1. Establishing the Library
in the Cultural Fabric of
the Community:
10 Tips for Linking
the Library to the World
Barry K. Miller
Director of Communications and External
Relations, University Libraries, UNCG

2. Upcoming Publication
• Marketing Your Library: Tips and
Tools, being published by McFarland
Press, includes a chapter covering the
meat of this presentation

3. 1. Connect to
campus/community
priorities and initiatives.

4. Be aware of what is important
to your
campus/community, and align
the library with those issues
whenever you can.

5. If the university is focused on
sustainability, make sure your
library is engaged and part of
that effort.

7. If the university needs to make sure
that students feel it is a warm and
inviting place to go to school, make
sure the library reflects that goal.

8. Attractive and
comfortable space for
individual study

9. Attractive and functional space for group study

10. A place to relax and unwind (Game nights, free refreshments
during exams)

11. If the university needs to create
better public awareness of the
research activity done there,
honor those researchers and
promote that research beyond
the campus itself.

13. Reception
for faculty
book
authors

14. If the university values
diversity, participate fully in the
embrace of that value, lead
where you can, and make sure
that your efforts are known.
University
Libraries
Diversity
Residents Jason
Alston and
LaTesha Velez

15. ACE Scholars Program

16. If the campus celebrates its
cultural or other offerings,
celebrate how the library
promotes those offerings, and
offer programming of your own
to enhance the experience even
more.

17. George McGovern at UNCG’s Jackson Library during exhibit
on Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation

23. Shakespeare’s
birthday
celebrations

24. We want to be a jewel in the
university’s crown

25. 2. Offer a variety of
programming to a variety
of audiences.

26. The library is one of the few places that
can be almost all things to all people. It
promotes learning and scholarship in
pretty much any field of inquiry.

27. Millionth volume celebration
involved multiple events for
multiple audiences

28. Millionth Volume Programs
1. Staged reading of JB, by Archibald MacLeish
2. Family workshop about printing
3. Presentations by English and Religious
Studies faculty from UNCG about Blake
4. Paideia seminar
5. Presentation by outside scholar about Blake
digital archive

29. 3. Partner strategically
and broadly.

30. Choose partners who can help
you, and whom you can help, to
produce superior products that
you couldn’t build alone.

32. Race and Slavery Petitions Project: a
major resource for African American
genealogy and study

34. Exhibit of the photographs of
North Carolina writers by Jan
Hensley

35. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUBJECT: Educational Program: The
Polish Experience in World War II
WHEN: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at
First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, NC at 7
p.m. and Wednesday, September 12 at University
of North Carolina at Greensboro at 7 p.m.

36. 4. Be open, and listen to
your constituencies.

38. Mahogany desk
Novelist John Le Carre
CEO Lou Gerstner

39. As former American
Express, RJR, and IBM CEO Lou
Gerstner used to tell his
managers, quoting novelist
John le Carré:
“a desk is a dangerous place
from which to view the world.”

40. Friends of the UNCG Libraries
Book Discussions
2002-2003 Theme: American Journeys
Towns Without Rivers by Michael Parker. Led by the author.
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the
Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose
Discussion led by Friends of the UNCG Libraries Board of Directors
members Ann Russ and Beth Sheffield and Associate Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Robert Gatten, who is a nationally
recognized expert on Lewis and Clark, a founding director of the
National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Council and Past President of
the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation (November 18, 2002)

41. Friends of the UNCG Libraries
Book Discussions
2010 - 2011
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.
Discussion led by Bill Hamilton, Liberal Studies (October 4, 2010)
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. Discussion led by Gwen
Hunnicutt, Sociology Department (November 1, 2010)
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. Discussion led by Hephzibah
Roskelly, English Department (December 6, 2010)
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Discussion led by Janne
Cannon, Microbiology and Immunology (UNC Chapel Hill) and Rob
Cannon, Biology (January 24, 2011)
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. Discussion led by Christopher
Hodgkins, English Department ( February 28, 2011)
Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz. Discussion led by Jeff Jones, History
Department (March 28, 2011)

42. Women Veterans Historical
Project

47. 5. Think creatively.

