Global library cooperative Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), US, has been awarded a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a public information campaign. The campaign will help public library leaders heighten awareness of the needs of local libraries and increase support for the services they provide during these challenging times. OCLC will pilot the campaign in select areas of Georgia and Iowa starting this summer as well as a limited number of other communities which will be selected later this spring. Later in the year, OCLC will make available community awareness campaign materials and other guides to assist library leaders throughout the country in their efforts to strengthen support for local libraries.
The current economic crisis has led to dramatic increases in library visitation, as people rely on libraries for free computer and Internet access to conduct job searches, access government services, learn new workforce skills, and use other resources they can no longer afford at home. The tightening economy has also put library funding - 80 percent of which comes from local sources - at risk. Many library systems predict deep state and local funding cuts in 2009, a growing burden for the roughly half of all libraries struggling against declining or flat budgets.
OCLC will work with Leo Burnett USA, a Chicago-based marketing communications agency, to design and test the community support campaigns in Georgia and Iowa with the help of field managers. They will use advertising, direct marketing, online engagement, public relations, and grassroots community initiatives to heighten awareness of the need for increased library support. Approaches will be informed by market research, conducted by OCLC and Leo Burnett in 2007, that identified factors which drive and limit support for public libraries.
This spring, OCLC will solicit proposals from libraries that wish to participate in the early pilot campaign and will award a limited number of small grants to support the campaign in select communities.
