You know that having good relationships with the media will benefit your archives or other cultural institution, and perhaps you have even included them in a plan to enhance your the marketing and public relations efforts. After all, media can not only help you spread the word about your programming or achievements, but at times they can also provide bad press. Developing a good relationship with the media is key to helping you weather such storms.

Today’s How-To-Do-It Tip comes from Public Relations and Marketing for Archives: A How-To-Do-It Manual edited by Russell D. James and Peter J. Wosh. The suggestions below can help you foster a strong relationship with the media on behalf of your institution.

Cultivation of the Media

All media outlets report the news, but their methodologies vary. This will have an impact on the ways in which you interact with various news venues. In forging relationships, it is important to think like a public relations professional as well as an archivist and to adopt the primary goals of a public relations professional.

Developing Mutually Beneficial Relationships with the Media

When developing positive relationships, you must combine professional integrity with basic courtesies. “Please” and “thank you” go a long way in fostering mutual respect. Use the following basic principles for effective public relations:

• Use honest communication to maintain credibility.

• Network with media personnel.

• Meet the publishers, editors, and journalists whenever possible.

• Hand out brochures and pamphlets related to the archives.

• If a person is new to the area, give him or her additional information about the community—a little kindness can go a long way!

• Attend events at which the media will be present, such as ribbon cuttings, government meetings, and cultural events.

• Always ask the media for a deadline; if you cannot meet the deadline, explain your reasons and see if an extension is possible.

• Send public service announcements to all local television, radio, and newspaper outlets.

• Think of events as party invitations—they are appreciated even if possible attendees need to decline.

• Overlooking individual outlets can create ill-will.

• Always maintain an open, consistent, and impartial relationship with the media; be sure that all media outlets receive the same press releases and notices of a newsworthy story.

• Fairness of actions will result in reciprocity and goodwill.

• When multiple media representatives are present, be sure to speak to each of them.

• To create personal relationships, contact individuals rather than departments.

• Maintain two-way communication to build relationships.

• Do not wait until you need the media to contact them.

• Formally thank the media for their coverage of an event or publication of a story or photograph.

• Conduct environmental research and evaluation to determine actions or adjustments needed to maintain good working relationships.

• Understand community issues that will benefit and potentially damage the promotion of the archives.

• Maintain professional relationships with the media without showing favoritism.

• When calling a journalist, find out at the beginning of the conversation if he or she needs you to call back or can speak at that moment.

• This is a professional courtesy that makes an impression and lets the reporter know that you understand the constraints placed on him or her.

• After talking with the reporter, have materials ready to send to demonstrate that your public relations department is serious and well organized.

- Excerpted from Public Relations and Marketing for Archivists: A How-To-Do-It Manual, pp. 74-75. © 2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Without a careful plan that includes a clear goal, consistent message, and targeted audience, a library’s efforts to produce a newsletter, develop a brochure, or create a website can fall short of quality public relations, and even do more harm than good. Bringing  the same enthusiasm to the planning of the project, and not just the project itself, can ensure that your library’s outreach efforts are successful. Identifying a clear goal for the project can be a good first step in the planning process.

Library Public Relations, Promotions, and Communications, Second Edition: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians by Lisa A. Wolfe walks you through four key questions that can help you identify and flesh out this goal.

You probably have some idea–no matter how vague–of what you want to achieve with your public relations efforts. Answering the following questions in the next section may help you to clarify your public relations goal.

1. What is it that you want to tell people?   This is your message. You need to determine what it is you want people to know or understand. Often your message will have a quality that is more subjective than just conveying information. For instance, you won’t just want people to know about your books-by-mail service–you’ll also want them to believe that it is a valuable community service. At other times, you will just want to convey information, such as how the library’s new overdue policy works. It is important to try to keep your message as simple and focused as possible.
2. Who do you want to tell?   Determining the audience for your message is critical to your success. Think about who needs to know what you are communicating. If your message is preschool storytime hours, then your primary audience is parents of preschoolers and your secondary audience may be day-care providers. Deciding who needs to receive your message will help you determine how to communicate it. Remember to consider your internal audiences. Chapter 5 provides an in-depth discussion of choosing your audience.
3. When do you want to communicate your message?   Timing is everything. Trying to spread the word about school library services is probably more appropriate during the school year than during the summer when families, teachers, and students aren’t focused on school. If you are promoting an event, it is important to communicate your message intensively in a concentrated time period before the event. Sometimes it may take you longer to plan your public relations/communications efforts than to implement them.
4. Why do you want to tell people about this? Do you want them to do anything?   These questions go back to the subjective nature of your message. Once people learn about what you are trying to communicate, do you need them to act? Is this a proactive message? Do you want them to attend an event? Actively support the retention of a library service? Vote for supplemental funding?

Look carefully at the answers to these questions. They should form the foundation of the public relations goal. Remember that a goal should include a statement of what you want to achieve, delineate a time frame for achieving it, and indicate how you are going to measure your success.

