PINAL COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT

NEWSLETTER

PCLD Newsletter : Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 : 1

Guest Column By Joyce Baker

The Association for Rural &

Small Libraries Conference

Marketing Library Programs

This is the fourth time I have attended

the Association for Rural and Small Li-

braries Conference. The conference was

in St George, UT this year and it was

even better than other years, I learned so

much pertinent information. Thank you,

AZ State Library for providing a scholar-

ship to this incredibly relevant confer-

ence.

With the completion of our new pro-

gramming room this spring, it made per-

fect sense to focus on programming and

there were plenty of practical program-

ming workshops to attend. I thought we

had a good handle on effectively using

social media to promote our library pro-

grams. I was pleasantly surprised to real-

ize the Marketing Library Programs for

Increased Impact was the most useful

workshop of the conference! Here are

some take-aways from that workshop.

The speaker shared some astounding

statistics for increasing participation. She

said that sharing images on Twitter in-

creases retweets by 150%! Facebook

posts which include articles, data, and

graphs result in 89% more likes. Obvi-

ously, we want the Twitter images to be

relevant or we will not get this type of

involvement. The articles, data, and

graphs we share on Facebook must still

be engaging but we need to keep these

statistics in mind as we look for material

to share with our audience.

One unique suggestion she gave was to

include a relevant Ted Talk link to a

book you are sharing on Facebook. Peo-

ple find Ted Talks very interesting and

they will likely be attracted to the con-

nection between the Ted Talk topic and

the book. You also may get some activ-

ity coming to your page from the Ted

Talk followers by linking the talk. This

gives you new exposure. You can also

reach new audience members by recy-

cling content. Remember, it is good to

experiment with the time of day you post

content. We need to be persistent in ask-

ing ourselves as we look for content

ideas, ―does this content build value?‖

Content curation looks at how we can

add value to our patrons‘ lives. How can

we build a relationship with them? Once

we have reached our patrons online, we

need to find ways for them to interact

with us, to keep them engaged. We are

looking for ways to encourage them to

tag us, rate our posts, comment on our

activity, update, and share. We can build

these relationships by asking questions,

posting surveys, encouraging comments,

promoting a share. For example, during

Banned Book Week, we might ask them

to share a Banned Book they have read.

Another great way to engage followers is

with the new Facebook surveys. Face-

book makes it easy to do these surveys

now and people enjoy responding to

them.

Look for opportunities for reciprocity.

This might be where you seek behind-the

-scene shares. Maybe you have devel-

oped a relationship with your local

school or other City Departments. De-

velop these relationships so you can

share each other‘s social media posts.

This will multiply your outreach so you

will reach new followers. The Parks &

Recreation Department re-tweets your

tweet.

Continued on page 2

2017 Issue 4 November 2017 - January 2018

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PCLD Newsletter : Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 : 2

Around the County News from the Libraries

ARSL Conference report continued

Now their followers may choose to fol-

low the library‘s twitter account. The

more social media relationships you can

build within your community like this,

the wider net you will spread with your

posts. My example is an obvious one.

Look for even an even broader range of

reciprocity relationships. Our commu-

nity has a non-profit organization that

works with youth, encouraging healthy

life choices such as avoiding drugs. We

have a great reciprocity relationship with

them where we share posts for each

other. This is an excellent way to reach a

new audience.

Remember, your patrons are your best

source of reciprocity. Set up an activity

in the library and then ask them to share

it on their social media with a specific

hashtag. This will spread the library to

all of their followers, redirecting them to

the library, and reach people that you

would not normally be able to access.

How is your brand narrative? Do you

have a clear, short, easy-to-remember

mission statement? Is it present in all

your social marketing? If possible, try to keep it to three words or three concepts.

I have wanted to re-visit ours for quite

some time but it is not something I can

simply do in a staff meeting. As I was

sitting in this workshop, I realized I was

making it too complicated. We already

have a tag line that is clear, short, and

easy-to-remember – A wealth of infor-mation awaits you. We already use it.

We just need to be consistent. I still want

to re-visit our mission statement, but the

tag line works great for now.

Do you run surveys or some type of call

to action on your social media? If so,

make sure to follow up and give the re-

sults. Did you contact the winner? Did

you post a picture of the winner? Did

you post the results of the survey? Peo-

ple want to know that you listened to

their feedback, that you took action.

