Hi: If we had the magic bullet, we'd be rich on this one. Imagine the public speaking engagements!
But, I think it is like asking how can we get everyone to lose weight because it has proven to be good for your health (and I am one who can talk about that problem). Adults will do what they want to do. And, we have the struggle of fighting against everything else that we feel frantic about-long work hours, running around with kids and grandkids, doing our Facebook at home, doing our hobbies, zoning out. If Pflugerville/Wells Branch is like Round Rock, 93% of the folks as of 2 years ago had access to a computer, be it at home or work. That is access by other ways to get info. So, for the last item on your list, people who choose not to use the library, it may be a lost cause. Why do they not choose to use it? Did they get angry with us (we made them pay the fee for a lost book), did they hear from someone how mean we are because we made that person pay for the lost book? Do the have enough money to buy their own material? Are they a-literate-they read enough at work and love the tv or computer when they get home, or work out for an hour or two, make dinner, watch a sit com, check their mail, watch the news, and fall asleep? Where is the time? The first two bullets are what we can concentrate on. In the city of Round Rock's biennial survey, the two top sources of information for the randomly sampled phone respondents are Community Impact and friends. So, do we pay for ads in Community Impact? We do, and find we get better free coverage (which is not unique to Community Impact). We probably should more proactively encourage or staff and volunteers to spread the good news about libraries-they have their own friends and family network. For those who are not engaged and have no other networks, I'm not sure. Print media is not as widely read (non-profit event announcements are going to the Statesman's web, and will no longer be in print, for example, or so I heard last night). We put fliers in the PARD's quarterly handout, and are shooting to doing a full page ad in there instead, rather than creating two documents. Maybe do a Meet Up at your library? That is popular for the 30 and 40 somethings. Finally, we need to be visible in the community, not always because we want to get something as much as to be known as a trusted source. My advice, get your most affable person or people out there to network. It'll help. And some of those people you're networking with ARE NOT the ones who usually use the library-Chamber of Commerce, some of the service club members, etc. Looking at our stats, if there are only 30% of our users who are male, and 70% are female, how do we attract that other ½ of the population? Interesting problem that over my 30 years of librarianship has not been resolved. And maybe it is just the nature of people. The other way of looking at it, though, is if everyone DID use us, where would we get the material, the funding, the space? That is an even scarier idea. We already see an uptick in use with the economy and a 10-15% budget cut in materials. Doesn't make sense, but there it is. Dale Dale Ricklefs, Library Director Round Rock Public Library 216 E. Main Street, Round Rock, Texas 78664 512-218-7010; 218-7061 (fax); [email protected] Go to Facebook, and become a fan of Round Rock Public Library Visit our website at: http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/library We're on Twitter at RoundRockPL -------------------------------------------------------------- If you get a "mailbox full" or some form of message identifying delivery problems, please call me at one of the numbers above. Thank you! Does anyone have any great strategies for reaching out to the people who DON'T come to the library? I think they'd fall into three groups. * people who don't know about the library * people who don't understand everything the library offers * people who choose not to use the library I'd love any ideas about reaching out to any of these groups. Thanks! -Donita (Wells Branch)
