Marketing Trends To Watch

LJ’s Bubble Room blogger identifies 13 cultural shifts that libraries can turn into opportunities to reach patrons

By Alison Circle — Library Journal, 10/1/2009

Five years ago, when I first came to Libraryland, I felt a strong, wary, and mistrustful vibe attached to marketing. It was perceived as irrelevant, a flash in the pan, without intrinsic value. Libraries had managed long enough without marketing, thank you very much, and things are fine the way they are.

Since then, however, I’ve sensed a shift, a curiosity around the edges as libraries have awakened to the sea change in our culture regarding information and technology and the expansion of our global reach. Even the most skeptical among us are starting to see that marketing can help libraries compound their relevance and add new value.

One bad habit in Libraryland is that too often we look exclusively at libraries for ideas and trends. For example, when redesigning web sites, we look at other libraries, not trendsetting retailers or innovative nonprofits. We’re guilty of a little too much me-too-ism. As a marketing professional, I see trends everywhere, ideas ripe for libraries to pluck and make their own in order to demonstrate that we are still here and better than ever. All I see is opportunity.

In no particular order, here is a baker’s dozen of trends I’m watching.

Some great ideas on using Twitter, video marketing, mobile marketing and more in your library.

Check out the rest at LJ: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6698259.html

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Notes from Internet Librarian 2009 – #IL2009

October 30th, 2009 by Ahniwa Posted in For Libraries, Technology and Resources, Training and Continuing Education | Edit | No Comments »

I just returned from the Internet Librarian Conference (and sunny Monterey, CA) yesterday, and my brain is definitely still trying to absorb new ideas, concepts, and nifty web tools. All the same, it’s safe to say that it was the best conference I’ve attended so far in my young library career. Luckily for those who couldn’t attend this year, there are numerous options for viewing content online (and my own extensive notes will follow after the cut).

First off, a lot of the slides are available on the Information Today site. Use IL2009 to get in.

Elise Brown, who I got to meet and chat with at the Searcher’s Academy pre-conference, was the official vlogger covering IL2009, and she took some cool video that you can check out via YouTube.

Some of the best moments of the conference were also covered live via UStream (and now available to watch at your convenience). Check out the keynote speakers, for sure. Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, was amazing (as was his interviewer, Paul Holdengraber). On day two, Paul Holdengraber (Director of Public Programs at the NYPL) had the tables turned on him and was in turn interviewed. My notes from both sessions are included below. One of my other favorite events was the Battle Decks, in which librarians have to try and create a cohesive presentation within a tough time limit and with slides they’ve never seen before. Some of the slides were crazy, but all the Battle Deck contestants did a great job, and many were hilarious!

For a more text-based approach, check out the bloggers who planned to write about their experiences via the Infotoday Blog. I know the Librarian In Black did quite a bit of blogging, many of which are excellent synopses of the sessions she attended.

Finally, for some pictures of the event, check out photos on Flickr tagged IL2009 (there are lots of them).

Some highlights and favorite ideas / quotes from throughout the conference:

The long wow: customer satisfaction is good, but what you really want is customer loyalty.

Use events networks like Eventful, Upcoming.org, Going.com, and Craigslist to create awareness of library events.

Let your users comment on any and every part of your site it is possible to comment on, even the director’s bio!

Put chat windows on your website where you know your patrons get frustrated.

Pandia Powersearch, an up-to-date directory of specialized search tools.

OneRiot: real-time social search engine, returns the websites people link to, not the individuals tweets, Diggs, etc.

“Even people who don’t use the web have figured out Facebook.” – Mary Ellen Bates

“Our culture is tending towards abstraction and brevity.” – Vint Cerf

Other IL posts: Index | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Complete session notes are available in their own posts, separated by day. Days and sessions are indexed after the cut.

