Promoting your library

Back in April, I wrote a blog post called "Librarian as Change Agent" that lists several things you can do as a librarian to be the positive change in your library, your school, & your community regarding how the library is viewed.

One of the points listed is promoting yourself and your library. I believe this is something many of us struggle with---even those of us who are typically extroverts---because we don't want to be seen as braggarts.

We MUST overcome the idea that to self-promote is a negative thing.  FOLKS...we have an excellent "product" (and if you don't feel you do---fix it to make it so!) and we must shout it from the rooftops. We can sing the praises of the library to each other and bemoan the fact that the word is not getting out OR we can take an active role in getting that word out.

Libraries have grown, shifted, and evolved through the years.  We are not our grandma's libraries; we are not even our mama's libraries.  Our stakeholders will not have any idea what we can offer them if they are not informed. Yes, we are still curators of information and keepers of knowledge, but that looks very different today in some ways than it did even 15 years ago.  We are bastions of literacy of all types.  We are techie-wonderlands and hands-on learning environments and inclusive safe havens for everyone.  We have both serenity and FUN depending upon our activities at the time.

(listen to Ms. Whitney now to get a peek inside my head on this topic!)


Libraries ARE so much to so many.
It is downright amazing if you really stop to think about it.
AND...our services are FREE to our incredible stakeholders.
Now, why on earth should we not be incredibly PROUD to promote that?

In my never-ending quest to improve myself and my endeavors, I have come across a pretty amazing woman named Marie Forleo.  She is a multi-passionate life coach whose work is aimed primarily at entrepreneurs.  I have found, however, that her work also applies beautifully to libraries and librarians. If you think about it, we are a "small businesses" trying to improve and increase our client communication so that word of our incredible services and products can reach the largest audience possible.  We are trying to connect with those we can serve. 

I subscribe to her newsletter and watch her videos, and I must say I've gleaned much from her work. She is also FUN and a bit quirky, and I like that very much. I have embedded her self-promotion video in this post, and I hope you'll watch it and feel that shift happen in your mind and in your heart about self-promotion of our libraries.

What do YOU do to promote your library amongst your various stakeholders?
I'd love to hear from you!