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Session 15 - Working with Local Media
5:22 PM EDT 9/5/08
Talk about how you work with your local news media - newspaper (local or county), radio and TV. Do you write news releases? What kind of information do you provide them? What is the outcome of working with the news media? If you don't work with your local news media, why?
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
1:52 PM EDT 10/14/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
I write a monthly column for the local newspaper and really enjoy it. You know people are reading it when you run a list of books and, the day after the column comes out, they're in the library asking for those specific titles. We don't really have any local broadcast media. The closest we have to a local TV station is WGEM but, they're based out of Quincy. Also, there really aren't any local radio stations, the closest is Burlington. I do need to do a better job of getting the library message out to broadcast media but I'm not sure how to do that. 
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
6:28 PM EDT 10/14/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
We have a local, weekly paper and we have a column on the front page each week. We use the column to remind the public of up coming events and inform them of what is going on at the library. We often tell of new book arrivals and have short book reviews.
We do have a local access channel on the city cable that we can put annoucements on too.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
8:41 PM EDT 10/14/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
Talk about how you work with your local news media - newspaper (local or county), radio and TV. Do you write news releases? What kind of information do you provide them? What is the outcome of working with the news media? If you don't work with your local news media, why?
I use our local town newsletters each month to let the towns know what's up at the library. I send the news to the Freeman Journal and to the radio station when there is a special event. I usually email them, or fax. I try to make sure they are all caught up on special events, new materials, and celebrations. This week we celebrate our 60th year of serving our community. Saturday is our open house if you want to take a road trip! 316 Main, Williams, Iowa! I think we have a better turn out at our events because we use the radio and newsletters and paper. We also hang posters in the post offices, bank and local cafe. If we are doing something of interest to the teachers, I will email them, as well.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
8:44 PM EDT 10/14/08
as a reply to Joy Metzger.
The book reviews are a good idea. I hadn't thought of that. I'm going to try that in our next town newsletter. Thanks! Di
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
8:57 PM EDT 10/14/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
We rarely have anything in the newspaper, no radio or TV. The closest paper we consider our "local" paper is the Fayette Leader. I guess the biggest reason we don't use the paper, except on rare occasions, is (you guessed it) money. There has never been money set aside in the budget for advertising so it is rarely used. We do have a community newsletter that is sent out with the water bills every few months. The minutes to every board meeting is posted and sent to four different newspapers.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
10:28 PM EDT 10/14/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
LEldred--Springville We have a cable channel in town and they are very good about putting anything we want on there. We also have a library website with the city and I simply e-mail what I want her to put on the site and she is very prompt. This summer I started a newsletter with library news, this has been well received. I write the articles and a volunteer comes in and puts it all together.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
6:56 AM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
Our town has a monthly newsletter and I always put a list of the new books, DVDs, audio books etc in each issue. Also, I write a column explaining what is going on in the Library. I start my column on the computer as soon as one months issue goes to print and add to it until the next deadline. That way I don't forget something!!! The newsletter has a calendar that the board meetings and other events are listed. The county radio station has a local news reporter so I have her announce all happenings each day for 3 days before. There is a 4 community weekly newspaper that important events are reported. They will also print pictures I take. The kids are very happy when they see their picture in the "news". The editor is very willing to include anything I submit to him. And he never charges the library.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
12:57 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
We have a fairly good relationship with the three local papers. One of our Trustees is the Earlville correspondent to all three papers so she usually takes any article that I have given to her, or our library's monthly newletter, and submits a nice article about what the library has been doing, story hour times, other programs and times, new books and movies, and even sends in a picture if we have one. When we had an author here for a book signing in September, we also notified the 2 local radio stations for publicity and they both complied. I have heard several people (not just patrons) say that they saw our article in the paper, so I know that some people are reading it, but not as many as I would like. I have heard other people (even some of our Board Members!?!?!) say about a particular event "I didn't hear a thing about it." I don't know what is the best way to reach people; I guess you can't reach everyone.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
1:04 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Janet Adix.
I know that kids enjoy seeing their pictures in the paper (as do their parents and grandparents) so that is a good way to put a happy face on the library for your community. Our school in town usually cuts a picture like that out of the paper and posts it prominently too, so the kids featured can feel like celebrities. And I think that kind of publicity has a good chance of drawing more kids to the library. We also have a "featured collection" every few weeks that we use to get our name in the paper. A Patron brings in part of their collection (to be displayed under glass so there is no danger of breakage or theft) and I find a few books to correlate to it. So far, we have displayed collections of wizards, lighthouses, dolphins, frogs, and currently The Wizard of Oz. This gets the patron's and the library's name in the paper and it also sparks interest and curiosity among our townspeople, so it has been a useful tool in promoting the library.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
3:33 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Laurie Boies.
