Posts filed under 'marketing'

Thanks to your votes, we have determined the winners of Ask a Librarian’s The Director’s Chair video contest!
Drum roll please…
GRAND PRIZE: Julie, a student at Seminole Ridge High School in Palm Beach County
SECOND PLACE: Karman, a homeschooled student from Lake County
THIRD PLACE: Jake, a student at Fernandina Beach High School in Nassau County
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS & THANK YOU TO ALL THE LIBRARIES THAT PROMOTED THE CONTEST!
To view & comment on the winning videos scroll down on this blog or visit, the contest page.
If you have any questions, please contact me
February 13th, 2008
Did you like the back to school marketing this year but wanted to promote your own library’s URL? Ask a Librarian now has templates of this year’s marketing (bookmarks and poster) available to participating libraries.
You will be able to customize the materials with your library’s URL and print them out locally. They are in the Ask a Librarian Toolbox under Promotional Materials > Customizable Bookmark Templates.
Please notify us if you have any questions about the templates. We will be more than happy to help in any way possible.
February 7th, 2008
Friday night was the deadline for entries for Ask a Librarian’s Director’s Chair Contest. The contest as you might recall, was for Florida high school students to create the next commercial for Ask a Librarian. We received 15 videos from across the state. Watch them here!
Tomorrow, the Director’s Chair judges will be gathering to evaluate the videos and create a list of the top 5. The winners will then will be voted on by you, your students, your friends, and anyone else….details on voting to be announced shortly….
January 21st, 2008
Not to self promote but I am really excited and wanted to share. On November 15th(Thursday), I will be presenting on promoting virtual reference for an OCLC webinar. My presentation will focus on The Director’s Chair YouTube competition and our presence in social networking sites. Beth Cackowski from New Jersey’s Q&A who is always great to hear will also present - they do lots of very cool promotions….
Here is the official OCLC blurb with registration information:
Promoting Virtual Reference Services: Beyond Bookmarks
Looking for ways to increase usage and capture the attention of your current and potential users? Register today for a free, live Web information session and find out.
DATE / TIME
Thursday, November 15, 2007, 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
This webinar highlights two innovative promotions, one on MTV (by New Jersey’s QandANJ), and the other on YouTube (by Florida’s Ask a Librarian service). Our speakers, Beth Cackowski, project coordinator of QandANJ, and Diana Sachs-Silveira (of Florida’s Ask a Librarian service) will discuss these and other promotional activities, as well as answer your questions on what works, what doesn’t work and what they are doing to entice new users to library reference services.
Registration online at: http://www.oclc.org/info/reference/
November 6th, 2007


Both the Tampa Hillsborough Public Library and Lee County have been hard at work and you get to benefit from it! Both library systems created really great custom Ask a Librarian logos for their homepage and have given us permission to offer them to you!
They are now available on our information page along with Director’s Chair Logos and several versions of our traditional logo at: http://info.askalibrarian.org/logos.asp
October 31st, 2007
Ask a Librarian has just received new marketing materials including two versions of our newest posters:
And, the matching bookmarks (notice they now state hours are in eastern time)

Order these and other materials online today at: info.askalibrarian.org/promotional.asp
In a few days, we should have both the bookmarks and posters available as templates for those of you interested in customized printing. I will post a message when we have this live.
October 25th, 2007

Calling all Florida high school students!
Make your directorial debut with
The Director’s Chair YouTube contest
What is The Director’s Chair?
The Director’s Chair is a video contest for Florida high school students. Create a 30-second video promoting Ask a Librarian for the chance to win a hard-drive video camera, a Nintendo Wii or a digital audio player jukebox.
That’s right, we need YOU to help us promote Ask a Librarian!
So…what exactly IS Ask a Librarian?
It’s a free online service that allows you to chat with a Florida librarian for instant help with homework, papers and general questions. (Want to learn more? Click here.)
Now that you know what Ask a Librarian is, go out and make a creative and entertaining 30-second video that tells the world just how wonderful Ask a Librarian is. Just load it to The Director’s Chair group on YouTube by January 18, 2008, and the grand prize could be yours.
Be funny! Be serious! Do a spoof! Do a dramedy! Do whatever you want! Just be creative and have fun.
Click here for more information about the contest, including YouTube submission instructions, prizes, official contest rules, release forms and more.
October 15th, 2007
We apologize! We had a slight hiccup in the ordering form for Marketing Materials. It was now been corrected. We are sending out a large number of orders we recovered this week, so you will be receiving your orders next week.
If your order does not arrive, or you had not placed your order yet. Please visit:
http://info.askalibrarian.org/promotional.asp
September 27th, 2007
Ask a Librarian has two new bookmarks available for participating libraries. Don’t hesitiate -order yours today by using our online order form at:
http://info.askalibrarian.org/promotional.asp


While your at our site, please take a second to additional marketing materials for your library today.
September 18th, 2007
On September 10th, librarians across the country will be logging into commercial services like Yahoo! Answers, Ask MetaFilter, Wikipedia Reference Desk, or Amazon’s Askville, to answer as many questions as possible to promote libraries and virtual reference.
If you are interested in the event, Library Journal had a recent article with some details.
If your interested in participating in the event, check out the wiki. Further, Bill Pardue one of the coordinators has been working with Yahoo Answers to get librarians fast-tracked to the ranking of ‘knowledge partner’. To have him fast-track your login, send Bill Pardue (bpardue at ahml.info) your name, e-mail and Yahoo screen name by Friday, 9/7, 11 a.m. Chicago time (CDT). The hope is to educate many who “don’t even realize that libraries offer reference services. Let’s surprise and delight them with our quality” according to the web site.
Please let us know if you participate. We would love to have Florida Librarians well represented.
September 6th, 2007
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