HIT: MID/SEC: PR

[Robert Melgaard <rmelgaard@WEBZONE.NET>]

LM_Netters,

I recently requested your most successful PR or bulletin board
idea.  Thanks for all the great suggestions.  The hits follow:


I have done several things with pets as the theme over the years. This
year our PAWS (Pets are Wonderful) board featured pictures of faculty
pets, with a hint provided by the faculty member as to whose pet it was.
The kids were to guess what pet belonged to what teacher. Then we
displayed kids' pet pictures. It was a lot of fun.  Mary Ann


The bulletinboard that I keep up to date in our library has nothing to do
with library.  We have two papers in our community, one daily and one
twice a week.   I clip articles and pictures that appear in the papers
about any of our students, teachers, or staff from those papers.  It
doesn't have to be school related, can be church, community, etc.   Then I
post them on the bulletinboard.  I change it every week.  Lots of kids
come to read it.


I send out a newsletter to all faculty and staff about every two to three
weeks.  I ask them to post it on a bulletin board in their rooms so that
everybody can see what's happening in the media center.  Each newsletter
highlights the teachers who have used the media center in the past week or
two and what their students did in the media center.  It also highlights
any big events--Book Fair, Read-In, etc.  The newsletter features a website
or two and a periodical or two.  Sometimes I list new books or books with a
theme.  I have gotten response from some teachers.  I think it is a plus.


Do you have any READ posters from ALA in your library?  Every year we
make our own using students, teachers, staff, administrators, even board
members as the celebrities.  I try to get a wide range of students, you
know, a bando, a jock, a skater, well, you get the idea.  I usually do
about twenty a year.  I only choose a few very popular kids, I like to
feature the regular folks.  The "subject" chooses where he or she wants
the picture taken and of course the subject has to be reading.  I also
ask them to write a small blurb about their favorite book and that is
typed and posted beneath the poster.  The photo teacher loans me his 2 or 3
best photographers (so they and the department are getting PR too) and we
are posting student work, always a plus with the bosses.  The posters have
developed over the years due to technology but basically they are black and
white 11x14 photos mounted on colored paper.  I use a different color each
year.
The word READ sometimes goes on the background sheet and one year we put
it across the top of the photo because that looks more like the real
thing.  The posters stay up until the student graduates and then it is
taken home usually by mom and dad.  Our school has grades 7 through 12 so
there are some great "historical" photos adorning our walls.  The students
love it and beg to be subjects.  They also really enjoy seeing their
teachers on the wall and read about their favorite books.


My most successful bulliten board this year started during National
LIbrary Week in April.  The theme was "look who's reading".  I asked
teachers to bring a childhood or teenage picture of themselves along
with their favorite childhood or teenage book. Once I began posting
these on the bulliten board more and more teachers came into the library
(some who hadn't used the library all year) and more gave me their
pictures.  The students also loved the pictures.  I have had numerous
positive comments on this bulliten board.  Since this is my first year
at this school, it has been a great success to bring the faculty into
the library.


I am involved with PR for my school, and I am always in contact with local
tv, radio, and newspapers sharing info. One of our Partners in Education is
TCI and they run a "crawl" on the Weather Channel for local companies to
advertise. They promote our activities by running the craw for us! It is
fun
and informative to see our name on the Weather Channel crawl! There is no
charge to us which makes it extra nice! Wea re a Channel One school, and
believe me it is WONDERFUL! Just this past year, we have had national
exposure three times, something our school could never afford. Most
recently  one of our teachers was interviewed at length on a story on the
military
draft. Across the nation people we aware of Shaw High School! I sponsor our
Quill and Scroll chapter and we have a local media person named as an
honorary member each year. This also puts us in the spotlight.


I got a huge batch of brand new books for middle school students that no
one was checking out. Finally, I went to a middle school team meeting
and asked for support from the teachers for my program "Turn a Book into
a Sundae!" I got their support up front and here's how it went: Each
6th, 7th, and 8th grade teacher came to the media center to look at the
display of brand new, never-been-checked-out books for their age and
made a "new" book their book-of-the-month reading assignment. I added
the zinger - if they turned in a one-page book review (positive or
negative) by a certain date, they would earn a ticket into an ice-cream
sundae party to be given in the courtyard outside the media center. My
first party netted 33 takers (out of about 100 students). BUT it was so
well-received by those who came, the very next book chat I had with
middle school classes during their regular media center visit was
replete with "Mrs. Grigsby, when are you going to do that again?" and
"That was great! Will you do that with these books, too?" and "I wish I
had taken you up on that. When can you do another one?" etc.
Bottom line: new books got reviewed and subsequently saw a lot of
circulation because of it, the cost of the party was minimal, and the
kids (even the non-readers) loved it. I'm planning 3 of them next year!


I covered the entire wall of the display case with pictures of cats.  The
caption read "have a purrfect new year."  books displayed were about cats
-- I
was surprised how many kids asked what I as going to do with all those
pictures when I took them down. They wanted them :)


Whose pet is this?  Pictures of staff pets.  Kids match them up.   I've
done the same thing with baby pictures  and have plans for prom pictures.


My all-time best idea for getting people to talk about the library (in
positive terms...) and come to visit was the contest I ran during
Library Week last month.  I asked the elem. teachers and staff to
remember their favorote book during childhood. Then asked each to bring
a picture of themselves at the age they enjoyed that particular book. I
had 24 choose to participate, and it made quite an interesting display.
I had visits from nearly every elem. staff member, as well as many high
school staff and the District Superintendent visit to see how many
people they could identify.  Students enjoyed seeing their teachers,
principal, school nurse, etc., as children.  It's an old idea, but I've
never tried it before, and it was great!  Everybody was talking about it.
Now I've gotta try to come up with
something good for next year.

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