Description

What is the most important thing for running a small public library? Not finances because no matter how much money you have, if you don't have people using your library it just doesn't matter. Not the collection because you can have the most wonderful, organized, and easy to use collection in the world, but without people using it you're wasting money, time, and effort. A public library, especially a small public library, is for the people. You are a service organization first and foremost and if people aren't using the library, it's a failure no matter how nice it looks, how well equipped it is, or how well run it is. I know that if you advertise, if you market yourself well, you get swamped with people and you don't have the staff to keep up. As an organization which doesn't charge for each service you provide, when you get more people in you get more work without any extra money to do it. However, with the community being actively involved and using the library, the money will come and your library will be better positioned to help more people now and in the future. The biggest thing is trying to get the word out in as many ways as possible, as often as you can, to let people know what the library has to offer. There is something at a small public library for even the most well off or the most ignorant, so spread the word and let them all know. You don't have to be an electrifying speaker, a whiz at sleight of hand, or the greatest showman on earth to market your library to the people it serves, you only need to inform as many people as possible in as many ways as possible about what the library is doing. Every conceivable avenue is available so where do you start and how do you build up contacts and visibility?