EveryLibrary and Gale Announce Partnership on National Media Campaign to Promote Value of Libraries and Librarians
Gale is partnering with EveryLibrary, a national non-profit organization dedicated to non-partisan political action on behalf of libraries, for a media campaign to increase awareness of the role libraries play in community and economic development.
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Gale and EveryLibrary will partner on a media campaign about the value libraries and librarians provide with a [our emphasis] focus on engaging the entrepreneur and start-up business community. Business reference services and support are as pervasive in libraries as storytime, but few are aware of the resources at their fingertips. The campaign, which will run through January 2016, will focus on driving awareness of these services, as well as the library’s role in the discovery of information and as big data enterprises, while simultaneously promoting the social-leveling role that libraries play in society.
Read the Complete Announcement
Quick Comment from Gary Price, infoDOCKET Founder/Editor
This is an excellent idea that has been needed for years.
A national campaign focused on bringing awareness to public library business research services and tools to small business and entrepreneurs who have a strong need for credible, current research and business data makes complete sense.
As we say on infoDOCKET regularly, people have no chance of using what they don’t know about. Moreover many library research tools (including the most valuable one, access to a librarian) are now accessible to a busy business person for free, 24x7x365, from home or office, in the library, or anywhere they can get an Internet connection.
One final comment. Advertising, handouts, videos, and other tools are important to get the word out. However, the best way (but not the easiest) to increase awareness and usage comes only from talking, demonstrating (with examples tailored to a specific person or audience) about what a library and librarian can do to assist the entrepreneur and start-up business owner. We hope this new partnership focuses on talking and demonstrating than prepping handouts and creating videos.
Filed under: Data Files, Gale, Libraries, Public Libraries, Resources
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.