ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 336 / C&RL News B o b C a ts, in f e s t a t io n , a n d a n e w lib r a r y B y Jon E ld red g e Albuquerque, New Mexico Three academic libraries were winners in this year’s John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award contest. W h a t do a BobCat, silverfish and a new library have in common? Not much unless you are describ­ ing themes of the public relations projects which recently received recognition in the 1984 John Cot­ ton D ana L ibrary Public Relations Award contest. This year three academic libraries won awards in the contest. According to the contest judges these th ree w in n in g entries represented nearly ideal models of how a library public relations program should be planned and evaluated. The University of Texas H ealth Science Center at San Antonio L ibrary won a John Cotton D ana A w ard for its year-long, comprehensive public re­ lations program designed to introduce users to a new library building. The Bobst Library at New York University received a Special Award in the contest for its prom otion of th e lib rary mascot “B obC at,” nam ed after the acronym for a new on­ line card catalog. The M ann L ibrary at Cornell University also received a Special Award for its in­ novative cam paign to ed u cate users ab o u t the problems caused by insect and rodent infestation due to the presence of food and drink in the library. Ten academic libraries subm itted entries to this year’s contest. Four of the entries requested to be considered for th e John C o tto n D a n a A w ard, w hich recognizes a lib rary ’s overall, year-long public relations program . The rem aining entries sought consideration for a Special Award, which acknowledges the success of a single component of an overall library public relations program . This year’s entrants included four large university re­ search libraries, two graduate school libraries, two four-year college or university libraries, and two com m unity college libraries. Surprisingly, only three entries came from libraries serving w hat m ight be considered small academic communities. In the past, such libraries have fared well in the contest. All regions of the United States were gener­ ally represented among the entrants w ith the ex­ ception of th e southeastern an d n o rth central states. No academic libraries located outside of the United States entered the contest this year. The library public relations activities of the win ­ ning entries to this year’s contest distinguished themselves from other entries in a num ber of signif­ icant ways. Most im portant, the w inning entries dem onstrated evidence of thorough public rela­ tions planning from the initial stage of form ulating clearly-articulated, realistic goals through to the fi­ nal stage of accurately evaluating the degree of suc­ cess observed in the execution of these planned public relations activities. The strongest con­ tenders actually attem pted to prove through quan­ titative methods th at their public relations pro­ grams had attained a m easurable level of success. The winners directly related the missions of their libraries to the goals of their public relations pro­ grams. These goals were, in tu rn , closely tied to the objectives of specific public relations activities. The scrapbook and audio-visual program entries subm itted for judging by the aw ard winners lu­ cidly described the public relations activities at these libraries. In this regard, carefully and con­ cisely w ritten scrapbooks which contained only a sample of project materials had a definite advan- July /A u g u st 1984 / 337 A n n e Hagedorn and frien d s show o ff the N Y U Bobcat T-shirt and brochure. tage in th e contest over bulky and w ordy scrapbook entries. L ibraries th a t creatively utilized available resources in th eir public relations activities gener­ ally w ere m ore likely to w in an aw ard , regardless of th e actual am ounts of financial resources at th eir disposal. T he M ann L ib rary at C ornell University illustrates this point by its expenditure of less th a n $200 on w h a t was judged to be an outstanding p u b ­ lic relations project. New York U niversity’s Bobst L ib rary w on a Spe­ cial A w ard for its unusual and creative use of a m ascot nam ed B obC at. T he m ascot was designed to c o n v e y th e p h ilo s o p h y b e h in d th e n e w ly - instituted user-friendly online Bobst Catalog. In a d d itio n , th e B ob C at sym bolized th e ch an g in g mission of th e lib rary from being a “w arehouse” of research m aterials to one of providing a dynam ic array of user services for a diverse and geographi­ cally dispersed academ ic com m unity located in a large u rb a n area. T he grinning, lovable B obC at m ascot was ad ap tab le to m any m edia including brochures, T-shirts, stationery, and posters. T he university varsity basketball team even adopted th e lib rary ’s B obC at as its ow n mascot. T he contest judges praised th e Bobst L ib rary for its explicitly