I love your idea of creating limited edition bookmarks because I will tell you from experience, anything limited edition will draw a crowd. Recently my library system introduced limited edition library cards designed by a famous artist and the lines to get the cards were long. We ran out of cards within four days, and I know other branches ran out within one to two days. I remember talking with people who registered for the card saying that it was their first time in a library or, when I outlined all the services we had, were shocked because they assumed all libraries were just a storage facility for old books. Additionally, they took a complete tour of the library and remarked how amazed they were that the library had newly published books and popular movies recently released on DVD in our catalog. It made me happy seeing them talk about how they would come back to use the services.
@ctaher, thanks for backing up my hunch that offering a limited-edition library artifact can be a way to draw new people into the library. It’s great that they also toured the building to see what was available. Were there any issues once you were out of the cards? And how did you handle them? — @suedonnim
Hi Sue! I love your idea of sending bookmarks to homebound patrons, what a great way to connect them to fellow library users. Sometimes we get piles of bookmarks from our local elementary schools, which I put by the self-checks for people take home.
Here’s a look at how I did our Make Your Mark contest in 2024, as part of my “Extreme YOLO” (Extreme Year of Library Outreach): https://www.tadl.org/makeyourmark
It was one element of my yearlong campaign of community connection and anniversary celebration, with overlapped with our millage effort.
Wow, we must be on the same wavelength. I didn’t realize that you had done that particular project. I guess I could have added TADL to the inspiration page in my report. Thanks for sharing! If I try to get this going for real, I’ll have proof that it can work. Keep up the amazing work @hharrisbrady!
4 Comments
Camillia T
Hi Sue,
I love your idea of creating limited edition bookmarks because I will tell you from experience, anything limited edition will draw a crowd. Recently my library system introduced limited edition library cards designed by a famous artist and the lines to get the cards were long. We ran out of cards within four days, and I know other branches ran out within one to two days. I remember talking with people who registered for the card saying that it was their first time in a library or, when I outlined all the services we had, were shocked because they assumed all libraries were just a storage facility for old books. Additionally, they took a complete tour of the library and remarked how amazed they were that the library had newly published books and popular movies recently released on DVD in our catalog. It made me happy seeing them talk about how they would come back to use the services.
Sue Donnim
@ctaher, thanks for backing up my hunch that offering a limited-edition library artifact can be a way to draw new people into the library. It’s great that they also toured the building to see what was available. Were there any issues once you were out of the cards? And how did you handle them? — @suedonnim
Heather B
Hi Sue! I love your idea of sending bookmarks to homebound patrons, what a great way to connect them to fellow library users. Sometimes we get piles of bookmarks from our local elementary schools, which I put by the self-checks for people take home.
Here’s a look at how I did our Make Your Mark contest in 2024, as part of my “Extreme YOLO” (Extreme Year of Library Outreach): https://www.tadl.org/makeyourmark
It was one element of my yearlong campaign of community connection and anniversary celebration, with overlapped with our millage effort.
Sue Donnim
Wow, we must be on the same wavelength. I didn’t realize that you had done that particular project. I guess I could have added TADL to the inspiration page in my report. Thanks for sharing! If I try to get this going for real, I’ll have proof that it can work. Keep up the amazing work @hharrisbrady!