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InfoPro Home > Professional Development > Monthly Column
Working Through the Holidays
By
Leanne Battle, Sr. LexisNexis Librarian Relations Consultant
What?! Who wants to work through the holidays? Just hear me out. The national calendar is replete with strange observances. Here are a few for February that you may have missed: American Heart Month, International Expect Success Month, National Bird Feeding Month, National Pet Dental Health Month, National Cherry Pie Month. There is a healthy list of weekly observances as well. Kick the month off with Publicity for Profit Week, February 1-7. Follow that up with Just say No to Powerpoints week, February 5-9. Move through the middle of the month with National Family, Career and Community Leaders Week, February 11-17. The week of February 18th is National Engineers Week. Wrap things up with Telecommuter Appreciation Week beginning on February 25th. So, why have I just presented this seemingly nonsensical list? To help you perk up your library’s visibility of course!
I find that often the most daunting obstacle to promoting library services is that we don’t have time to be creative. Here are a few ways to take advantage of the themes that have been created for you.
- Use your favorite month long observance to provide tips on searching The Congressional Record. Search by section to see which observances were introduced in which chamber. Search by the names of your local representatives to see which observances s/he introduced.
- Target your marketing department during Publicity for Profit Week! Show them how to compile lists of prospective clients. Help them set up Alerts in publications specific to the marketing industry.
- Nearly everyone in an organization has the opportunity to speak or present to others. During Just Say No to Powerpoints Week provide some presentation tips. Use advice provided by organizations like Toastmasters or speech and public speaking faculty at a local university. Draw in the techies in your organization by reviewing alternate presentation technologies.
- Take the opportunity provided by National Family, Career and Community Leaders Week to highlight the good works of people in your organization and on your library staff. Send an email, write an article in your newsletter, create a display in the lunchroom to spotlight community involvement.
- Create research tips for locating scientific, medical and technical information to celebrate National Engineers Week. Advertise some of the services your library offers for retrieving articles from technical journals. Highlight the library’s ability to help identify expert witnesses with scientific and technical specialties.
- Telecommuter Appreciation Week is the perfect time to highlight services the library can offer to people working remotely. Make sure people are aware of remote access to resources and all of the remote delivery options the library can offer.
So there are a few ideas to get you started. Don’t forget about special days as well. Highlight executive order research tips on President’s Day. Show off your weather and climatology research on Groundhog Day. Have a party for Mardi Gras! Hey, it doesn’t all have to be work!
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