@ Your Library

On March 10, Fiona Lange from Lange Hill Marketing gave a presentation at the State Library about the @ your library campaign in South Australia. There were over 100 attendees from various sectors.

The South Australian campaign started in January and will run until the end of the year. The objectives are:

to increase awareness and support for libraries by communicating clearly and strongly why libraries are both unique and valuable; and
to update the image of libraries and library staff for the 21st century, sustaining and strengthening their relevance.

The expected outcomes are: "increased library usage", "stronger commitment to funding, sponsorship and partnerships", "higher profile amongst policy makers", and a "positive recruitment impact."
(http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/2003@yourlibrary/committee.htm)

A major strategy of the campaign is to use themes with their own logo for particular months. These themes include: treasures @ your library, just ask @ your library, doing business @ your library, and Thank You day @ your library. Not all themes will be appropriate to all libraries (holiday fun @ your library doesn't have much relevance to special, TAFE, or university libraries) but the intention is that libraries use the themes that are appropriate to them.

The campaign works at two levels. At the state level, there is advertising in print, television and radio thanks to sponsorship by media organisations such as The Advertiser, Channel 9, and MIX102.3. This is of great value both in publicity and financial terms, for example, the just ask @ your library campaign received 422 minutes of radio time over a month worth approximately $170 000. All the material produced for the campaign has a consistent style and is done to a high standard. At the local level, individual libraries run their own activities but have the benefit of support material such as media releases and 'how to sheets'. There is an obligation on libraries that get involved to do surveys so that the effectiveness of the marketing can be measured.

General information is available at http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/2003@yourlibrary/. More specific information is available to libraries but it is necessary to register first.

@ your library is a media savvy marketing campaign that will raise the profile of libraries. Whether increased awareness results in increased usage and better funding for libraries is an issue that can only be assessed over the long term.

The number of attendees at the presentation suggests a high level of local interest in marketing libraries. There is a steering committee which is working on a state wide marketing campaign for WA. This is separate from the SA campaign, although South Australia's example will undoubtedly be an inspiration and a practical example to follow.

The committee is currently seeking financial contributions from all library sectors to pay for a marketing consultant to run the WA campaign.

Camille Peters

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