July 30th, 2010 mike
Today has been a very collaborative day at the office here at Evanced. Some days just have a bit more energy than others and today seems to be one of those days here. Thought I’d take some snapshots of what we our day was like today! Keep in mind that some of our team isn’t in the office today - Rob, Kim C., Claudia, Mike - but don’t worry, I’ll get their glamour shots later!
Todd, Doug and Rick are working on a new Summer Reader concept on our gigantic office whiteboard…
May and Neil have been reviewing Events support questions…
Sabrina is working on new Version 7 training documents…
Kim is processing customer orders…
And I’m uploading documents to the web and editing these photos. (May made me laugh mid-photo…I don’t just smile maniacally at my desk all day, really.)
Hope things at your office/library have been productive today too. Have a great weekend.
Christine
Coordinator of Customer Experience
Evanced Solutions
July 28th, 2010 mike
Dear Evanced Community Members -
Many of you have expressed interest in learning more about our new automated materials vending system, BranchAnywhere. We are seeking to expand our financing of this project and need to collect more market input to facilitate that process. The link below is to a VERY short and simple survey to assess the need and viability of these products for libraries like yours.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CVLNLG9
We ARE NOT trying to qualify who to talk to, and we will not be using this survey in our sales process. Right now we are focused on finishing development of the machine and not focusing on selling it. We simply need to collect more empirical data to help us get the funding that we need to build, test, and qualify the best machine possible.
In addition to the survey we are as always open to any and all feedback you have about this or any other products, so feel free to email/call me/us.
Feel free to share/forward this survey with/to anyone you feel might be appropriate.
We appreciate your time, your opinions, and your assistance,
Thank you,
Rob Cullin
CSO / Co-Founder
Evanced Solutions
317-352-2188 x102
rcullin@evancedsolutions.com
support@evancedsolutions.com
sales@evancedsolutions.com
Click here to take survey
July 26th, 2010 mike
A couple of weeks ago I interviewed Linda Stevens (Coordinator of Marketing and Programming), Elaine Plotkin (Adult Specialist and Coordinator of the Adult Summer Reading Program), and Grace Lillevig (eBranch Manager) of the Harris County Public Library (Houston, Texas) to ask them about their adult summer reading program. Harris County uses Summer Reader to manage their reading programs, but in the last year has seen an impressive leap in their summer reading program for adults – an 81% leap in participation. With over 3500 adults participating in this year’s program, I had to ask how they reached such great participation levels.
Here are some of their top recommendations:
Make every interaction a Summer Reading marketing opportunity
Summer Reader allows libraries to use RSS feeds and widgets to incorporate elements of Summer Reader, such as patron book reviews, into library web pages and blogs. Widgets allowed HCPL to incorporate Summer Reader directly into their website, creating a seamless look and feel. Using these technologies correctly allows libraries to develop consistent branding and also allows summer reading content to be integrated across the library website – creating marketing opportunities every time a page is clicked.
Small banner ads were placed throughout the website. The ad in the upper right hand corner of this screenshot is a great example.
HCPL took their marketing efforts one step further and integrated their summer reading theme into pins, buttons, lanyards, and even signage for their book delivery vans. Library staff members at all branches wear magnetic buttons with the summer reading theme and encourage community members to sign up during every day interactions. Promotional signs providing details about summer reading were posted on the sides of book delivery vans, turning drives down the street into marketing opportunities.
Train your staff well and get staff “buy in”
For HCPL, training library staff about Summer Reader during staff meetings and training sessions is key. Educating staff about the prizes patrons might win and encouraging the active participation of staff in promoting the summer reading program helps the program to grow. This training starts early – sometimes in January of the new summer reading year. Part of the training development and staff buy-in process involves bringing together those involved with summer reading which brings us to…
Create a committee that brings your key players together.
A committee made up of Stevens, Plotkin and Lillevig plus representatives from various library branches helped to lead the way for summer reading. Together the group planned themes, discussed prizes, and exchanged other ideas. HCPL encouraged branches that had not had particularly active summer reading programs to join the committee. The hope was to build staff buy-in by bringing branches into the program development process and to get their feedback about the overall program. This approach has worked for HCPL and they attribute much of the growth in their summer reading programs to the work of the committee.
Use Summer Reader to help you manage summer reading and to build your library collection.
Summer Reader allows library patrons the chance to write reviews about materials they are counting towards their summer reading log and also lets them comment on other patrons’ reviews. Because patrons sometimes count reading from materials not found at the library, HCPL has a guideline stating it will only make reviews public if the item reviewed can be found within the library system. For library staff members, this provides a chance for them to see the types of books and media patrons are interested in and helps them make collection development decisions. In June 2010 alone, the library system purchased more than 25 items that patrons reviewed but the library didn’t have. As adult specialist and Adult Summer Reading Coordinator Elaine Plotkin explained, “If it’s a recent title and a patron writes a good review and we don’t own it, then it makes me take a second look and find out more to see if we should get the book.”
No budget? No problem. Start planning now to find resources and make the most of what you have.
The staff at HCPL stressed that they didn’t have a big budget for their summer reading program, but through small grants and help from their Friends of the Library organization, they were able to run ads in local newspapers, purchase the promotional magnetic buttons worn by staff, and purchase the Amazon gift cards they use as prizes.
They know that patrons are far more likely to participate in summer reading when they have an incentive or gift of some sort, but don’t believe that the items must be “big ticket” things to win over patrons. One branch steadily collected freebies they were given at community fairs, conferences and by booksellers. When summer approached, they had enough items collected to give a prize to patrons every time they logged a new item on their summer reading log.
If something doesn’t work, keep moving forward.
The success of the HCPL “Reader Nation” Summer Reading program and their usage of Evanced Solutions’ Summer Reader software came through testing new ideas, planning ahead, and working with their staff and community to get program feedback. As Grace Lillevig, eBranch Manager said, “We build off of our mistakes. If something doesn’t work for us, we learn from it and move on and try something new. We continually learn from our mistakes and move forward.”
We’ll be posting more about Harris County, including a white paper about their usage of Summer Reader, very soon. Stay tuned! If you have additional questions, please contact me or Support at support@evancedsolutions.com
Christine Ayar Illichmann
cillichmann@evancedsolutions.com
