Share Your Library Hacks via the Library Success Wiki

After reading the last post, Andrew kindly sent me a suggestion to have a library hacks wiki. I like the idea of sharing information via a wiki that anyone can edit, but am not so keen on idea of creating a brand new wiki that people will most likely ignore. I instantly thought of the Library Success Wiki as a better way to do this.

So I added a section on Library Hacks to the promotions page and it is now ready and waiting for your hacks. This may or may not be the best place on the wiki to place this, if it's not I figure someone will move it, but to me this is classic promotion.

If you have a tip or hack that helps get end users excited and shows the value of library resources please head over to the Library Success Wiki and add it!

‘I Love My Library’ Video Contest Offers $10,000 Prize

I just read about Gale's 'I Love My Library' video contest in the Library Hotline. The contest is open to both librarians and library users. This seems like a good thing to tell library users about. I wish I had seen it earlier (you'd think $10 grand would generate some buzz) but there's still two weeks left to enter.

Here's the scoop:

Post a video that describes what you love about your library and how it serves your community and you could win the $10,000.00 grand prize in Thompson Gale’s ‘I Love My Library” video contest to split with the library you designate.

Load your video on librareo, Thomson Gale's YouTube channel, before midnight on Friday, May 25, 2007 to enter. By June 1, 2007, Thompson Gale judges will determine the top five finalists based on creativity, unique portrayal of love of libraries and the services they provide, and overall appeal. The top five videos will be featured on www.gale.com/librareo for a nationwide vote that will be held June 1-11. The video with the most votes wins the grand prize.

Find the complete contest rules, downloadable video releases and sample videos on Gale’s Web site.

Marketing Your Blog & RSS Feeds

Whether you have a personal blog or a library blog, you'll need to promote it in order to gain readers. Of course if your content isn't current and interesting your readers might not return. Not to worry though, there are plenty of online resources and blogs that can point you in the right direction.

ProBlogger is a "free collection of tips on writing content, search engine optimization, using advertising and affiliate programs etc - to help bloggers explore ways of adding revenue streams to what they do." ProBlogger also contains articles on promoting and marketing your blog. [link via B.L. Ochman].

I would also recommend Robin Good's Best Blog Directory and RSS Submission Sites for even more sources.

RLG Adds Promotional Toolkits

RLG has announced a new series of promotional toolkits designed to assist librarians in reaching out to users. Toolkits are now available on the RLG Web site for Anthropology Plus, RLG Archival Resources, and RLG Cultural Materials. RLG says they'll add promotional toolkits for more databases.

A list of links to other promotional and education tools from database vendors and publishers is available here.

Steven Cohen Gets It

Steven Cohen, author of Library Stuff, gets it. Actually, I've been reading Steven's blog, so I know that Steven gets a lot of stuff: weblogs, RSS, and marketing just to name a few. Yes, he gets the importance of marketing, for both libraries and librarians. His article Grow the Profession: Marketing the Librarian which is posted on LIScareer.com explains the importance of marketing yourself.

Why should you market? As Steven says:

But when we get down to the core of marketing, it's all about survival.

That's not putting it too strongly folks.