ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 322 / C&RL News T h e fin a l fr o n tie r By Jon E ldredge* Chief, Collection & Information Resources D evelopm ent Medical Center Library, University o f New Mexico Pioneers in academic library prom otion w in A L A ’s John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Awards. Two academic libraries on the cutting edge of li- brary prom otion have won Special Awards in the 1987 John Cotton D ana Library Public Relations Award contest. This contest, now in its 42nd year, is the oldest existing U.S. competition th a t honors excellence in library m anagement. ALA and the H.W . Wilson C om pany have continuously co­ sponsored this annual contest since 1946 to com­ memorate the career of library PR pioneer John Cotton Dana. North Texas State University and Northern Illi­ nois University both won Special Awards this year. Both entries were based upon unified graphic de­ sign themes. A total of 132 libraries and inform a­ tion centers competed in the contest. After a week of deliberations in New York during M arch, the judges selected 18 winners. Of the nine academic library contestants, two emerged as winners. These two winners had dared to venture where few aca­ demic libraries had dared ever to go before. Old movies at NTSU N orth Texas S tate U niversity won a Special Award for its “Tough Guys Fight Crim e” PR cam ­ paign. This program generated user awareness about the high costs resulting from the theft and mutilation of library collections. The centerpiece *The author is outgoing chair of the ALA John C otton D an a L ib ra ry Public R elations A w ard Contest Judging Committee. of the campaign was a graphics design series th at humorously depicted stars from classic old movies. The graphics were used for both posters and book­ marks. The graphics component was reinforced outside the library through displays, talks to cam ­ pus groups, newspaper editorials and other media. The PR campaign was implemented during the 1985-1986 academic year. The cam paign was m anaged by the lib rary ’s Com mittee on Theft and M utilation of Library Materials. The Director originally appointed the Com mittee to study the extent of these problems, calculate the costs to the library, and propose solu­ tions to the administration. Com mittee Chair Con­ nie Dowell’s initial reaction to the assignment was extreme disappointment, since issues of m utilation and theft seemed fundam entally boring. Dowell’s colleagues on the Committee, consisting of several librarians and library assistants (mostly library school students), shared her prelim inary indiffer­ ence to the project.1 Nevertheless, the Committee began w ork on the project in w h at Dowell de­ scribed as a “typical librarian w ay—we compiled a bibliography.” The Com mittee then interviewed Interlibrary loan and collection development li­ brarians to ascertain the costs related to replacing library materials. This step inadvertently provided 1 O ther members of the Committee were Ken­ neth Lavender, Jean Crabille, Twyla Thompson, Bob Follett, Lyn Townsel, Jan Byron, and Melody Kelly. June 1987 / 323 a foundation of staff support for the C om m ittee’s campaign th a t followed. The Com m ittee learned about the kinds of dam age subjected to m aterials and identified the apparent user attitudes th a t typi­ cally led to this destructive behavior. Dowell’s previous career in PR and journalism enabled her to recognize the challenging library prom otional opportunity presented by the Com­ m ittee’s research results. The Com m ittee proposed and the library adm inistration approved a change in program focus tow ard heightening user aw are­ ness of the problem. At this point the Com m ittee began to experience excitement about the project. The C om m ittee elected to utilize an attention- getting, humorous approach to achieving its goals rather th an relying on a stern, disciplinarian role for the NTSU librarians. A staff m em ber from the NTSU Public Affairs Inform ation Service, who was pursuing an a d ­ vanced degree in art, created the artw ork for the graphic designs. The artist was able to earn course credit tow ard this degree through his involvement in the project. Every detail of these graphic designs was carefully planned by the C om m ittee. The campus printing press reproduced these designs on both bookmarks and posters. Table 1 outlines the costs in cu rred . T he th ree classic m ovie design themes were selected for the universality of their appeal. The posters appeared throughout the campus and served as backdrops for display cases th at re­ volved around individual design themes. For ex­ am ple, the James Cagney poster appeared in a gangster them e display th a t featured a violin case containing an antique gun, bullets, cigars, and p a ­ per money. The John W ayne display featured an antique lariat, spurs, branding irons, and saddle­ bags provided by an on-cam pus historical m u ­ seum. Two different incidents involving display cases in the library provided an unusual indication of the program ’s success in educating users about m ate­ rial m utilation. On these occasions librarians were purposely shredding personal copies of magazines for these displays. Users passing by w hat appeared to be m utilators caught in the act prom ptly re­ ported the incidents to nearby service desks. As p art of the PR cam paign, library instruction librarians were asked to give talks to groups on campus. These talks centered on the losses inflicted N orth Texas State University’s award-winning poster series features James Cagney. upon all library users when isolated individuals m utilated or stole materials from the collections. The posters were brought to these talks and the cor­ responding bookm arks distributed to the au d i­ ences. The library adm inistration gave the Com mittee a fair am ount of autonom y to develop this cam- TABLE 1 NTSU GRAPHICS COSTS Item Q uantity Total Cost Per Unit Cost Posters 1,000 $700 $0.70 Bookmarks 6,900 $985 $0.14 The m aterials cost of $1,685 represented .04 % of the total annual NTSU Library budget of $4,066,878. 