Title: The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy
Author: Judith Siess
Well, I guess the third time is the charm. I've tried to read this book twice before but never got through it before it was due back. Despite being a bit slow going at times, this was a good book with lots of suggestions about how to market and advocate for your library. The author is a solo librarian but makes an effort to include ideas for all types of libraries and librarians.
Some of the ideas I took away include:
1. Meet with new faculty and provide them with a welcome packet.
2. Create displays featuring library services, librarians, comments and photos from students and faculty who have had good library experiences, suggestions made by patrons and responses to them, etc.
3. Cheap giveaways/takeaways: magnets, sticky notes, bookmarks
4. Get out of the library and go to people (something I already knew but certainly don't do enough of)
5. Library open house with food, information tables, takeaways, etc
6. Ideas for our Newsletter: testimonials from satisfied customers, column of sample questions answered recently (shows that the library can provide all sorts of information), and jokes or cartoons (but make sure to have copyright permission!).
Next on the list is Brian Mathew's newly released Marketing Today's Academic Library.
