Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book to review directly from the publisher, ALA Editions.
This small book, just over one hundred pages, covers a variety of public relations and marketing concepts that apply to public libraries. The fourteen chapters can be divided into two categories; practical ideas and high level strategies. I will review these two broad themes and then offer some general observations. While I found the book useful, I would say that it is would not be appropriate as an introduction. If you are looking for a more systematic introduction to library marketing and PR, I would refer you to The Accidental Library Marketer by Kathy Dempsey (here is my review of it). That said, the ideas presented here are quite creative and would make for good discussion.
Several chapters of the book offer high level strategies that instruct the reader on how to understand audiences and connect with their needs. The two articles informed by the Metropolitan Group – “Building a Community: Empowering People as Messengers” and “Building Public Will for Libraries” – articulate the big picture of marketing public libraries particularly well. These articles walk you through the steps of connecting what libraries to values that people already have. The authors point out: “Public will building acknowledges that trying to change or teach new values is extremely difficult and often threatening.” (25) The chapter on messengers describes how to recruit others who value the library to articulate that to decision makers. Acting with allies is particularly important in circumstances where ethics codes and restraints on public servants bar them from getting involved in politics or campaigning. For libraries that serve ethnically diverse populations, the opening chapter “Increasing Relevance, Relationships, and Results: Principles and Practices for Effective Multicultural Communication,” will be invaluable. The greatest strength of that chapter is that each point is reinforced by both a library and non-library case study to show the reader how it was all done.
Specific PR tactics are the concern of more than half the chapters in the book. There are two chapters on social media: Stephen Abram reviews a number of tools (e.g. Flickr, Facebook, Second Life, Twitter, and Ning) while Steve Zalusky looks at podcasts. The podcast chapter could have been stronger in my view: the focus was more on the technology than the marketing benefits of using it. Maybe I simply didn’t find this as appealing as other chapters since I have produced a podcast myself and regularly listen to quite a few – if you have no idea what podcasts are, then it would be worthwhile as an introduction. Beyond technology, there is also a stimulating chapter on using food and cooking, celebrity endorsements and working with the news media.
If I had to identify a weakness with the book, it would be the difficulty of pulling all these ideas into a coherent strategy. One way around that problem would be to simply pick and choose ideas and tactics and experiment. One claim in the book troubled me however: “Values trump data when it comes to decision making. People make decisions consciously and unconsciously based on their values, and then utilize data to rationalize and support their choice.” (24) If true, then this view should serve as a balance against relying too heavily on data. The book also makes references to the various PR tools offered by ALA which can be used to support public libraries better communicate their value. I can recommend this book to those based in public libraries, especially in diverse, technologically literate populations. Librarians working in other contexts will likely struggle to apply these ideas to their practice but it is possible.
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