dec16_b.indd


December 2016 537 C&RL News

Thank you for . . .

“Talking with me on chat, and helping me 
find obscure old journal articles.”

“Going above and beyond to help me find 
sources for my research paper.”

“Helping me connect 
with my cultural history! 
(Rubenstein Library is 
AMAZING!)”

“Pr oviding a safe, 
comfortable space.”

These are just a few of the messages cap-
tured by a team of library 
staff at Duke Univer-
sity Libraries as part of 
our #ThankALibrarian 
campaign during the 
2016 National Library 
Week. Across campus, 
library staff engaged 
with students, faculty, 
staff, and visitors who 
were invited to write a 
message of thanks on a 
small whiteboard and 
have their photo taken. 

The library staff involved were over-
whelmed by how happy people were to 
respond to our prompt: “It’s National Library 
Week. Would you like to thank a librarian?” 
The result was a week of enjoyable connec-
tion with the campus and nearly 300 mes-
sages captured and shared on social media 
via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

The project was a collaboration between 
the libraries’ director of communications 

and the Research and Instructional Services 
department’s Communications Team. Key 
goals were to make the contributions of 
Duke Library staff more visible by having 
users speak on our behalf, and to highlight 
the ways the library can help by sharing 

these photo testimoni-
als. 

We also wanted a 
way to celebrate Na-
tional Library Week and 
to increase social me-
dia engagement with 
our users and support-
ers. Finally, by captur-
ing thanks from our 
users—which is often 
thought, but not overtly 
expressed—we hoped 
to provide an opportuni-
ty for library staff to feel 
valued and appreciated.

# T h a n k A L i b r a r i a n 
was created for quick 
yet meaningful engage-
ment. We designed the 
project so that it would 
be light-weight for par-
ticipants, visually ap-

pealing, and fun. All of these elements 
also made the project social media-friendly. 

Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Kim Duckett, and Aaron Welborn

#ThankALibrarian
An engagement project to make library support more visible

Arianne Hartsell-Gundy is head of Humanities Section 
and librarian for literature and theater studies, aah39@
duke.edu, Kim Duckett is head of research and 
instructional services, email: kim.duckett@duke.edu, 
and Aaron Welborn is director of communications at 
Duke University, aaron.welborn@duke.edu
 
© 2016 Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Kim Duckett, and Aaron Welborn

Duke’s #ThankALibrarian campaign was 
designed to be light-weight for participants, 
visually appealing, and fun.



C&RL News December 2016 538

Throughout the week, pairs of librar-
ians were stationed at target locations and 
worked together to connect with students, 
faculty, and others to explain the project and 
to help participants create their message on 
a whiteboard before taking their photo. We 
used signage to promote the activity and gave 
away library-inspired buttons. Participants 
were entered into a drawing to win a satirical 
“PBR” T-shirt promoting Perkins, Bostock, 
and Rubenstein libraries, the main cluster of 
libraries on Duke’s West Campus. 

G r o u p s 
o f  p h o t o s 
were shared 
o n  F a c e -
book, Ins-
tagram, and 
Twitter over 
the course 
of the week. 
We were also 
able to hire a 
professional 
v i d e o g r a -
pher for part 
of the time, 
w h i c h  a l -
lowed us to 
cap off the 
c a m p a i g n 
with a short, upbeat video that we shared 
and promoted widely. 

Project logistics
Although it sounds simple, this project in-
volved a lot of moving parts. As a result, the 
team developed a planning document outlin-
ing logistics, supplies, roles, and a timeline. 
This careful planning contributed greatly to 
our success. 

Before starting, we got advice and per-
missions from a variety of places, starting 
with buy-in from our administration. We 
also consulted social media staff in Duke’s 
Office of News and Communications for tips 
on how to run a social media campaign, 
and we solicited feedback from our library 
student advisory boards. Because we planned 

to collect photos of individuals and share 
them widely on social media, we were par-
ticularly mindful about how best to inform 
participants. To make this process easy, we 
printed and taped a disclaimer on the back of 
all of our whiteboards informing participants 
that by allowing us to take their photo, they 
agreed to let us share and use it online and 
in our video.

The team picked high-visibility locations 
around campus, including bus stops, the 
plaza outside the student center, and our li-

brary coffee 
shop. 

Ultimate-
ly we found 
t h a t  o u r 
best spots 
for connect-
i n g  w i t h 
the campus 
community 
were right 
in front of 
our librar-
ies. Though 
we picked 
a variety of 
t i m e s ,  w e 
emphasized 
times when 

we thought we would be most likely to get 
more people passing by, so we stayed away 
from early morning and tried to pay attention 
to class changes.

