AALL Annual Meeting Program Ideas Marketing & Outreach

We all know the power and cult-like devotion commanded by certain international brands, companies, and franchises such as Coke, Apple, Disney, and Stars Wars & Star Trek. This applies to local and regional places as well. With the conference in Baltimore - a perfect example of this is WaWa (if you don't know what this is...just ask anyone from Pennsylvania and the other Mid-Atlantic states!). Can we create that ...more »

I would like to see a program on strategies for providing reference services to geographically-dispersed audiences. For my immediate need, I would like to hear how government law libraries expand services to all corners of their jurisdiction using any and all forms of digital asynchronous and real-time communication, including video conference, chat, email, remote desktop manipulation, etc. It would also be useful to ...more »

What are libraries doing to increase awareness and use of their services outside of their physical library walls? In Minnesota, we place law librarians in public libraries to provide legal reference service. We also visit public libraries to train librarians and patrons. And we travel around the state giving presentations (with a free CLE component) to bar associations. What are others doing?

"They Don’t Know We’re Here": Promoting Your Library and Performing In-house Outreach It’s common for patrons at public libraries to confess that they never knew there was a library in their community. Sadly, the same is often true of special libraries. Our patrons simply don’t know that their company or institution has provided a library for their use. To avoid being overlooked—or worse, cut from the budget—special ...more »

The invisible customer is the person (or department) who has either stopped using your products and services or who has never used them. Regardless of your sector (academic, firm, public, state/county/court, nonprofit, etc. ), you can’t rely on success with just the people who already actively use you. How do you find them? What do you say when you do? (Hint: You will probably have to leave the office or building.) More ...more »

When gathering data and opinions for a strategic plan or marketing campaign, what do you do when the collected information is filled with contradictions? Some library customers and staff want everything new and cutting edge; others prefer the traditional and familiar. To classify, analyze, and weigh the data and feedback, a portfolio that organizes your research into traditional, current, and visionary groupings can provide ...more »

How do you communicate the value and impact of your information center when your colleagues’ eyes glaze over at the mention of “authoritative sources” or “controlled vocabulary”? Invite Mary Ellen to present five tangible tools to turn every opportunity with a colleague into a learning moment and to develop a reputation as an invaluable asset to your organization. Whether you are a solo librarian or just need to polish ...more »

Identifying and communicating the ROI of information services and your information center is always a challenge; we are still competing with “it’s all available for free on the web”. Invite Mary Ellen Bates to share tools and strategies from her white paper, The True Cost of Information: Measuring the ROI of the Information Center (https://www.springernature.com/gp/librarians/landing/truecostroi). Included in the white ...more »

Defining Your Library: It’s Tough to Market What You Don’t Describe “Everyone knows” what a library is and what a library does. But, really, most non-librarians haven’t a clue. So, the first step in effectively marketing your library – the first step toward selling people on the idea that your library is worth significant money, space and time – is defining it. Defining it looks at mission statements and objectives, ...more »

Local non-law librarians can benefit from knowing basic legal reference tips, tricks and skills as they serve their patrons. Learn how to set up and present a free or low-cost half-day workshop on legal research basics. Receive ideas about successful schedules, topics, exercises, and follow up activities. Such workshops create stronger bonds within local library communities and are good outreach and charitable activities ...more »

Each year AALL recognizes member marketing excellence with a variety of awards, including best brochure, best newsletter, best campaign, best PR toolkit, and best use of technology (see: https://www.aallnet.org/mm/Member-Resources/AALLawards/award-eim.html). Recent award winners from a variety of categories and library types will be invited to discuss their projects in small groups in a "Cool Tools Cafe" environment. ...more »

Librarians don't need to "reinvent the wheel" when it comes to marketing, PR, and outreach activities. Many of our parent organizations (law schools, law firms, local governments, etc.) have communications, PR or marketing departments that can serve as useful partners in developing marketing campaigns. Additionally, these departments often have outreach policies in place with which library marketing campaigns should comply. ...more »