324 / C&RL News Northern Illinois University Libraries Space Reorganization Project paign once the initial PR proposal was approved. Dowell was thrilled to observe the wide participa­ tion in the cam paign th a t extended beyond the li­ brary to other departm ents on campus. “This gen­ uine, sustained group effort turned out to be the most gratifying aspect of the cam paign,” she re­ ported. Dowell found th a t her Com mittee needed to possess neither the materials nor skills required to complete the project. These resourceful librari­ ans instead sought assistance from the museum, Public Affairs Inform ation Service, and printing press at NTSU. Dowell attributed project success to this effective utilization of available resources, plus the development of a solid them e around which the Committee could build a campaign. W hat had begun as a seemingly dull assignment ended last year as one of the most fun projects ever pursued by any of the individual committee m em ­ bers. Dowell stated th a t the campaign was intrinsi­ cally rewarding since it “involved meeting a local need w ith locally produced m aterials.” Dowell also added th at because they had so m uch fun w ith the campaign, “entering the contest was an after­ th o u g h t.”2 E d w a rd Johnson, d irec to r of the NTSU L i­ braries, views PR as an essential element in library m anagem ent. For this reason, Johnson expresses surprise th at more academic libraries do not think PR has an im portant role. “Academic libraries,” he notes, “have so m any opportunities w hich they seem to constantly pass u p .” For example, few aca­ demic libraries celebrate National Library Week. 2Additional inform ation about the Committee can be found in Connie Dowell’s article in the Sum­ m er 1986 issue of Texas L ib r a r y Jo u rn a l, pp. 138-39. D uring the past few years though, NTSU has spon­ sored m ajor programs in observance of NLW . Re­ cently Johnson was contacted by the ALA Public Inform ation Office about turning over the graphic designs used by NTSU in its campaign against theft and m utilation for wide distribution by ALA. If this transfer can be effected, academic libraries will be able to purchase these wonderful graphic designs for their own PR programs. In search of space N o rth e rn Illinois U niversity w on a Special A w ard for its w ell-m anaged, creative PR cam ­ paign designed to overcome disruptions associated w ith a m ajor renovation project. This thoroughly planned PR cam paign succeeded in m eeting its dual goals of preserving healthy relations w ith us­ ers and m aintaining norm al usage of the collec­ tions. Approximately 7,600 people entered this li­ brary on a typical weekday when classes were in session. The clever graphic design and slogan com bina­ tion “In Search of Space” served as the unifying de­ vice for the entire NIU renovation project. This PR them e was loosely based upon a poster for the Star Trek movie entitled “In Search of Spock.” Gordon Rowley, associate director for research services at NIU, described the them e’s ability to unify many disparate elements as the most innovative feature of the PR campaign. This graphic design appeared on T-shirts, bookmarks, banners, stationery, b u t­ tons, and in new spaper articles. G raphic artist Carlos J. Granados created the visual design while the staff selected the slogan, “In Search of Space.” Granados chose the visual design to represent ab­ stractly the rows of fluorescent lights and striped patterns on the carpet planned for the renovated li­ brary. The PR cam paign also incorporated strate­ gies to utilize press communications as well as p er­ sonal contacts to achieve its goals. The library renovation project was m anaged by the Planning and Im plem entation Team composed of librarians and staff members. The Team recog­ nized at the outset the need for a vigorous PR com­ ponent to the renovation plan to avoid an erosion of the library’s good reputation. Although the Team appointed an inform ation officer to coordinate most prom otional activities, other Team members played pivotal roles in m anaging the PR campaign. The Team realized in the early planning phase th at the cooperation of library staff would be a crucial ingredient in the success of the overall project. Members accurately predicted th at the staff would be subjected to stressful working conditions. The Team consequently strove to build staff support and morale by offering stress workshops, contests, and service commendations throughout the reno­ vation period. The Team also m ade efforts to keep staff members informed about all significant devel­ opments connected w ith the renovation. The NIU entry received high marks from the judges for its June 