Librarians and the Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act is coming down the pipe, and the public library will play in important role in assisting people to understand and explore their options.

As part of the Affordable Health Care Act, U.S. citizens and legal residents will be required to have qualifying health coverage by January 1, 2014.  In preparation for this, a health care exchange (a place where consumers can purchase subsidized health insurance coverage) will be available on October 1, 2013.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced a partnership to help libraries get ready to respond to patron requests for assistance in understanding and navigating new health insurance options in the Health Insurance Marketplace.

You can view the archived webinar from August 21st presenting an overview of the ACA and how it relates to Wisconsin Public Libraries by CDT, Stephen Johnson from the Ebling Health Sciences Library at the University of Wisconsin, along with Terrie Howe and Tessa Michaelson Schmidt from the Public Library Development Team at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.  The link to the recorded webinar: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2013-08-21.0742.M.105C64666809901538318B594784D3.vcr&sid=2012293 or http://tinyurl.com/lquvjds

The federal exchange will open October 1, 2013. If an individual wishes their health insurance to begin January 1, 2014, they must enroll by mid-December. Open Enrollment will close March 31, 2014. 

More information can be found here: http://pld.dpi.wi.gov/pld_aca

So, get on your marks and be prepared for Oct 1st.

Popular Software Tutorials - Free!

Popular Software Tutorials from LearningExpress are now available to all libraries in Wisconsin....at no cost to the libraries!  

These tutorials are from basic to advanced and self-paced for the most commonly used applications and operating systems.   The tutorials include fully interactive multimedia, including sound, animation, visual demonstrations, along with quizzes and hands-on practice lab simulations.

Here is a list of what is offered:
Adobe Dreamweaver Courses
Adobe Flash Courses
Adobe Illustrator Courses
Adobe Photoshop Courses
Corel WordPerfect Courses
Microsoft Access Courses
Microsoft Excel Courses
Microsoft Outlook Courses
Microsoft PowerPoint Courses
Microsoft Project Courses
Microsoft Publisher Courses
Microsoft SharePoint Designer Courses
Microsoft Visio Courses
Microsoft Word Courses
Windows and Mac Operating Systems Courses

This additional content is integrated with BadgerLink, so you can access it through existing links to LearningExpress Library through BadgerLink (http://www.badgerlink.net). 

Technical support will be provided by Resources for Libraries & Lifelong Learning’s BadgerLink Technical Support Team. Contact information for support can be found here: http://rl3.dpi.wi.gov/contact-badgerlink

Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds were awarded to WiLS for this project from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.  LSTA funds are provided by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). 

Online Hub for Digital Literacy Support and Training

Here is a website with free learning tools to help folks feel comfortable and confident with technology. They offer short free online "classes" at the website: digitallearn.org

DigitalLearn.org is a site devoted to helping everyone to effectively use digital technologies through simple online training modules. It is also a home for those who want to help others with digital literacy.

If you are new to computers, haven't used them for a while, are a little unsure and uncomfortable, or just need a bit of a refresher, here are the tools to help you tackle technology at your own pace and gain the confidence you need to succeed.

• Getting Started on the Computer
• Using a PC (Windows)
• Using a Mac (OS X)
• Basic Search
• Navigating a Website
• Intro to Email

Ready to help others? The site also offers an online community of individuals working to support digital literacy for all.

The Public Library Association's new site, DigitalLearn.org, is an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant-funded project to create an online hub for digital literacy support and training. The site launched in June 2013 and is intended to build upon and foster the work of libraries and community organizations as they work to increase digital literacy across the nation. DigitalLearn.org is being undertaken in partnership with ALA's Office of Information Technology Policy and Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, as well as bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders including representatives from national agencies, state libraries, public libraries, community organizations, and many others. Included in DigitalLearn.org is a collection of self-directed tutorials for end-users to increase their digital literacy, and a community of practice for digital literacy trainers to share resources, tools and best practices.

Does Your Library Website Feel Authentic, Refreshing, Consistent and Inspiring?

from Stone Soup Creative's blog.

An organization’s brand is everything it stands for – its vision and values, and the emotional connotations it inspires in everyone who comes in contact with it.

Since your website is likely the primary way in which prospective audiences and donors learn about your organization, it’s your best brand ambassador. The information on your website should be presented in a clear, unambiguous way so supporters are engaged, not lost and confused. That information can be conveyed in two ways, primarily: through words, and through visuals. And both types of content need to be consistent and resonant with your nonprofit’s brand.

