Welcome to the new issue of Marketing Library Services!
This September/October issue addresses some of the challenges that employees of smaller libraries face. The cover story advises about handling social media solo, while the How-To recommends numerous tools for captioning videos. And the Special Report reassures you that, if you’re an “accidental marketer,” you have plenty of company.

Examples to Emulate

Keeping Up With Social Media in a Small or Rural Library
By Suzanne Macaulay
Working a stint in a small shop showed Suzanne Macaulay that Facebook has the power to drive in-person sales. So when she went back to library work, she used those lessons to build a social media following in a small library. Now, she handles social media for a co-op that includes many small, rural libraries and is ready to share the nitty-gritty of how she makes it work.

How-to

Using Video Captioning to Improve Accessibility and UX
By Jessamyn West
In this slightly updated version of a column she wrote for Computers in Libraries magazine, Jessamyn West makes video captioning seem simple enough to tackle. This Vermont librarian covers considerations such as whether to use live captions or add them later, and she shares some video-consumption statistics. Mostly, though, she explains and links to numerous tools that can help readers caption their videos and increase viewership.

Special Report

Are Libraries Still Full of ‘Accidental’ Marketers?
By Kathy Dempsey
Since I published my book The Accidental Library Marketer in 2009, countless library workers have identified with it. While writing the book, I conducted a survey to get an idea of how many library PR-type jobs were being done by people who never intended to be marketers. Recently, a colleague gave me a chance to put out the same survey again, and we compared the results of both. Here’s what we found.

ICYMI

The JCDs, the WSJ, Nominations, Automation, Data, and Grants
By Kathy Dempsey
The annual John Cotton Dana Award winners open this collection of news and factoids. It also mentions libraries being covered in The Wall Street Journal and in a new TV series. Nominations are open for the I Love My Librarian contest. Learn about content marketing, grant writing, and messaging to maintain respect.

ICYMI

Spotlight on Marketing Platforms, Important Publications, and a New Festival
By Kathy Dempsey
Don’t miss all of the great reading we’ve found for you: A book about strategic marketing, a roundup of vendor products, a briefing paper on community engagement, and two award-winning articles from Public Libraries magazine. Also, see what happened at a new Festival of Libraries in Manchester, U.K.