Eight winners announced for ALA’s public relations award

16 May 2018 Books+Publishing

The American Library Association (ALA) has announced eight winners of the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award, which recognises marketing and public relations excellence by libraries.

The eight winners and their winning projects are:

Milwaukee Public Library: nominated for its free event series Library Loud Days, which saw a 60% increase in library card registrations, a 20% increase in circulation, a 30% increase in program attendance, and a 67% increase in database usage, as well as nearly doubling its social media engagement.
Rochester Public Library: nominated for its summer reading program, which encouraged more Rochester-area residents to ‘read, explore, create and connect’; involvement in the library’s summer program increased 52% over the previous year.
San José Public Library: nominated for its ‘Two-Step Fine Forgiveness Program’, the library’s first-ever, month-long return amnesty program, which saw more than 12,000 participants return nearly half of all overdue materials within 31 days, with a total of $63,846.91 in late fees waived.
DC Public Library: nominated for its GoDigital campaign, which included an easy-to-use portal where all of the digital services and products were available.
California State University San Marcos Library: nominated for its special collection, Brewchive, which focused on the story of the craft brewing industry and history in San Diego; the library worked with major and local breweries and brewers to create buzz for the historical collection and increased awareness through participating in a local festival; it also supported the development of a certificate program in the business of brewery engineering.
Arlington Heights Memorial Library: nominated for its 2017 One Book, One Village (OBOV) communications campaign, which combined traditional marketing with a heightened emphasis on social media; the campaign used ‘influencer’ marketing to promote the program, and saw 84% more social media engagement and a remarkable 55% growth in book discussion attendance.
Kitsap Regional Library: nominated for its five-year plan to motivate the local community to support libraries by voting on a tax levy to combat decreasing financial resources; Kitsap locals had voted against the levy in 2007 and 2010, but by shifting the culture of the library and brand, and reconnecting to the community and customers, Kitsap Regional Library saw a yes vote in 2016 with 65% support.
InfOhio Digital Library: nominated for its advocacy groups and detailed communications strategy that aimed to educate Ohio legislators and persuade them to reinstate funding for its digital content, which was reduced by US$1.1 million (A$1.5 million) in 2015; the library used weekly updates, messages, legislative visits and phone calls, and successfully saw an increase in funding back to 2015 levels of US$2.5 million (A$3.3 million).

Each winning library receives US$10,000 (A$13,390) from the H W Wilson Foundation. The winners will be celebrated on 24 June at a reception during the ALA’s 2018 annual conference in New Orleans.

For more information on the winning libraries and their projects, click here.

Category: Library news International