public libraries are too easy to ignore, one idea
August 25th, 2010 • posts i've written
The public library here in the US is one of those amazing governmental services that people tend to completely ignore. And if you speak to most librarians, these days local libraries are predominantly relegated to serving as internet cafes and DVD rental services to a dwindling stock of customers while legions of books stay frozen in place on shelves.
Unfortunately, the library is easy to ignore.
And in comparison, book stores like Barnes & Noble and sites like Amazon.com have made the public library seem a bit shabby. Many of us are spending a personal fortune on books while they’re actually FREE just down the street. And those that can’t afford to spend money on books are given much more interesting things to spend their attention toward rather than think about the library.
The public library deserves better care.
“Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest.” – Lady Bird Johnson
The library needs a good deal of help – most of it entails spreading the successful practices of some libraries (along with bookstores & dot-coms) around the country. But stealing a line from Lady Bird Johnson, here’s a quick idea to capture some attention for the Library from a person’s expressed interest.
Libraries should use Adwords. It’s that simple. Libraries should connect their local shelves to my local searches. If I search for ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ one of the results should be from my local public library with a link to check availability. If Libraries focused on the long tail of titles, they could cost-effectively advertise across a ton of daily searches.
Moreover, to aid organic search, libraries should compete or cooperate with Wikipedia or Google Books with an about page for every title they have on their shelves. This page could include a short synopsis, a list of auto-suggested books (a la Amazon), a way to reserve the book at your local library, and even affiliate links to purchase the book from Amazon or B&N (to pay for those Adwords).
And Google should consider priority ranking those pages in results, just as it does with Wikipedia. Ultimately, Google Books might be an incredible project for the US Public Library system to support and partner with to offer these services. But, admittedly, I’m no expert on the Google Books project.
And just FYI, public libraries aren’t shy to advertising. And the government isn’t shy to using AdWords.
Got an idea to make public libraries less easy to ignore? Drop it in the comments.
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5 Responses (add your comment)
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napril1023 August 25, 2010at 6:57 am
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sharon August 25, 2010at 11:19 am
hi! came over here from willo. i’m a librarian in the bay area and i think in some way this is a great idea. wanted to see if you know about book burro, which already does link your searches to public library results. it’s a start and a bit more practical from the library perspective than some of your ideas, unfortunately.
i feel like theses ideas would work in a different world than we are currently in, but sort of don’t mesh with most libraries goals vs time/money. you have to realize that there is no such thing as the US Public Library System. So each library system is a total separate entity from each other – separate funding, separate everything – with no large over-riding body, governmental or otherwise. and most of us are running bare bones with very little staff at this point in the economy (except of course in very wealthy areas of the country). our main goals are literacy and information access for those who don’t have it otherwise. early and emergent literacy, computer training and access, adult literacy, resources of a huge variety for our populations, and OF COURSE providing books (and dvds, and cds, and e-books etc) to those who want to borrow them. but from a cost-management standpoint, at least from my perspective and for most of the libraries around here (bay area) advertising our books to people who are currently buying books instead would be great! but that would be great IF we had vastly more resources to both make it happen, AND to handle the volume of new patrons it would bring in, both in terms of having a collection large enough to handle it, as well as staff time. i feel like it’s a dream, but a dream for an economy the likes of which i haven’t seen in my 10 years in the profession.
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rebecca August 25, 2010at 12:02 pm
The library is certainly no stranger to advertising. I was involved in developing this campaign:
http://www.geekthelibrary.org/ -
We spend a lot of time in our library because, as you said, it’s a DVD rental place, a new music sampler, and a book store for audio and *gasp* real books.
For the kids, we get a new book a week, and they go there for story time.
What is missing is book reviews. If I walked into the library and saw my neighbor is recommending World War Z, I might not just read it, I might actually chat with him/her about it.
This kind of community can be added with mobile, or with technology like Stickybits, where people could add their reviews to books.
Libraries are tools. Their relative good/badness is dependent on how communities use them.
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The public library in Princeton, NJ, is stiff competition for bookstores. It even has a cafe with outdoor seating. And its located next to shops and restaurants. If the public library in my town was like that, and squirreled away in some suburban hideaway I might frequent it more often. And I dig your suggestion that libraries use search/adwords. It certainly get libraries to be top of mind… But then there’s that long drive to pick up the book.