One Library Braves the E-Newsletter Front
PrintWhere do libraries use the most paper? The answer: the library newsletter!
I recently caught up with Beth Keller, Marketing Specialist for the Highland Park (Ill.) Public Library, to ask how her library’s transition to a “paperless” e-newsletter was going. Here’s what she had to say:
“Our library used to mail newsletters to 13,000 households four times per year. Most were eight pages. Additional copies were printed for distributing in the Library.
Since going paperless, we have not received any patron comments about the lack of a “paper” newsletter. The cover of our last print newsletter (mailed to patrons in September of 2009) featured a blurb about the fact that this issue was going to be the last print edition of the newsletter. We encouraged patrons to go “No Impact” by signing up for the e-version.
The cover was also dedicatedto the One Book, One Highland Park fall title, which was No Impact Man, a book about an author who tries to make no environmental impact, so it tied in well with the transformation from paper to e-newsletter.
We encourage patrons to sign up for the Library’s e-newsletter, which is distributed to our e-mail database addresses once per month, and I encourage other libraries to do the same. Our circulation staff signs people up (if they express an interest) when applying for a library card and there is a sign-up box prominently featured on the home page of our web site, too.”
For those who do not have home access to the Internet, the Library offers a print copy of each issue at the circulation desk.
In addition, the Library offers a monthly one-page, double-sided, print calendar featuring each month’s events which are available at all the public desks.
For a very special event, such as an exhibit, they send a large double-sided postcard to all households.
“By not producing a quarterly newsletter, there is more flexibility in terms of programming,” Keller noted. “With the print newsletter, programs needed to be planned several months ahead of time. Now, if a great opportunity to host a program comes along a month in advance, we can take advantage of it.”
Eco-friendly. Costs less. Increases staff’s program planning flexibility. I say why not! Bravo Highland Park Public Library!
Has your library gone down this road, or is it at least considering it? Do tell!
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Andy Leach, director of the newly opened Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Library and Archives in Cleveland, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 15.
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Comments
Constant Contact
We send out our newsletter through Constant Contact and they offer great workshops to their subscribers and those interested in using their service. It helps you dream up ways to get more people to subscribe to your newsletter and keep subscribers interested enough to keep reading. Plus, the layouts are great. Only a modest percentage of our patrons are subscribers but we did add every e-mail from our ILS database. However, it is only one way to get the message out. Libraries should still rely on their websites, posters inside the library, social networking websites, and press releases to get major news items out there. I would recommend dumping the paper alternatives. Besides the issue of the environment, you should also be thrilled by the interactivity of web links to your catalog and website.
eNewsletters
We made the switch last fall as part of general belt-tightening that included layoffs for the first time in the history of my library. We, too, invited people to subscribe and thus far have about 600 email addresses out of 35,000 registered borrowers. For the past two weeks, we’ve included a brief message with the weekly account update emails that are sent out automatically to 8,000+ cardholders via our ILS. This is in comparison to the 14,000 households that used to receive our direct-mail newsletter.
I guess we can look at the bright side and be proud of our "green" efforts, but a huge segment of our population is cut off through the institution of the digital format. Many of our seniors don’t have Internet access at home and those who visit the library to use our free computer stations aren’t going to waste their valuable 2 hours a day (yes, we limit daily access) reading the library’s newsletter.
We also print out copies of the quarterly program calendar that used to be part of the print newsletter, but this is still only available to those who visit the library.
I have always contended that our newsletter was the most powerful marketing tool we had. I am resigned to the fact that only press releases to the local weekly paper will reach those who don’t visit the library or access our newsletter online. As anyone who has worked with the media knows, you lose control over the message the minute the press release is issued. We have taken a giant step backward.
enewsletters
Without the paper newsletters arriving in every household we do feel that we have to be creative in getting the word out - both to those that don’t have internet to receive the enewsletter and to those that have not subscribed.
Here are a few ways that have worked for us:
- In addition to the weekly paper, are there other media options to consider?
For certain programs, we send releases to the daily papers (book sections, entertainment, music critc for a concert, even the food section if we are hosting a chef.)
There are regional monthly magazines that may be appropriate as well, if the event is planned far enough ahead of time to meet their deadline and the event warrants the media attention. We have had feature stories in the regional magazines.
Public Service Annoucements to radio stations
Twitter. Even if seniors are using Twitter, perhaps enough word of mouth will be generated by others using it that they will hear about it.
- Can you post flyers throughout town (Starbucks, and restaurants such as Potbellys often have community bulletin boards, as do the grocery stores)?
We notify the middle schools and/or high schools if the event may be of interest to the students. For the high schools, I often email the chairmen of the departments and ask them to pass the information on to the other teachers in the department.
Promising Idea
I like the idea. I think I’d like to know (1) what percentage of Highland Park’s public signed up for the email newsletter and (2) whether attendance of programs fell or rose after the transition to just electronic newsletter (with paper available at the library).
I could see going electronic making a transition from quarterly to bi-monthly newsletter easier. It would reduce the stress of fitting the newsletter into a set number of pages. The caution to issue would be not to get carried away and then make too many pages. It could also be more timely.
Hats off to the effort.
enewsletters
When we debuted the enewsletter, we created a big promotion around it to encourage people to sign up. Right now there are about 2,100 subscribers. We mailed the newsletter to about 13,000 homes in Highland Park, so this is about 16%. Not all of the 2,100 subscribers are Highland Park residents, however.
Even though we mailed more newesletters than 2,100, we never had any hard statistics about how many people were actually opening and reading the newsletters. With the service we use for the enewsletter, we are able to see how many actually open the enewsletter.
Regarding program attendance, we feel it is too soon to judge any impact of the lack of a paper newsletter delivered to all households since we just began this change in December. We know that we have to be creative in how we get the word out, though.