Building Community Partnerships: 25 ideas in 40 minutes given by Kathy Dempsey, Editor of Marketing Library Services Newsletter. 2nd live blog attempt so pardon the spelling and grammatical errors.
what makes sense for public may not make sense for government, special – pick what will work for your particular library needs
don’t rely on just money alone – trade for inkind services
join local chamber of commerce, lion’s club, make contact – someone who knows you is less likely to slash your budget
partner with grocery stores – story times love it – book drops – open small branches in the grocery store – not an extra trip to go to the library – they need food
annual book sale at local mall – empty stores gave them spaces for the books
mall was happy because it brought more shoppers in
find groups that are in similar situation – other groups – historical society – what you do someone else is doing it – partner instead of compete
are you targeting support staff? assist to dean? when they need info for bosses they come to you and have some influence with those hire up – same with county commissioners – they are looking to do better work for their bosses
trade deals with small business – local flower shop in kind donations – flowers w/publicity – it is small but building a relationship with another person and business
IT experts – they are busy – want to run ideas or bounce off ideas – or maybe trade some services for personal or library’s needs – do work for you exchange research for them
college professors – even if not academic library – assign class projects that are work for the library – need a new logo – or branding campaign, – helps the teachers as well – helps them not give the same thing year after year – gives the student a real world assignment
scout troups – boy/girls – work to do for badges, build bookshelves, garden, physical tasks that could become an assignment for a group like that – takes heat off troup leader to come up with it all
form alliances with video game stores – grab teens, see what you can trade – give kids credit or coupons – for X number of books they read in Summer Reading Game, gives you more street cred, gaming club at schools – partner with the ones already in the schools – helps both you and the other gaming club to not be afraid you are working togethr ( you may have more space – meeting rooms)
trade training with other trainers – in between conferences do something more local – don’t over look your local experts – anyone who has skills that your staff or customers want – trade inkind – don’t be afraid to ask to trade services
meetings with liaisons w/government officials – get to know the staff members – gives you and in for the legislators – they will ask their aide , put a human face on the library a lot of what partnerships are about
AARP need a lot of information – go to trusted sources – become a trusted source – let local AARP to have meetings in libraries – get on their agenda to help promote yourselves, they think of other groups first – get in there and make sure they think of libraries as well
Choose your influencers – your message will get spread easier
have conversation with them – ask them first
Senior Citizen centers ask them for something in return – volunteers, to do storytimes, help other people, do inventory, writing grant applications
Getting involved w/local politics and staff members – as regular citizen join political action groups, even just the city planners, they have a lot to say about your budget – get to know you as a real person not just a building – never under estimate the power of personal relationships
offering research services to government officials – roads, new intersections – if you know what is going on in the community – offer your services for traffic accidents stats for ___ to help you write your plan
Make alliance with everyone in the community – want to join and do something that matters – don’t always have thousands of dollars but even just 10 will help, sponsor trees (like the angel trees at Christmas) – spell it out for them make it easier
birthday party – book plate – donated then story time around that story – got to feel special – for just $10 that would live in the library for the future
Reporters – they need happy stories – ESPECIALLY NOW – local reporters know you are available not just your press releases – need a quick last min. picture – senior at computer, kid happy w/book, it fills space and put some happiness into the news, offer to write columns about what is going on at the library – you can do research for them too (reporter on deadline – fact checking)
causal advisory boards – get buy ins, best way to make programs/classes instead of guessing is talk to them – never any reason to guess – ask them – don’t make it a formal advisory board – drop ins – you want us to do something for you – what is it? what are the best hours, what interests you? then let them go out into the community they (libraries) are here to serve us – feel ownership and personal relationship with you – parent story time adv. board – what time is best? what craft? do you want to be parental advisor for story time – doesn’t have to be staff time let them work with you (may know other parents and draw in others) building advocates and saving money on glue!
