Building Community Partnerships: 25 ideas in 40 minutes

Presenter: Kathy Dempsey, The M Word: Marketing Libraries

1. Join the Chamber of Commerce or Speakers Bureau.

2. Join the Lions Club, Jaycees, etc to meet people/join/benefit from community projects.

3. Partner with grocery stores to hold story times there, put in a book drop or branch.

4. Have events in a nearby shopping mall to attract people who may not come to your location.

5.Find groups with similar values or missions.

6. Identify target markets that could use your help, such as assistants of college deans, secretaries of CEOs, aides of govt officials, city/county commissioners, sports coaches, etc.

7. Work out trade deals with small business owners for in-kind services.

8. Seek out IT experts that might trade their services for yours. These could include owners of computer-repair services, companies that build websites, people who sell things on eBay.

9. Contact college professors to see if they would create student projects that are actual work for you. Marketing classes can create marketing plans and promo materials for you; design classes can create logos for you to choose from.

10. Join with scout troops or other youth organizations to offer them service projects that benefit the library.

11. Form an alliance with video game stores, skateboard shops or arcades. See if the management will help you promote teen reading by giving coupons or game tokens to kids who read X number of books from your library.

12. Work with school gaming clubs to get gaming events ramped up in your library.

13. Trade training with anyone who has skills that your staff needs and vice-versa.

14. Instigate meetings with office assistants and liaisons of government officials to ask what their information needs are, and then to explain that filling those needs is part of your library's mission.

15. Contact organizations like AARP to get access to their members and to deliver services through a group they already know and trust.

16. Work with senior citizens centers to give them meaningful projects that also help the library.

17. Get involved in local politics so the politicians and their staff members can get to know a real-life, modern day librarian. Create opportunities to interact with them and to discuss your daily working situation.

18. Offer your research services to lower-level govt officials. Keep abreast of the work or topics that are coming up and proactively offer your help.

19. Make allies of the whole community. Invite every single person to become a book sponsor! You make a list of hundreds of books you'd like to have and their prices.

20. Help reporters fill the voids when they need news and make sure they know that you can do just-in-time research when they're on deadline.

21. Form casual advisory boards of people from target audiences that you want to build awareness with. They will probably be glad you asked for their opinions, plus you get buy-in with people when they're part of decision-making processes. Teen advisory boards are very common, but what about an Adult advisory board or a board that targets mothers/Latinos/young professionals, etc. Ask them questions about the types of programs they would like to see, when it is best for their schedules to attend programs. Instead of throwing money away on useless programs, bring them in on ideas to create buy-in early.

22. Build your social networks on sites like Facebook. Once you have a fan base, you have a ready-made group of folks to go to when you need voices or votes.

23. Work with parents to help them understand what librarians can do for their kids. Treat them as partners in the processes of learning, reading and researching to win their support.

24. Build alliances now with K-12 teachers to help with your summer reading programs.

25. Form relationships with consultants! Look for local consultants, especially small proprietorships, that specialize in things you could use help with--finances, marketing, advertising, image/branding, space planning, etc. Chances are these people need access to information and help with research when working for other clients.