ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 5 8 6 / C&RL News ■ September 2002 College & Research Libraries n e w s Exciting things happen @ your library™ ACRL advertisements in the Chronicle o f Higher Education by Larry Hardesty and Theresa Byrd T he local academic library is no longer the only game in town. Several commercial in- form ation providers, such as Questia, Xan ebrary, and Jones e-global library, are aggres­ sively marketing their products directly to the traditional academ ic library’s constituents. Some, such as Q uestia, m arket their service directly to students using national television ads (w ith lim ited success). O thers, such as Jones e-global, market to institutions with ad­ vertisem ents in such publications as the Chronicle o f Higher Education.1 Theresa Byrd, director of libraries at Ohio Wesleyan University and ACRL Board m em ­ ber, decided that academic librarians should not stand by while these for-profit organiza­ tions vigorously promote their message to the academic community. At a l a ’s 2001 M idwinter Meeting, Byrd proposed a course of action to prom ote aca­ dem ic libraries, and the ACRL B oard o f D i­ rectors formed a subcommittee to implement her plan.2 The Board agreed to sponsor a series of full-page ads in the Chronicle o f Higher Edu­ cation with the purpose of reminding readers (academic administrators, faculty members, and others) o f the contribution that academ ic li­ braries and academic librarians make. Under the heading “Exciting things happen @ your library,” ACRL sponsored four ads dur­ Ed ing the past year.3 In the first ad, ACRL along w ith B lackw ell’s B ook Services, the aw ard u, sponsor, congratulated th e first w inners of ACRL’s E xcellence in Academic Libraries award. The three remaining ads focused on aca­ demic administrators, classroom faculty mem­ bers, and students, respectively. These color ads included quotes from each group stating th e importance of academic librarians and the library at their institutions.4 Subcommittee members sought the help of university, college, and community college li­ brarians to solicit quotes from the groups that w ould be highlighted in the ads. Colleagues often responded with num erous quotes, and the com m ittee w o rk ed w ith ACRL staff to select the quotes to be used. M a k in g use o f th e ads Although the full impact of the advertising cam­ paign is difficult to measure, many librarians have reported making use o f the ads to suc­ cessfully gain attention for the libraries on their campuses. Marianne Gaunt, university librar­ ian at Rutgers University Libraries, should win an aw ard for using the advertisements in the w idest variety of ways. The university circu­ lated copies of the ad featuring its president in its w eekly “m edia clips,” the University Li­ braries included copies of it in its Friends of About the authors Larry Hardesty is college lib ra ria n a t Austin College a nd chair o f the ACRL 11th N atio n a l Conference, e-mail: lhardesty@austinc.edu. and Theresa Byrd is director o f libraries a t Ohio Wesleyan University and a member o f the ACRL Board o f Directors, e-mail: tsbyrd@cc.owu.edu mailto:lhardesty@austinc.edu mailto:tsbyrd@cc.owu.edu C&RL News ■ S ep tem b er 2002 / 587 the Libraries Advisory Council packet, the li­ braries’ development officer includes it in in­ formation she sends to donors and supporters, and the University Libraries noted it on its staff electronic list and staff paper. Gaunt said, “The ad had benefit in the library as a morale booster.” At Emerson College, Mickey Zemon, ex­ ecutive director o f the library, reported, “The administration and faculty were thrilled that one o f Emerson’s faculty was selected for the C h ron icle ad. The selection was announced at the Faculty Assembly, in the campus newspa­ per, and as a ‘bragging point’ during Alumni Weekend.” As a final touch, they enlarged the ad to poster size and put it on an easel near the en­ trance o f the library for everyone to see. Steven Bell, director o f the Gutman Libraiy at Philadelphia University, and Sherry Durren, in­ formation services/serials librarian at Gwinnett University Center Li­ brary, also enlarged the ads and posted them near the front of their libraries. Bell made a copy o f the second ad (with the quotes from faculty members) and sent them to more than 400 o f his faculty m em bers w ith a note to remind them that the librarians are there to help. Patricia Kreitz, director o f tech ni­ The Abell Library at Austin College's bulletin board by Pat Means, library media specialist.cal information ser­ vices at the Stanford University Linear Accel­ erator Center and ACRL Board member, made color copies and sent them to many senior ad­ ministrators on campus and in the laboratory. She also has a copy signed by Burton Richter, the Nobel Prize w inner in Physics w ho is quoted in one o f the ads, hanging in a place of honor in the library. Even librarians who did not have the quotes they submitted selected for the ads found ways to use the quotes on campus. Chris Nugent, library director at Maryville College, said, “W hile the quotes I submitted from stu­ dent leaders were not used for a C hron icle ad, I used them internally. We used them as part of a logo on our five-year review Web site and made bookmarks with [the quotes] on the front and the URL to our Web portal on the back for distribution to the entire faculty. The quotes made such an impression on some faculty that they were again used in a speech at a college award ceremony.” Nugent added, “The project gave me excel­ lent opportunities for marketing our own li­ brary here on campus. I do appreciate that!” Henry Adams once stated, “A teacher af­ fects eternity; he can never tell where his in­ fluence stops.” Similarly, while it is difficult to measure the impact of the C h ron icle ads, they have the potential to influence our colleagues in higher education well into the future. Notes 1. The various commercial information pro­ viders are discussed in more detail elsewhere. Most notably: Steven J. Bell, “New Informa­ tion M arketplace Competitors: Issues and Strategies for Academic Libraries,” portals: Libraries a n d the A cadem y 2, no. 2 (2002): 2 7 7 -3 0 3 ; and Mignon Adams, “Questia, XanEdu and Friends: What Campuses and Librar­ ies Can Learn from Them,” LibraryI ssues 21 (May 2001): 1-4. 2. mittee consists of Theresa Byrd, Debra Dancik, Larry Hardesty, and Mary Reichel. The ACRL Board approved the implementation of the advertisement series at the Midwinter 2001 meeting. 3. your library” is an ALA trademarked public relations theme. 4. Four ads have been published in the fol­ lowing issues of the C hron icle o f H igher E d u ca­ tion : congratulations to winners o f 2001 Ex­ cellence in Academic Libraries Award, 47 (April 20, 2001): A 4l; administrator quotes, 48 (No­ vember 16, 2001): A15; faculty member quotes, 48 (April 12, 2002): A27; and student quotes, 48 (May 31, 2002): A13. ■ The subcom­