SOCIAL NETWORKS – David Lee King’s blog post – who should you friend and why should you friend others than just other libraries – how to friend people on Facebook – don’t just toss it out there – give them a reason to join you – have a reason to have a page
Parents – are partners – not just sit here for an hour after school – tell them what you have and what the library can be to them as a family or to their children – education
tell as many people the most basic things – what you think they already know – they have no idea
building alliances with k-12 – talk to school teachers, what are the kids working on, what are their plans for the fall- what can we do to help them? conversation – more recognition, align w/education – makes a difference. Howard County Library is considered part of the education budget because our Executive Director and CEO Valerie J. Gross firmly believes that what we do is education and just as important as what the schools do. By aligning ourselves with the schools we have a different budget and more respect in the community.
Consultants – reciprocal relationships where you work for each other – they need information
Approach people – don’t ask like your asking for a favor – we are as valuable as any business out there – start with someone you know or comfortable with – if you know someone from other events start there – role play with colleagues to get comfortable – have a starting line in mind – be the human face of the library – spoof official sponsorships everyone has an “official sponsor” these days – talk to people all the time – on trains, in lines – have some documented facts in your back pocket – use the facts that have already been gathered for you – start at the end and build backwards – what do you want the outcome to be.
It’s that time of year again. The cherry blossoms are out, the boys of summer are playing again and Computers in Libraries comes to Crystal City, VA. My favorite conference of year and originally I thought I wouldn’t be able to attend. Last minute I found out I was able to attend.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c0a9e047-ed9b-44c7-9354-6b0b53f0a734)
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Another day, another attempt at live blogging at CIL2009. Probably spending my day in Track C.
Open Mouth, Insert Both Feet
August 28, 2008 2 Comments
*sigh* I should have known it wasn’t going to be a good day. Both dogs (Lab mix and English Springer Spaniel) slept with me last night but due to windows being opened decided to alert me every 2 hours that something was in our yard. God knows if there really was anything out there other than our usual visitors (deer). But my sleep circle was off to say the least.
I seem to be on a roll today. I’ve managed to open mouth insert foot at least 3 times this morning. Twice on the web and once in person (although that one was a setup by my boss who was laughing the whole time). That maybe a new record.
I’ve prided myself, up until now, on keeping snarky/opinionated comments out of social networking feeds. For several reasons – a) my feeds are subscribed to by more than just family or friends but many co-workers and fellow library people and b) the old adage still holds true … “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. Obviously I didn’t follow directions well today.
I made the terrible mistake of commenting on something from our staff Intranet. It was my opinion but since it wasn’t worded in the best manner it should have stayed inside my head where it would have done no harm. Instead I vocalized to the social networking community. I thought I was being smart by not posting it to Twitter but to FriendFeed instead. Something told me that I should haven’t posted it but I thought “Pshaw, no one will read this on FriendFeed so I’m safe.” FAIL!
I completely forgot that not only Twitter but FriendFeed as well feeds into my Facebook account. Lo and behold the comment that I didn’t want known was read by the person I didn’t want to read it because they are a friend on Facebook. How’d did I find this out? That person graciously sent me a humorous comment on my status. Talk about 20 shades of red.
So what did I learn? Don’t post snarky/opinionated comments to your social networking sites? No, I knew not to do that but instead I learned that if I don’t have anything nice to say that it belongs inside my head not out on the web.
So since I publicly made a comment I figured the best way to apologize is to also do it publicly and ironically through social networking sites. My blog feeds into Twitter, FriendFeed and my Facebook account. So hopefully the gracious person with a great sense of humor will read my most sincere apology and know that I learned a big lesson today. I can’t thank them enough for not calling me out but instead using humor to diffuse what could have been a nasty situation if they had chosen that route. They took the high road where I did not. I am humbled by their choice and will apply it to all my future Tweets/Feeds/Posts.
Filed under Personal, Uncategorized Tagged with comments, dogs, English Springer Spaniel, Facebook, Friendfeed, library, social networking, twitter, web