Brand benefits

It’s easier than ever to use cheap or free technology to get a good-looking website, logo, or email newsletter. However, there are more than 1.5 million nonprofits currently in the U.S., and a lot of their websites look, feel, and sound the same. “Organizations may see themselves as distinctive because they are caring, sympathetic, trustworthy, and all that other nonprofit goo,” claims Adrian Sargeant at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University – but his research finds that many other nonprofits share these traits as well. Instead, strive to stand out by being authentic, refreshing, consistent, and inspiring.

Establishing a nonprofit brand is an investment that can, admittedly, take time, effort, and money. But it’s well worth it – strong nonprofit brands enjoy expanded visibility and improved fundraising results. Most importantly, it will help you stand apart from the crowd – so people ‘get it’.

Strategy first

The question to ask before proceeding with any element of your online brand is, do you have a strategy for what you’re creating? Whether it’s your website, email newsletter, video or annual report, while working on these items, ask yourself, which of these designs and messages most accurately reflects our positioning? This makes the process strategic, not something subjective, such as,“I like this because I like this shade of orange”.

Heath Shackleford, of goodmustgrow.com says, “Strategy leads to things like a distinctive and authentic point of view, the creation of compelling content, and the development of engaged communities. Without strategy, you are just making stuff that may or may not “look pretty.””

Where design fits in

Flashy graphics seem compelling, but unless they relate to your brand’s personality, they won’t resonate with your audiences. Having said that, studies from the Visual Teaching Alliance show that 65 percent of the population are visual learners, and that 90 percent of information that comes to the brain is visual.

While a brand is so much more than a logo, a logo is a very important part of a nonprofit’s brand. Nonprofits especially benefit from having a strong logo and tagline that communicates a clear brand promise and serves as the foundation for all marketing – especially on a website.

Other design elements such as color, typography, placement and graphic style all play a substantial role in how your brand is conveyed on your website:

• Color. Develop a consistent color palette that can be used for the logo as well for other marketing, fundraising and communications materials
• Typefaces. Adopt a system of typefaces that can be used for all of your marketing materials. Set guidelines for using them in a variety of typical layout formats, including:

• Large headlines
• Text
• Subheads
• Callouts

Donor-centric

When it comes to creating successful nonprofit websites, it’s not really what feels right to you, the board, and staff (and definitely not about the Executive Director and her love of the color orange). Start with your audiences’ needs and preferences. For most organizations the biggest chunk of people you’re looking to connect with are those giving you money. As Jeff Brooks says on his website Future Fundraising Now, “It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them.”

With this is mind, here are some tips for keeping your donors happy on your website:

• Make sure the donation page is easy to find and doesn’t require extra clicks to get to
• The design of donation buttons are an important call to action. Make sure these buttons project sophistication or are compelling in some other way that is commensurate with your brand. If yours look like clip art from 2001, improve their design to instill in people a greater sense of confidence in their giving choices
• This handy infographic depicts the key elements of an effective online donation page.

…

Here are 6 additional suggestions for keeping your website – and all your online communications – in line with your brand:

• Identify your Brand Attributes. Your brand personality should set the tone across all communication vehicles. Are you serious or fun? Quiet or loud? Cutting edge or conventional? Grassroots or establishment? Hi-tech or homemade? Subdued or bright?
• Evoke Emotion. Infuse your writing with feeling. Studies show that nonprofit brands that stimulate an emotion—anger, or laughter, for example—provide differentiation that can increase the size of donations
• Avoid Jargon. Not sure if your writing is free or full of jargon? Check out this great jargon finder.

• Stick with a Content Management System. Since most NPO brands are in a constant state of evolution – adding programs, partners, expanding, contracting, changing focus, direction, audiences, etc – your website should be dynamic and evolve too. Use a CMS with an easy-to-use section for administrators
• Employ Calls to Action. Encourage visitors to do stuff on your site. These ‘calls to action’ should be evident on each page. For example, at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, “donate”, “fundraise”, and “participate” are all clearly positioned on the homepage and other calls to action are evident on most pages
• Use Images to Tell Stories. Good photos and videos tell stories, and stories are engaging. Consider how images can be employed strategically to communicate a specific point, not just as decoration. Kiva uses compelling photography to tell their members’ stories

…

As the perfect vehicle to convey your nonprofit brand, your website should be based on solid strategy and above all, feel authentic, refreshing, consistent and inspiring. A strong nonprofit brand sets you apart from other organizations in your sector; helps you communicate better (both internally and externally); and increases an understanding of the great work you’re doing to make the world a better place.

