Establishing the Library in the Cultural Fabric of the

Community:

10 Tips for Linking the Library to the World

Barry K. MillerDirector of Communications and

External Relations, University Libraries, UNCG

Upcoming Publication

• Marketing Your Library: Tips and Tools, being published by McFarland Press, includes a chapter covering the meat of this presentation

1. Connect to campus/community

priorities and initiatives.

Be aware of what is important to your

campus/community, and align the library with those issues whenever you can.

If the university is focused on sustainability, make sure your library is engaged and

part of that effort.

If the university needs to make sure that students feel it is a

warm and inviting place to go to school, make sure the library

reflects that goal.

Attractive and comfortable space for individual study

Attractive and functional space for group study

A place to relax and unwind (Game nights, free refreshments during exams)

If the university needs to create better public

awareness of the research activity done there, honor

those researchers and promote that research

beyond the campus itself.

Reception for faculty book authors

If the university values diversity, participate fully in the embrace of that value, lead where you can, and

make sure that your efforts are known.

University Libraries Diversity Residents Jason Alston andLaTesha Velez

ACE Scholars Program

If the campus celebrates its cultural or other offerings, celebrate how the library promotes those offerings, and offer programming of your own to enhance the experience even more.

George McGovern at UNCG’s Jackson Library during exhibit on Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation

Shakespeare’s birthday celebrations

We want to be a jewel in the university’s crown

2. Offer a variety of programming to a variety of

audiences.

The library is one of the few places that can be almost all

things to all people. It promotes learning and scholarship in pretty

much any field of inquiry.

Millionth volume celebration involved multiple events for multiple audiences

Millionth Volume Programs

1. Staged reading of JB, by Archibald MacLeish

2. Family workshop about printing3. Presentations by English and Religious

Studies faculty from UNCG about Blake

4. Paideia seminar5. Presentation by outside scholar about

Blake digital archive

3. Partner strategically and broadly.

Choose partners who can help you, and whom you

can help, to produce superior products that you

couldn’t build alone.

Race and Slavery Petitions Project: a major resource for

African American genealogy and study

Exhibit of the photographs of North Carolina writers by Jan Hensley

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASESUBJECT: Educational Program: The Polish Experience in World War II

WHEN: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, NC at 7 p.m. and Wednesday, September 12 at University of North Carolina at Greensboro at 7 p.m.

4. Be open, and listen to your constituencies.

Novelist John Le Carre

CEO Lou Gerstner

Mahogany desk

As former American Express, RJR, and IBM CEO

Lou Gerstner used to tell his managers, quoting

novelist John le Carré:

“a desk is a dangerous place from which to view

the world.”

Friends of the UNCG Libraries Book Discussions

2002-2003 Theme: American JourneysTowns Without Rivers by Michael Parker. Led by the author.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. AmbroseDiscussion led by Friends of the UNCG Libraries Board of Directors members Ann Russ and Beth Sheffield and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Robert Gatten, who is a nationally recognized expert on Lewis and Clark, a founding director of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Council and Past President of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation (November 18, 2002)

Friends of the UNCG Libraries Book Discussions

2010 - 2011Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. Discussion led by Bill Hamilton, Liberal Studies (October 4, 2010)

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. Discussion led by Gwen Hunnicutt, Sociology Department (November 1, 2010)

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. Discussion led by Hephzibah Roskelly, English Department (December 6, 2010)

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Discussion led by Janne Cannon, Microbiology and Immunology (UNC Chapel Hill) and Rob Cannon, Biology (January 24, 2011)

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. Discussion led by Christopher Hodgkins, English Department ( February 28, 2011)

Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz. Discussion led by Jeff Jones, History Department (March 28, 2011)

Women Veterans Historical Project

5. Think creatively.

Don’t say, “We’ve never done that,” but instead ask, “Why couldn’t we do that?”

Children’s Book Author and Storyteller Series: A

Convergence of Opportunities

1. UNCG has an outstanding School of Education

2. UNCG has many first generation college students

3. I served on the Board of the BOOKMARKS Book Festival

4. I have a personal interest in promoting storytelling

6. Do things others can’t do as well.

Most universities have great scholars and teachers. That

doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to plan or are good at planning things like public programs and communicating

about them to interested constituencies.

Friends of the UNCG Libraries

Founded 1959Dinner held annually ever

since

Chancellor Gordon Blackwell

Mrs. Martha Blakeney Hodges (Mrs. Luther Hodges), First President of Friends of the Library

Mr. Gerald Johnson, Speaker, 1959 (1st dinner)

Gerald W. Johnson

1959

Speaker at the First Friends of the Library DinnerApril 15, 1959

Photo: Baltimore Herald Sun

John Crowe Ransom

1965

Charles Kuralt, 1976

George F. Will

1982

Tom Wicker

1985

Julian Bond

1993

John Hope Franklin

1997

Fred Chappell

1999

Doug Marlette

2002

Roy Blount, Jr.

2004

Clyde Edgerton and the Rank Strangers Band

2005

Leonard Pitts

2006

Jill McCorkle

2007

Use your stars

Friends Chair John May wrote a book in Jackson Library.

We celebrated it.

Faculty member Tom Kirby-Smith wrote a book that we celebrated. Ten years later he became Friends

Chair.

7. Spend at least as much time communicating about

programs and finding audiences as you do in

conceiving a program in the first place.

To contrast with a phrase from one of my favorite films, Field of Dreams: if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. You have to find the fans and tell them about the game. Only

then, if your product is consistently good, will they

come and come again.

Building an audience

Make personal contactReach out to groupsReach out to individuals, esp. opinion leadersUse checklists

8. Communicate continuously and in diverse

ways.

With or without money, there is no single way to get

the word out. It has to be done clearly and usually

concisely, but the medium for communication can be

anything from word-of-mouth to printed matter to

multimedia.

Consistent appearance, use of logo, and university colors

Word of Mouth

Marketing Works

Understand what is newsworthy and what isn’t. Always ask, “Who is going

to care about this?”

9. Understand your brand and protect it.

Ask yourself: “If we do this, how does it affect how

people perceive the library? Does it enhance both the

library and the university/community?”

10. If you do it, do it well.

Offer high quality experiences that

communicate that the library provides a superior

product for its patrons, whether they seek

resources and services or attend programs.

TARP (Technical Assistance Research

Program)

Study

90 percent of dissatisfied customers will not buy a company's product or service again.

While 95 percent of dissatisfied customers never

tell the company directly, each will tell an average of 9 people about what they found wrong.

Thirteen percent of those customers

will share their frustration to

20 or more people.

1980 Tarp Study

On the web, word of mouse goes even faster. Four times as many people hear about a bad experience as about a

good one.

Source: Goodman, John A. Strategic Customer Service. NY: Amacom, 2009.

A recent TARP study shows that 40 percent of

consumers who were told of a positive experience about

a product by another consumer tried it.

Source: Goodman, John A. Strategic Customer Service. NY: Amacom, 2009.

11. Delight the consumer by providing a little lagniappe, a little

something better than they expected

Source: http://www.marketinglagniappe.com

Who in this audience has ever stayed at a hotel that “gave away” free cookies?

Can you name it?

Source: http://www.marketinglagniappe.com

Barry K. Miller

Director of Communications and External Relations, University Libraries, UNCG

barry_miller@uncg.edu336-256-0112