Chris Brubeck

The last event in Jazz in the Valley was a concert by Chris Brubeck as the finale of the UWEC Jazz Festival. Unfortunately, I missed most of the festival which conflicted with the Public Library Association's 12th National Conference which was held in nearby Minneapolis.

Chris Brubeck is the son of jazz great Dave Brubeck and was performing with a group called "Triple Play." [Dave lives in Wilton CT, and has been a great library supporter over the years.]

I was disappointed with the size of the audience at the State Theatre (the then known as the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center). The theater is an art deco masterpiece which reminds me a great deal of Bridgeport's Klein Memorial Auditorium. I would have characterized the audience size as modest.

The performance was great! It included works by Chris, his dad, and many other jazz greats. They received a standing ovation at the end which resulted in an encore! It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Paula Poundstone -- Closing Keynote Speaker

Later this week, I will do a reflection piece on PLA in Minneapolis. This is my las "report" of a session.

Paula Poundstone was the closing keynote speaker. While some of what she did was part of her regular stand-up routine, she did a great job talking about and to us. During her show, she did "pick on" some of the audience members and asked them questions, including about their personal education and most importantly when they knew that they wanted to be a librarian, and why.

One of her early choices of audience members was Susan Hildreth, a past PLA President, and the State Librarian of California. The interchange about how Susan was chosen and appointed by the Governor ("the Governator," Arnold Schwarzenegger) was hysterical.

It was a great closing to a great conference.

PLA President Jan Sanders reported that total attendance for th conference was over 9,800! A huge success.

Superheroes to Serial Killers: Librarians in Literature

Started with his doing talks on readers advisory and threw in books which included librarians. They were always the most popular with the audience -- even when librarians were not in the audience.

Everything is on the handout.

Michael Gannon @ Prince Georges County Maryland

Objectives for all activities in Maryland, and Michael listed his objectives. Talk was rated PG-13 because of the "racy bits."

Famous Librarians quiz...very humorous. First answer was was Hypatia of Alexandria. St Lawrence was the second, as another patron saint of librarians. (Roasted alive was the key clue.) Casanova got a huge laugh. Pope Pius XI was a librarian. Chairman Mao made the list also. J. Edgar Hoover worked at the Library of Congress.

He then talked about stereotypes including the clip from It's a Wonderful Life and the Bacardi ad: Librarian by day, alcoholic by night! Batgirl and Captain Comet were librarians. He included librarian blogs including the Lipstick Librarian and her Cafe Press products. He noted the Modified Librarian. He noted the Wyoming Library Association campaign with the mudflap girl campaign.

He then went into librarians in literature, starting with Librarians in Fiction which he referred to as "incredibly dry." In the Stacks is a collection of short stories. One of the stories features TV's Mr. Ed.

He finally got serious with Miss Zukas and the Library Murders. And continued. What is missing from the handout is the wonderful covers and incredibly snarky remarks on books and covers like Nympho Librarian.

He ended with a little game called: Librarian or Serial Killer with some amazing photos.

[This was a wonderfully entertaining speaker.]

Marketing without Money

[I will revise this post next week!]

The program was organized by ALA Past President Pat Schumann, and had as the main speaker was Kathleen Imhoff, Director of the Lexington KY Public Library.

I sat next to Kathleen at dinner last night, and have known her for years (we serve on an ALA committee)

1. Neaten Up
   Look around the building. Look at all the signs. Make it a goal to take down 5 signs every day!
2. Secret Patron
   Get someone who has not been to the Library in a while to come in and look around and share their perspectives with you.
3. Increase Staff Training
   When staff are at the desk and not waiting on someone, what are they doing? If they are doing “off desk” tasks, they do not look approachable.
4. Form New Partnerships
   Look for partners in the community, the Chamber of Commerce
5. ???
6. Join Community Groups
   This is a great way to get your message to key community leaders. Library Directors and
7. Partner with PR Firms
   Even in the smallest community, you have someone who has a connection with someone in a public relations firm.
8. Barter
9. Grocery Store Line
   Talk to people in the line without identifying yourself as working at the library. It is stealth marketing. Kathleen did not call it this, but it is a way of viral marketing. This would apply to any place where you are waiting in line. Ask your staff to do this.
10. Change or Revise Image
    Use name tags, use cheap (Oriental Trading Company) beads to hang name tags.

