may07b.indd


Susan Motin 

Reach out to your community 
through exhibits 
Employing ALA partner grants as part 
of your academic library’s marketing effort 

During the summer of 2002, agreement was reached by the dean, staff, and li­
brarians at St. Cloud State University Library 
that communication and marketing of our 
library’s resources and services must be a 
strategic initiative for the coming academic 
year. With the luxury of some extra money 
left over from the previous year, a support 
person with a communication and/or mar­
keting background would be hired. It was 
argued that to assist this person, a librarian 
should coordinate the effort and help the 
person wade through any possible bureau­
cracy that she or he might encounter on the 
campus. Since I was a very vocal proponent 
of having a librarian as coordinator, I found 
myself drafted but also volunteering to take 
on these responsibilities with some dimi­
nution of my other duties. Realizing that I 
needed to learn more about marketing, I 
was excited that a preconference course on 
marketing an academic library was being 
offered at ACRL’s 11th National Conference 
in Charlotte. I signed up to attend. After 
completing the workshop, I came back to 
my own academic library with a great deal 
of inspiration and enthusiasm. 

The planets must have been in perfect 
alignment or, perhaps just fortuitously, 
opportunities began to arise that would 
begin the process of our library’s journey 
toward marketing and better communica­
tion to our patrons. One of the most ex­
citing opportunities arose when a library 
staff member and the library’s grant writer 
submitted a proposal for “Elizabeth I: Ruler 
and Legend,” a national traveling exhibition 

organized by ALA’s Public Programs Offi ce 
(PPO) along with the Newberry Library’s 
Center for Renaissance Studies. The exhibit 
was based on the 2003 exhibition by the 
same name at the Newberry Library to 
commemorate the reign of Queen Elizabeth 
I on the 400th anniversary of her death. 
Fortunately, our library, the James W. 
Miller Learning Resources and Technology 
Services (LRTS) was one of the libraries 
awarded the grant. 

For those who may not be familiar with 
these grants, ALA has been working for a 
number of years with a variety of partners 
to create and fund traveling exhibits and 
book series discussions.1 Some of their 
partners have included the National En­
dowment for the Humanities, NextBook, 
the New­York Historical Society, and the 
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American His­
tory. The PPO’s site announces new grants, 
gives you advice on how to write a com­
petitive application, and has information on 
how to subscribe to its electronic discus­
sion list, pubprgms@ala.org. As stated on 
the site, this discussion list is where the 
new grants are first announced. You should 
return to this Web site fairly regularly, as 
it is updated continually. 

Achieving support 
After having the privilege of being awarded 
these grants, here are several ideas and 

Susan Motin is copyright coordinator at St. Cloud State 
University, e-mail: smotin@stcloudstate.edu 
© 2007 Susan Motin 

310C&RL News May 2007

mailto:smotin@stcloudstate.edu
mailto:pubprgms@ala.org


practical suggestions that your library may 
wish to consider as your library begins 
an application process. First, and most 
importantly, it is vital that not only your 
library administration support your initia­
tive, but also your college or university 
administration. To achieve their support, 
it is necessary to effectively demonstrate 
how these grants can be of great value to 
your institution, even though the grants 
are not monetarily large. Their support can 
increase your resources both in personnel 
within your institution and also with money 
to fund publications and events. 

Here are some suggestions that we 
employed that were persuasive for our 
university’s administration. It was advanta­
geous that our administrators were aware 
of the commitment of the LRTS staff to 
marketing and outreach. This had already 
been evidenced in the LRTS’s actions for 
the Isaac Bashevis Singer grant. The Isaac 
Bashevis Singer grant had been received 
after the Elizabeth I grant, but the pro­
gramming was completed even before the 
Elizabeth I grant would arrive on campus. 
Administrators were able to see what could 
be accomplished with an even longer time 
for planning. 

