contextual outreach tla

Contextual Outreach: Making the Library Matter

for your Community

Presented by Amy MatherApril 19, 2012

Agenda• Who are we not reaching?• Vibrant communities• Library as linchpin• Marketing• Business Outreach & Reengaging your community• Contextual outreach & the future of libraries• Big picture

The patron exodus

“we are failing to engage people who are a huge portion of our tax base and potential advocates:

adults between the age of 20 and 40ish.”

Abigail Goben, LISNews, February 15, 2010

Don’t Forget About Us

They continue to frequent…

New community work spaces

Intellectual entertainment

Intellectual entertainment

Intellectual entertainment

My game changer

Gary Vaynerchuk – A glut of user-generated content has changed the game.

Any more, context is more important than content, because there's so much of the latter. "There's so much content that comes through," Vaynerchuk says, "that there’s only so much you can consume."

Vibrant communities

What makes a vibrant community? Often times community development is reduced to the

development of physical space or capital, but a vibrant community is made up of much more,

including: social, human, environmental, financial, political & cultural capital.

From I to We: Changing the Conversation 2011 Young Professional Summit. Holistic Community

Six components of a vibrant community

• Physical Capital• Social Capital• Cultural Capital• Financial Capital• Environmental Capital• Human Capital

Physical capital

Neighborhood Associations

Social capital• Your Neighborhood Association• Your Local Faith Community

Cultural capital

Financial capital

Environmental capital

Human capital

What was missing?

Library as linchpin & long tail(Nexus and long reach)

• Leverage - what is your ROI?– Outcome measurements – measure impact

• Adaptive – More proactive, less reactive• Patrons versus communities – pulse• Strategic alliances versus partners

Market segmentation• Helps organizations find new customers, gain

insights, improve service delivery and become customer-centric

• Tapestry segmentation classifies neighborhoods into one of 65 segments– Douglas County has 42 of the 65 segments– The top eight segments account for just over half of the population

(266,352 people) while the top 12 segments account for two-thirds of the population (336,671 people)

Tapestry market segmentation

• 20’s /singles/couples (organized by lifestage)– Young and Restless (22.2)– Old and Newcomers (11.4)– Metropolitans (3.8)– College Towns (2.5)

Tapestry market segmentation• Single/Couple Professional

– Enterprising Professionals (6.1)– In Style (1.5)– Laptops and Lattes (3.2)– Metro Renters (1.8)

Tapestry market segmentation up close

A closer look ‘Young and Restless’

Business Outreach - Resources• Leverage your databases – target appropriately

– Business Decision• Bibliocommons• Libguides and partnerships• Book Clubs• Workshops & Classes – Have Laptop Will Travel• Business Center

Business Outreach – Social Media• LinkedIn• Facebook• Twitter• Pinterest

Business Outreach – Get Involved • Young Professionals• Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce• Leadership Omaha• Educator Directors meetings• Entrepreneurs• Attend meetups & other social business events

Reengaging your community• Entertainment - Board Silly, Craft events • Connections – Book Clubs, Speed Dating • Community outreach – Farmer’s market, Buy the Big

O, Young Professional Summit, Bar Camp• Business outreach• Issuing library cards…wherever you are!• Facebook,Twitter, & Pinterest

Contextual outreach & the future of libraries

• Seth Godin was right:

“Want to watch a movie? Netflix is a better librarian, with a better library, than any library in the country.

The Netflix librarian knows about every movie, knows what you've seen and what you're likely to want to see. If the goal is to connect viewers with movies,

Netflix wins.”

Contextual outreach & the future of libraries

• Seth goes on to say…

“The library is no longer a warehouse for dead books. Just in time for the information economy, the library ought to be the local nerve center for information.”

Contextual outreach & the future of libraries

• And Seth brings it home with

“The next library is a place, still. A place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and

invent projects worth working on together. Aided by a librarian who understands the Mesh, a librarian who can bring domain knowledge and people knowledge

and access to information to bear.”

People will create their own space

Big picture• Environmental Scan • Find the Woo in your organization • Get involved!• Bibliocommons • Discover stuff outside the library world• Outreach • 24 hour advocacy

Questions?• amather@omahalibrary.org• facebook/matherita• facebook.com/WhateverMathers• pinterest.com/matherita/• linkedin.com/in/amymather• prezi.com/user/matherita/