November 3rd, 2009 Brian Herzog
I’ve mentioned the Library Use Value Calculator a few times, including that the ALA liked it so much they added it to their Tough Times Toolkit (under Making the Case).
Now they’ve gone one better - the ALA partnered with Safeway to take the Library Calculator out of the virtual world and bring it to the breakfast table.
The artwork [pdf] on the back of their cereal box looks great*, and it certainly gets the point across (I think the “get rich” angle is odd, but I guess that’s marketing). It seems fairly intuitive, lists useful facts, and also includes a nice library-related quote from Barack Obama.
Check out the ALA’s webpage, the box itself [pdf], and if there’s a store near you that carries Safeway cereal, look for it. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be any in New England.
*Also good is that it satisfies my cereal box rule: whatever is on the back of the box should be interesting enough to keep you occupied for as long as the cereal inside the box lasts. I mean, those little mazes they put on the back of some boxes might keep me occupied for the first bowl, but what about all the subsequent mornings I eat that cereal? See, if I were president philosopher-king, the world would be a whole lot different.
Tags: @yourlibrary, ala, american libraries association, box, calculator, cereal, get rich, ilovelibraries, libraries, Library, library calculator, library use value calculator, public, safeway See Also
Posted under Library, Marketing | 3 Comments »
August 6th, 2009 Brian Herzog
This is nice: the Chelmsford Library was recognized by EBSCO Publishing’s Customer Success Center with the Library Customer Success Award for Library Advocacy.
Since EBSCO serves so many libraries, they started noting instances where a library did something in a particularly outstanding way, and created a repository of these success stories. They interviewed me earlier in the year for a success story about the Library Use Value Calculator (read more).
Last week we received the award from them (in the mystery box), and our case study was added to their Customer Success Center website (click “View Success Stories for Public Libraries” and Chelmsford’s story [pdf] is the first one).
I skimmed the summaries of some of the other case studies, and they are definitely worth reading. I had never heard of this before they contacted me, but now that I know about it, I’m going to see if I can translate successes from other libraries into improved service or practices at my own.
And if you’re doing something great at your library that you’d like to share, there is also a form to Submit Your Story. Please do, as well as add it to the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, because sharing good ideas between libraries makes us all better.
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Posted under Library, Random | 1 Comment »
June 30th, 2009 Brian Herzog
Update 7/13/09: Final state budget lightens hit to Ohio libraries
This post is unfortunately timely - by now you’ve heard of the cuts facing Ohio libraries.
I haven’t said anything about this because it’s been covered elsewhere, but it really worries me. I have friends and family that both work in and regularly use Ohio libraries. And I know how badly a 5% cut affected my library this year - I can’t even imagine a 50% cut.
The value of libraries is difficult to illustrate (one might say immeasurable), which makes proposals like Gov. Strickland’s possible. Libraries need to make a special effort to demonstrate our role and importance in our communities.
Two years ago I posted about the Library Use Value Calculator - a tool to let patrons calculate how much their library use is worth to them. I’ve been working with the ALA on version 2.0 of the library calculator (as part of their Tough Times Toolkit), and even though it’s still in beta, I wanted to get it out there.
The new version looks and works the same, it’s just easier for libraries to implement. Instead of having to muck around with coding, libraries can now embed it in their website web 2.0-style, just by copy/pasting a bit of code (like a YouTube video).
Please check out the new calculator, and add it to your library website - let me know if you need help. And if you are in a position to do so, please Support Ohio Libraries.
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Posted under Library, Marketing, Resources | 6 Comments »
