My name is Julie O’Keeffe, and I want to share a mini-campaign that we at Marqutte University executed this semester - the goal of this campaign was to increase awareness about our databases.
Below you will find some pictures and a breakdown of the campaign.

If you have any questions about this campaign, feel free to email me: julie.okeeffe@marquette.edu

The goals of the two-semester campaign are to:

1. raise awareness among the student population of the variety of article databases available to them
2. educate students on the costs and benefits of using article databases and search engines such as Google
3. collect data regarding student views of the databases for future promotion efforts
4. determine the maximum size campaign that is possible for the R&O Department to produce with the resources available to the Promotion Team (primarily our time and skill-sets)

Secondary goals are to:

1. follow best practices as identified by ACRL
2. incorporate the “@yourlibrary” logo from ACRL

The entire package of components consists of:

1. a poster by turnstiles
2. movie star cardboard cut-outs
3. a dozen “highway signs”
4. a banner that reinforces the idea
5. web pages
6. a “featured item” on
7. a chance to win $20
8. a running list of the students’ submissions
9. a pre- and post-tests that measures students’ knowledge, use, and view of article databases
10. incorporation of the “@your library” logo

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

My yoga teacher talked last night about the importance of feeling OK with the fact that you can often be wrong or not know how to do something.

I think this is a very integral thing to realize and embrace if you are embarking on any kind of public relation campaign or marketing campaign for your organization.

Let me explain:

1. With a marketing campaign you often have to take a leap into the unknown, you have to try things that aren’t comfortable.
2. You have to be ready when you create a campaign to be wrong - just dead wrong sometimes.
3. Sometimes you will create a funny poster that just bombs or conversely you will create a wild poster that really hits the mark and becomes wildly popular. Last year we made this poster that students ripped off the wall and hung in their dorm room.
   

How can you comfortably move into taking chances?

1. make a one year plan; assess it after one year; and be flexible.
2. show your posters and other design material to someone outside your organization; ask them to critique it; sit quietly while they do it and actively listen.
3. browse magazines and journals open your mind to images that may not naturally come to you…
4. walk around your community and look at what people are wearing , saying and looking at ….

BUT MOST of all be able to be wrong - BE FEARLESS

I think it was David Byrne, of the Talking Heads who said
“By being lost , you can be found” or something like that….

“What tools are you using that have little to no cost? What does and doesn’t work?”

Emily Barton
Michigan State University Libraries