It seems to me that people in libraries are obsessed with talking about the future of libraries. Being occupied by the future is kinda against my Buddhist beliefs, but that is another post altogether. Well I am here to tell you that we’ve got nothing to worry about!
I had the privilege of attending a conference put on by the students at the University of Arizona School of Information and Library Sciences and if the caliber and intellect of these students is an indication of the people moving into librarianship—I HAVE NO WORRIES!

This conference was way better than any ALA program I have ever attended. The subject matter was rich and the participants were enthusiastic.
Here is the link to the entire wonderful day:
http://www.sir.arizona.edu/lso/symposium07/index.htm

There were so many wonderful programs that I wished that I could have been in two places at once…

Also there were many wonderful participants from the Knowledge River program at SIRLS (University of Arizona School of Information and Library Science)
If you do not know about the Knowledge River program please take a look here http://knowledgeriver.arizona.edu/
It is a program to encourage Hispanic and Native American students into the library profession.

I have been fortunate enough to supervise two Interns from the Knowledge River program and they were and are fabulous.

Like I said, the future is so bright I’ve got to wear shades!

I am busy figuring out my last minute details on the two presentation I am doing for AZLA http://www.azla.org/displayconvention.cfm

See ya in Mesa !

So Hungry! Must hail cab!

Thai Tanic
Thai Food
http://www.thaitanic.net/
1326-A 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
202.588.1186
Brilliant name, and great Thai food in “up and coming” neighborhood. Cheesy decor, but the food makes up for it. Also try one of their specialty, tropical drinks.

Singapore Bistro
Asian Fusion
http://www.singaporebistro.com/
1134 19th St. NW (between L & M)
Washington, DC 20036
202.659.2660
Great Happy Hour Sushi and drinks

Georgia Brown
Low-Country Cuisine (read: Fancy Southern Food)
http://www.gbrowns.com/
950 15th Street, NW (between I & K st)
Washington, DC 20005
202.393.4499
Old fashion, upscale.

Jack’s
French Inspired
http://www.jacksdc.net/
1527 17th St NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.332.6767
Great brunch, crowded after dark, reasonably priced.

Circa
Café/Casual Eatery
http://circacafes.com/
1601 Connecticut Avenue, NW (Dupont Circle)
Washington, DC 20009
202.667.1601
Fantastic food, great location and excellent price.

Charlie Chiang’s
Chinese
http://www.charliechiang.com/
1912 I Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
202.293.6000
Excellent & authentic Chinese food.

Bertucci’s
Italian
http://www.bertuccis.com/
1218 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.463.7733
Brick oven pizza at it’s finest, a little pricey though.

DC Café
Italian & Greek
2035 P Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.887.5819
Small and dingy, but excellent food. Large portions

Pizzeria Paradiso
Pizza
2029 P St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.223.1245
The best pizza in DC. However, extremely crowded all the time. Best to go early, or carry out.

The Childe Harold
American
http://www.childeharold.com/
1610 20th ST NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.483.6700
Go and have one of their famous Guard’s Burgers (a grilled burger stuffed with cheddar cheese and bacon), and wash it down with a cold, refreshing beer.

Mary clearly not happy because she isn’t in DC enjoying the food. Photo by Alex Hodges

Austin Grille
Great Tex-Mex
http://www.austingrill.com/austingrillee/
750 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
202.393.3776
I worked there as a wait person for almost two years, and I still LOVE the place
try a swirlie! Giddy up!

Jaleo
Spanish Tapas
http://www.jaleo.com/
480 7th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
202.628.7949
Great tapas! beautiful try the sangria
Right next door to Austin Grille
You can make online or phone reservations

Café Atlantico
Central & South American Cuisine
http://www.cafeatlantico.com/
405 8th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Between D and E Streets
202.393-0812
Best Paella in town, I worked here too for a little while, such fun!
Later most night they move the tables back and the dancing begins!

Full Kee
Chinese
509 H St, NW
Washington, DC 20001
202.371.2233
Easily the BEST Chinese food in china town - a hidden treasure!
OH yes I do NOT believe that Full Kee takes credit cards

Zaytinya
Mediterranean Tapas
http://www.zaytinya.com/
701 9th St, NW (Corner of 9th & G st NW)
Washington, DC 20004
202.638.0800
Amazing food and Beautiful architecture and ambiance, all for a reasonable price.

Capital City Brewery
Traditional American Fare
http://www.capcitybrew.com/
1100 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20009
202.628.2222
Great food & beer at a great price!

If you are going to be at the ALA Annual Conference in DC this year, Mary and I will have a booth at the Swap & Shop where we will be raffling off a chance to have Fearless Future redesign the marketing material of your choice (logo, brochure, business cards, etc.) for free!

Head on down to the Washington Convention Center Special Events Area, behind Aisle 600 on the exhibit floor between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 24 to enter.

We can’t wait to see you there!

Derik A. Badman’s drawing of Mary

There have been some requests to post the powerpoint “Will it make my teeth whiter? Selling the library without selling out,” from ACRL Baltimore. Below you will find the presentation and the bibliography from the talk.

Derik Badman did a nice write up (and drawing) on the ACRL blog “live from the scene” regarding the presentation.
http://www.learningtimes.net/acrlblog/237/marketing-the-library/

Oh and if anyone took pictures of this presentation would you please shoot me an e-mail? Mary and I were so scattered by then, we didn’t take any for posterity.

