Footfall fun and frolics

Following completion of Cam23, it's been patently obvious that there are things I really haven't considered at work. Marketing of the library was definitely one of them - and looking back at Thing 19, I made the point then that our library hasn't thought about marketing at all, much less marketing with social media.

The background: the library is primarily based around the museum collection and is intended as a resource for the keepers. It has always been open to the public, but prior to refurbishment about 6 years ago, it was by appointment only - intended for academic research rather than general interest. Now, the wooden doors have been replaced with glass ones so people can see in. When we're open, people can literally walk in off the street and into the library.

The trouble is, as far as I can tell (I've only been here 2 years), this refurbishment was well-advertised, and the new facilities elsewhere in the museum promoted very heavily. However, none of that seemed to impact much on the library. I have to use more than my fingers to count the number of times people have walked in, said "I've come here many times and never known there was a library." Not good!

The other issue I have been dealing with is that people see the name "Reference Library" on the glass door, and enter, believing it to be a general reference library, as opposed to an art reference library. We try to help wherever possible, but in the end usually have to show people the way to the Central Library.

With this in mind, I was brainstorming on Tuesday as to how to draw people in, and how to keep them there. So many times people walk past without even giving us a glance. No, fair enough, you don't come to a museum to head straight for the library, but even if you can just acknowledge that there is a library, then you know that the resource is there when you want it.

We tossed some ideas round, and in the end we made two very small changes to the library. The first was moving our periodicals racks from the door wall to the right-hand side as you walk in. I'd noticed that of our browsers, the majority don't bother looking at the books at all. However, with the periodicals effectively behind the door, they'd walk to the leaflet racks and look at adverts for other libraries/museums/galleries, and it would only be upon leaving that they'd see the periodicals.

The second change was the design of our "welcome" sign at the door. Originally it said "Please do not bring coats or bags into the library". Hardly welcoming! We had a play around and settled on one which is a bit more text heavy, but hopefully slightly more welcoming:

Pretty basic, but I'm a Ronseal sort of person. The one thing I was very hot on was that I thought it was important that we should avoid negative words wherever possible, and so the word "not" only features at the very end. (I suppose we could have written "please leave food and drink outside", but then people start to notice that you're not saying "not" and can get pretty suspicious of how welcoming the rest of the sign is meant to be!)

We implemented all this on Tuesday, and the results have been quietly positive so far. My desk is near the door, and I've noticed a definite increase of people actually reading the sign we've set up in front of it now. Meanwhile, people coming in have headed straight for the periodicals racks, and then have stayed to ask about books and exhibitions. It will be interesting to see whether we get a noticeable increase in visitors.

And the beauty of all this is that it is marketing the library in a more positive way than before. How much did it cost? About ten minutes of staff time moving the periodicals across the room, and about half an hour to compose the wording on the sign, and the few pence it cost to print out the sign onto card. From little acorns...

Next stop, challenging the misconception that only certain people are allowed to enter! Anyone have any ideas?