How Important is PR for Rural Public Libraries?

The public library is a place where community interaction takes place on a daily basis. A small, rural public library seems to belong to the people who choose to use it and creating community awareness of the library’s products, services, goals and mission through marketing, advocacy and public relations is a relatively new challenge for librarians. Public relations, if successful, will “influence audiences to feel a certain way about a product or service” of the library (Todaro, 2009). Public relations is a process for all librarians as we “compete for the time and attention of the public” and strive to explain the library’s point of view, publicize its resources, promote goodwill, market its programs, sell ideas and encourage support (Stuhlman, 2003).
One observation regarding library advocacy is “The squeaky wheel does get the grease — but you need to tell the story of why the wheel matters (Schmidt, 2009). Without context, the wheel is only a wheel; without marketing, advocacy and public relations, the library is a building with a lot of books.

-Delene DelaRosa, Director
Quitman Public Library, Quitman, TX


References:

Stuhlman, Daniel. 2003. “Think Like a Business Act like a Library: Library Public Relations.” Information Outlook 7, no.9: 10-15. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text, EBSCOhost

Todaro, Julie. 2009. “Public Relations.” BlackBoard>Courses> SU09LS5903-20 St: Marketing & Advocacy for LS (09S1LS590320)>Assignments>Course Content for Week#5. Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas.