Ideas for Innovation, Marketing, and Adding Value to the Community

The following was posted to WebJunction Group's LinkedIn page, and it definitely inspires thoughts about how libraries can market themselves to the community.  Here, the library became a center of the community by demonstrating their value as a place to find needed resources, aid in career networking and become a leading voice in community affairs.  Posted by Donna Olson, Information Specialist at Howell Carnegie District Library.

We recently launched our Business Resource Center, followed with Ask the Expert  event @Howell where we invited 10 local businesspeople (marketing, social media, legal, financial, Chamber, SCORE, SBTDC and the library!) Each had a table. The public was invited to speed-date. Tremendous success on many levels.. The public had questions answered; they hooked up with local resources (experts and library resources), some found jobs, yes, it's true, and others picked up business referrals. An amazing networking night where everyone won. Did I mention that the library had a table? Demo'ing electronic resources (RefUSA was the hot one) and processing library cards for attendees. Now our local experts will be flashing a Howell card when demo'ing the resources for their clients.