Friday, March 15, 2013

Webinar highlights use of photos during Library Snapshot Day

On March 13 I attended a webinar about Library Snapshot Day. The webinar emphasized using image collections to build community awareness for libraries.

Presenters Marsha McDevitt-Stredney, marketing and communications director for the State Library of Ohio; Jenaye Antonuccio, communications coordinator for Athens County Public Libraries; and Marci Merola, director of the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Library Advocacy; shared their experiences with Library Snapshot Day.

Library Snapshot Day originated as a joint effort between the New Jersey Library Association and the New Jersey State Library. Their findings indicated that on a typical day in 2009, more than 160,000 people visited New Jersey libraries.

During 2011, according to Merola, 32 states participated in the ALA’s Library Snapshot Day initiative.

The webinar addressed what makes a good photograph, echoing the preferences of this erstwhile journalist and public relations officer: close-up images that convey a sense of what is happening.

The presenters also highlighted ways to use the photos afterward: sharing on social media, blogs and newspaper ads. In one example cited by Antonuccio, the photo of a child displaying his library card got 108 likes on Facebook.

While the emphasis of the webinar was on the use of images, Merola also gave mention to data and user stories. With photos, these three are key elements of building what Merola described as a “trinity of advocacy.”

Slides from the webinar and additional resources have been archived online. I also used Storify to curate live-tweets from the Library Snapshot Day webinar.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Robust debate and even unusual opinions are encouraged, but please stay on-topic and be respectful. Comments are subject to review for personal attacks or insults, discriminatory statements, hyperlinks not directly related to the discussion and commercial spam.