Hello everyone! Please excuse the non posting this past week; both Jonathan and I are deeply immersed in our own university-wide marketing plans at the moment. American University has once again proven that their edgy designs can be executed with very little money but with maximum results. This year Jonathan designed a fabulous aluminum water bottle that is so cool I’ll bet students will begin hoarding them. AU is also planning a launch party for their new 24-hour schedule; finalizing details, gathering sponsorship, and making costumes (they are going to have a robot, a monkey, a ninja, and a pirate there to match their new post-it notes — see image above) Here at University of Arizona Libraries we are putting the final touches on our second annual Amazing Library Race. An orientation event meant to break down barriers and eliminate misconception students have about the libraries resource and services. Last year was so successful and so much fun that we are starting to make a name for ourselves on campus. Last week we showed up on the home page of the University of Arizona. No small feat indeed. This is definitely because of our strong branding of the event and all the thanks for that goes to graphic designer Marty Taylor – Thanks Marty! The thing that I like best about the Amazing Library Race is the engagement of the staff involved, they are so dedicated and they create their own questions and displays -they are wonderful and energetic. It is so great that last year the staff said that they enjoyed the event especially for the fact that the got to work and have fun with people in the library that they rarely see… these kinds of comments make all of my work worthwhile!

Tea Sketch by Dave Gray

This is such a great idea for when you have those pesky creative blocks. So to preform this wondrously inspiring feat, all you do brew a cup of tea, then plunk your fresh tea bag down on a white index card. Once the tea stain has dried, you take a pen and complete the drawing. Finally, just sit back and feel that mental block melt away as the ideas come pouring in. There is a whole flickr group dedicated to it here, unfortuantly there aren’t too many pictures in it right now, but the ones that are there are facinating. Anyhoo, I’m sure this will prove to be very useful in the near future. [via Drawn!]

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!икони

Recently advertising is taking a turn towards the absurd… well I shouldn’t say recently, advertisers have always pushed the envelope as far as unconventional humor goes, but you typically only saw this approach with smaller brands that were more flexible and willing to take risks. I’ve posted one print campaign and three separate tv commercials from major brands to exemplify my point.

Orbit Gum:

There are two benefits immediately apparent in this style of marketing:

1. It is, or can be, dirt cheap.
2. It is very effective with mellinials (god how I loath that word, but it’s very apropos in this instance)

One warning though, it is much easier to execute this style in video rather than in print. I would be curious to know what all of you think of this?

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

I just discovered information about the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), so I thought I would pass it along to you. The FSC is a non-profit working with the lumber industry to be more socially responsible. Now, here are the bits that interest us in the marketing field… If you work with a printer that is FSC certified, they have the ability to add a badge to your print job that details how many natural resources were used in producing that job (how many trees were used, how many gallons of water were consumed, and so on). I’m actually really excited about this; I’ve been looking for something that I can use for my work with American University Library. The only downside I can see is that green printing will undoubtedly be more expensive than traditional printing.

Annual reports are notoriously hard to compile, but are they worth the outcome? This year is the second year American University Library has chosen to dive in and make a public annual report. The first year was a trying task juggling the politics and the pain. The second year went a little more smoothly, but was still a huge nightmare (more politics and different pain). Sounds like more trouble than it’s worth right? You would think so, but with the right annual report and the right audience, it can be a beautiful thing. The motivation for producing an annual report is to communicate the core values and worth of the organization to the public. Another great reason is fundraising- annual reports, especially “trophy annual reports” are great fodder for making the institution look grand and worthy of donations. The design for this annual report was inspired by a botanic field guide, incorporating images from AU Library’s special collections. The style was chosen to fit in with the nature theme that all of AU Library’s administrative level brochures carry. I’ve attached the PDF of the annual report to this post for review.

In Fearless Future’s attempt to remove the scourge that is clipart from the face of the earth, here is a list of stock photography sites and other alternatives: Cheap sites:

• http://www.istockphoto.com/ Great quality, most images are $1 – $5 but can go up as high as $40 for huge images.
• http://www.bigstockphoto.com/ Images range from $1.40 -$2.50 each for all of them.

Expensive sites:

• http://www.veer.com/ Impeccable quality, but pricey. Images range from $130 – $420 each or discs of multiple images in a set for $500.
• http://www.corbis.com/ If you can’t find it on Veer you can find it on Corbis, prices are practically identical.
• http://www.photos.com/en/ One of many stock photo subscription sites (basically you pay them a fee and they provide you with unlimited access to their collection). The subscriptions range from 1 month ($140) to a year ($600), this would be a great option if you use enough images to make it worth it.

Alternate options: This is where is gets fun. These are free and/or alternate options to typical stock photos.

• http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons is an alternative to copyright. On their site, they have a searchable repository of different types of digital works that are licensed under that would allow you to use them almost always for free (if you don’t use them on commercial projects and you say who created them)
• http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/ With the advanced search on this site you can search the popular photo community flickr for images that are published under Creative Commons. If you find a picture/artist you like, send them an e-mail and see if you can use their work for your project.
• http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html Library of Congress’ Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. LOC has digitized a ton of their prints and offered them up online for the taking – the majority of them are out of copyright.
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html The American Memory Project is just like the Prints & Photographs but focuses on the “American Experience.”

Feel free to add to the list at the AcademicPR Forum under “Marketing and PR”

Hello Everyone, Jonathan has set up a very user friendly discussion forum for the Academic PR list serv. This is a great way to stay alert of what is going on in the world of marketing, outreach, public relations and promotions of academic libraries with out the usual flood of emails. This is also a wonderful way to build a community of like minded people who can easliy share ideas and trade knowledge. Jonathan and I have not posted as much as we like as this is the crazy time for both of us at our different institutions ie. gearing up for new marketing campaigns, orientation events, etc… we are also working on Fearless Future projects that we will tell you more about soon. But in the meantime check out the Academic PR Forum, you can contribute as a guest or you can join very easily. marye