Related articles

1. Branding Essentials for Nonprofits
2. Why we love working with the food sector
3. S, M, L, XL: Why Responsive Website Design is the Best Strategy for Different Size Screens
4. Graphic Design Style Guides, Part II – With Examples

On Men, Elevator Speeches, and Market Segments

from Illinois Libraries Matter blog  post on May 10, 2013

At the 2012 ILA Conference in Peoria, a librarian told me about a frustrating experience she’d had.  She’d tried to convince a young man in his ’20′s that the library had relevance for him. She was unsuccessful.  She told me the story, and turning to me, she asked, “What’s the benefit?”"What’s the benefit?” is a phrase that comes to us from advertising, and I think what she meant was, “what could I have said to this young man that would have persuaded him to come into the library?”  I’m afraid I was completely unprepared for this question, although I shouldn’t be:  it seems to come up every so often.

On another recent occasion, I found myself making conversation with the man who helped me when I ran out of gas. I asked him about his reading, and he said that he had a Kindle, that he liked to read W.E.B. Griffin, and that he saw no need for libraries in the future because everyone would be using an e-reader. I should have said something to contradict him, immediately, but I didn’t.  I didn’t have an answer, or “a benefit,” for him, either.

Poplar Creek Public Library’s Laura Brad reading W.E.B. Griffin’s The Spymasters.

 After some thought, I’ve realized that thinking about market segmentation for guys in creating an elevator speech is a way to respond to these particular challenges.  For the kinds of real-life encounters I’ve described, it’s good to be prepared with an “elevator speech,” a list of two to three items you can talk about at a moment’s notice.   To create this ready-made answer, it’s important to think a little about market segmentation.

Market segmentation is a marketing strategy that involves dividing a broad audience, like the users of a library, into subsets of customers with common tastes or needs. Having a teen department is an example of market segmentation.

Identify the library’s market segments and identify the products most likely to excite that segment.  In the case of preparing an “elevator speech,” it’s even more important to think about the male segment.   Men are more frequently not users of libraries, so it is more important to be prepared with a short list of items likely to appeal to men.

I should have suggested to my colleague at ILA that in a similar situation she could offer an elevator speech of two to four items, something like, “There’s a lot for guys your age at the library:  videos, CDs, video games and graphic novels.”

I should have suggested to the man with the Kindle that, with a librarian as his guide, he might discover many other authors that might interest him. I might have said to him, ”If you enjoy Griffin you might enjoy knowing you can “check out” Griffin books on your ereader for free from the library website.” If he were a commuter, he might enjoy listening to Griffin on audiobook. And if he ran out of books to read, he could turn to his librarian for suggestions for new, but similar, authors to read.

One of my favorite examples of market segmentation I learned about from Building a Buzz: Libraries & Word of Mouth Marketing. The director of a library in Wyoming visited car shops in her community, distributing posters and stickers on the Chilton’s car repair database that featured the “Mudflap Girl” of truck mudflap fame, now shown reading a book. The guys in the repair shops found it funny, while some librarians questioned its taste. But it sparked a lot of discussion, and the uses of the Chilton’s database jumped to 800 a month.Use market segmentation to think about who your audience is and make your marketing appealing and accessible to that segment. When I organized a job fair for my library, I asked myself where I could find job seekers and then publicized the event at the unemployment office and the Township’s job club.

Men and boys are often underrepresented among the users of libraries, and perhaps are the most likely to believe that the library has nothing for them.  Considering them as a market segments will be the first step in converting them into regular users.  Identify the products that appeal to them, and get your elevator speech on –  promote those products for given in ways that are likely to reach them, and enjoy the pleasure of bringing library patrons together with the things they love!

I would love to hear from you in the comments! Let me know what kind of elevator speech you use to promote your library?  Do you have more than one?  Which has proved to be most effective?

Elizabeth Neill is the Outreach Librarian at the Poplar Creek library.

Recording the Love

During National Library Week, Altoona Public Library tried something new.  They asked people to explain why they love the library or why it's important to them and write it on a slip of paper.  They collected these and it was quite impressive. 

They also had a Patron Appreciation Day midweek which helped them get more responses.  A few library board members came by to chat with patrons and help out.  They sat by a table and encouraged everyone walking by to fill out a slip.

Library Directory, Christina Jones, had a nice chat with the mayor about the importance of having a way to convey the impact of the library on the community beyond just hard numbers.  This was a good (and easy) way to start gathering these types of lasting impact the library has on the community.  Nice work Christina!

Marketing Libraries Is like Marketing Mayonnaise

By Ned Potter in lj.libraryjournal April 18, 2013 

Ned Potter

If you make one small change to the way you contextualise your marketing efforts, it can yield big results. It’s subtle but important, and here’s how to go about it.

