Blog

Looking for ways to promote healthy living in your community? Discover four effective ways to get started with health programming at your library or to spice up your current offerings.

Are you thinking about creating a patron survey to get feedback from your community about your library’s services? Get tips on how to select a survey tool, create your survey, and get it in the hands of your community members.

Discover what we learned from our Wandoo Reader customer survey and how we are using the results to enhance current features and develop new functionality for 2019.

Are you interested in offering online learning opportunities while still continuing to hold in-person programs at your library? Explore the benefits of both learning formats and get ideas on ways they can complement each other.

Are you thinking about investing in a library mobile app, but you’re not sure if your patrons would use it? Use this checklist to help you determine if your community is truly ready for a library mobile app.

As the senior population grows and diseases like Alzheimer’s become more prevalent, what can your library do to help people in your community living with brain health issues? Explore ways your library can become dementia friendly and connect with, serve, and expand its current offerings to seniors and people living with dementia.

You don’t have to wait for a seasonal or nationwide event to begin establishing your library as a community service hub. Explore ways your library can start providing patrons with opportunities for community involvement during any time of year.

Since over 75% of Americans own a smartphone and the average smartphone user spends three hours a day using apps, it’s likely that a library mobile app would be popular with your patrons. But why is a mobile app better than a mobile-friendly website? Discover the many perks of a library mobile app, how it can extend your reach in your community, and why your patrons will thank you for having one.

You likely send marketing emails before your summer reading program launches to promote your upcoming program and encourage participation. But email marketing doesn’t have to stop there. By continuing to send targeted emails during and after your program, you’ll reap even more rewards for your program and your library. Douglas County Libraries in Colorado, which exceeded its summer reading participation goal by 5% using this approach, offers tips for leveraging this promotional outlet.

Transitioning from a summer reading program to summer learning can offer a host of benefits to your library — and your community. By offering patrons new ways to hone important skills and pursue their interests, you’ll expand the reach of your library in your community while combating the summer slide in more than just reading skills. From cooking to experimenting to inventing, this list of activities will inspire you to incorporate new types of literacy activities into your own summer program.

In recent decades, technology has vastly changed the landscape of libraries, making services more accessible to patrons and saving staff time and resources. Thanks to smartphones and tablets, the next era of library technology is here — library mobile apps. In this post, we’ll explore five of the many ways that a library mobile app makes life easier for patrons and staff alike.

While social media might seem like the best way to reach potential summer reading participants, traditional media, like newspaper and radio, is still an effective way to reach large numbers of community members. Follow these pointers to make the most of these tried-and-true marketing methods.

Social media can be one of the most effective ways to get the word out about your summer reading program. Check out these tips for planning and executing a social marketing campaign.

Library technology is becoming more and more intuitive, giving you the option to take administrative tasks like event and room management off your crowded plate. What should you focus on with the time you’ll free up? In this post, we’ll explore a few of the activities most worth your time and attention once you allow technology to lighten your load.

Looking for a new way to spread the word about your summer reading program? Making school visits can give you the perfect opportunity to recruit students to participate in your program.

During Library Card Sign-up Month and beyond, celebrate the invaluable services that libraries offer their communities by adding a few “nontraditional” resources to your collection, from audiovisual equipment to crafting tools, cooking utensils and science kits.

Looking for more effective ways to use your website and email to promote your summer reading program? Check out these handy tips for making the most of these digital marketing tools.

Summer reading programs are not one size fits all, but when planning them, there are a few key things to keep in mind. As you plan for next summer, here are a few tips to help you create your own planning checklist for your library.