Vote YES in support of the Library

Manchester Community Library is using Vimeo to encourage voters to Vote Yes on town meeting day, to support the public library. Take a look at their Channel to see what they’ve created.

The videos are displayed on the MCL website, in newsletters, and of course at the MCL channel on Vimeo. The campaign includes stickers and a strong message, Vote Yes on March 1. Not voting is the same as voting no, a citizen tells us– and that means cuts in hours and services.

The messaging in “I’m cheap” is particularly appealing– a senior citizen who lives on a fixed income supports the library because he likes to save money. While walking and driving around Manchester, our hero talks about the library and how he saves by attending lectures, borrowing magazines and books, and taking his grandchildren in. He  calculates what the Library cost him in taxes– $47, or less than a dollar a week.

The scripts for these videos are carefully written to appeal to many audiences, parents, seniors, small business owners. The images are appealing– happy faces, the clean new library, the cafe where people have their heads together. Each video is well-edited and short, with “I’m Cheap” under two minutes.

Why Vote Yes is a page on the MCL website that gives the numbers– what the Library costs and how it’s been used this year. The total amount from town taxes is increasing; the share of the total library budget is dropping because of other sources of support. The usage statistics are easy to understand: people using computers. Nice job!

–More than 1,300 brand new members joined the new library.
–Over 50 community groups held meetings at MCL.
–Over 800 preschoolers and their parent/caregivers attended story times.
–People logged on to the public computers nearly 6,000 times in the first year of operation.
–More than 300 members took advantage of free 1-on-1 tech tutorials, eager to take advantage of enhanced their understanding of technology.

Celebrate local authors!

Rutland Free Library is hosting a local author book signing on a Saturday afternoon. Director Abby Noland says Facebook and the local newspaper brought authors to her door– easy program and built in audience if every author brings her fanbase.

How DO we promote local authors, who may be poets, memoir writers, short story penners, sometimes unknown beyond the family? Here’s Rutland’s charming brochure, with a photo or illustration for each author and a thumbnail of their work. Bravo!

Rutland Free Lib authors program 2015

Lovin’ the Library in Middlebury

The Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury has dreamed up a Valentine for the community. The Digital Media Lab, a collaboration between the Library and Middlebury Community Television, is holding an open house Tuesday evening, February 10, for patrons and guests to visit the Lab and film brief video Valentines.

According to a story in the Addison Independent, the Lab is designed to support the creating of digital media and the digitization of audio, video and photographic sources. The Digital Media Lab has equipment for video conferences, Skype calls, podcasting and video editing. Patrons can sign up for access to the room and get specific training for their project needs. Imagine taking old photographs or a home movie in and being able to walk out with a digital record. Awesome!

Mug Shots and Wooden Nickels

Norwich Library is using a prison theme to draw attention to the ideas behind Banned Books Week September 21 – 27, 2014. Proud library users can have a mug shot taken that includes their favorite banned book.
Norwich is also putting up two jars for voting with wooden nickels. Library staff are asking patrons if they’d go to jail rather than see books pulled off the shelves.

“We’ll display a list of 20 most banned books and 2 clear jars. One jar is marked “I’d go to jail to protect these books”, the other “I’d rather not!”. People will be able to put a wooden nickel in whatever jar they want. Should be interesting!”

Sounds like fun– and two tactile ways to engage users.

Post a Selfie @ Brooks

Selfie of librarian at Brooks Memorial Library

Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro came up with a new wrinkle for National Library Week 2014! Here, from the e-newsletter:

Celebrate National Library week (April 13-19) and show the world how lives change at libraries by posting a Brooks Memorial Library selfie on your social media sites-or ours. Here’s how it works:

Take a selfie, alone or with friends, in a favorite spot at Brooks Memorial Library. We recommend filling out a National Library Week thought bubble to include in the picture.

Suggested places to post include Twitter and Facebook. Not sure what a selfie is or how to take one? Brooks staff have iPads in the library and will help.

Selfie librarian with DDC book open at Brooks Memorial Library

Valentine’s Day, re-visited

Baxter Memorial Library does a slight re-work of Blind Date with a Book… thanks to a local donor who offered a real date for the adult raffle prize. Love the local business tie-in and the zippy tone of “rate your date.”

Dear patrons,

No, we haven’t started a new dating service at the library (yet). But we would like to “fix you up” with a book.
Starting Tuesday Jan. 28th, we will have books wrapped up, so you won’t know the identity of your blind date until you get home. We will have a quick personal ad to help you choose your perfect date. You will be able to rate your date and let the community know.
Everyone who comes in and gets a blind-date book will be entered to a raffle to win a real date at the Worthy Burger (in the form of a $30 gift card). One entry per person.
For teenagers, we will have a separate drawing to win a sample of Equal Exchange chocolate bars.
We will have the raffle drawings on Thursday, Feb. 13th at 5pm.

See you soon in the library,

Nicole

For the actual personal ads at Baxter Memorial take a look:
Blind date _ Adult

Banned Books Week– are you ready?

Pierson Library in Shelburne found a cool way to combine crime tape and book jackets, their plan to celebrate September 22 -28, 2013.

Use the search box and Banned Books Week to find posts from earlier Vermont ideas. Resources, news and ideas from all the Banned Books partners at Banned Books Week.

National Library Week raffle

Tenney Memorial, up in Newbury: tell us why you love the Library by visiting or emailing, and automatically you’re entered in a raffle for a $25 gift certificate at the Woodsville Bookstore. Each written response counts as an entry.

A Mile of Pennies in Morrisville

The Friends of Morristown Centennial Library are working on A Mile of Pennies, a fundraiser first tried years ago by the Friends.

Patrons may have noticed red cans with Morristown Library Labels on them in local businesses. Look for the cans, and drop in your loose change so we can make a mile of pennies. The donations will go toward the library’s programs and services, especially the youth and children’s programs and activities.

(quoted from Morrisville’s Front Porch Forum)

Windham County Reads used the same idea as an old-fashioned bookmobile fundraiser. They targeted children in the elementary schools in the county. There’s something very charming about penny collections.

Cheap Storage and Good Will

The Roger Clark Memorial Library in Pittsfield used small town Vermont solutions for a big problem: where to store books and furniture while the old school building was rehabbed. Take a look at the library website for more details.