Selling Your Library

On Monday, November 16th, some of the staff attended a workshop on “Developing & Presenting the Value Proposition” by Maggie Weaver. The session was intended to help library management develop a presentation and demonstrate the value of their services.

The workshop provided the reason for developing value propositions, a formula for developing the propositions, and specific steps for presenting the pitch.

Some of the recommendations may appear obvious, such as focus on how your library service is going to “accelerate or increase gains” instead of “reducing costs.”

Other suggestions, such as “small samples” being acceptable for making conclusions, and how to measure anything, particularly services, may be new to many librarians.

If you want to know whether or not to use a pie chart or bar graph, then this workshop is right for you; it gets to this detailed level near the end.

Another upcoming workshop some of the SydneyPLUS staff librarians will be attending, if you happen to be in the area of Vancouver, BC:

Sales Techniques for Non-Sales People Seminar offered by the Simon Fraser University (SFU).

As librarians, taking courses on marketing and sales techniques can only better serve our profession. Marketing our library services has never been more important.