Spectrum PR Column
June 2000
Far-Reaching Benefits
of PR:Rewards Worth Waiting For
by Sue Burch
AALL Spectrum, Volume 4 No. 9 June 2000.
A well planned and executed public relations campaign has many documented benefits. It increases awareness of the library; raises its profile; inveigles the interest of prospective and established customers; expands the network of the library; emphasizes its value and prestige; and attracts new funding. What isn't documented or even expected are the surprising and often far-reaching benefits for the library and staff that are reaped long after the activity is over.
Every library needs a public relations program. In larger libraries, PR and marketing cannot be successful if only one or two people work on this important task. In any size library, effective marketing requires the entire staff's willingness, resourcefulness, and commitment to promote the library. PR encounters are opportunities waiting to happen, and everyone in the library must be interested and prepared to accept those opportunities. Effective marketing can help your library prosper, often financially, but also by reputation and stature. A marketing mindset must infuse the library staff with the knowledge that the benefits and your customers' positive responses to a successful marketing campaign may take some time in coming, but the rewards are worth the wait.
This is illustrated dramatically by an experience we had at the University of Kentucky Law Library. Five years ago, Director Herb Cihak created a Diversity Committee, which was part of a larger project to rejuvenate the library's mission, public relations strategy, and committee structure. Charged with planning programs during Race Unity Week, as well as other events throughout the year, the committee found creative ways to promote tolerance and diversity. The law school participates, helps plan, and encourages our promotion of these programs, which have been successful teaching and learning enterprises for the law school community.
Four years later in 1999, the University announced a year-long commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its desegregation. Each College was invited to participate in some way. The Dean of our law school, by this time fully aware of the library's interest in and commitment to diversity, asked us to help out. Two of us decided to mount an elaborate exhibit that included court documents, 1949 newspaper clippings, the University President's correspondence, letters from the community both supporting and denigrating the desegregation of the University, biographical information on the attorneys involved, and in-depth information on Lyman T. Johnson, the plaintiff in the case. We also prepared an extensive bibliography on civil rights and desegregation. The law school hosted the University's kick-off event, and hundreds of people visited the school and the library, where they saw the exhibit.
The immediate and enthusiastic response from our University colleagues to the opening event and the exhibit had an energizing and positive impact on all our staff. We wanted to do more, and other librarians and members of the staff became involved. We added a link to our home page and created the "50 Years of the UK African American Legacy" Web site. Information was provided on UK's desegregation case. We also included the text of Kentucky's former laws barring interracial education, information on the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, and the text of laws and decisions relating to the integration of UK. We also added biographical sketches of the lawyers and the judge involved, but particularly emphasized the experiences of plaintiff Johnson.
The response this time came from farther away. Shortly after our 50th anniversary Web site was put up, Johnson's son, who now lives in Philadelphia, began an e-mail correspondence with our Web master complimenting the site and offering additional information about his father that he thought we should have for our Web site.
We continued to experience the positive benefits from our involvement in the University's commemoration event. One of our librarians served on the state's Task Force on Race and Gender Bias in the Courts. She felt it was important to let this group know about the exhibit, Web site, and the bibliographies. The Chair of the Task Force, impressed with the information, sent letters to us commending our efforts in race relations.
The law library had became an integral component of this commemoration event, and the response to our involvement continued to grow. We were eventually contacted by UK's Vice President for Minority Affairs, who had also seen our exhibit. She asked if we would take the exhibit to the closing event of this year-long commemoration, a black-tie banquet. She wanted the dignitaries invited to the reception and dinner to see first-hand the documents and materials that reflected the unrest and disquiet of the times. A team of two librarians and two technicians created a three-panel display from the larger exhibit in the library and set it up at the reception. They, too, were invited to the banquet. The following week the Vice President then asked if her office could have copies of the materials for its archives.
The entire staff was amazed and delighted that our director's revitalized PR plan, which revamped our committee structure, ultimately served as the lightning rod that resulted in so many positives for our library: a meaningful initiative that touched almost everyone on the staff; tremendous exposure in the University and legal communities; collaboration with new constituencies on campus; a dynamic synergy in the library; and unleashed creativity and innovation by the staff.
Public relations doesn't just happen. It requires planning, preparation and presentation.
It can and should be a multifaceted daily enterprise filled with spontaneous, chance PR encounters, as well as specifically designed activities. Successful PR requires positioning your library and staff to be open to opportunities that highlight events and people important to your institution; to network outside the library arena; to deliver a clear message of commitment and service to your library customers; and to adopt a new attitude, an attitude that understands an effective public relations plan will encourage future endeavors that can enrich your library, and most important, your customers' experiences. The benefits and rewards may not always be immediate, but when they do come, their value is immeasurable.
Sue Burch (sburch@pop.uky.edu)
is Assistant Director/Public Services Coordinator at the University of Kentucky
Law Library in Lexington, Kentucky.
Last Updated: January 28, 2003
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