Marketing libraries is a tough business, for all kinds of reasons. Lack of time, lack of funds, lack of other resources. The fact that public perception of what libraries actually do is about 15 years behind the reality in a lot of cases. But also the fact that there’s often a fundamental misunderstanding about what marketing should actually achieve.

People will often run a small marketing campaign—perhaps some posters, some leaflets, some emails—and are disappointed when the return on investment isn’t what they hoped. We told people all about our new service, so why didn’t more of them show up? But think about how much it takes to make you, as a consumer, take any actual action. Think about last time marketing ‘worked’ on you—was it a one-off promotion? Did you see an advert for a car, then get your coat on and go out and buy a car? Almost certainly not—most marketing works over a long period of time. A lot of library marketing expects people to see, for example, a promotion for a session on genealogy, then rush out there and then and book place to start researching their family tree. Of course, it’s possible to achieve this on occasion, but you need to be some kind of marketing genius to do it regularly!

In marketing workshops I like to use the example of Helman’s Mayonnaise. Helman’s (which, Twitter reliably informs me, is also known in different parts of North America as Best Foods Mayonnaise) advertises in a lot of places. The company advertises in magazines. It advertises on the subway. It advertises on television. It even advertises on the bonnet of the racers in NASCAR. They key thing to remember, which I’ll return to in a moment, is this: no one ever rushed out from a NASCAR race to buy some mayo…

Here’s one of Helman’s TV adverts in the UK:

Now, as it happens, I don’t find the folky, cutesy tone of this advertisement particularly appealing—but here’s the thing: I do have some Helman’s mayo in my fridge at home. Why? Because when I was in the supermarket and I needed mayonnaise, they were the first brand I thought of (because of all those ads across all those different platforms)—the jar was there on the shelf, I’d heard of the brand, I associated it with what I needed, and I’m not some kind of mayonnaise expert who can make extremely discerning choices…

Now think about your library marketing. How are you expecting people to respond? One-off promotions expect too much of our users and potential users. It’s more important (and more realistic) to build up awareness of the services we offer to relevant groups over a period of time, so that when they DO require something we provide, we’re the first thing they think of. When that person eventually gets round to researching their family tree, they think ‘Ah, I know the library can help me with this.’

This is why strategic marketing works so well—a joined-up approach, rather than a series of unrelated promotions. It’s ‘a series of touches at key times,’ as marketing guru Terry Kendrick would say, in the way the users live their lives. It’s different versions of the same message across multiple formats (traditional marketing, social media, and so on) to reinforce the message and to reach people who wouldn’t otherwise hear what you have to say. If everything you do works together and builds on what you’ve done before, it creates an ambient awareness of the services the library provides, and enables us to be what people think of when they need what we do.

Is your marketing the equivalent of trying to make people rush out of the NASCAR race early to buy the mayonnaise? If so, you may be disappointed. But if, over time, you position the brand of the library to be the authoritative source of the kinds of services you provide, then people will think of you when they need you, and then they’ll walk in through the door—and from there you can build a more meaningful relationship and introduce them to what else you have to offer.

A GREAT WAY TO INCREASE ACCESS TO DIGITAL CONTENT

Finally I wanted to mention what New York Public Library is doing with digitized collections. To quotethe press release:

“The NYPL Digital Collections API not only provides access to the digitized collections of the NYPL, but provides access to over 1 million objects and records that can be searched, crawled, manipulated and integrated into websites and applications. This advanced programming capability has been made possible due to significant portions of the digitized collections being made available as machine-readable data.”

This is FANTASTIC. I don’t want to get into the technical details of what API means, but there are two useful examples to illustrate why this is such a good idea. First of all, it was the fact that Twitter opened up its API which allowed third-party developers to create the useful social media dashboards and apps which in many cases improve the Twitter user experience—it’s what helped Twitter grow to the second biggest social network in the world. And the iTunes App Store’s massive popularity (and, therefore, that of apps in general) is almost entirely down to Apple opening up the production of apps to all, rather than limiting them to their own proprietary creations. In both these cases, massive popularity and growth has come from making a platform available and letting others come in and use it, just as the NYPL is doing. I can only imagine this is going to be hugely successful, and I think it’s a fantastic example for others to follow. We spend an enormous amount digitising our collections, so let’s make sure as many people have access to them, and benefit from them, as possible.

Ned Potter is an Academic Liaison Librarian at the University of York, where he’s also heavily involved with marketing activities. He’s the author of The Library Marketing Toolkit (Neal-Schuman, 2012) and writes and speaks widely on the subject of marketing information services. You can follow him on Twitter @theREALwikiman, and find his website atwww.librarymarketingtoolkit.com.