Learn how to increase your community engagement with practical tools to unite your marketing and outreach. 

Course Description 

Learn how to engage with your community more effectively and build services that make patrons feel valued, welcomed, and heard. Unite your marketing and outreach functions to better identify your patrons’ needs, develop programs and services that fill those needs, and create communications strategies that ensure your community is aware of your offerings.

You’ll learn how to assess who you’re not reaching with communications and services, and establish a strategy to connect with them through traditional and alternative channels, including innovative outreach and mobile programs, partnerships, PR, and more. You will learn to develop effective feedback mechanisms with clear metrics to ensure your library’s outreach and engagement efforts are data-driven. For libraries with limited budgets and staff, we’ll brainstorm low-cost, creative ways to boost engagement with limited resources. Don’t miss this opportunity to increase your community engagement!

You’ll complete workshop assignments to draft your own outreach initiative over 3+ weeks in an interactive online classroom environment with personal coaching from an expert in the field. In addition, you’ll have access to our foundational bonus content—rich supporting materials you can explore at your own pace, including a series of webinars from Library Journal and School Library Journal contributors, readings, activities, and videos.

Our transformational online courses have given thousands of librarians the tools and vision for meaningful change. The live sessions run on Wednesdays, November 30, December 7, and 14, 2022 from approximately 2:00-4:00 pm ET (recorded for on-demand viewing) with an ongoing facilitator-led workshop over 3 weeks. 
 

Learning Outcomes  

After you attend this interactive online course and workshop, you’ll be able to:

• Understand and apply the fundamentals of marketing and outreach best practices 

• Understand and apply tangible social media marketing and outreach skills

• Tell your library’s story in a compelling way to enhance your outreach

• Implement methods for data collection and analysis to support marketing and outreach initiatives 

• Apply strategic communication techniques to help facilitate your marketing efforts

• Understand the differences and overlaps between marketing, outreach, and engagement

• Have strategies for how to center relationships and community collaboration

Who should take this course 

Any librarian who wants to improve their community engagement through new approaches to outreach and marketing efforts. 

Live sessions are also available on demand 

Can’t make a live session? All guest speaker sessions are recorded and available on demand following the initial broadcast. Asynchronous workshops allow you to complete assignments and receive feedback from experts.

Certificate of completion provided 

15 professional development credits are available

For support with online courses, please contact libraryjournal@edmaker.co

Group Rates

Have a team attend and increase your impact!

Discounted registration fees are available for groups of 3 or more. When you register your team for our online courses, they will be placed in the same small workshop group, where discussions and project-based assignments receive feedback from an experienced librarian.

Send us a request for a quote.

If your group prefers to work separately, just let us know.

Course Curriculum Advisors

We thank the following course advisors who have helped shape the program and course work.

Adam Davis

Adam Davis received his MLIS from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and is the Director of System Services at the Palm Beach County Library System. He is a graduate of ALA’s Emerging Leaders, the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute, and the Next Level Library Leadership Institute. His responsibilities cover the Main Library, outreach services, as well as marketing and communications. When Adam isn’t loving his work at the Library, he’s trying new foods and restaurants.

Erica Freudenberger

Erica Freudenberger has been working with libraries to support community-led change for more than a decade. An avid community engagement practitioner, she was an advisor to the Aspen Institute’s Re-envisioning Public Libraries pilot (2015). In 2016, she was recognized by Library Journal as a Mover & Shaker for her work as a community builder and awarded the Public Library Association’s Library Innovation Award (2019) for the Southern Adirondack Library System’s Farm-2-Library initiative. She created Thriving Libraries, LLC to create bold, joyful, experiential learning opportunities.

By registering for this event you confirm that you have read and agree to our Code of Conduct.

For support with online courses, please contact libraryjournal@edmaker.co.

Week 1: Marketing and outreach foundations 

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45 pm ET

Marketing and Outreach: Creating Engagement & Awareness

Learn the fundamentals of marketing and public relations, and how they intersect with outreach in a library context. You will learn best practices that you can implement at your library in order to reach more customers and increase your library's presence in the community you serve.

Speaker: 

Cordelia Anderson, (she,her) CEO of Cordelia Anderson Consulting and author of Library Marketing and Communications: Strategies to Increase Relevance and Results

Workshop Q&A | 2:45-3:00 pm ET

An introduction to this week’s assignment and an overview of what to expect from the online workshop in this course

Session 2 | 3:00-3:45 pm ET

Discovering and Sharing Your Library's Story

Learn to tell your library’s story in a fresh way in this insightful session from the co-founders of the Library Land Project. You’ll practice seeing the library through your patrons’ and colleagues’ eyes and find the unexpected stories of your library. You’ll learn how to transform your library’s story and operationalize it in your marketing and outreach efforts.