Mary and Jonathan at the 2006 Swap ‘n Shop in NOLA

If you would like to catch a glimpse of the splendor that is Mary Evangeliste, you can see her in action at ACRL; Mary is presenting not once, but twice at ACRL in Baltimore this year.

Library as Convener: Collaborations that Build Creative (Academic) Communities

Session Format: Workshop
Track: Collaborations
Theme: Rocking the Boat (innovations)

Friday, March 30
8:30 AM - 12:15 PM

Session Number/Code: W
Room: Baltimore Convention Center – 338

Presenter(s):
Bess de Farber
Grants & Revenue Manager, University of Arizona Libraries
Mary Evangeliste
Training Coordinator-Information Commons, University of Arizona

Program Description:
Learn the art of collaboration through structured facilitative methods that yield creative ideas you never would have dreamed of on your own. The workshop presents a simulation of processes on how to host a CoLAB Planning® session in your library.

Note: This workshop limited to 60 particpants in order to ensure active participation. Pre-registration will be available in February 2007.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the concepts that drive outstanding collaborations
• Plan how to present an innovative facilitative process to discover new collaborative relationships/projects in your own community
• Utilize tools that ensure candidness, follow-through, and commitment to the project end-result

And

Will it make my teeth whiter? Selling the library without selling out

Session Format: Panel Session
Track: The Environment for Libraries
Theme: Lifelines (values)

Saturday, March 31
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Session Number/Code: PN
Room: Baltimore Convention Center – 310

Presenter(s):
Julie O’Keeffe
Coordinator of Outreach Services, Marquette University
Erla Heyns Ph.D. Libr
Director, Cornell University
Mary Evangeliste
Training Coordinator-Information Commons, University of Arizona
Patricia Berge
Librarian, Marquette University

Program Description:
Academic libraries increasingly compete for the attention of patrons. Many librarians have begun to embrace marketing of libraries, however, many are still reluctant. How do we move from marketing as an add-on to making it integral to libraries?

Learning Objectives

• Articulate assumptions and obstacles towards marketing
• Describe methods to communicate our professional ethics, as outlined by ALA, through marketing
• Analyze the costs and benefits of marketing

Thanks to all of you who came out and supported us, the LAMA Swap & Shop was a huge success. I am posting the redesigns for those of you who couldn’t drop by or didn’t make it to New Orleans.

Here is some background on this project. Fearless Future was invited to do the academic brochure redesigns of the Swap & Shop PR Makeovers at ALA this year. In order to provide the selected libraries with the most flexibility in terms of production, we designed a brochure to be professionally printed as well as in-house produceable brochure (Black & White, Xeroxed).

Below I have posted the redesigns along with some framing so you can see the inspiration behind each brochure.

One of the brochures we chose to redesign was the Missouri Journalism Library. The Journalism Library is moving to a new building, and while they are waiting for a new building to be constructed, they are in very cramped quarters.

Missouri Journalism Library professionally printed brochure redesign:

Missouri Journalism Library in-house produced trifold brochure redesign:

The other library that we choose was the Robert W. Woodruff Library. The Woodruff Library is the consortial library of four historically black colleges in Atlanta, GA.

Robert W. Woodruff Library professionally printed brochure redesign:

Robert W. Woodruff Library in-house produced brochure redesign:

As ALA rounds the corner and you are getting your schedule squared away, all of you have to make room for the LAMA Swap & Shop. Mary and I will have some great brochure makeovers on display and we will be giving away tons of pointers, as well as a few packets of hands-on information.

Swap & Shop:
Sunday, June 25th
11-1:30 in the Main Exhibit Hall in the special events area behind aisle 3700.

I can’t wait to see you all there.

If you are going to be at ALA in New Orleans this year, you definitely need to stop by the Swap & Shop on Sunday, June 25 at 11:00 am – 1:30 pm in the Exhibit Hall.

Not only will you get a chance to see a showcase of successful PR materials, but you will also get a chance to see me and Mary in action. Fearless Future has been invited to handle the redesign of the chosen academic library brochures that were submitted for the “Makeover” section of the Swap & Shop.

We would love to see all of you there!

Link to press release about the Swap & Shop.

I can’t be the only one that thinks these are awful.

I’m not one to bash other people’s marketing efforts; I think it is extremely admirable that ALA got hip to marketing before everyone else, but i feel like they are beating a dead horse with both “READ” and “@ your library”.

It is time for ALA to re-think their marketing. There is one rule in marketing: Know thy audience. I don’t care how many skateboarders and rappers they slap on those READ posters, there is no way they are ever going to be cool.

Libraries are hard pills to swallow for millennials, this campaign helps alienate them even more. If ALA is serious about getting the next generation into libraries, they need to breath some fresh life into their marketing and come at it with a different perspective. This axiom stands for all institutions; I know for a fact that some of you out there using the READ campaign as some part of your marketing.

Something that ALA hasn’t grasped is that at this stage in the game it is more important for libraries to market to their specific audiences rather than to work toward creating a cohesive image for libraries as a whole.

Speaking as a “millennial” (although I hate to admit it) your job as a marketer is to let me know why I should bother stepping foot in a library when I have the world at my fingertips on the internet, telling me to READ isn’t going to cut it.