AALL Spectrum Article on Library Marketing to Prove Your Value

The June 2010 issue of AALL Spectrum, the monthly publication of the American Association of Law Libraries, is now available.

One of the articles is Public Relations: Bite-Sized and Buzzworthy (subtitle: "Two books from the American Library Association can help you promote your library’s value"):

"Over and over, we are reminded that the number one challenge faced by all types of libraries is communicating value to their parent organizations. Another obstacle is overcoming the natural aversion to the 'M' word — marketing. When asked what we are doing for public relations, we find it difficult to give an answer because it all seems overwhelming."

"Fortunately, the American Library Association has come to the rescue with two recent publications that you can use to promote the value of libraries and librarians: Bite-Sized Marketing: Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian by Nancy Dowd, Mary Evangeliste, and Jonathan Silberman, and Building a Buzz: Libraries and Word-of-Mouth Marketing by Peggy Barber and Linda Wallace."

"Both books offer practical yet powerful tools for librarians to use in designing public relations campaigns. The solutions, ranging from simple to complex, come with detailed instructions."

Earlier Library Boy posts on the same topic include:

• Law Library Branding and Recruitment (February 15, 2006): "Why should libraries care about brands? Because whether it has been given careful thought or not, every institution has a brand. Whether the brand is strong enough to be favorably remembered by clients is another matter. This article will give you the tools to identify your brand and to understand how useful it can be in your marketing efforts."
• Newest Issue of AALL Spectrum: Marketing, Preservation and Katrina (January 30, 2007): "The February 2007 issue of the AALL Spectrum (American Association of Law Libraries) is available online. Among the offerings ...: 'Public Relations: Marketing Inspiration - How to move the law library to the center of your organization’s culture' (...) "
• New Articles on Marketing and Impact of Law Libraries (November 13, 2007): "The November 2007 issue of AALL Spectrum, a publication of the American Association of Law Libraries, contains 2 articles that are related to marketing: 'Public Relations: Selling Law Librarianship' ... 'Perspective: What is Your Impact on Society' (...)"
• Blog Series on How to Increase Your Value in Your Workplace (March 4, 2010): "The SLA Blog has started a series called 'Alignment Steps' that contains advice on how librarians and information professionals can prove and increase their value in their workplace."
• Law Librarians Can Prove Their Value Through Training (March 10, 2010): "(...) the January/February 2010 Law Librarians newsletter put out by legal publisher Westlaw has published an article entitled 'Law Firm Economics and the Librarian—Bring Value Through Training'. The lessons can apply beyond the context of private law firm libraries (...)"
• Proving the Value of the Special Library (April 8, 2010): "On his Stephen's Lighthouse blog, Stephen Abram has written a post about the 'Value of Special Libraries' (...) The post describes various studies that demonstrate the impact of information specialists and special libraries that include entities such as government, courthouse, law firm, medical, scientific libraries."
• Best Practices to Demonstrate the Value of Your Law Library (April 10, 2010): "Deborah Copeman from the library of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society and I have put together a document on best practices to demonstrate the value of the law library. It is based on contributions from members of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) who responded to a survey we sent out earlier this year ( ...)"