Spectrum PR Column
February 1997
Public Relations Post & Exchange
Janice Shull, Law Library of Louisiana (New Orleans, LA).
AALL Spectrum, Volume 1 No. 5 February 1997, p. 27.
Let's test your Indianapolis exhibit hall savvy: What "goodies" were supplied by Jenny Wu? What color was the Alabama Supreme Court and State Law Library tablecloth? What library was featured in the "Year in the Life of . . . " display? And the clincher: What distinguished librarian could be found in life-size, two dimensional cardboard? If you toured the Public Relations Post & Exchange, you probably know the answers. To satisfy the curiosity of those who missed it, here are the answers: sugar cookies and rubber stamps, royal blue, University of Denver Law School Library, and Edgar Bellefontaine.
Those who found the Post & Exchange, tucked in the back of the Exhibit Hall behind the West umbrellas, commented favorably on the new format, providing access to our members' public relations exhibit hall hours. Many visitors spent considerable time looking at the displays, talking to the exhibitors, and then leaving with stacks of handouts. For those of you who were at the Indianapolis meeting, we hope that the array of public relations activities gave your own ideas a boost.
The AALL Public Relations Committee will sponsor the Fifth Annual Post and Exchange (a.k.a. Poster Session) in Baltimore, and as always, we seek interesting examples of public relations activities. The only qualifications are that the item(s) should promote our profession, institutions, or members' activities to the legal community, other libraries, our members and employees, and the general public. This includes increasing awareness and understanding of the profession of law librarianship. Ways to fulfill this goal are virtually limitless, but here are a few ideas: brochures or Web sites that explain the library's mission or services, bookmarks that quickly identify the library, research guides that demonstrate the librarian's skills, packets of assembled information to assist the unfamiliar user, formal and information presentations of topical information available in the library. Some libraries develop complete campaigns for a specific purpose: fundraising, introducing a new service, or reaching a new group of users. Other libraries carry on a continuous effort and build on an existing marketing program.
To display your own public relations items at the Post & Exchange or to recommend another library's marketing products, please call, write or e-mail one of the coordinators.
Janice Shull
Law Library of Louisiana
301 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70112
jshull@lasc.org
Rebecca Trammell
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Schmid Law Library
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
402/472-3547
rebeccat@unllib.unl.edu
Column Editor: Carol Bredemeyer, Salmon P. Chase College of Law at the Northern University Kentucky University.
Last Updated: January 20, 2003
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