How Edmonton Public Library’s Revitalization Led to a John Cotton Dana Award By Celia Zampitella (Communications Specialist, EBSCO Information Services)
E
dmonton Public Library CEO Pilar Martinez recounts the opening of its revitalized central library, Stanley A. Milner Library, an award-winning John Cotton Dana (JCD) campaign.
Our EPL staff shared their passion and expertise through showcasing our new programs and services and did an excellent job. It was a real treat to see the enthusiasm and pride that staff had in highlighting the services in their respective areas. Over the course of the first week and despite a capacity limit of only 200 people, EPL welcomed more than 5,500 in-person visits and reached more than 61,000 people online. Our “EPL from Home” videos were viewed more than one million times and our website received more than 2.2 million unique page views in 2020.
Describe your award-winning JCD campaign. What was the goal? The revitalization of the Edmonton Public Library’s (EPL) central library, the Stanley A. Milner Library, was a construction journey that took three and a half years to complete. While we had plans in 2020 for a grand celebration in person, we, like everyone else, had to adjust during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-evolving health restrictions. To facilitate a grand opening celebration befitting of the occasion, we expanded our limited in-person event while working within the health guidelines and added an online component, the Virtual Milner Open House. Our main goal for the Virtual Open House was to create excitement around the reopening of our Milner Library and increase awareness around the transformational revitalization and expanded spaces. The theme of our Open House was “One fantastic new library. Choose your way to experience it.” We wanted to engage Edmontonians and give them a glimpse inside our beautiful new facility and encourage them to visit. As part of the programming, we created a fun and engaging social media campaign that included contests, a mix of virtual and live sessions and a scavenger hunt to find a plush toy, Stanley the Bear. We also created 31 feature videos that included tours of our spaces and interviews with subject matter experts. I was fortunate enough to participate in an interview with Mr. Stanley A. Milner, our library namesake, biggest champion and dear friend who passed away in 2021. For the Virtual Open House program, we focused on engaging with EPL staff and external experts to create and share our renewed spaces, programs, collections and resources on all EPLowned channels: social media, our library website, in-branch communication tools (such as the LCD and checkout screens), staff and customer newsletters and targeted emails. We worked with social media influencers and pitched media for further amplification.
22 Against the Grain / June 2022
COVID-19 and the public’s safety were always top of mind and a challenge we had to consider. In addition to the everchanging health restrictions, we also faced uncertainty about our ability to fully open due to the pandemic and mandated temporary closure of public libraries. In addition, materials were delayed or unavailable due to global supply chain issues. As this building project was EPL’s largest capital project to date, we recognized the incredible amount of work invested to bring the project to life. A year earlier while the building was still under construction, there were some negative comments made on social media about the façade of “Through the building, which were taken into consideration. While we didn’t have actively listening control over COVID-19 or other to customer delays, we were able to lead and feedback from influence the updates focused on our social services and building. We really leaned on the expertise of our media channels, Marketing and Communications newsletters Team to produce engaging content and online chat, highlighting before and after videos and sneak peeks into our bright, we continually beautiful welcoming library. maintain high How has implementing public relations at your library improved its community involvement?
engagement with our customers and a strong understanding of community needs.”
EPL is a community-led organization. We have a serviceled philosophy framework that is about engaging our community members — this philosophy applies, not only to our front-line staff, but to everyone who interacts with our customers, including our Marketing and Communications Team. Through actively listening to customer feedback from our social media channels, newsletters and online chat, we continually maintain high engagement with our customers and a strong understanding of community needs. We try to position EPL as a positive force in our city. Our Marketing and Communications Team provides expertise and different frames of reference that a library staff may not have, and I think it’s made all the difference in how EPL is positioned in Edmonton. People recognize EPL as a real asset and I believe it has a lot to do with how we present our brand, communicate and respond to challenges. Much of our success depends on our staff being able to strategically and
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