Our library uses Canva www.canva.com

for all of our marketing materials. The

speaker highly recommended this pro-

gram. It is free. Try it. There is an up-

grade available for non-profit organiza-

tions. We used our Friends of the Li-

brary Tax ID# to get the free upgrade

and the extra features are extremely

handy.

My big take-away from this workshop

was that we are definitely doing a great

job in Marketing our Library for In-

creased Impact, but there is always more

we can do.

We need to work more closely as a team.

We can communicate better; coordinate

more closely, schedule things together.

We need to try creating working files for

our events in Google Docs, Evernote, or

some other similar program that allows

us all to contribute so we all know what

tasks are completed and what things we

still need to do.

We need to design a schedule for our

program marketing and follow it for all

events – but allow for flexibility when an

awesome opportunity arises. The speaker

shared her schedules. I plan to review

these with my staff and come up with

schedules that will work for us.

We need to look for even more ways to

engage our patrons at the library in ways

that will make them want to share the

activity on social media.

We need to be more consistent in using

our brand narrative on all of our market-

ing material.

These are four manageable goals. What

are some goals you could set to increase

your impact?

Thank you to the Arizona State Library,

Archives and Public Records whose

Continuing Education Scholarship pro-

vided me with the opportunity to attend

the ARSL conference.

Joyce Baker, Coolidge Public Library

APACHE JUNCTION

Winter Programming

Kids Cooking is a program for students

ages 10+. During each session kids

discover they CAN measure, mix and

cook. Kids have created no bake cook-

ies, pumpkin dip, strawberry snakes

and snack snails.

It's a great way to expose kids to

healthy snacks that are easy, fun and of

course, yummy!

Beginner Art for Kids is a program for

students in grades K-6. During each

session students will learn about an

This is a simple way to get your patrons to do a craft, share it on their social me-dia while tagging the library. Now they have advertised the library to their follow-ers.

PCLD Newsletter : Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 : 3

Around the County News from the Libraries

artist, their works, and their preferred

art medium. After the lesson, students

will have the opportunity to create a

piece of art in the style and media of

the artist.

This fall the focus was Jackson Pollock

and Henri Matisse. Young artists can

look forward to lessons on Frida Kahlo

and Dave the Potter in the upcoming

months.

Bells of Praise will perform seasonal

music with hand bells on Saturday,

December 2 at 1:00 pm

They will perform at the Apache Junc-

tion Library in the new program room

in the North Wing.

For more information about our pro-

grams, visit the Apache Junction Pub-

lic Library‘s website at www.ajpl.org

or call (480) 474-8555.

CASA GRANDE

Local Author Showcase

On November 9th, in honor of Na-

tional Novel Writing Month, the Main

Library hosted our first Local Author

Showcase. Five children‘s authors and

illustrators from the Pinal and Pima

area joined us to promote their books

and interact with the children of Casa

Grande. Over 40 people showed up. It

was a resounding success. We‘re look-

ing to expand and support our local

authors again next year!

Teens at Vista have new Makerspace

classes to look forward to this Spring.

A four weeks robotics class and a two

week leatherworking class will be of-

fered next season. Sign us up!

Coming March 2018, Vista Grande

Library will launch a pilot program:

Grand View Adult Library Camp. For

five consecutive days 24 participants

18 years and older will experience a

―summer day-camp‖ complete with

mandatory group-play and break out

session of pioneering activities and

arts, crafts and games. Think dancing,

self-defense, CPR training, knot tying,

trivia, a puppy pit and more. We‘re so

there!

Contact the Casa Grande Libraries for

more information about all of their

programs: (520) 421-8710

COOLIDGE Fall & Winter at the Library

In September our computer coding

clubs, Sugar Code It! and Sugar Code

It! Jr, resumed. Sugar Code It! is for

ages 7 through 18 and lets participants

create web sites and computer games.

Sugar Code It! Jr. is for ages 5 through

6. During this program children and

parents learn the fundamentals of com-

puters and coding.

Sugar Code It!

meets the 1st and

3rd Tuesday of the

month from 4:00

to 5:45 p.m. and

Sugar Code It! Jr. meets the 4th Mon-

day of the month at 4:00 p.m.

Arizona @ Work held a series of

workshops at the library covering re-

sume writing, job interviews, and soft

skills. The benefit of these events was

that patrons learned how many re-

sources Arizona @ Work provides to

Arizona residents, including holding

individual appointments at the library

and reviewing resumes via email. We

are excited to continue our partnership

with Arizona @ Work.

