Whether it's been 10 years or 100, every milestone should be celebrated. Depository anniversaries are the perfect time to highlight your library's Government documents collection, services, and resources and shine a spotlight on your library as a rich community resource.

Planning Your Celebration

Select Your Celebration Date

Plan your events when you know you can gather your maximum crowd. Try to avoid national holidays, major city or town events, and final exams or student breaks at academic institutions. Planning your celebration in conjunction with another special event at the library can help increase attendance. Many depository anniversaries are celebrated during National Library Week and on or around Constitution Day.

Plan & Assign

About a year in advance, clearly define objectives for your anniversary celebration. Draft an action plan, complete with a budget and timeline. Include responsibilities for each aspect of the anniversary celebration, such as guest speakers, media contacts, space selection, patron activities, giveaways, and snacks.

Reach Out

Ask colleagues in your region and the community as a whole how they celebrated their anniversaries. Ask your patrons for ideas and suggestions for celebrating.

Promote Your Event

Brand Your Materials

Use these anniversary logos in your event invitations, flyers, on your website, on social media, or anywhere you plan to promote your event. Download the logo applicable to your celebration year.

• Three unique anniversary designs available for download.
• Available in .png format.
• Optimized for use in print or digital media.
• Can be sized to any dimension.
• Available in 15 different year options

Don’t see what you are looking for? Contact GPO about getting these logos customized with your celebration year. Many depositories also create their own unique logos. Download images from GPO’s FDLP Digital Marketing Toolkit to use in your designs.

Promote the Event

Use your library’s social media accounts, web sites, public calendars, and resources of your library’s parent institution to promote your event. Utilize the screen savers or LCD screens in the library to share information about events or fun facts about your depository.

Notify the Media

Plan your events with an eye to media coverage. Concentrate on local media outlets. Reach out to newspapers, local websites, newsletters, radio stations, community blogs/calendars, and television stations. Invite local media to cover the event. Download the press release template to announce your anniversary and related celebrations.

Utilize Your Network

Ask other local depositories, non-depository libraries, and educational and government institutions to help promote your event by either sharing your social media content, adding your event to their public calendar, or allowing for flyers to be placed in their buildings or at their events.

Events Ideas

• Recruit guest speakers to present on the importance and value of Government documents. Examples include Senators and Representatives, community leaders, local educational leaders, and GPO staff. If you would like a representative from GPO to attend or share a congratulatory video, simply fill out our Request for GPO Participation form in advance. To access the form, you must first be logged in to askGPO. From the top menu, click More, and in the drop-down select, Training/Visits Request. Please complete that and click Submit.
• Organize special guests and lecturers to speak on a variety of topics of particular interest to your local community. Ask the speakers to include information on how free access to Government documents impacts their topic.
• Plan your events to include contests or games:
  • A contest for students/patrons to design an anniversary logo or poster.
  • A drawing that patrons can enter each time they visit the depository.
  • A scavenger hunt (Find a Government book or document about…).
  • A coloring contest or Ben’s Guide printable activities for young patrons.
  • An essay contest about patrons’ favorite Government document.
  • A contest to guess the number of Government documents in the library.
• Offer and promote library tours. Focus the tour around your library's history and its anniversary. Involve other areas of the library outside of the depository.
• Create unique and engaging displays in and around the library that feature Government documents resources. Reference how long your library has been serving its patrons and your library's upcoming anniversary. Link those references to the vast number of resources and services available to patrons. Feature your displays on the library's website and via social media.

Certificates & Plaques

Request certificates and plaques through askGPO. You must first be logged in to access the request form. From the top menu, click More, and in the drop-down select, Anniversary Award Request Form. Please complete that and click Submit.

Share Photos

Take photos before and during your event. Capture lots of action and candid shots. Share your photos with GPO, and your library could be featured via GPO social media, the FDLP Connection newsletter, or on FDLP.gov. Email us your photos and event descriptions. Don’t forget to share all of your photos on your website and via social media.

Prepare for Your Next Event

Document everything – all plans, timelines, budget, etc. Include photos. Your future self or your successor will thank you!

Your voice as depository librarian is critically important in the promotion of the FDLP and Federal Government information.

Keep your audience in mind when you are creating promotional efforts. Tailor messages and benefits for each audience. Diverse audiences will respond differently to the messages and mediums you use. Serving your audiences at their point of need is important. Local collections are a unique strength of your library. Emphasize your local collections.

Reaching Your Online Audience

Clearly the last several years have seen a significant shift in the way people communicate. Using social networking and social media is an inexpensive and effective way to reach current and potential users of your depository collection. Many libraries are already using social media/networking to reach out to users. Include your library in any rotation of blog posts, status updates, or videos that already exist in your library or library system, either for special events or on regular intervals.

Social Networking

Choose from a plethora of social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ are the most popular options, and there are others. These sites deliver a great deal of visibility for the time and effort you invest.

Blogging

While social networking sites work well for brief updates, blog posts allow more in-depth communication. You can use posts to describe and promote your collection detail. 

Some ideas to help you get started:

• Create blog posts about: promotional efforts, current events, school assignments, and reference questions.
• Consult with colleagues for ideas, especially subject specialist librarians.
• Consider writing a blog series on a specific topic.
• Invite guest bloggers if you need expertise on a specific topic or are running short of time (ill, on vacation, etc.).
• Allow for public comment on your pages; it will take you extra time and effort to edit out inappropriate content, but will greatly increase your market and audience.
• Provide "share" buttons on your blogs.

Videos, Photos, and Vlogs

Photos, videos and vlogs (video blogs) can promote your library with promotional photos, tutorials, tours, and instructional videos that can generate attention and reach a wider audience. Use your imagination and be creative. The tone can range from studious to silly. Ask student workers or interns to create fun promotional videos about your library. Air the videos on college and/or local access television stations, or the library's Web site, or sites such as Flickr, Pinterest and YouTube. 

Apps

Library users are increasingly accessing library materials, catalogs, etc., via their phones and mobile devices. Serve those users by creating your own app. Libraries are creating apps to search library catalogs, reserve materials, find library locations and hours, take virtual tours, view videos, and more.

QR Codes

Posting your Quick Response (QR) codes on your library Web site and on public postings (e.g., bus advertisements, billboards, and brochures) can promote your library to potential users. QR codes are a type of 2-dimensional barcode users can scan with their Smartphones to access library Web sites and other online information directly.

Some examples of ways to use QR for your library promotions:

• Place code on shelf at the end of a serial run of tangibles that have converted to EL, so users can directly access new issues.
• Situate codes in the stacks where docs change SuDoc class number to help users locate materials.
• Add to handouts and other educational materials to provide more in-depth information.
• Include on business cards and bookmarks so users can easily contact you.
• Position codes to the shelves of other collections in your library to link users to Government documents on similar topics or your library guides.
• Attach to promotional materials that are displayed at other libraries academic departments, and community organizations to make it easy for new users to find you.
• Work with your colleagues to ensure that codes that link to depository resources are included in all relevant library materials. Subject liaisons can be especially helpful.

Email Distribution Lists

Exploit existing emails lists associated with your library or parent institution. Ask list administrators for guest posting rights, and tailor a depository library to the list's audience. Try to rope in fringe audiences to make them users.

Create your own distribution list. Collect user contacts through a physical drop box and either send email updates as needed, or create a newsletter to send on a regular basis.

Communicate In Your Community

Leverage existing communications channels in your community on behalf of your library. Ask your city, county, local senior center, high school and/or college if you could make announcements and post articles and public notices in any communication vehicles they offer. If there are local newsletters, blogs, radio or TV stations, see if the mangers of those resources wil let you write a guest column about your library. See if they would interview you and/or your staff about your library. 

Use area resources to communicate about your library as well. Inquire at your local Congressional office to include information about your library's events in their local communication vehicles such as Web sites and newsletters. Solicit endorsements from your local celebrities, especially those celebrities who have personal ties to your institution, e.g., an alumnus/alumnae from your university. 

Build your own communication vehicles. Generate a guide to Federal Government documents for new students/new users. Keep track of frequently asked questions (FAQ), find the FDLP resources that can answer them, and generate a FAQ Web page and/or a handout for your users. Continually look for new or improved ways for your library to reach new audiences and communicate more effectively with your core audiences.

Reaching Out To Your Audience In Your Community

Promote your library by attending community social events and by creating your own library's social events. These occasions are valudable opportunites to increase your user base.

Here are some ideas to help you with brainstorming for these opportunities:

• Create library displays to highlight services and collections at your library, and to celebrate holidays and special events such as elections, exams, etc.
• Celebrate your depository library's milestones and use your anniversary as an opportunity to share your story.
• Make events for children and push forward Federal publications and Web sites designed for children. Demonstrate and share Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government.
• Offer orientation classes at your depository at the beginning of the school year or each term if your library is at a school.
• Talk to library school students and professors as a guest speaker at local library schools.
• Use your school, university or institutional mascot, if you have one, at your library events to meet community members.
• Enlist aid from your library's subject specialists; send them newly distributed FDLP materials to review so they can recommend them to users.

Increase awareness of your library’s FDLP services and resources with this wide variety of promotional materials. These items are available at no cost, exclusively to Federal depository libraries.

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