While we hoped to get plenty of partici-
pants who would want to thank our librar-
ians, we tried to increase participation by 
making the process easy and by making our 
stations as visible as possible. We created 
large, eye-catching posters advertising Na-
tional Library Week and the #ThankALibrarian 
campaign, created buttons that we gave to 
people walking by, and let people know that 
they would be entered into a drawing for one 
of our “PBR” shirts (helpfully worn by all of 
our volunteers), if they participated.

The team also developed a plan for how to 
capture and share our images. Our volunteers 

While the initial goal was to convince 100 people to thank a librarian, 
library staff were thrilled to get nearly 300.



December 2016 539 C&RL News

took photos on 
their smartphones 
and then emailed 
the photos at the 
largest file size to 
the libraries’ Com-
munications staff. 
Then the photos 
could be curated, 
compiled, and up-
loaded to social 
media a couple of 
times a day.

Collaboration 
across the 
libraries
Since one of our 
goals was to make 
library staff feel valued and appreciated, we 
knew we wanted to involve people across 
our libraries. As a result, we planned to set 
up our stations at 
multiple locations 
on both Duke’s West 
and East Campuses. 
This served the dual 
purpose of ensur-
ing that we would 
get different cam-
pus populations to 
participate and that 
we would get par-
ticipation from staff 
across the organiza-
tion. We also cre-
ated paper versions 
of our #ThankALi-
brarian whiteboards 
that could be dis-
tributed at service 
points, such as the 
Rubenstein Library 
Reading Room and 
the Perkins Library 
Service Desk. 

Our giveaway buttons had slogans that 
advertised many different libraries at Duke 
(e.g., “Owl See You in Rubenstein” and 

“ M u s i c  L i b r a r-
ians Know the 
Score”). Then we 
asked for volun-
teers at an all-staff 
o p e n  m e e t i n g 
and through an 
email to our inter-
nal email lists. We 
were very lucky 
to get librarians, 
library staff, and 
student worker 
volunteers from 
a variety of library 
d e p a r t m e n t s . 
Even our Marine 
Lab Library lo-
cated 200 miles 

away participated! 
Once we had our volunteers, we endeav-

ored to make it very easy for them to partici-
pate. We created an 
online spreadsheet 
where volunteers 
could sign up for 
the times and loca-
tions that worked 
best for them. On 
this spreadsheet we 
asked volunteers to 
list their cell phone 
n u m b e r s ,  s o  w e 
could stay in contact. 
We created a kit of 
materials they could 
u s e  d u r i n g  t h e i r 
shifts that included 
a script, a checklist, 
and all the neces-
sary supplies. We 
also had a practice 
meeting before the 
big week, so that 
v o l u n t e e r s  c o u l d 
figure out the best 

way to take pictures, learn the best way to 
get the photos to our team, and share tips on 
how to approach people. During the week, 

Having a few prompts ready helped participants come up 
with more specific whiteboard messages, instead of generic 
statements like, “Thanks for the books.”

The team picked high-visibility spots on Duke’s East 
and West campuses, which ensured participation 
from different campus populations.



C&RL News December 2016 540

we regularly communicated through email 
about our progress and what volunteers were 
learning during their shifts. To sweeten the 
deal, each of our volunteers received one of 
the much-coveted “PBR” shirts to wear during 
their shifts and then keep.

Impact
W h i l e  o u r 
initial goal 
was to con-
v i n c e  1 0 0 
p e o p l e  t o 
thank a li-
brarian, we 
were thrilled 
a n d  o v e r -
w h e l m e d 
when we got 
n e a r l y  3 0 0 
participants. 
In general, 
s t u d e n t s , 
faculty, staff, 
and campus visitors walking near our sta-
tions were interested in participating. Often 
their positive feelings and thoughts about 
the library were generalized by statements 
such as “I love the library!” or “The library 
is great!” But with a little prompting from 
library staff, many people gave more specific 
shout-outs for how a librarian—sometimes 
remembered by name, a service, or space—
met their needs. 

The project was a big hit on social media, 
resulting in new followers to the Duke Uni-
versity Libraries on Facebook, Twitter, and 
Instagram. The project reached nearly 4,000 
people on our Facebook page and had an 
“organic reach” of 13,047 people as a result 
of likes, shares, tags, and comments. The 
Libraries Facebook page received an 8,656% 
increase in traffic over a typical week. The 
top posts featured American journalist Cokie 
Roberts, who was visiting campus to speak 
at a library event that week, and Duke Uni-
versity’s President Richard Brodhead. The 
project also led to 260 email addresses added 
to the Libraries News and Events email list.  