The university was putting a great 
deal of effort into enlarging our fi rst­year 
experience and honors programs. It was 
suggested that, by using the Elizabeth I 
exhibit as a focus for one or more of these 
programs, a number of unique events and 
experiences would interest our faculty in 
pursuing the creation of a first­ year experi­
ence or a number of classes in our honors 
program. Another idea we proposed to 
the administration was working with the 
local K–12 schools to have teachers use 
the exhibit in their teaching and then bring 
their students to see the exhibit or attend 
any of the events. We also pitched to the 
administrators the possibility of involving 
local area businesses as sponsors for indi­
vidual events and the possibility of having 
area arts institutions participate, including 
the Guthrie Theater, located in Minneapo­

lis. The university was fortunate to have a 
number of enlightened administrators who 
saw the advantages for our students, fac­
ulty, and surrounding communities. They 
not only were supportive but they offered 
vocal support across campus for the grant 
and also added a substantial amount of 
money for various events. 

Form a committee 
Another suggestion, to help market the 
university in its use of grants, is to form a 
committee. Although committees in general 
are not always looked upon favorably, it 
was valuable to have input from a variety of 
constituents from across the campus. This 
is also a way to create or strengthen librar­
ians’ professional relationships with their 
teaching faculty, an issue which appears 
with frequency in the library literature. 

A call was issued for committee mem­
bers both within the library and also to 
faculty and staff from across the campus. 
Certain faculty and staff were also directly 
contacted from particular departments, 
including history, music, English, politi­
cal science, theatre, and human relations. 
Other staff was also directly invited to 
participate, including the director of the 
Women’s Center and the director of the 
student union. 

As part of the requirements for comple­
tion of the grant, several events must be 
planned and advertised around the subject 
matter of the grant. Since our library was 
not going to receive the Elizabeth I grant 
until Fall 2006, the committee had the 
advantage of having two years of plan­
ning time. 

At the first few meetings, ideas were 
brought forth and a commitment to use this 
grant opportunity as a means to market our 
library emerged as a means to draw library 
campus and community members into the 
library. Eventually, a number of ideas and 
events were agreed upon for the commit­
tee to pursue. 

While not all of the ideas came to frui­
tion, some of the more traditional ideas that 

May 2007  311 C&RL News 



were finally included were four lectures on 
a variety of issues surrounding Elizabeth I 
and the Elizabethan Age, presented by St. 
Cloud State University professors from the 
History, English, and Philosophy depart­
ments and a book talk and discussion led 
by an emeriti professor on the book The 
Leadership Secrets of Elizabeth I, by Shaun 
O’L. Higgins and Pamela Gilberd. In addi­
tion to these events, faculty offered courses 
that related to Elizabeth I themes. 

Student involvement 
Another group of ideas came from the 
committee’s commitment to encourage 
our students to become involved in the 
planning and to actively participate in as 
many events as possible. Several positive 
examples of student involvement included 
students dressing in Renaissance costume 
during the Elizabeth I birthday celebration, 
working with the student­run university’s 
programming board to show a fi lm relating 

to Elizabeth I during the time the exhibit 
was in the library, and the St. Cloud State 
University Department of Theatre, Film 
Studies and Dance production of Shake­
speare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” 

Some unexpected, but positive, student 
involvement came from the St. Cloud State 
University American Indian Center and 
Multicultural Resource Centers’ advisory 
boards. Both centers’ advisory boards have 
a significant student membership. As the 
committee was alerting the university com­
munity that the Elizabeth I grant would 
be coming to the campus and inviting 
participation, a number of students and 
faculty from the centers were concerned 
about one of the exhibit themes, “Europe 
and America.” Because of the concern 
shown, another interesting event became 
a reality, a lecture from an expert on 
America and Native Americans at the time 
of Elizabeth I. 

The committee members from across the 
campus were enthusiastic about trying to 
take advantage of the grant to create new 
and different partners. One event which 
was planned that did not exactly work out, 
was to bring a Shakespearean production 
from the Guthrie Theater. Unfortunately, at 
the time, the Guthrie Theater was moving 
to a newly constructed facility, and they 
realized that it would be extremely diffi cult 
to be able to perform. An alternative plan 
was proposed and was accepted by them. 
The proposal was that the Guthrie Theater 
would create a display of Elizabethan cos­
tumes created in their costume shop and 
their costume curator would give a lecture 
on Elizabethan costumes. This alternative 
event also was a success. 

