Patron Engagement And Marketing Products And Services For Public Libraries

This issue provides an overview of the technology products currently available to support library outreach and marketing strategies.

King introduces library engagement platforms, explains what types of interactions take place while using them, and illustrates why libraries need to utilize them to connect with their customers

Increasingly, libraries are struggling to deal with a growing diversity in the cultural background of their patrons. Problems arising from this cultural diversity afflict all library types--school, public and academic. Library Services for Multicultural Patrons is by and for all libraries that are striving to provide multicultural services to match the growing diversity in the cultural background of patrons. The book is designed to offer helpful tips and practical advice to academic, public, and school librarians who want to better serve the multicultural groups in their communities. The contributors to the book are themselves practicing librarians and they share creative ideas for welcoming multicultural patrons into libraries and strategies for serving them more effectively. Librarians will find in these chapters tried and true tips and techniques for marketing and promotion, improving reference services for speakers of English as a second language, and enhancing programming that they can easily implement in their own libraries and communities. The chapters are divided into the following categories for ease of access: 1) Getting Organized and Finding Partners, 2) Reaching Students, 3) Community Connections, 4) Applying Technology, 6) Outreach Initiatives, 6) Programming and Events, and 7) Reference Services. Librarians of all types will be pleased to discover easy-to-implement suggestions for collaborative efforts, many rich and diverse programming ideas, strategies for improving reference services and library instruction to speakers of English as a second language, marketing and promotional tips designed to welcome multicultural patrons into the library, and much more.

This issue of Library Technology Reports (vol. 57, no. 2) presents tools and practices for giving your customers a great experience while connecting with your library.

For over a decade, some academic libraries have been purchasing, rather than borrowing, recently published books requested by their patrons through interlibrary loan. These books had one circulation guaranteed and so appealed to librarians who were concerned about the large percentage of books selected and purchased by librarians but never checked out by their patrons. Early assessments of the projects indicated that patrons selected quality books that in many cases were cross disciplinary and covered emerging areas of scholarly interest. However, now we have a significant database of the ILL purchase records to compare these titles with books selected through normal methods. The projects described in this book present a powerful argument for involving patrons in the book selection process. This book looks at patron-driven acquisitions for printed books at Purdue University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Illinois, as well as exploring new programs that allow patrons to select e-books or participate in other innovative ways in building the library collections. This book was published as a special issue of Collection Management.

Foreword by Tracie D. Hall Community engagement isn’t simply an important component of a successful library—it’s the foundation upon which every service, offering, and initiative rests. Working collaboratively with community members—be they library customers, residents, faculty, students or partner organizations— ensures that the library works, period. This important resource from ALA’s Public Programs Office (PPO) provides targeted guidance on how libraries can effectively engage with the public to address a range of issues for the betterment of their community, whether it is a city, neighborhood, campus, or something else. Featuring contributions by leaders active in library-led community engagement, it’s designed to be equally useful as a teaching text for LIS students and a go-to handbook for current programming, adult services, and outreach library staff. Balancing practical tools with case studies and stories from field, this collection explores such key topics as why libraries belong in the community engagement realm; getting the support of board and staff; how to understand your community; the ethics and challenges of engaging often unreached segments of the community; identifying and building engaged partnerships; collections and community engagement; engaged programming; and outcome measurement.

Contributed articles presented at a workshop held in 1994.

In this book, nine librarians from across the country describe their libraries’ best practices in this key area. Their contributions range from all-encompassing customer service policies and models any library can both adapt and be proud of to micro-approaches that emphasize offering excellent user-focused technology planning, picture book arrangement with patrons in mind, Web 2.0 tools to connect users with the library, establishing good service delivery chains, and making your library fantastic for homeschoolers. As past Public Library Association President Audra Caplan writes in her introduction to this book, “There is nothing magical about providing excellent customer service; it just takes the right people, the right philosophy and the passion to make it a reality.” If you’ve got all that, here are the best practices to make stellar customer service a reality for your library’s users.

Though today’s consumers have unprecedented access to health information, its quality and veracity varies widely. Public libraries can play an important role in supporting library users in their health information seeking efforts. In this book Flaherty shows how to guide library users to high quality health information by relying on up to date, authoritative sources. She also demonstrates why taking the initiative to offer health promotion programming can be a valuable form of community outreach, serving community needs while increasing visibility. Library directors, programming staff, reference librarians, and health educators will all benefit from this book’s patron-centered stance, which features a historic overview of the consumer health movement and how it intersects with public libraries;guidance on finding and evaluating the best print, electronic, and app-based health information sources, with advice on keeping up to date;an in-depth look at collaborative efforts to provide and sponsor simple health-related activities in public libraries, spotlighting programs in action at libraries across the county;instructions on creating, planning, preparing, marketing, and evaluating a public library health program;discussions of important issues surrounding health information provision efforts, including patron privacy and liability concerns; andguidelines for public libraries’ role in public health efforts, including disaster preparedness. Armed with this book’s expert advice and plentiful examples of successful initiatives, public libraries will feel empowered to make a difference in community members’ health and well-being.