Our #ThankALibrarian video1 provided 
a short and fun overview of the project. It 
was shared via social media and used by 
the Duke University Libraries Development 
office as part of their spring solicitation. 
However, the biggest measure of exposure 
came when Duke’s Office of News and 

Communica-
tions shared 
t h e  v i d e o 
through the 
university’s 
top-level so-
c i a l  m e d i a 
channels and 
posted it on 
the univer-
sity’s homep-
age (duke.
edu), result-
ing in thou-
sands more 
views, likes, 
shares, and 

reactions. The project team also presented 
to a large group of library staff who enjoyed 
learning about the project, watching the 
video, and viewing a sampling of the 300 
photos and messages. Our goal of helping 
staff feel valued and appreciate was certainly 
achieved.

Suggestions for other libraries
We learned several things that may be useful 
for anyone considering similar initiatives. 
First we learned the value of brainstorming. 
The whole idea of this project came out 
of the brainstorming our team was doing 
for projects related to making our work as 
librarians more visible. Our idea became 
stronger and more interesting the more we 
talked through the concept. 

Related to this idea, we saw how great 
things can turn out when you are willing to 
experiment. We had no idea when this started 
if this idea would work out well or not. We 
also learned how important planning can be. 

(continues on page 546)

Duke’s top-level social media channels shared the video and posted 
it on the university’s homepage, resulting in thousands of views, likes, 
shares, and reactions.



C&RL News December 2016 546

its publications: Academic Library Trends 
and Statistics Survey Editorial Board; Choice 
Editorial Board; College & Research Libraries 
Editorial Board; College & Research Librar-
ies News Editorial Board; New Publications 
Advisory Board; Publications in Librarian-
ship Editorial Board; RBM: A Journal of Rare 
Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage 
Editorial Board; and Resources for College 
Libraries Editorial Board.

Appointments to editorial boards are 
made after the ALA Midwinter Meeting for 
terms that begin immediately after the ALA 
Annual Conference. The editors recommend 
the names of individuals to fill vacancies. 
The Publications Coordinating Committee 
approves the recommendation and the ACRL 
vice-president/president-elect makes the ap-
pointment.

If you would like to be considered for ap-
pointment to an editorial board, contact the 
editor of the editorial board early in the fall 
or indicate your interest on the ACRL online 
volunteer form.

Academic Library Trends and Statistics 
Survey Editorial Board chair: Ted Mulvey, 
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, phone: 
(920) 424-7329, email: mulveyt@uwosh.edu. 

CHOICE editor: Mark Cummings, Choice; 
phone: (800) 347-6933 x29, email: mcum-
mings@ala.org. 

College & Research Libraries editor: 
Wendi Arant Kaspar, Texas A&M, phone: 
(979) 862-6310, email: warant@tamu.edu. 

College & Research Libraries News 
editor: David Free, ACRL, phone: (312) 280-
2517, email: dfree@ala.org.

New Publications Advisory Board staff 
liaison: Erin Nevius, ACRL, phone: (312) 
280-2529, email: enevius@ala.org. 

Publications in Librarianship staff 
liaison: Erin Nevius, ACRL, phone: (312) 
280-2529, email: enevius@ala.org.

RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manu-
scripts, and Cultural Heritage editor: 
Jennifer Karr Sheehan, The Grolier Club; 
phone: (212) 838-6690, email: jsheehan@
grolierclub.org. 

Resources for College Libraries chair: Neal 
Baker, Earlham College Lilly Library, phone: (765) 
983-1355, email: bakerne@earlham.edu. 

Everything ran fairly smoothly because of all the 
advanced discussion and planning. On a practi-
cal note, we found that enlisting help from staff 
across the library was a very fruitful decision. We 
received great ideas from the staff involved and 
really benefited from the energy they brought. 
We also discovered that if you are going to ask 
the general public to do something like write 
on a whiteboard, having some prompts ready 
can lead to more specific suggestions instead of 
generic statements like “Thanks for the books” 
or “Thanks for answering my questions.” 

Finally, we learned that university com-
munications officials are always looking for 
well-produced social media content to share 
and promote. After sharing our video on the 
main Duke University Facebook page, Duke’s 

manager for social media and digital strategy 
told us, “The big take-away I’ll reinforce is that 
great, beautiful videos will be shared on the 
main channels, building your reach and expo-
sure. This was very, very well done.” 

The positive reactions from the participants, 
the library staff who saw the video, and the 
general public has definitely made us eager to 
repeat this kind of project in the future, with 
perhaps different themes. We encourage other 
libraries to think about creating similar cam-
paigns simply because it was so easy to do and 
had such a strong impact on our community. 

Note
1. Duke University Libraries #ThankALibrar-

ian video, bit.ly/thankalibrarian. 

(“#ThankALibrarian,” continues from page 540)