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My staff and I love doing programming around geeky fandoms and pop culture. Whatever our kids and teens are talking about, we love to program around it. We have so much fun with our fandom programs and they are always well attended. But it makes me wonder what we can do to make sure all library programs have the same draw.

When we put a character name or popular brand to something, people come. Pete the Cat costume character event? 600 people. Star Wars Reads Day? 200 people. Harry Potter Trivia Event? 75 people. Doc McStuffins Stuffie Clinic? 120 people. Halloween Storytime and Trick-or-Treat Parade in the Library-366 people. My average program attendance this summer? 31.

Yes, 31 is still a great number and attendance. Yes these big name programs are fun and bring people into the library. But looking at what we plan for these programs compared to what we plan for programs that aren’t based on a specific character or brand, (art programs, science programs, dance parties, building programs) our set up, program plan and implementation is very similar. The only thing that’s really different is that the activities and crafts have a specific character instead of something general. Just having a superhero program isn’t enough, yet an Big Hero 6 program was huge. Storytime is well attended, but make it about Pete the Cat or Elephant and Piggie and I have huge crowds.

I know that these programs are all very creative and fun. And my regular library patrons always say how much they love library programs and how creative our staff is-no matter the theme. But how do we market library programs in general to the public without having to attach a popular character, theme or brand on top of it? How can we get people excitied about library programs without needing to attach a name to it? How can we get people to come to a Community Helpers program instead of a Paw Patrol program? Or a space program instead of a Star Wars Day? Why isn’t the library name enough?

I believe there is absolutely a place in the library for fandoms and pop culture and I love programming for it. But I would love to figure out how to advertise the all library programs to everyone in our community. I want to let people know that we have these fun pop culture based programs for the entire family. And while they are at the library, I want to promote all the other amazing resources the library has to offer. I want them to think about library programs and think they are all awesome and fun, not just the ones that are about a character or theme they know.

I don’t have all the answers and I’m still trying to figure out how best to program for our patrons. I’ve found a few things I’ve that help though:

-Don’t just have the program isolated to one room. Scavenger hunts are our best friend! They are easy to put together, kids love them, and they sneakily teach people about the library. Hide scavenger hunt items in all departments of the library and get people to explore all that you have to offer.

-Announce events at other programs. Advertise to everyone and spread the word. Having a storytime? Promote an upcoming program. I’ve found the best attendance I get at a Saturday program is when I announce in every storytime the week leading up to it. Also word of mouth is the best marketing tool you will ever have.

-Promote all the library offers. We noticed that at our annual Halloween Storytime and Trick-Or-Treat Parade we had lots of families attending that we didn’t see regularly attending storytimes. So we take advantage of this an along with stickers, candy, and finger puppets, kids also get our Storytime Brochure with all of our storytimes listed and fliers advertising upcoming library programs in their goodie bags.

I’d love to know other ideas on how to get people excited about all library programs.  How do we get people talking about all library programs and not just ones based on a brand or name? How do we make the library an exciting brand all of it’s own?

The post Branding the Library appeared first on ALSC Blog.

One great initiative that the Public Awareness Committee works to promote is El día de los niños/ El día de los libros (Children’s Day/ Book Day), which was founded in 1996 by Latino children’s author Pat Mora. Día is a special way for libraries to emphasize the importance of advocating literacy to children of all backgrounds while also encouraging families and children to connect with multicultural books, cultures and languages. Exposure to diversity on a regular basis is very important for children and the public library is poised as the perfect space to provide diverse encounters. You can read more about why nurturing cultural diversity in your library is important by reading Jamie Campbell Naidoo’s wonderful ALSC white paper The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children.

At the recent ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Naidoo and Debby Gold of the Cuyahoga County Public Library presented a poster session titled “How Do You Día?”on behalf of the Public Awareness Committee. They invited all who visited the poster session to submit and share their own Día success stories into their iDía jar.

Seven awesome iDías were submitted and here they are!

* A public library donates a book for every child to celebrate Día and partners with other organizations to donate goods for diverse programming.

* At the Salt Lake County Public Library four people demonstrated science experiments in four difference languages to introduce diversity into the community.

* Dallas Public Library offers bilingual Día storytimes and crafts.

* A library shares Spanish language uses for materials and provides multicultural book talks.

* Each New Orleans Public Library branch hosts a yearly program geared towards Día  programming. Themes may focus on different countries and their cultures, such as Africa, China, India and Italy. Local authors are also brought in.

* A library in Commerce, CA invited author Antonio Sacre to read during a storytime program.

* A library holds multicultural craft events, including creating Native American dream catchers, basket weaving and Egyptian vases. They also invited an Indian dance troupe to perform.

What stellar iDías! I especially love the iDía to hold a science program in various languages. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the poster session and shared their success stories! Do you have an iDía that you would like to share? Tell us! Better yet, show us! Share photos from your diverse library program by posting on the Día Facebook page.

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Nicole Lee Martin is a Children’s Librarian at the Grafton-Midview Public Library in Grafton, OH and is writing this post for the Public Awareness Committee. You can reach her at [email protected].

From everywhere and from different backgrounds and knowledge, we all came together to create this site and I thank you so much!  Click on the image to get there and enjoy....

Okay, so I took the summer off from everything except a few tweets here and there. This summer was just a time-out for me so get re-focused and enjoy bliss. Don't get me wrong, I love the library, librarianship, librarians...but I wanted to enjoy other things. I painted, swam, became a master at Tiny Wings, and cooked some savory and unsavory dishes. I vacationed, I slept, and I spent time planting trees and trying to keep them alive in this hellish heat.

But now, I'm back at work and there's something to be said about going back to work and getting back that professional focus. I want to be ON FIRE this year!! So, what do I have planned? Oh, so many things! First of all, this is the year I program! I've been saving emails, listening to what others have done, and will try to replicate these in the library. Here are a few ideas (not all my own ideas, so thanks virtual friends out there!)  We'll meet once a six weeks or monthly, depending on how good my group is :)

Blind Date a Book - wrap a book in brown paper wrapping and have them be checked out by my (hopefully) book club to read and swap.

Poetry Slam - So many ideas!  I'm following a thread right now about Blackout Poetry and Susan Smith has a wonderful idea dealing with words and pages.  I'm also going to try my hand at spine poetry as well

Book Club - I've heard many people talk about how hard it is to get a high school group going, but I'm still going to try.  I'll do it during lunches where there will be incentive (think food) as well as online through bookclubit

Book Bake-Off - I saw this last semester and loved the idea!  Read a book, bake something that's thematic or relevant to the book and display (tasting later!!)

Book Art - Who doesn't like a great craft now and then?  Who doesn't have weeded books they're getting rid of?  In comes book art for the book club.  It'll be all about cutting, shredding, pasting, and redesigning for library displays!

Book Techie - Let's get these kids involved!  I'll be setting up GoodReads and Shelfari with the students as well as getting each one to read an e-book from the collection.  I'll also try my hand at book trailers (of course!!)

I Dont Wanna Read Non-Fiction! - Get the club to choose and read non-fiction and create a web-based project about the book to be displayed on the library webpage

Booktalking by Genre - pick a favorite genre, read a book, booktalk it!

And so that's what I want to do this year besides the co-teaching with teachers, doing booktalks, helping with technology and databases and being involved on the state level.  You know, it may sound like a lot, but for high school librarians, it's something we can all handle and do, especially with capable help. 
Wish me luck in this endeavor!!!!!