ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


February 1992 /  91

INNOVATIONS

Academic library public relations: Using internal 
publications to spread the news

By Rick Bean

Suburban Reference Librarian 
DePaul University

At  on e o f its quarterly m eetings last year, 
th e  Library’s Public Relations C om m ittee 

b rainstorm ed on how it could b e tte r publicize its 
m aterials and services w ithin th e D ePaul academ ic 
com m unity. D uring th a t m eeting, th e  notion o f 
sending articles to  o th e r dep artm en ts for inclusion 
in th e ir publications and discontinuing th e  library’s 
sem i-annual n ew sletter was proposed. T h e com ­
m ittee ag reed  to p u rsu e this new  approach and I 
was ap pointed “P.R. Liaison” for th e  library. My 
first task was to com pile an d  p ro duce a list o f 
D ePaul’s internal publications.

Since no com plete list had b e en  com piled by th e
library o r any o th e r university office, I began calling 
num erous dep artm en ts to  ask if th ey  published a 
new sletter o r som e o th e r type o f publication. T he 
first draft o f th e  list was p ro d u ced  containing each 
publication’s title, th e  contact person responsible 
for its contents, and th e  publication’s frequency. 
T h e next step  was to  g et in to u ch  w ith each contact 
personandaskhimorherifthelibrarycouldsendarticles 
to be included in an issue o f their publication.

Inform ation for th ese articles com es from  library 
staff m em bers who e ith e r w rite th e  article th e m ­
selves o r suggest topics. T hese ideas are th e n  coor­
d inated by th e P.R. Liaison w hose duties include 
editing, proofing, and making sure th e  article’s style 
is a p p ropriate for a particular publication. Factors 
such as subject m atter an d  tim eliness help d e te r­
m ine which p u b lic a tio n ^ ) w ould use th at article.

W e have found this approach to  public relations 
to  be highly successful for two m ain reasons. First, 
since th ese publications originate from  various 
D ePaul U niversity d epartm ents, w e can m ore eas­

ily targ et an article for th a t particular audience. A 
corollary o f this is th a t faculty, staff, and students are 
m ore likely to  read  th e ir own publications than a 
library new sletter. Second, th e  frequency o f p u b ­
lication also varies from  publication to  publication 
an d  th at helps us decide which one(s) to subm it the 
article to. Since w e no longer publish o u r own 
new sletter, th e  cost to  publicize th e  library’s m ate­
rials and services is q u ite small.

Since w e im plem ented th ese procedures, we 
have n oticed an increase in the n u m b e r o f patrons 
inform ing us th a t they have read  articles pertaining 
to  th e  library in various D ePaul internal publica­
tions. C urrently, o u r Intern al Publications List has 
35 titles an d  it continues to grow as we discover new 
publications bein g  started  at D ePaul. This type o f 
public relations program  m ight seem  unique to 
som e, b u t w e have found 

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it to be practical, econom i­

cal, and successful.  ■

C&RL News reporters 
needed

Share yo u r A C R L National C onference expe­
riences with a  national audience. B rief (1 5 0 - 
300-word) sum m aries o f th e  co n ference’s p a n ­
els, program s, and sessions a re sought for publi­
cation in C &R L  News. I f  you w ould like to write 
up  one o f th e  sessions you plan on attending, 
contact th e  editor, M ary Ellen Davis, no later 
th an  M arch 31, 1992, at (800) 545-2433, ext. 
2511 o r bitnet: U38398@ uicvm.bitnet.