LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

According to NFI Research, these are the top public libraries on Twitter who

By Molly Skeen

Some people use and support the public library, no matter what. They visit the library regularly, borrow books, take the kids to story time, join the Friends, and visit new libraries on vacation. Let's call them the Fans.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are people who never use the library, no matter what. They have their reasons. We could call these the Frosties. Between the two extremes, there's a broad range of library use patterns.

Here are some numbers taken from a 2006 study titled Long Overdue: A Fresh Look at Public and Leadership Attitudes About Libraries in the 21st Century. When asked how many times they visited a library in the previous year, survey respondents replied with these frequencies:
Not at all - 27%
1-5 times - 15%
6-10 times - 11%
11-25 times - 16%

How can we convert library Frosties to Fans? And how can we engage the people who use the library once a year to use it more often? I'm convinced that a great many of the Frosties have needs and interests that could be met at the library, but they are simply unaware of specific services that could help them.

• Take Joe Frosty – a busy guy who works full time, takes the family camping, and likes to tinker with his car. He never uses the library, but maybe he would if he knew that his library provides access to EBSCO's Auto Repair Reference Center on its web site.
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In libraryland, there are a lot of statistics that are measured: door counts, circulation of items, computer uses, reference questions, and so forth and so on. As I was getting ready for the end of the year marketing committee for my library system, I couldn’t help but think about some of the things that cannot be tracked. Specially, I wondered about the number of conversation opportunities that are missed by staff members.

I’ll give an example: I’ve watched people come in for a library card, fill out the paperwork, get the card, and thank the staff member and walk away. The staff member was courteous and pleasant; the patron was not problematic; and the overall process went smoothly. But at no time did the staff member offer the customer a library calendar, inquire about interests so as to link them with current programming, ascertain whether they have children within the age ranges of our programs, or otherwise engage in small talk that makes the library sound more welcoming and familial.

I know that all staff can’t be mind readers nor salesmen nor social butterflies, but within the broad range of personalities, they could do something. As we are a service economy with people holding high customer service expectations, is it wrong to think that we have to step up our game as well? I don’t have a ready made solution for this, but it has been rattling around my brain since it occurred to me this morning.

In any event, it’s something the Marketing Committee will be working on next year. Any thoughts or comments would be helpful.

Gig Harbor, WA: When Marie Bassett received a phone call from the Pierce County Library System telling her she had won a free laptop computer, she first thought it was a hoax.

Bassett filled out a little piece of paper when she renewed her library card a while back, but she had forgotten about it.

The countywide library system held a raffle for two laptops during its annual card drive, and Gig Harbor’s Bassett won one of them.

“It was a funny story,” she said. “I went to have my library card renewed, and they had me fill out this little slip of paper. I said, ‘What do you want me to do with this?’ ”

Bassett said she regularly checks out items at the library with her husband, and she decided to get her own card updated. “I thought, ‘That’s dumb. I might want to go without him some time,’ ” she said. “It’s ironic, because I’m really a raffle nut, but I had totally forgotten I had filled out this slip.”

Winning the laptop turned out to be perfect timing for Bassett, who recently lost her job.

“It was a heartbreaker,” she said. “It was truly a dream job. I thought I was going to be there forever.”

Nonetheless, Bassett hopes to turn bad luck around. “Now I think I want to start my own bookkeeping business,” she said. “This laptop is so timely.”

Mary Simun did not enjoy reading as a child. But in college, she discovered her love of reading, and hasn't stopped yet.

To make up for lost time, Simun spends her Friday afternoons volunteering at the Friends of the Redondo Beach Public Library store. Friends of the Library is a non-profit organization that supports libraries nationwide. The Redondo Beach chapter was established in 1985 to provide resources not covered in the city budget. Diane Chillington, the personnel coordinator of this chapter, said the Redondo Beach library has become slightly more dependent on the Friends since the economic downturn last year.

Does your library have FOL store? or a Friends group? Share news of how they've helped your library...

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a video on social media set to a Fatboy Slim song and used as a book promo for Eric Qualman's new book Socialnomics (Wiley)

...thanks to Andy W. for the tip

A New Jersey librarian's (LISNews' VERY OWN ANDY W!!!) lighthearted Facebook petition for a Ben & Jerry's library-themed ice cream flavor might just come to fruition -- or should that be chocolate-swirl-ition? Launched in early June, the petition has picked up momentum as summer temperatures have risen -- there are currently more than 4,800 members in the group, and folks from as far away as Canada and England have volunteered flavor ideas. If you haven't joined the facebook group yet...DO IT NOW!

Suggestions included Gooey Decimal System (dark chocolate alphabet letters with caramel swirls in hazelnut ice cream), Rocky Read (vanilla with chocolate-covered nuts, chocolate chunks and raisins) and Sh-sh-sh-Sherbet! (either lime or chocolate/vanilla).

But, like an autodidact left free to roam the stacks, later ideas have strayed from the original to embrace anything bookish, related to authors or reading or titles.

More from the LA Times Blog.

[Kudos to Andy! He's most likely a dynamite librarian, but he's also got the right stuff for marketing. Libraries need that, now more than ever.]

The Wiki Wednesday Proposal was a good idea, but it seems it didn't take off... Why not give it another try?

OK... Let's do that! Here are 2 stubs I found by hitting the Random Page button.

1. Faculty status for academic librarians
2. Serials department

In case you've been in Casablanca or otherwise out of the librarian loop this summer (or not on facebook), you might not know about the Facebook Group People for a library-themed Ben & Jerry's flavor! But now you do know about it and there's been a 'call to action'!

Here's a message from the leader of the charge and new LISNews author Andy W, on the group's facebook page:

"4,000. It took awhile but we got there. Completely awesome. This past month and a half has been pretty different for me. Stories about the group have appeared in Library Journal (both print and online), a local newspaper, tons of tweet and retweets on Twitter, and shared on Facebook. And for all those efforts, I cannot thank you enough. I am planning this to be the penultimate message, with the last message being one announce success =D

So, here's the deal now. Time to step it up and take some action in a couple easy steps.

(1) Submit a flavor to Ben & Jerry's directly.
Appeal to the 5 Flavor Gurus directly! (Arnold, John, Eric, Peter, & Nettie) Here is the link for their Suggest a Flavor form.
And here are a couple of the flavors, easy to cut & paste into the form. Pick one and submit (or submit one of your own).

a) Name: Gooey Decimal System (birdie's recommendation)

Baseball & 'brarians, with a couple of our own all-stars suited up for the game: Good baseball, good company! The Reading Phils invite library staffers, library board members, Friends of libraries, and our families & loved ones to enjoy the final Sunday home game of the regular season at a phenomenal discount.

Twelve bucks gets you a 2½-hour buffet, a place at one of our library tables on the picnic deck, live music & discount beers in the ballpark café, a free half hour for your kids in the Phunland playground, postgame fireworks, and more, plus at least 8½ innings of excellent baseball with the AA affiliate of the reigning World Series champs.