stated and quantified objectives con­ n e c te d w ith th e B o b C a t p ro m o tio n a l p ro je c t. M oreover, th e evaluation phase of th e project was conducted w ith m ethods th a t w ere both com pre­ hensive and ap p ro p riate for the type of activities involved. T he judges w ere especially intrigued by th e successful application of a public relations de­ vice like the B obC at m ascot to an academ ic library environm ent. N orm ally, these types of techniques are associated w ith th e prom otion of youth services in school and public libraries. T he successful use of th e B obC at m ay possibly signal the beginning of a new era in academ ic lib rary public relations. T he judges also gave th e B obC at project high m arks for its cost-effectiveness an d for th e precision /ith w hich lib rary staff m em bers targ eted th e project to w a rd specific cam pus com m unity groups. T he A lbert M ann L ib rary at C ornell University received a Special A w ard for its p articu larly inno­ vative cam paign to keep food and drink out of th e building. R ather th a n assume a negative stance to ­ w a rd users who b rought refreshm ents w ith them into th e building, th e lib rary staff decided to ed u ­ cate users about th e potential dam age to research m aterials caused by insects or rodents attra c te d to leftovers. Because the M ann L ib rary serves aca­ dem ic program s in th e fields of agriculture, life sci­ ences an d h u m a n ecology, this p u b lic relations cam paign was designed to appeal to these specific user audiences. This low-cost b u t d ram atic cam ­ paign epitom ized th e professional ideal of “preven­ tive public relatio n s.” Users w ere educated ab o u t th e types of dam age to lib rary m aterials caused by insects and rodents th r o u g h se v eral a c tiv itie s . F irs t, a s o m e w h a t 333 / C &R L News tongue-in-cheek scientific study conducted by the staff on the varieties of trash found in the library was displayed in a very striking exhibit at the en­ trance to the library. Second, the library sponsored a logo contest for its campaign among the student user population. The winning logo featured a cari­ cature of an insect reading and eating in the library (see cover). Third, the logo and other drawings of Cornell spent less than $200 on an outstanding public relations project. library pests were printed on different bookmarks distributed at the circulation desk. In general, the project assumed a positive tone to avoid the typi­ cally negative image often associated with efforts to curb food and drink problems in academic li­ braries. To help m aintain a positive tone to this campaign, humorous or playful elements were oc­ casionally interjected into the various public rela­ tions activities. The Mann Library’s unique approach to solving a perennial academic library problem earned it high scores in the contest judging process. The judges were impressed by the manner in which the Mann Library clearly defined its goals and objec­ tives so they could be evaluated in a way that could be easily measured. Among the other winning fea­ tures of the Mann Library’s entry was the wise uti­ lization of on-campus resources by the library staff to promote their educational campaign. The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Library won a John Cotton Dana Award for an extensive, year-long public relations program intended to introduce users to a new li­ brary building. The program, entitled “New Li­ brary, New Technology,” also sought to heighten awareness about the range of new services avail­ able at the recently completed library facility. The centerpiece of the program was a series of attrac­ tive library publications that utilized a graphic de­ sign to symbolize the arrival of a new age in library services. In its entry scrapbook, the UTHSCSA Library presented overwhelming evidence of the exhaus­ tive planning and carefully organized execution of its public relations program. Broad goals of the public relations program were linked directly to the major goals of the library. Furtherm ore, all ac­ tivities during the year-long program were justified according to specific public relations objectives. The planning activities even included both exten­ sive internal and external library public relations objectives. This entry provided ample evidence to suggest widespread involvement with the program among the library’s large staff. The judges were struck by evaluation efforts of the program that at­ tempted to quantify the success of almost all of these public relations activities. It might be noted by librarians at similar kinds of academic libraries that the UTHSCSA Library entered and won a John Cotton Dana Award in the special libraries category of the contest. Because of the relevance of the UTHSCSA Library’s award-winning program to all academic libraries it has been reviewed in this article. There are a number of advantages for academic libraries to enter the John Cotton Dana Library P ublic Relations A w ard contest. As