48. Don’t say, “We’ve never done
that,” but instead ask, “Why
couldn’t we do that?”

51. Children’s Book Author and
Storyteller Series: A
Convergence of Opportunities

52. 1. UNCG has an outstanding School of
Education
2. UNCG has many first generation college
students
3. I served on the Board of the BOOKMARKS
Book Festival
4. I have a personal interest in promoting
storytelling

55. 6. Do things others can’t Do
as well.

56. Most universities have great
scholars and teachers. That doesn’t
necessarily mean that they want to
plan or are good at planning things
like public programs and
communicating about them to
interested constituencies.

57. Friends of the UNCG
Libraries
Founded 1959
Dinner held annually ever since

58. Chancellor
Gordon
Blackwell
Mrs. Martha
Blakeney
Hodges (Mrs.
Luther
Hodges), First
President of
Friends of the
Library
Mr. Gerald
Johnson, Spea
ker, 1959 (1st
dinner)

59. Gerald W. Johnson
1959
Speaker at the
First
Friends of the
Library Dinner
April 15, 1959
Photo: Baltimore
Herald Sun

60. John Crowe
Ransom
1965

61. Charles
Kuralt, 1976

62. George F.
Will
1982

63. Tom Wicker
1985

64. Julian
Bond
1993

65. John Hope
Franklin
1997

66. Fred
Chappell
1999

67. Doug
Marlette
2002

68. Roy
Blount, Jr.
2004

69. Clyde Edgerton
and the Rank Strangers Band
2005

70. Leonard
Pitts
2006

71. Jill
McCorkle
2007

75. Use your stars

76. Friends Chair John May wrote a book
in Jackson Library.
We celebrated it.

77. Faculty member Tom Kirby-Smith
wrote a book that we celebrated. Ten
years later he became Friends Chair.

78. 7. Spend at least as much
time communicating about
programs and finding
audiences as you do in
conceiving a program in
the first place.

80. To contrast with a phrase from one
of my favorite films, Field of
Dreams: if you build it, they won’t
necessarily come. You have to find
the fans and tell them about the
game. Only then, if your product is
consistently good, will they come
and come again.

81. Building an audience
Make personal contact
Reach out to groups
Reach out to individuals, esp. opinion leaders
Use checklists

83. 8. Communicate
continuously and in
diverse ways.

84. With or without money, there is
no single way to get the word
out. It has to be done clearly
and usually concisely, but the
medium for communication can
be anything from word-of-
mouth to printed matter to
multimedia.

91. Consistent
appearance, use of
logo, and university
colors

92. Word of
Mouth
Marketing
Works

94. Understand what is
newsworthy and what isn’t.
Always ask, “Who is going to
care about this?”

95. 9. Understand your brand
and protect it.

96. Ask yourself: “If we do
this, how does it affect how
people perceive the library?
Does it enhance both the library
and the
university/community?”

97. 10. If you do it,
do it well.

98. Offer high quality experiences
that communicate that the
library provides a superior
product for its patrons, whether
they seek resources and services
or attend programs.

99. TARP
(Technical Assistance Research Program)
Study

100. 90 percent of dissatisfied customers will not buy
a company's product or service again.
While 95 percent of dissatisfied customers never tell the
each will tell an
company directly,
average of 9 people about what they
found wrong.
Thirteen percent of those customers
will share their frustration to 20
or more people.
1980 Tarp Study

101. On the web, word of mouse
goes even faster. Four times as
many people hear about a bad
experience as about a good one.
Source: Goodman, John A. Strategic Customer Service. NY: Amacom, 2009.

102. A recent TARP study shows
that 40 percent of consumers
who were told of a positive
experience about a product by
another consumer tried it.
Source: Goodman, John A. Strategic Customer Service. NY: Amacom, 2009.

103. 11. Delight the consumer by
providing a little lagniappe, a
little something better than
they expected
Source: http://www.marketinglagniappe.com

104. Who in this audience has ever
stayed at a hotel that “gave
away” free cookies?
Can you name it?

105. Source: http://www.marketinglagniappe.com

106. Barry K. Miller
Director of Communications and External
Relations, University Libraries, UNCG
barry_miller@uncg.edu
336-256-0112