New Marketing Toolkit Provides Academic Libraries With Guidance and Tools for Campus Engagement and Outreach

ACRL 2019 Conference, CLEVELAND – April 11, 2019 – The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and Gale, a Cengage company, have collaborated to create the ACRL Libraries Transform Toolkit. This free new toolkit provides academic and research libraries with easy-to-use tools and resources to develop effective marketing and outreach strategies to promote their services and impact to students, faculty and administrators. The toolkit extends the American Library Association’s (ALA) Libraries Transform Campaign, that’s designed to increase public awareness of the value, impact and services provided by libraries and library professionals.

“We created this toolkit in response to an evaluation we conducted with academic libraries on marketing and outreach activities, where they expressed a need for access to easy-to-use, outreach best practices and materials that are flexible and adaptable. In addition, the toolkit also allows for materials to be uploaded and shared as part of each section, so that everyone can contribute to its content,” said Cinthya Ippoliti, chair of the ACRL Libraries Transform Task Force. “The toolkit provides academic libraries with the guidance needed to develop, execute and measure their community engagement efforts alongside their strategic marketing plans.”

Key resources in the ACRL Libraries Transform Toolkit include:

• Marketing Instructional Materials: Foundational guidance on how to create a marketing strategy, define message positioning by target audience, and plan campaigns.

• "Because" Statement Templates: Designed to help libraries develop messaging statements to promote their services and resources or issues of importance. Example statements are provided as well as ALA’s formula where libraries can create their own.

• Community Engagement Framework: Provides a framework and tactics to develop, support and sustain effective community outreach and communication strategies.

• Methods for Communicating and Measuring Impact: Provides insight and best practices on analyzing, measuring and communicating library outreach strategy results.

“Academic libraries play an important role in supporting student success and connecting researchers to new insights and ideas, but they often lack the staff, time and money it takes to promote their resources to these audiences.” said Harmony Faust, vice president of marketing and communications at Gale. “Our mission is to connect libraries to learners, and we are proud that our close collaboration with ACRL makes such a valuable marketing toolkit available to help our libraries more efficiently and effectively create awareness of the value and impact they bring to the communities they serve.”

To access the toolkit, visit the ACRL Libraries Transform Toolkit webpage: https://acrl.libguides.com/transform

About ACRL
The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) is the higher education association for academic libraries and library workers. Representing more than 10,000 individuals and libraries, ACRL (a division of the American Library Association) develops programs, products, and services to help those working in academic and research libraries learn, innovate, and lead within the academic community. Founded in 1940, ACRL is committed to advancing learning and transforming scholarship. Find ACRL on the web, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

About Cengage and Gale
Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. The company serves the higher education, K-12, professional, library and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights – where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.gale.com.

Follow Gale on:
• Twitter - @galecengage
• Gale Blog - http://blog.gale.com/
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GaleCengage/

DUBLIN, Ohio, 10 April 2019—Gwinnett County Public Library in Lawrenceville, Georgia, has signed on to implement OCLC Wise, the first community engagement system for U.S. public libraries.

Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL) joins Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Anythink, in Adams County, Colorado, as an early adopter for Wise. This robust system seamlessly integrates the power of customer relationship management, marketing, and analytics with typical integrated library system (ILS) functionality, such as circulation and acquisitions. Wise transforms traditional library management with a holistic, people-centered approach—empowering library staff to better understand and meet community needs.

“GCPL is consistently pushing the boundaries of library service—from being the first library in the U.S. to provide customer self-service access outside of regular operating hours, to committing to active and inventive community engagement. We’re delighted that GCPL is joining us as a Wise early adopter,” said Skip Prichard, OCLC President and CEO.

The GCPL team has been transitioning many aspects of the organization over the past several years to transform into a true community-oriented library. Adding Wise is another significant step in that transformation.

“GCPL is excited to play a part in the ongoing development of what promises to be a revolutionary new approach to library automation and engagement, one that focuses on the customer, not the collection,” said Charles Pace, Executive Director at GCPL. “We look forward to partnering with OCLC to enhance this robust, secure system that will serve not only our needs, but the needs of the library industry more generally.”

“We’re impressed with GCPL’s dedicated efforts to innovate outreach and community partnerships, and their determination to embrace technology advancements for the benefit of their community. GCPL’s leadership and staff understand where we’re headed with Wise, and their partnership will help us get there,” said Mary Sauer-Games, OCLC Vice President, Global Product Management.

Wise is the first community engagement system for U.S. public libraries. The system is currently used by more than 75 percent of public libraries in the Netherlands and has been tailored to address the specific needs of U.S. public libraries. OCLC will work with early adopters, other public libraries, and the library community at large to help inform Wise development efforts.

OCLC is actively recruiting early adopter partnerships for Wise. This special group of libraries will work closely and collaborate with OCLC's product team to evaluate ongoing development opportunities and to shape future library innovation.

Learn more about Wise at www.oclc.org/en/wise.

About Gwinnett County Public Library
The award-winning Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL) system was formed in 1996 after the dissolution of the Gwinnett-Forsyth Regional Library. For more than 20 years, GCPL has provided resources and services that enrich and inspire our community. The Library has 15 branches that offer free access to computers and Wi-Fi, classes, materials, and programming for people of all ages. In 2018, more than 4.5 million items were checked out at GCPL, more than any other library system in Georgia. In 2018, GCPL was recognized as a Top Workplace by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. For more information about Gwinnett County Public Library programs and services, visit www.gwinnettpl.org.

About OCLC
OCLC is a nonprofit global library cooperative providing shared technology services, original research and community programs so that libraries can better fuel learning, research and innovation. Through OCLC, member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the most comprehensive global network of data about library collections and services. Libraries gain efficiencies through OCLC’s WorldShare, a complete set of library management applications and services built on an open, cloud-based platform. It is through collaboration and sharing of the world’s collected knowledge that libraries can help people find answers they need to solve problems. Together as OCLC, member libraries, staff and partners make breakthroughs possible. www.oclc.org