As further encouragement to include 
community participation, the city park 
next to the library was used during the 
university’s family weekend to hold an 
all­day event. The event was a group of 
Renaissance performers, Have Court Will 
Travel, which was contracted to present “A 
Day in Queen Elizabeth’s England,” which 
included presentations on courtly manners, 

312C&RL News May 2007



royal weaponry, and other related activities 
that would appeal to all age groups. 

As the final requirement for the grant, 
the project coordinator/principal investi­
gator is required to write a report giving 
information on the events and number of 
people attending these events and enclose 
copies of any publications created for the 
exhibit and any newspaper articles written 
about the exhibit or events. This report not 
only fulfills the grant requirement, but it 
also allows your library staff to evaluate 
the effectiveness of some of your programs 
and marketing efforts. 

From a marketing perspective, the re­
port can be used to guide future marketing 
efforts. Several questions can assist in this 
effort: Were the evaluations from partici­
pants favorable? Did you reach your target 
audiences? and Did you raise your patron’s 
awareness of your library and the resources 
available to them through the library? It 
would also be worthwhile to bring your 
committee back for a debriefi ng meeting 
to discuss their feedback, their students’ 
feedback, and whether applying for this 

type of grant in the future would offer 
value to them as faculty, to their students, 
and to the community. 

Since the Elizabeth I initial grant, three 
additional grants have been awarded to 
LRTS, including grants related to Isaac Ba­
shevis Singer “Let’s Talk About It: Jewish 
Literature” and “Alexander Hamilton: The 
Man Who Made Modern America.” The 
Isaac Bashevis Singer grant has been com­
pleted and the Elizabeth I and “Let’s Talk 
About It: Jewish Literature” were completed 
at the end of 2006. From these grant ex­
periences, a possible fi rst­year experience 
and/or honors courses are being explored 
and a campuswide committee is being 
formed to emulate and improve events and 
other marketing efforts for the upcoming 
Alexander Hamilton traveling exhibit that 
will be in the LRTS in fall 2007. 

Note 
1. If you are interested in applying for 

these grants, you should go ALA’s PPO Web 
site at www.ala.org/ala/ppo/publicpro­
grams.htm. 

(“Awards” continued from page 304) 

special collections celebrates the recent 
acquisition of the Robert A. Wilson Ezra 
Pound Collection,” said Reed. “Modestly 
illustrated with titles and pages from mod­
ernist publications, the volume provides a 
well­rounded discussion of Pound’s singu­
lar production and his impressive circle of 
friends and contacts.” 

In Division Four (brochures), the winner 
is the Getty Research Institute brochure en­
titled “A Tunultuous Assembly: Visual Poems 
of the Italian Futurists.” 

Reed noted, “The tabloid format of Futur­
ist manifestos used for this brochure repro­
duces the ‘words­in­freedom’ of the original 
avant­garde publications featured in the 
exhibition, pairing the images of the works 
and helpful translations with a thoughtfully 
written text on the history and context of 
Italian Futurist production.” 

In Division Five (electronic exhibition), 
the winner is the Division of Rare and Manu­
script Collections at the Cornell University Li­
brary for “Vanished Worlds, Enduring People: 
Cornell University’s Native American Col­
lection,” nac.library.cornell.edu/exhibition 
/introduction/. 

“Utilizing Cornell’s well­designed tem­
plate to present a clear and readable over­
view of the exhibition design and principal 
objects, the electronic resource provides 
more than a catalog’s worth of information 
and images attractively and effectively,” said 
Reed. “The exhibition and its electronic ver­
sion herald the transfer of the Huntington 
Free Library’s Native American Collection to 
Cornell University in 2004.” 

Certificates will be presented to each 
winner during the RBMS Program at the ALA 
Annual Conference, June 24. 

May 2007  313 C&RL News 

www.ala.org/ala/ppo/publicpro