Actual professional advice

Continuing this blog's trademark mix of 70% silliness, 20% thoughts about how to be a good librarian, and 10% moral conundrums ("conundra"?), today we'll be talking about something from the middle slice. And by "we" I mean me, unless the commenters are super-active for some reason.


Today I spent a couple of hours doing marketing and unannounced outreach in our library's neighborhood and I can resist taking the opportunity to evangelize about it. As far as I know my library has never done this, but it seemed like a common sense idea and I figured out a way to suggest it to my boss that made it hard for her to say no.


It took 2 hours of my time (basically all the prep I needed to do, I did on desk), which is about 40 dollars of the library's money. I drove my own car, so I guess I donated a bit of gas money, but it was more than repaid by getting to listen to the radio and see the sunshine while I was on the clock. In the course of my 2 hours, I talked to 8 or 10 people, discovered 3 Little Free Libraries that my library didn't know about, and got contact information and warm handshakes from 2 different people at places I really want the library to do more with: the YWCA and a nearby community college. I also made a promise to return to the Habitat for Humanity office near us later in the week to deliver some donated books to beef up the little collection they have in their lobby, which will be another opportunity to talk up the library to them. I can't remember the last time I spent 2 hours more productively.


If you think you might like to do this, here's how it worked for me:


I made a list of community institutions in our neighborhood (rec centers, nonprofits, churches, a local community college, etc.). Then I plotted their addresses on a custom Google map. That part is really easy--you just create a blank one and copy and paste the addresses to drop pins.


Then I printed copies of flyers for our biggest-ticket programs that are coming up: a job fair and some English as a second language and GED classes. I took my stack of flyers, a clipboard with my map stuck to it, a pen, a roll of tape, and some tacks, and started driving around.


At each place I walked in, explained who I was, showed them the flyers, and asked if they had a public information area where I could tack up a couple. The only place that said no where I actually managed to speak to someone (some of the places I visited were closed) was a community clinic that simply didn't have a spot for local information where the flyers could go. If the person I talked to expressed any interest, I'd start talking to them about the library and the other stuff we offer, and offer to take their email address to send them digital copies of the flyers and a copy of our monthly program calendar. I also offered to leave my own contact information in case there was anything the library could do for them (I just had to scribble it down on a post-it note--this being Mystery Library, we don't have business cards, but maybe I'll ask if I can print my own little in-house ones for future use).


After I got back to the car, I made a note of the name of anyone I'd met, anything interesting I learned about the place that I didn't already know (for example, the Y has a clinic in it, so maybe I should invite them to the healthcare resource fair we have coming up in the spring), and any follow-up I needed to do.


I should say that this really took 3 hours of time, because once I got back I spent a whole hour organizing information and sending follow-up emails, but I still think it was a pretty good deal.


Things I might do differently next time:

• Find out when the heck churches are usually open: Most of the ones I visited mid-day on a Wednesday were closed. I thought about devoting a Sunday morning to this, but would all the church workers be too busy to talk to me then? Further research needed for sure.
• Figure out a way to have my contact information ready: As I said, we don't have business cards, so I didn't have a quick and professional-seeming way to leave my name and email address for places that wanted it.
• Bring more flyers: I was expecting that most places that took flyers would take one copy of each to put up on a bulletin board, but most of the places that accepted them wanted a whole pile to hand out.
• Find a smaller box of tacks!: They are a pain to carry around and I didn't ever have to use them, plus I was really afraid I'd drop them in someone's lobby and then have to spend several embarrassing minutes picking them up one by one.