Gates Grant Funds Library Awareness Campaign

-- Library Journal, 11/15/2006

OCLC has received a $1.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a national marketing campaign to increase awareness of the value of libraries and the need to support libraries at local, state, and national levels. OCLC will use the funds to conduct research, develop strategies, create materials, and test elements of a national marketing campaign, with guidance from the advertising firm Leo Burnett USA. The campaign likely will address some of the findings of OCLC's Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, a report released in December 2005 based on a Harris Poll Online survey. The report noted that consumers view libraries as places to borrow print books and are unaware of the scope of the electronic content libraries offer. Over the next three to five years, notes OCLC, public libraries will find it increasingly difficult to secure the additional funds needed to modernize services. "Many libraries lack the resources, expertise, and funding to build the library advocacy and marketing programs required to create an environment that can sustain and increase support," said Cathy De Rosa, vice president, OCLC marketing and library services, and principal contributor to the report. "It is our goal to help libraries communicate their value to the communities they serve."