 

- Excerpted from Library Public Relations, Promotions, and Communications, Second Edition: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, pp. 17-18. © 2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Conducting needs and assets assessment for outreach in your community is a necessary step in developing an effective community outreach plan. Having ideas for how to improve community outreach is great, but how can we know exactly what our community’s needs are?

Successful Community Outreach: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians by Robert S. Martin, Barbara Blake, and Yunfei Du contains stellar community outreach plans help libraries build the strong partnerships that undergird these critical ties.

Outreach programs or services are designed to connect, educate, and serve nontraditional or underserved communities and populations. Bear in mind that community outreach can be focused on bringing new users into the library to provide services and resources that they need. But it can also be designed to take the library out into the community, working with other community organizations, to create and demonstrate value to the community. Underserved and unserved segments of the community can benefit from both types of outreach. Going out into the community can sometimes be a more effective way to raise awareness of the library, generate new users, and demonstrate public value. If you are considering adding a new service or program, then you need to assess if there is a need for it and, if so, the level of that need. If you are reviewing an established service or program, then you need to evaluate what users think of that service or program and how it is being provided or delivered.

Together the needs and assets assessment will help you find answers to questions such as:

1. Are there groups in the community we are not reaching? If so, what groups?

2. Is the library the right organization to address the needs of this group? If so, does the library currently offer programs that could benefit this target group? If so, what are they?

3. To what extent are these programs or services successful with the target group? If these programs and services are not being used by the target group, why?

4. Are there new services or programs that might better meet the needs of the target group? If so, what are they?

5. Is there a way to make the library and its services more useful to the target group through community partnerships? If so, what organizations and programs in the community might the library consider as partners?

6. What expectations does the target group have of the library? How can the library meet those expectations?

7. Are there additional materials or information the library and/or its partners could provide to better fill the need of the target group?

8. Do staffing patterns or library hours need to be adjusted to meet the needs of the target group?

- Excerpted from Successful Community Outreach: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, pp. 35-36. © 2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

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More than one librarian has had to take over a library’s book discussion group on top of a thousand other duties. If you are pressed for time, it can be hard to plan and execute a good book discussion meeting. The resources listed below tell you where to find ready-made questions for book discussion groups on the internet so that you can be prepared for your next book discussion group.

Today’s How-To-Do-It Tip comes from Running Book Discussion Groups: A How-To-Do-It Manual by Lauren Zina John.

Ready-Made Questions
There are a number of sources for read-made questions that can be used in book discussions. Commercial and academic book publishers, bookstores, libraries, online book clubs, and even fee-based discussion group consultants are now posting free lists of discussion questions on the Internet. Some publishers, especially paperback publishers, insert discussion questions at the back of their books. Literature professors often post their class questions and syllabi on the Internet.

Although you’ll find more material on current best-sellers and well-studied classics, the Web can yield plentiful material on more obscure books too. Here are some resources for finding good book group questions online, starting with the easiest (and cheapest) places to find ready-made questions. (…)

• Google (www.google.com). A Google search is a “quick and dirty” way to find book group questions. Simlpy combine the title of your book with the phrase “book group” or “book discussion.” A Google search for “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “book discussion” (conducted in March 2005) yielded questions from sites including the Random House Reader’s Guide, The Multnomah County Library Homework Center, and the State of Vermont Department of Libraries, which also offered a book discussion kit.
•Amazon (www.amazon.com). Some of the publishers that sell books on Amazon provide reader’s guides and questions. To find discussion questions when they are included, search for the book by title and click on the title to get more information. At this point, a book information box will appear in the left-hand column. Generally, the box includes links to customer and editorial reviews, but if the publisher has also provided reading group guides and questions, you’ll find them here.
• The Book Report Network (www.tbrnetwork.com). This site is a portal that links to a growing number of Web sites that provide author interviews, reviews, and commentary — along with interactive elements such as polls, message boards, questions, and contests. The Book Report Network was founded in 1996 and is physically based in New York City. One of the sites that it links to, ReadingGroupGuides.com, enables readers to search for guides that include discussion questions. Another Web site, AuthorYellowPages.com, is a searchable directory of author Web sites. Many of these author Web sites also provide links to discussion questions.

 

Figure 6.1

•The Internet Public Library Online Criticism Collection (www.ipl.org). The Internet Public Library was an online references service founded in 1995 as part of a graduate seminar at the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Today the University of Michigan continues to support this site with funding from Sun Microsystems and Intel. The FAQ for the site describes it as “the first public library of and for the Internet community.” Among the many wonderful reference services offered here, you will find many resources for group leaders. The full text of many literary works is available here, including the complete works of Shakespeare, Aesop’s Fables, classic mythology, and American short stories and novels by writers including Mark Twain, Luisa May Alcott, and Willa Cather. The Online Literary Criticism Collection (www.ipl.org/div/litcrit) contains critical and biographical Web sites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, title, nationality, and literary period. The collection links readers to criticism of American, Canadian, European, Latin American, and Asian literature, in some cases going as far back as medieval and ancient times. Because this section is not updated regularly, it is a better source for classics and well-reviewed books that are at least ten years old rather than bestsellers. I have personally used the site to find comprehensive information on authors including Truman Capote, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, and Alice Munro. This is also a good place to find links to published interviews with contemporary authors. Figure 6.1 shows the portal pages for the online Literary Criticism Collection.
• SparkNotes (www.sparknotes.com). The “Literature Study Guides” section of this Web site, which includes guides to both contemporary and classic literature, is prepared by literature students but appreciated by a far wider audience. A question from the SparkNotes guide to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets asks,”What do the origins and parts of the names reveal about the characters? Consider the names of Lucius Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore, and Voledemort?” Here’s a question from the SparkNotes guide to Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita: “How does Humpert change over the course of the novel? How does his attitude toward Lolita change (if it changes), and what is Humpert’s attitude about Lolita and the whole affair when he writes this manuscript in his jail cell?