We had a record turnout for our Sep-

tember American Red Cross Blood

Drive with 23 pints of blood donated!

The next drive is scheduled for De-

cember 15, from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00

p.m. Donors can schedule an appoint-

ment at redcrossblood.org with spon-

sor code ―Coolidge.‖

October was especially busy as we

added two new events: Library Things

and Family Pumpkin Carving and

Painting. During Library Things, we

made crafts based on the popular Net-

flix show Stranger Things. Crafts in-

cluded coasters with Stranger Things

imagery, Demogorgon pens, painted

alphabet holiday lights, and perler

beads character shapes. We could ex-

plore the world of Stranger Things all

day!

Our second new

event was Family

Pumpkin Carving

and Painting. We

invited all ages to

carve or paint

pumpkins of vari-

ous sizes.

(Continued on page 4)

PCLD Newsletter : Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 : 4

Around the County News from the Libraries

Well over 70 people participated. As it

was our first time carving pumpkins in

a large group we learned a lot about

the process and how to make it even

more fun next year.

Over 100 people attended our annual

Halloween Story Time. This year we

chose a ―Candy Land‖ theme and Miss

Dani, Mrs. Tisha, and Miss Lanita

dressed up as Princess Lolli, a ―Candy

Land‖ kid, and Queen Frostine, respec-

tively.

Kids had a blast listening to spooky

stories and being led to various city

departments to trick-or-treat.

To raise awareness for Domestic Vio-

lence Awareness Month in October,

we invited the Pinal County Attorney‘s

Victim Services to host ―In Her

Shoes.‖ During this activity, partici-

pants are given ―identities‖ of different

women who become trapped in a cycle

of abuse and are asked to make deci-

sions based on specific resources avail-

able to each woman. It was a powerful

program that opened up a dialog on

how everyone can help others in do-

mestic violence situations.

Hospice of the Valley will have a

speaker come to the library on Decem-

ber 7 at 1:00 p.m. to talk about grief

during the holiday season. They will

discuss strategies grieving families can

develop to help them move through a

challenging time of year.

Our Winter Reading Program begins

December 1. Kids ages 0-12 are in-

vited to participate. And new this

year—adults can participate too! Chil-

dren can come in with a family mem-

ber to register and pick up an activity

board at the library starting December

1. Kids complete 15 activities total to

be eligible for a prize. These activities

include a combination of 25 readings

and some especially fun activities that

include the whole family. Parents or

legal guardians sign off on each com-

pleted activity. Activity boards are due

by Friday, January 5 at 6:00 p.m.

Adults can register and pick up a bingo

board with reading activities starting

December 1. Once they get a bingo,

they can turn in the board by January 5

to claim a prize.

The library will host a FRANK Talk

roundtable discussion - Weaponized

Narrative: Information Warfare as the

New Battlespace - facilitated by Dr.

Braden Allenby of Arizona State Uni-

versity on Monday, December 4 at

5:00 p.m. This timely FRANK Talk

will help participants understand how

adversaries use tactics such as decep-

tive information initiatives to attack

identity, manipulate narratives/stories,

and manufacture emotional and psy-

chological warfare.* This program is

made possible by Arizona Humanities

and the Arizona State Library, Ar-

chives, and Public Records. Registra-

tion is encouraged – call the library at

(520) 723-6030. *Source: http://

azhumanities.org/programs/frank-

talks/

We will be partnering once again with

the Coolidge Youth Coalition for our

Polar Express Story Time. On

Wednesday, December 13 at 10:15

a.m., all ages are invited to San Carlos

Park (300 W Central) as we listen to

The Polar Express, do some fun holi-

day crafts, and ride the Desert Express

Train!

We will celebrate the New Year and

welcome our winter visitors with Dean

Ratzman and his ―Swingin‘ with

Dean‖ solo show. Ratzman combines

his vocals with elements from ‗40s

Swing while also playing the piano,

trumpet, and trombone. He will per-

form on January 25 at 6:00 p.m.

For more information about these and

other programs, contact the Coolidge

Public Library at: (520) 723-6030

FLORENCE Winter Lectures & Workshops

In August, the Florence Community

Library experienced significant water

damage after a monsoon storm.

Repairs from the storm damage have

been completed and the library has

resumed its programming for the

Winter/Spring season.

