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Getting it right
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Germany’s Wurzburg public library director on how a promotional strategy restored its popularity
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Photo: V.V. Krishnan
The strategist Hannelore Vogt in New Delhi
Hannelore Vogt doesn’t have that typical look of a staid librarian sitting behind an old table at a dank public library, with the hum of a lazy ceiling fan for company. She has a spring in her step, a wide grin on her cherry red lips, and a success story to relate. A story that many public libraries can learn from. If at all those who man them want to take the pains to make people see a library as much more than a mere house of old books.
A bubbly Vogt, sitting on the lawns of New Delhi’s Max Mueller Bhavan, takes out a file of computer printouts to illustrate her tale — how she, as the director of Germany’s Wurzburg public library, turned it around.
“We could have put our hands up and requested the Government to help us. But this would have given an impression to the public that it is an old library of no use. So we took the reins in our hands,” says Vogt, here to share her experience at an international seminar on library advocacy.
Brainstorming sessions with her staff led to an effective marketing strategy, to bring the public back to the once-popular library.
Companies and cash
Flipping the pages, she shows what that strategy was. “We went to some local companies. That included a popular roast chicken outlet and a well-known winery. When it comes to giving cash, companies often cringe, but they love to give their products,” explains Vogt.
So what worked out is this: “The winery pasted a picture of our library on a Riesling wine bottle, and we got 25 cents from every bottle that sold. Wurzburg is a tourist destination and it helped our cause, as people liked the picture of that place’s library to take back home.”
The 25-cent strategy worked with the chicken outlet too.
“We roped in the city mayor, and the local newspapers carried her picture selling chicken for the library.” Children’s events were also organised, and the prize was a night stay at the library. “We didn’t have money, so we thought of that and made it exciting with activities like storytelling, etc.” Also, a company made bags for plays that were mounted in the local theatres.
With such schemes, Vogt and her staff turned a forgotten library into a public hub. “We used the money to give people more and more facilities. The continuous activities kept us in news,” she states.
So, it was only natural the Wurzburg public library was given the German Library of the Year Award in 2003. And became for the staid public libraries, a much-needed example.
S.B.P
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