Speaker:

Greg Peverill-Conti, (he, him) Executive Director and Co-founder, Library Land Project

Adam Zand, (he, him) President, Co-founders, Library Land Project

Week 2: Enhancing marketing and outreach through social media and data

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45 pm ET

Digital and Social Media Marketing and Outreach Fundamentals

Learn the foundations of digital and social media marketing and outreach. This session will provide you with relevant, tangible strategies that you can use at your library regardless of library type, size, or budget. 

Speaker:

Dana Haugh, (she, her) MLS, Web Services Librarian & Coordinator of Marketing and Communications at Yale University

Workshop Q&A | 2:45-3:00 pm ET

An introduction to this week’s assignment and an overview of what to expect from the online workshop in this course

Session 2 | 3:00-3:45 pm ET

Using Data to Enhance Marketing and Outreach

Take the temperature of your community and figure out what matters to them by gathering and analyzing useful data. Learn how to make better use of the data you already have access to as well as opportunities to gather new data and make connections with non-library users. This session will help you identify metrics that can help you shape marketing and outreach plans, and then demonstrate how to use that data to enhance your outreach, programs, and partnerships. 

Speaker:

Trenton Smiley, Marketing & Communications Director at Capital Area District Libraries

Week 3: Community-centered outreach: strategies for communication, collaboration, and relationships

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45 pm ET

Empathy-Centered Communication: Strategies to Engage Your Community

Empathetic communication is a powerful, often underestimated tool in marketing and outreach. Centering empathy for your patron’s needs and experiences in your communication strategies will enhance the efficacy of your reach and will help you better understand who you’re serving. You’ll leave this session with clear communication strategies that simultaneously support your community and your services.

Speaker:

Andrea Fanta, Head of MarCom at Nashville Public Library

Workshop Q&A | 2:45-3:00 pm ET

An introduction to this week’s assignment and an overview of what to expect from the online workshop in this course

Session 2 | 3:00-3:45 pm ET

Centering Community: How to Move from Outreach to Engagement

Outreach is a great starting point to help raise community awareness about your programs and services. However, increasing community involvement, impact, and trust requires steps beyond outreach. This session will teach you how to engage in community-centered outreach and how to continue your journey into consultation, collaboration, and shared leadership within your community. 

Speaker:

Fatima Perkins, Director of Community Outreach & Advocacy

 

Online Course Preview

A preview of how we build your library skills and bring inspiration to your projects with our online learning experience.

Course Format

One-Week Timeline (Course Runs 3+ Weeks)

DAYS 1-2 On Demand	DAY 3 2.5 hours	DAYS 4-7 1-2 hours (optional)
PRE-LIVE SESSION - Resources - Discussions - Bonus Content	LIVE SESSIONS - Guest speakers via webcast - Q&A via chat - Recordings available on demand	ASYNCHRONOUS WORKSHOP - Project-based homework, applied to your job - Personalized feedback from a facilitator - Group discussion in an asynchronous workshop setting via discussion forum	3-WEEK WORKSHOP - Facilitator-led feedback WEEK 1 Reimagine your library WEEK 2 A fresh look at your audience WEEK 3 Synthesize your action plan

Inspiring Live Guest Speakers + Facilitated Group Workshop for Project-Based Learning

Live session with Andrea Blackman and Tasneem Ansariyah Grace	Live Guest Speakers Each Week Engage with presenters via live video stream, visual presentations, and chats Map out your own equity initiatives with guidance from an expert advisor Leave with refined, robust strategies designed to make a lasting impact on your community Workshop tangible antiracist approaches to your work with input from peer groups

Online Course Features

Recordings of guest speakers

Recordings Available After The Live Session Real-time guest speakers and conversation via live video stream (with recordings available afterward) Instructor-led online course features personalized interaction over 3+ weeks

Facilitator-led workshop

Online Classroom Organizes All Materials Workshop assignments to help you make progress on your goals Individualized attention from course facilitators who work with you in a coaching environment in the workshop to help sort out challenges Ongoing group conversation via discussion forums

Early Access On Demand Resources

Resources To Support Learning Supporting resources (articles, videos, worksheets) in the online classroom to provide a foundation for your work Access all course content for six months after the course ends Bonus: Register early and get immediate access to archival video recordings from related courses and other bonus content