th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
It’s an interesting problem. You can try to compete with the commercial world for patronage by making the library over and being more like a bookstore or video store (and abandom the Dewey numbers!), or you can cultivate your grassroots appeal and avoid any hint of slickness and go for friendly and fuzzy.
But how do we become more relevant to more people? What function do we really serve? Is a physical space really needed? I wish I knew.
June 14th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
I don’t think there is anything wrong with those perceptions. It is part of the whole. I think people have problems with the library when it looks rundown and dirty. This is typical of a downtown library.
A downtown library will have downtown problems with transients, crime, and having a rundown appearance. This is why many cities are using library rennovations as the cornerstone of downtown projects.
Usually, suburban libraries will be the nice upscale libraries with not quite all the resources, but typically seen as better than braving the downtown library with the downtown scene. I think that is something my library will run into as we build our new library, our downtown library will begin to look rundown in comparison.
Luckily, we are planning a full rennovation and expansion of our downtown library right after our new library opens. It also coincides with a rennovation of the entire downtown area.
Keeping things clean bright and new are the only ways to change the perception of libraries. The bookstore look also helps. We also just created a teen center that looks just like a bookstore. Cleaning the entire library twice a year, bookstore furniture, fast internet, and new stuff. It just takes a lot of money, and MONEY OFTEN, to keep it up. Something libraries often lack.