 |
|
|
-
Consider a road trip
Set
up appointments with other community organizations and businesses
to inform them of the career, employment, and education services
available in your library. Remember; often times to get more people
in, you must first go out. Great places to start include: your local
Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, area Chambers of Commerce, or your County
Social Service office.
- Use strategy in your
promotional efforts
A number
of free and fee-based opportunities exist for promoting library workforce
resources. Invest in activities that are likely to (1) reach the most
people or (2) reach a specific group you are targeting. Here are some
avenues you might want to consider.
Free promotional ideas:
- Have staff members hand out workforce bookmarks or brochures with
books that are checked out in your library.
- Distribute information in high traffic areas throughout your community
such as grocery stores, malls, laundromats, and gas stations.
- Collaborate with local organizations or businesses to include a
library workforce brochure in regular mass mailings. Examples of this
might include: inserts in monthly bank statements, cable bills, or
Chambers of Commerce newsletters.
- Arrange to write a weekly column for your local newspaper. This
can be time consuming, but offers direct access to the community.
Fee-based
promotional ideas:
- Place an advertisement in the classified section of your local newspaper.
If you want to reach the workforce, this is where they tend to be
looking.
- Create and air a commercial highlighting your library's career,
employment, and education services.
Notes: You may be able to run a newspaper ad or commercial for free
or at a low cost if it is considered a public service announcement.
Time and space limitations are often given to public service announcements.
Fee-based promotion might be the most successful as a group effort
among libraries to lower the cost and multiply the benefit.
- Offer an open house
to highlight library workforce resources.
This
could be an excellent opportunity to briefly discuss and/or demonstrate
the career, employment, and education resources available in your
library. Remember, most people think they know what the library has
to offer, but in reality, they don't. You could do this once a year
or at scheduled times throughout the year. The session doesn't need
to be more than an hour, and provides an opportunity to share specific
resources such as: books, reference materials, newspapers, websites,
databases, and videos.
- Host or conduct a career,
employment, or education related workshop.
Workshops
are a wonderful way to bring the public together in your library.
They also present an excellent opportunity to educate the community
about the wonderful services libraries offer. Need to find someone
to administer this kind of program? Great places to start are your
local One-Stop Center, area colleges and universities, or by contacting
other libraries that offer a variety of programs.
- Create and distribute
workforce resource packets.
Develop
packets of workforce materials and distribute them to community groups
and organizations likely to find them valuable. Packets might include
a listing of specific services available in the library (books, reference
materials, newspapers, websites, databases, and videos), library hours
and contact information, relevant bookmarks, library newsletter, and
any other materials that seem appropriate. Packets can be general,
or specific to certain groups. Possible groups to target include:
older workers, students, self-employed, working mothers, etc. If you
choose to create specialized packets, be sure to send them to appropriate
organizations.
Example
Resource Packet:
Target group: High School Students
How the library can help this group:
(The _________ library can help you with -)
- career assignments, such as career reports.
- college planning information.
- resources to create a resume.
- information on finding summer employment.
- your career exploration process.
- test preparation
What the library has to offer: List specific books, reference
materials, websites, databases, and other library materials that are
specific to this group.
Other library information: Enclose contact information, library
hours, relevant bookmarks, library newsletter, and any other materials
that seem appropriate.
Places to distribute packet: consider sending them to local
school guidance offices, youth organizations, youth clubs, camps and
other places in your community where young people tend to gather.
- Hold support or interest
groups on career, employment, or education topics.
Consider
initiating a workforce related support or interest group in your library.
The group could meet at regularly scheduled times throughout the year.
Perhaps it would meet once a month or only once a quarter? The group
could be very general with rotating topics at each meeting, or very
specific, such as a support group for persons who have been laid off.
A great opportunity to get new people into the library and to remind
them that their local public library is more than just books! If you
don't feel comfortable conducting this kind of meeting, considering
finding someone who is. Possible places to recruit include: your local
One-Stop Center, area schools, colleges and universities, professional
associations, special community groups, government agencies, or your
local chamber of commerce. Career and guidance counselors are usually
well equipped to conduct such gatherings.
The Benefits:
- This
idea offers a lot of flexibility! It can be tailored to your library's
schedule and staffing resources.
- By
supporting the local community's needs and interests, you can
really improve the public's perception of your library.
- By
reaching out to the public's needs and interests, you are likely
to introduce new users to the library and gain additional public
support.
Ideas
for support/interests groups:
- Job Search Strategies
- Coping with Job Loss
- Changing Careers
- Coping with Job Stress
- Self-employment
- Telecommuting
- Retirement Planning
- College selection and financing
- Balancing Work and Family
- Track and Share Positive
Feedback
Implement
strategies to gain patron feedback regarding your library's workforce
resources. Website feedback forms, comments boxes, survey cards, workshop/presentation
evaluation forms, and direct questioning of users are all ways of
obtaining this information. Be sure to share positive feedback in
newsletters, press releases, brochures, and community presentations
and meetings. Testimonials are powerful marketing tools!
|