Day 1 – Sunday, October 25 2009

• Searcher’s Academy: Searching 2.0

Day 2 – Monday, October 26 2009

• Opening Keynote: Digital Publishing, Preservation, and Practices
  Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangalist, Google
• iGoogling with the Library: Customized Omnipresent Homepages
  Jason Clark and Timothy Donahue, Montana State University Libraries
• Creating Connections and Social Reference in Libraries
  Margaret Smith, Physical Sciences Librarian, New York University
• Cloud Computing in Practice: Creating Digital Services and Collections
  Laura Harris, Kendra Levine, Amy Buckland, Jason Clark
• 2.0 Too: Web Services for Underfunded Libraries
  Sara Houghton-Jan, LibrarianinBlack.net
  Evaluating, Recommending, and Justifying 2.0 Tools
• Marydee Ojala, editor for Online Magazine, Information Today, Inc.

Day 3 – Tuesday, October 27 2009

• Keynote: Libraries of the Future: Places of Desire
  Paul Holdengraber, Director of Public Programs, New York Public Library
• Making Virtual Reference Multidimensional
  William Breitbach & Mike Demars, California State University @ Fullerton
  Linda Bedwell, Dalhousie University Libraries
• Web 2.0 for Tough Times
  Jaye Lapachet, Camille Reynolds, Kendra K. Levine
• Library Website Improvement Face-Off
  David Lee King, Frank Cervone, Amanda Etches-Johnson, Aaron Schmidt, Jeff Wisniewski

Day 4 – Wednesday, October 28 2009

• Keynote: Growing and Grown-Up Digital: Net-Gen Speaks
  Facilitated by Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix
• Mashups for Library Data
  Nicole Engard, Director of Open Source Solutions, ByWater Solutions
• Technology: The Engine Driving Pop Culture-Savvy Libraries or Source of Overload?
  Elizabeth Burns, Pop Goes the Library ; Sarah Houghton-Jan, LibrarianInBlack.net
• Pecha Kucha: Innovative Practices
  Amy Affelt, Nicole Hennig, Steve Harris, Matt Hamilton

Tags: il2009, Information Today, Internet Librarian, library conferences, Monterey

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I kept pretty extensive notes for the sessions I attended at the Internet Librarian Conference. This is the first of five posts. Check out the other posts on the WSL blog: http://blogs.sos.wa.gov/library/.>

Posted via web from The Imposterous Wa

Google just rolled out Social Search, a new experiment in providing better or more relevant results. You join the experiment through google.com/experimental  In addition to the usual results, if you click the “show options” link at the top of the search results page, you’ll see an option for Social. This separates out just the results from your circle of friends (that Google knows about).

Yet another step on the road to world domination!

Posted via web from The Imposterous Wa

Here’s something I love: I love all the new words. Pwned. Squicked. Knollish. Words are great. There can never be enough of them.

Here’s something I hate: the emoticon. I don’t understand why the same words if written in a letter will easily convey the writer’s intention, but if written in an email require the punctuation of a happy face. I’m not arguing that this isn’t the case. I’ve watched it happen many times; most of the email dust-ups I’ve been involved in started because something meant as a joke was taken as serious comment. So I see the emoticons are useful. And still I loathe them. Nor do I like LOL, ROFL, 4EVA, and the rest of that ilk. A cliché is still a cliché, no matter how quickly you deliver it.

I love the blogs, but only the blogs I love and only if I don’t have to do one myself.

Yes! Very well put!

The rest is here: http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=6241#more-6241

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On the same day, Clark had packaged seven books to ship out — paying all the postage personally — though he said both the incoming and outgoing stacks were smaller than average. Web sites make it possible. Clark has 800 books listed on www.bookmooch.com, 1,500 on www.swaptree.com and 2,500 on www.paperbackswap.com. He keeps a wish list of items he’s looking for, as do librarians and individuals all over the world. Computers do the matching.

In an era when any publicly funded institution has to spend wisely, Clark manages to make a lot out of a little. His annual buying budget of $4,400 comes from donations, grants, and proceeds from the library’s endowment. His salary and other operating expenses are covered by contributions from the towns of Hartland, St. Albans and Palmyra.

Very cool story about a library doing a lot with not much of a budget at all!

Posted via web from The Imposterous Wa