Effective library promotion: empowering patrons to discover and create

Abstract

The message chosen to promote the library will inevitably influence the tools selected for marketing and outreach. The tools presented here were chosen to represent a broad spectrum of library types, and would be easily adaptable to a more focused mission. This overall approach would be most useful to public, school, and academic libraries rather than special libraries and archives. The central message of this outreach strategy is that a library is a place for discovery and creation -- a place where creative and intellectual works can be produced, shared, and consumed. As a community center with two-way outreach, the library itself can become something that is being created and discovered.