Thanks so much for the great idea! It would be a great draw to get people to come in and see what the library has to offer. How do you go about finding the people and their collections?
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
4:08 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
The only thing that we do is add the library news to our quarterly water bill that goes out through the city. Our small town does not have a newspaper or radio station. I have only been here about 2 years and I would like very much to get information about our library out to the surrounding towns papers. Our town and rural residents subscribe to many of those newspapers. I am not sure what it would cost and of course we could not afford much. I plan on checking on that and maybe we could do it every once in awhile. I would also like to use the nearest radio station but that would be only for and open house or something like that. In the city water bill, we mainly just post some of the new books, advertise a story hour and let the patrons know how the story hour went. So for now I do not write news releases or even know what it is like to work with them. Although I did have the new editor from a surrounding town come in and talk to me. She sounded like she would be interested in getting some news from our library. It seemed like she would be very easy to work with.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
5:02 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
Our local paper, "The Paullina Times" is very cooperative and helpful when we want something advertized. They've told our
director "whenever you want something in - just let us know"......
ANYWAY, funny you should ask - as my term project I was wanting to start a "Library Column" of some sort - I think
it would be a great way to "get the word out" as to what we have here for the community... I'm hesitant to commit to a
"weekly" column - perhaps "monthly" would be more doable. In the past I've had people come in and say " Oh, I didn't know you
had that here!!" or "I wish I would have known you had a laminator" or some such statement..........all this info could periodically
show up in "the column" along with book reviews from time to time......I need to ask Susan if this would work as my term project.
Our newspaper has something they call "Column 6" It's on the front page....sixth column over....anyway for the last couple weeks
they've run a blurp that says......."looking for past issues of the Times?? Your local library has them on microfilm. We suggest that
you check there for the stories you are interested in"
I think working with our local paper would be good for them, good for us, and good for our community.......
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
5:09 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Laurie Boies.
Laurie, what a good idea to put books relating to the topic in with the display......we hadn't thought of that.....we too have a glass
display case where people can display their collections.......we currantly have a fireman's collection of fireman things - he has retired
after 30 years as a volunteer fireman......... Also, we hadn't thought of putting in the paper what we a featuring in our display case..
good idea.....thanks.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
5:26 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to rhonda harn.
Rhonda, I like the idea of enclosing something about the library (perhaps a special event) in the water bills from time to time....... what a good way to reach everyone...if the envelope is going out anyway,.....might as well stuff it full !! 
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
5:53 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to rhonda harn.
Our local paper, which is published in another town does not charge us for event announcements that we fax to them. They put them in the "Around Town" column. I'm sure there would be a charge for a larger ad, though.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
6:02 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Jeanne Tollagson.
Even though you do not have a local newspaper, I would think the one most of the people subscribe too might appreciate a column from you now and then if not monthly. It should be a good selling point for the paper, I know around here people subscribe to papers for the local school news, so I would think library news might help also. Many of the papers have a column where they put announcements of events happening in the area, for no charge, if you haven't checked that out, it might be worth a call, they can only say no.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
6:20 PM EDT 10/15/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
We have a local accesss channel on city cable so I fax all announcements to them such as upcoming events, agendas for the library board meetings and when the library hours change from the spring/summer to fall/winter schedule and vice versa. We also fax copies of the meeting agenda to the newspaper and nearest radio station. The local correspondent for the paper comes and takes pictures and writes articles about special activities here at the library The city clerk puts out a news letter and I write a short article on what's going on at the library for her to include in it. The utility bills that are sent out by the city also include announcements on the bottom of anything going on in the community, so we get some publictiy that way too. This all works well and costs us nothing. I think I will check to see if a new books at the library notice could be put on the local access channel also, can't hurt to ask.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
11:40 AM EDT 10/16/08
as a reply to Michele Leininger.
I write a weekly article for our local newspaper. I start with a calendar of activities for the next two weeks. I then explain each activity in more detail. I list the new books that we have for the week, new adult, new children and new teen books. I then list our new DVD's and any new books on CD's if we have any. I usually give a little update about what is new in the library such as we just got 2 new computers. I tell about our story hour and our teen advisory group. I also try to highlight some magazines of the month. I know it is being read because the day after it comes out I will have people ask for the book or DVD or whatever it might have been that was highlighted. I had a lady tell me she had not been in the library for years till she started reading my articles and seeing what we have and now she said that is the first thing she looks at.
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RE: Session 15 - Working with Local Media
11:46 AM EDT 10/16/08
as a reply to Jean Gnade.
Go for it Jean. It is not hard, it takes me about 20 minutes to write it up each week and it has made a terrific difference in our circulation. I just list the new books with just a short blurb about it, like what is on the jacket of the books. I usually list about magazines, laminator, computers and things periodically but not every week. It is a free service and what a great way for advertising. I also list our hours and the phone number.
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