-Excerpted from  Running Book Discussion Groups: A How-To-Do-It Manual, pp. 85-89. © 2008 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Read more of Lauren John’s writing on her book discussion blog!

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Action plans are the blueprints for getting things done in your library. Don’t miss these important reminders when you’re writing yours.

This week’s how-to-do-it tip comes from Creating Your Library’s Business Plan: A How-To-Do-It Manual with Samples on CD-ROM by Joy HP Harriman. It’s full of templates, worksheets, case studies, and samples from a wide variety of libraries, big and small, to help you create your business plan quickly and efficiently, saving you time, money, and frustration.

Action plans name the specific work done to achieve the strategies and reach your objectives. Each action plan is a small event contributing to the growth of the service. Each plan statement directly relates to an objective and a strategy by describing a specific task with a deadline….

Putting together an action plan of the main activities necessary to achieve the objectives and strategies of your business plan requires a great deal of communication. Make sure all stakeholders understand the reasons for change by providing as much information as possible and keeping the dialogue moving. Communication will always have to be tailored to the interests and understanding of the listener. Not every staff person comes to the table with the same background, experiences, or emotional awareness. Those factors must be taken into account and used to adapt messages.

Include information in the action plan about participation or support by leaders, strategic alliances, or partnering. This can be a strong signal of the library’s significance and potential for success to anyone reading the business plan. If the plan is being used to apply for support, a grant, or funding, then explain how much support or money or is needed, how it will be used, or how you plan to meet the requirements.  Core elements to include in your action plans:

• If possible, each plan will have a stated impact
• Each plan is directly related to a strategy; the strategy is related to an objective
• As much as possible each plan has an identified budget; clarify how much support or money is needed for this project and how it will be used
• List each step in the action plan
• Each step is prioritized, specific, measurable (metrics or milestones), doable, and timed
• The individual responsible has direct involvement in creating the plan and has access to necessary resources
• Results are assessed at timed stages and according to budget
• Supervisors are aware of the timeline for which they need to support the work by either rewarding staff for completing them or correcting if necessary
• Timelines and specific steps are clearly communicated
• Allowances and contingency plans are built in
• Flexibility is a quality to be understood by all involved in the process
• The individual responsible is provided with adequate tools, knowledge, and training to complete the job
• Individual performance follow-up is conducted at frequent intervals to determine if the plans are moving on course or if coaching is required or if the objective, goal, or plan requires shifting

- Excerpted from Creating Your Library’s Business Plan: A How-To-Do-It Manual with Samples on CD-ROM, pp. 135-137. © 2008 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Sheila is a library director in a small Midwestern town. Recently, the town’s oldest citizen, Maebel Jones, came in to discuss plans for giving a gift upon her death. Unfortunately, the gift came with a few strings. Sheila met with the library’s board of trustees, who told her that she needed to write up a gifts policy. Donor and patron gifts are a common source of funding for libraries. But as with anything involving money, there are several important considerations that should go into any decision making process for donor gifts.

Today’s How-To-Do-It Tip comes from Managing Budgets and Finances: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians and Information Professionals by Arlita W. Hallam and Teresa R. Dalston. This how-to explains and illustrates the nuts and bolts, including types of budgets and how to create and revise them, ways of tracking spending and fund allocation, and timelines for financial planning, such as capital spending.

Before accepting a gift or writing a gifts policy, consider the following:

1. What conditions, or “attached strings,” are acceptable to the library?

2. Does giving a collection, building, or land guarantee naming rights to the library or collection? What are the criteria for naming rights?

3. Is it the donor’s intent that this be an unconditional gift? May the gift be used for any purpose, or is it a designated gift (e.g., for the building fund or for collection development for the genealogy collection)?

4. When will the gift be available for use? Does the library receive the gift before or after the donor’s death? Is the gift an outright donation, or is it established as a trust?

5. What are the donors’ expectations for the gift? (Does the donor realize that it may be circulated, put on reference, sold at the next Friends of the Library book sale, etc.?)

6. What level of gift may each governing body accept? Do gifts of a certain monetary level or gifts requiring ongoing funds for maintenance need to be approved by a higher governing board?

-Excerpted from: Managing Budgets and Finances: A How-To-Do-It Manual, pp. 162. ©2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery.

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