Bring Out the Vote with New Library Advocacy Tool

Across the nation, libraries receive widespread support from the communities they serve because people understand the value of their local library.  Mostly.  I mean, almost always.  Except for when they don’t….

When your library’s funding is at risk, are you willing to wait idly by and see if people show up at the polls?  Or would you like to actively reach out to your more enthusiastic patrons to inform and encourage them to support their favorite public institution?

Patron Voter Analysis, a new app available in Gale’s unique Analytics On Demand product, gives you the tools you need to identify voter households who use library resources and develop targeted contact lists to inform them about pending election issues related to your library funding or leadership ballot issues.

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Librarians Overcome Distance and Tradition with GVRL eBooks

GVRL eBook Success Story

Terry Beck, the Information Services Manager for Sno-Isle Libraries north of Seattle, knows firsthand how to deal with logistical nightmares. Beck is responsible for serving approximately 697,000 people in two counties across 21 community libraries. To complicate matters further, Beck lacks a central or main library location from which to work and was quickly running out of room for reference materials.

“We don’t have one great big place,” Beck bemoaned. “We knew we needed to grow our reference collection but we had no room for additional print materials.”

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Electronic Resources – Marketing on a Shoestring

Public Library Marketing on a Shoestring

By Sally Dewey

As the Electronic Resources Manager, an important part of my job is promoting the resources we buy.  I’ve actually had this job (under one title or another) since CD-ROM networks were around—back then we were just trying to alert the user in the building that we had something beyond books on the shelf. Then, in 1997, with web-based databases it was about the Library being the patron’s Information Home Page 24/7, or “Where it all Clicks.

Today, as public libraries are battling to stay relevant, we want to want to attract, snag, and entice patrons into discovering the wealth of resources we make available online.  Why would we want to do that?  To battle patron ignorance.

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