has been pointed out in a previous issue (C&RL News, June 1983, pp. 188-90), during the past decade a re­ spectable percentage of academic libraries that en­ tered the contest actually won an award. For in­ stance, this year three out of ten entries submitted from academ ic libraries w on either a Special Award or a John Cotton Dana Award. An often overlooked fringe benefit of entering the contest is having one’s public relations program or projects evaluated by a group of fellow professionals dedi­ cated to the advancement of library promotion. Following the announcement of contest award re­ cipients each year, all entrants are encouraged to contact the committee chairperson to obtain a free, detailed assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of their libraries’ public relations activities. In ef­ fect, this service represents a free consulting pro­ gram for all participants in the contest. This year three professionals from academic in­ stitutions served as judges for the contest. During the past few years at least one academic librarian has served as a judge for the contest. These judges understand the special types of problems faced by academic libraries. Thus, they are able to evaluate realistically entries from academic libraries within the proper context. Moreover, the existence of the contest and the possibility of gaining recognition for one’s efforts by itself should give librarians an additional incentive to strive for excellence in de­ veloping public relations activities. Finally, the reader should be aware that in recent years the con­ test scheduling procedures have been restructured to encourage greater participation by academic li­ braries. Academic librarians contemplating the submis­ sion of entries to the contest may wish to consider several suggestions. Even prior to initiating a pub­ lic relations project, librarians should have a clear idea in the planning stages about w hat exactly they w ant to accomplish with their project activities. They should be equally clear about why they think these activities are im portant regarding the mission of the library. Librarians also should seek to docu­ ment thoroughly and precisely evidence of the ex­ tent of the success of their activities during the eval­ uation phase of the projects. July/August 1984 / 339 The new University o f Texas H ealth Science C enter at San A n to n io ’s new library, and graphics fr o m their prom otional efforts. 340 / C &R L News Entrants should remember th at the panel of ten judges for the contest evaluates about 150 entries over the course of only five working days. There­ fore, all entries should concisely capture the essen­ tial features of a library’s public relations activi­ tie s.1 The im portance of brevity in th e entries would be difficult to overemphasize. Participants in the contest are advised to design their entries so they can be completely read and reviewed by an in­ dividual judge in ten to fifteen minutes’ time. Po­ tential entrants most certainly should make an ef­ fo rt to review personally th e scrapbooks an d audio-visual programs of winning entries to learn w hat types of qualities characterize a John Cotton D ana L ibrary Public Relations Award w inner. These winning entries may be personally examined in the exhibit area during ALA Annual Confer- 1O f course, entries should not be concise at the expense of coherence. On some rare occasions ap­ plicants have sacrificed clarity in an effort to be concise. One interesting example of this error was found by the judges this year which read: “Last year, the strategy of promotion was a shotgun ap­ proach to get people into the library.” After read­ ing this sentence some judges wondered if fatalities posed a problem of user attrition in the public rela­ tions program. ences or may be obtained via interlibrary loan from the ALA H eadquarters Library. Librarians interested in learning more about the contest should contact the Marketing Division, H. W. W ilson C om pany, 950 U niversity Avenue, Bronx, NY 10452. The H. W. Wilson Company will be able to provide application forms and infor­ m ation brochures as well. The reader also may wish to consult the past few years of the library lit­ erature2 for additional suggestions on how to sub­ m it a w inning entry to the contest. In the fall of 1984 the Library Administration and M anagement Association will publish a book edited by Ann H. Eastm an entitled Great Library Promotion Ideas 1984 in which all award-winning entries from this year’s contest will be described. E ditor’s Note: Jon Eldredge, a judge fo r the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations A w ard con­ test, is currently pursuing graduate studies in polit­ ical science at the University of New Mexico. He is the form er library director fo r Eastern New Mexico University, Clovis. ■ ■ 2Some useful advice on increasing one’s chances of winning an aw ard can be found in Kathleen Kelly Rummel & Esther Perica, Persuasive Public Relations For Libraries (ALA, 1983).