1987 / 325 treatm ent of an im portant, but frequently over­ looked aspect of a PR campaign—staff relations. The NIU library’s Planning and Implementation Team employed appropriate evaluation methods to measure the success of the PR campaign. Contest judges were impressed by the fact the NIU entry in­ cluded statistics for a three-year period which strengthened the reliability of evaluation claims. The entry scrapbook provided evidence th at the six measurable program objectives were met by the “In Search of Space” campaign. Relations with the fa c u lty an d s tu d e n t ta r g e t groups re m a in e d healthy, as indicated by the fact that only 2.4 % of the comments submitted to the library suggestion box even mentioned the renovation. The campus newspaper received no negative letters to the editor about the renovation; nor did it publish any articles or editorials critical of the renovation. Nearly nor­ mal levels of collection usage were recorded in spite of the obvious obstacles to access encountered by users. Circulation decreased by only 8.4% while in-house usage dropped only 3.1 % during the tran ­ sitional phase. Reference inquiries actually in­ creased by 67.9 %, a surprising jump. Several favorable outcomes have resulted from successful completion of the PR campaign. The ad­ ministration plans to apply the team concept to fu­ ture projects due to the many beneficial effects not only on employee morale but on faculty, students and administrators. Theodore F. Welch, director of libraries, pointed out th at “the information dis­ semination network created through the project’s public relations component fostered an evironment in which library users were receptive to highly visi­ ble change in the library. And perhaps, even more significantly, the results enabled the libraries and the university to initiate planning efforts for ap­ proaching the next inevitable frontier: the expan­ sion of library facilities beyond the existing level.” The final round The two winning entries will be on display in the exhibits area at the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. Readers interested in learning about the history of academic library involvement in the con­ test should refer to the author’s annual articles since 1983 in C&RL News. These articles also offer advice on how academic libraries might effectively compete in the contest. This was the fourth and fi­ nal year for the author’s service as a contest judge. He was pleasantly surprised to observe the high quality of the entries from academic libraries this year. Four entries from academic libraries reached the final round of judging. All entries during the final - round are subjected to rigorous scrutiny in a pro­ cess that involves comparing all entries to one an­ other. This means that the best public, school, and special library entries compete against the best aca­ demic library entries at this stage. The two non­ winning academic libraries lost by narrow margins in the final round, which indicates an ability of ac­ ademic libraries to compete strongly against other types of libraries. Descriptions of these two non­ winning entries, plus another academic library en­ try eliminated in an earlier round, will appear in the fourth edition of Great Library Promotion Ideas (1988). This ALA publication describes the winning entries and notable non–winning entries from each annual contest.3 Entry packets for next year’s contest are available from the Marketing De­ partm ent at the H.W . Wilson Company, 950 Uni­ versity Avenue, Bronx, NY 10452. This judge hopes his articles will encourage academic libraries to compete successfully in future contests. ■ ■ 3Contact John Berry, executive director, ALA/ LAMA, for details. Letter Reference desk staffing To the Editor: This is in response to the article, “Staffing the reference desk during conferences,” by Tara Lynn Fulton, published in the March 1987 C &R L News. One viable way to cope with professional staff shortages is to employ qualified tem porary refer­ ence librarians during such critical-need periods. While most of your readers may tend to think of hiring “tem porary” professionals and paraprofes­ sionals for longer periods of time than a few days, I wish to point out that a service like C. Berger and Company is able to supply competent temporary staff for such short periods. (For an excellent article on aspects of longer-term tem porary employment, readers may w ant to refer to “T is for Tem porary,” by Donna Zufan Pontau and M. Cecelia Roths­ child, in College & Research Libraries, M arch 1986.) In fact, there is no need to compromise ei­ ther service to the patron or professional staff de­ velopment, as use of temporaries can be a cost- effective way to assure proper staffing when such a conflict occurs. One problem I have observed which may pre­ vent librarians from using tem porary staff is a budgeting one. Note that I did not say “budget­ ary,” since this term implies that adequate funds do not exist, whereas often they do. However, until a line is incorporated into the library’s budget which would allow for engaging temporaries, actual em­ ployment of them may not be easy. Sometimes, dollars available due to ordinary staff attrition can be used, but I submit th at planning for tem porary staff by incorporating a modest sum in the annual budget is a better m ethod.—Carol A. Berger, C. Berger & Co., Wheaton, Illinois. ■ ■