October 26th the library hosted a

workshop with teaching artist Shari

Keith, also known as ―The Junk Lady.‖

During the workshop, Keith guided

participants in creating a bracelet out

of junk mail and scrap paper. Partici-

pants made beads from all sorts of dif-

ferent paper materials, then wire-

wrapped them to create a bracelet.

This is the library‘s second workshop

with Shari Keith, and both visits were

tremendously successful.

November 11th the Library observed

Veterans Day with a screening of the

documentary, USS Indianapolis: The

(Continued on page 5)

PCLD Newsletter : Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 : 5

Legacy – followed by a Q & A that

featured Florence resident and Indian-

apolis survivor Adolfo ―Harpo‖ Celaya

to whom the Town post office was re-

cently dedicated.

Built around more than 100 interviews

with family members, rescuers, and

survivors, the documentary recounts

the five harrowing days the survivors

spent struggling against intense thirst,

searing sun, and hundreds of sharks.

After their rescue came another battle

– a 54 year fight to clear the name of

their captain, disgraced after taking the

blame for the ship‘s loss.

Set to a soaring original score, the

story unfolds with rare World War II

footage, previously unpublished photo-

graphs, and new footage from one of

the last World War II-era heavy cruis-

ers still afloat.

The library thanks filmmakers Sara

Vladic and Melanie Capacia Johnson

for permission to screen this motion

picture, honoring this critical event in

American history.

November 16th, the

library hosted profes-

sional organizer An-

drea Brundage of Sim-

ple Organized Solu-

tions who presented

her workshop, Get Or-

ganized! Right Sizing and Simplifying

Your Life. Ms. Brundage has spoken to

various organizations about organized

and healthy living, time management,

and organizing principles. In this

workshop, she shared some of her

ideas to clear out clutter for a simpler

life.

Hospice of the Valley

Lecture Series

From October through

March, the library will

be hosting a lecture series presented by

Hospice of the Valley. The talks will

cover a variety of health and wellness

topics related to making health care

decisions and dealing with grief.

Each presentation occurs the second

Tuesday of the month at 3 pm, and

lasts approximately one hour, includ-

ing time for questions and discussion.

Topics include: Hospice and Palliative

Care; Coping with Grief Over the

Holidays; How to Talk to Your Doc-

tor; Health Care Decisions; What Is

Dementia, Anyway?; and Understand-

ing Grief and Mourning.

For more information about these and

other programs, contact the Florence

Community Library: (520) 868-8311

PINAL COUNTY

LIBRARY DISTRICT

In November, the Library District

launched its first email newsletter, in

response to feedback we received from

our 2016 patron survey.

Library patrons can now sign up to

receive information about district-wide

news and notable events from affiliate

libraries.

The Constant Contact web service

provides administrative functions not

only for editing the newsletters and

handling subscriptions, but also for

tracking engagement.

Our first issue featured information

about how to find lists of the new ma-

terials added to our catalog each

month, how to access the online events

calendars for the Library District and

our affiliates, and a review of recent

major upgrades to our cloudLibrary

ebook service—including a partnership

with Chandler Public and Navajo

County Libraries that added thousands

more titles to our collection. It also

called attention to featured November

events, including a prehistoric astron-

omy program from the Arizona Hu-

manities Council, presented at Casa

Grande Public Library, a Family Liter-

acy Day program of games and activi-

ties at Apache Junction Public Library,

and a Frank Talks discussion about

"fake news" at the Maricopa Public

Library. And because the newsletter is

online, it could provide convenient

links to the library's website for more

information.

Patrons can sign up for the monthly

newsletter by clicking a "Sign Up

Now" button on the Library District

homepage, by visiting our Facebook

page, or by texting the word PINAL to

42828.

The Pinal County Library District

offers digital products for you to use

on your computer and on your mobile

devices - all free with your library

card!

To learn more about Pinal County Li-

brary District‘s services, and the public

libraries in Pinal County, visit us

online:

-Website: pinalcountyaz.gov/library

-Facebook: facebook.com/pcldaz/

Around the County News from the Libraries

PCLD Newsletter : Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 : 6

Pinal County Library District

PO Box 2974

Florence, AZ 85132

Calendar of Events

Pinal County Federation Meeting Coolidge, AZ Dec 1

American Library Association

Mid-Winter Conference Denver, CO Feb 9-13