Examples to Emulate

Commemorating Local History in Alexandria
By Andrea Castillo and Rose Dawson
It used to be a little-known fact that America’s first sit-in protest in a library happened in Alexandria, Va., in 1939. But Alexandria Library’s leaders have been working to recognize that history for 12 years. The series of commemorative activities it held throughout 2019, marking the event’s 80th anniversary, helped to bring the community together and to heal racial injustices of the past. The series also won a 2020 John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award and the 2020 ALA Excellence in Library Programming Award.

Special Report

Broward County Translates Outreach With Alexa and More
Compiled by Kathy Dempsey
MLS highlights another winner in this issue: Broward County Library in Florida earned the 2020 ALA/Information Today, Inc. Library of the Future Award. The honor is given for employing information technology, and Broward won for using Alexa devices for language translation at service points, enabling staffers to communicate with users who speak Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese. I’ve combined the original award coverage written by Brandi Scardilli of Information Today with more marketing details provided by Broward’s project leader Vonda Ward Bryant to bring you the behind-the-scenes details of the whole newcomer-outreach initiative, Project Welcome.

How-to

Survival Strategies for Corporate Librarians, Part 2
By Karen Kreizman Reczek
In the conclusion of this two-part article, special librarian Karen Kreizman Reczek shares valuable advice from her long career. In Part 1 (www.infotoday.com/mls/sep20/Reczek--Survival-Strategies-for-Corporate-Librarians-Part-1.shtml), she discussed aligning information centers with their parent organizations and ensuring they have quantitative and qualitative value to the enterprise. In Part 2, she shares more details on how to measure and communicate the importance of an info center—and its employees’ expertise—to managers using outcomes and impacts. Reczek explains how she has taken on value-added roles in corporate and government libraries and encourages others to do the same.

Interviews With Marketing Masters

Kristen Fernekes Tackles Digital Outreach at LOC’s NLS to Ensure ‘That All May Read’
By Judith Gibbons
Judith Gibbons turned to an especially interesting library for this installment of her interview series. Kristen Fernekes heads the communications and outreach department of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, part of the Library of Congress. Learn how Fernekes ran a 2-year national advertising campaign that successfully engaged a difficult-to-reach target audience—older citizens with declining vision.