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Hello everyone! This is your host Tyler here. I’m excited to announce our very first podcast episode with Angela Hursh. On today’s show, Angela shares some of the struggles a public library faces in today’s digital world, the strategies she’s currently using to increase library attendance in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, and why re-education of our librarians in so important to help them adapt to this new environment.

Key Takeaways:

• What is Angela’s primary marketing goal for this year?
• There’s been less attendance at public libraries in the past couple of years due to a lot of the reading material being accessible online.
• What kinds of struggles do libraries face in today’s world?
• In order to increase attendance in the library, Angela has been working to change the mindsets of the librarians in our system.
• Sometimes we just have to forget about the quotas. Hosting five programs a week at the library might ‘feel’ like the right thing to do but there’s actually a better way to approach it.
• In this case, Angela has seen an increase in attendance at her library because they’ve introduced fewer but higher quality programs.
• By having fewer programs in your calendar, you will also have more of a budget to bring in presenters who might cost a little more.
• Angela overseas 41 locations across Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Each of these locations has different demographics and interests. These events need to be customized to the residents of each location.
• What kinds of metrics has Angela been tracking?
• On any given day, there are probably 5-10 storytime events happening at libraries in Angela’s system.
• It’s important to form a relationship with cardholders so that they not only attend the events but come in for research projects, get a passport, etc.
• Angela encourages staff to talk to the people in the community to see what they’re up to and what’s important to them.
• It’s important to help librarians become aware of changes in society and technology as well as keep them connected to pop culture.
• What would Angela do differently if she could go back in time?

Mentioned in This Episode:

Superlibrarymarketing.com

Angela on Twitter