Adults really are kids at heart! One of my favorite writers, Seth Godin, has a wonderful post today called Adults Are the New Kids over on his blog. Reading it made me start thinking of all the ways to draw these big kids into the library. One of the points Godin makes is that these kids have cash, so they are probably buying their books and movies. So what can we do to draw their attention and make them notice the library? How about….
- Offering up display space for their business materials like cards & flyers?
- Drawing them in with book discussions featuring hot authors or concerts featuring local artists?
- Offering art shows featuring local artists?
- Providing meeting space for their activities?
- Offering classes on how to trace your family history?
- Showing retro film fests like the films from the Saturday afternoon “Creature Feature” of *my* youth?
What else can you think of that would attract the big kids with cash?
Patty
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LarryN the LibraryN said,
January 17, 2007 at 7:47 pm
We can successfully see what they want to have in the library, and within reason, provide it. F’rinstance, we just got the Catholic church records from the Rochester Diocese on film. For a few hundred dollars we will get a huge surge in attendance. I’d like to see a blog where we could announce this top the user public!
Adrienne said,
January 17, 2007 at 8:28 pm
We should find ways (like blogs!) to show them cool stuff they don’t know about. (Incidentally, Larry, that *is* a cool acquisition. Why not make it an article on the main page of the MCLS site?)
I also think it would be a really good idea to have an eclectic selection of things like DVDs — something we’re really dropping the ball on systemwide, at least for people in my age bracket. This is why I, and a fair number of people I know, invest in a Netflix account. I can get the latest blockbuster from MCLS, but something more interesting? Generally, forget it.
Talking to these people about their kids and giving them something to do as a family is a good idea, too. We’ve worked to develop more programming geared toward the whole family — Family Pajama Storytimes, Family Game Days, and our character costume programs, for examples — and they’re almost always hugely attended. People want to spend quality time with their kids, but, as I’ve often said, a lot of them don’t know what the heck to do. We can fill that gap. The great thing about these types of programs is that they can be insanely easy to plan and run. Complicated doesn’t necessarily equal good in my experience.
LarryN the LibraryN said,
January 17, 2007 at 9:10 pm
As soon as we physically get it here in the division (next week) I will ask for it to be put up on the front page.
As far as interesting DVD’s – what about foreign films? Sports instructional videos? Past Olympic Games (OK, OK, so I would dig that….)
patriciau said,
January 17, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Adrienne…you are right about the DVDs. When we first started our DVD collection at Ogden, my instructions to the ordering librarian were to not buy the blockbusters, but to concentrate on older films, TV shows, and B movies. Although we get some complaining from a few people, most love the fact that we buy the BBC and PBS Mystery series programs, Betty Grable films, Doctor Who, and monster movies. My feeling is this — anyne can rent a blockbuster from, well, Blockbuster, but it sure is hard to find The Dolly Sisters or Bridge Over the River Kwai, or Cheaper by the Dozen (orginal) at the rental places.
Adrienne Lattin did a Monster Movie Marathon a few weeks ago and told me it was fabulous, and a couple from Webster (!) drove all the way to Ogden on the Friday before New Years to borrow a whole slew of Charlie Chan DVDs for a Chan Marathon they were planning for their family on New Years Day. We have to be able to offer what the chain stores don’t.
patriciau said,
January 17, 2007 at 9:19 pm
I’ve been thinking about making one of the 4 feature stories a “What’s New” story each month where we advertise all the new things added to the site. I’ve also been thinking about trying a blog like PaperCuts at Topeka/Shawnee – http://papercuts.tscpl.org/ – with a link off the main MCLS page. Of course, we’d have to set the blog up elsewhere, lke WordPress, unless I can get Phong to install blog software on the MCLS server and run our blogs from there. If we can do the MCLS server thing, I’d love to make the Good Books columns all blogs.
adrienne said,
January 17, 2007 at 11:54 pm
It would help, too, if we didn’t all have our DVDs so they wouldn’t circulate to other libraries. Alas to that. It’s a hard decision for one library to make by itself.
I wish we had more sports stuff whenever I search for it, although I’ll confess to not watching it myself.
My personal extremely selfish wish list: more stuff that has appeared on Adult Swim (“How many of our systemwide DVD buyers even know what Adult Swim *is*?” she asks, a note of worry in her voice.), MST3K, horror movies, and documentaries (I mean, seriously. We’re *libraries*.). Plus a lot of “classic” movies aren’t readily available in the system on DVD.
LarryN the LibraryN said,
January 18, 2007 at 1:10 am
Yes, MST3K is still very popular. If things were available from the library, people would not go out and steal them through peer to peer networks. We need to interact with the users and see what it is that they want, not just what we think is good for them.
Patty said,
January 18, 2007 at 6:31 am
One thing my ordering people at Ogden struggle with is a lack of knowledge of certain types of music and films. Sure, they read reviews and such, but nothing resonates more than specific recommendations coming from people in the community. Last year, I made an attempt to convene an advisory panel of community residents who would help us decide what to buy in those difficult categories. Only one person stepped up and volunteered. Even the ones I tried to recruit shied away from it. I found people really reluctant to give their recommendations to us in person, but these same people fill our suggestion box with anonymous recommendatins all the time. What’s the deal with that?
I do miss buying lists sometimes, because those were such great tools for finding things you might otherwise never consider buying. I’ve often thought it would be cool if MCLS staff would share their recommendations for buying things like movies and music over the MCLS listserv. All those mailing lists are under-used, IMHO.
adrienne said,
January 26, 2007 at 4:21 am
I agree about this. There are plenty of people in the system who would be more than happy to chime in with suggestions about the genres they love, I’m sure.
This whole discussion has prompted me to start working on a best horror films of the past decade or so entry for watat.com. Who knows when I’ll get it done, of course, but I’m working on it….
Adults and Libraries « Librarian Idea Swap : Programs and Promotions said,
August 9, 2009 at 1:13 am
[...] one that I had a difficult time finding an answer too. That is until I came across this post by Patti, which lists some interesting ideas that include offering display space to local businesses; [...]