Message

Various members of the audience shared messages. One that caused some chuckles was “Your Library is Free and Easy!”

The message needs to be short and “punchy” there is information on the ALA web site. Pat Schuman shared a Message Worksheet. It needs to speak to the listener, not to us! The message needs to be very clear. Need to have a short message and then have a longer “elevator speech.” (For those not familiar with the elevator speech, it is a brief talk that you would give on a short elevator ride – i.e. no more than 2 minutes.

Low cost marketing opportunities:

For a small amount of money (e.g. bookmarks) consider going to the local bank (if you still have one).

Take a zip lock bag, put the two sided brochure to display or hand out with bookmarks and brochures. They can be used over and over. Or you can buy printed plastic bags for events. More people will take a bag of “stuff” than will a brochure or bookmark.

Combine messages by doing things like printing black and white on one side, and color on the other. Kathleen also had a brochure with tear-off/cut-off bookmarks on the end. For about $0.25, new baby bibs with message: Read to me! Lexington got a health care firm to underwrite the cost of the bibs (and without the logo).

Kathleen talked about her book Library Contests published by Neal-Shuman. Pat Schumann offered a discount to attendees.

Other ideas included chalk art to advertising programs, including having the teen advisory board doing the art. Pharmacy bags or promotions with grocery stories.

We must evaluate any activity. What does success look like? Did that promotion get more people? To find out some of the answers, we may need to ask people.

Let’s Get Married! Bringing Friends and Foundations Together to Raise More Money

Donna Bero, Executive Director of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, introduced the program and gave an overview of the goals of the program. Friends group started in a fairly traditional way in 1966. When new SFPL Main was needed, the Friends did not think that they could raise the money so they created a foundation. After the building was complete, the two organizations merged over the course of six years. Now, they raise money for capital projects ($16 million for furniture), provide programmatic support, do advocacy for the library, and have their own book operation including two stores and a major sale each year. They do literary events.

Anita Duckor, Executive Director of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library The Friends group was founded in 1949, over 5,000 members. They were born out of the need for advocacy. This year raised $450,000 for MPL. The Friends have evolved from being an adjunct to being essential. Raise significant capital dollars and have two book stores. The one consistent thread has been advocacy. Administer three key cultural programs: Talk of the Stack (current literature); People’s University (lecture series by university professors); Classic Film Series. Now under a new system with the consolidation of Hennepin County Library and the Minneapolis Public Library.

Peter Pearson, President of the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, started with jokes about St. Paul and the relationship with Minneapolis. Friends was founded in 1945 by the Library Director. It was a typical Friends group. Kept the same feel until 1973, when Dr. John Briggs wife fell ill, and Friends brought books to her. He left his estate to the Friends. The estate was worth over $2 million at the time. This caused the change from a traditional group to more like a foundation. They worked with the Community Foundation closely. This worked until 1991 when there were cuts. Peter hired in 1992 to increase the endowment and advocate. The endowment is now $15 million and there is a staff of 6. They do fund raising, grant writing, capital campaigns, planned giving along with corporate sponsorships. They do a great deal of advocacy, the budget has increased every year. They also do programming, until recently it was 100%, new director wants more staff involvement. Not physically located in the Library, because it makes it clear that the Friends are not library staff.

There is a white paper posted on the PLA Conference site.

Three models:

• Stand alone Friends Groups
• Stand alone Foundation
• Merged Friends and Foundation

All three represent the latter, so the presentation may have a bias.

Most stand alone Friends groups do not have staff. Foundations often recruit prominent people to serve on the board, Library Foundations will move to a staff model There can be some turf issues, the groups need to share databases. How big donors are treated.. There is only one Board.

There is clear communication to donors. They do a membership campaign and other fundraising coordination. The broader mission attracts a broader membership. There is name recognition confusion. They are free-standing and can sometimes seem to independent of the Library. Joke: “The average age of our Friends group is deceased!”

It takes resources to support the organization as well as the library.

Gave examples from each organization.

Minneapolis: in 2000 referendum passed with 67% of the voto. Had three trustees appointed to the Friends Board. An environment of competing institutions, Raised $16.5 million. Actually did as individual library campaigsn Notes and slides are on the PLA web site.