I WON'T DRINK TO THAT!

In the United States there is dispute about when the first public library actually opened.  Boston, Massachusetts and Charlestown, South Carolina both have a good claim to the title in the 1600’s, so don’t believe that it was Benjamin Franklin’s library in Philadelphia in 1731.  In Chicago  it is clear that on April 1872, the City Council passed an ordinance establishing a Chicago Public Library that officially opened on January 1, 1873 at the southeast corner of LaSalle and Adams streets.  Chicago currently has 77 branches located throughout the city.  But in today’s computer world, with Google replacing the need for encyclopedias, and e-books replacing the turning of pages, how can libraries survive?

In 2008, the Chicago Public Library unveiled a campaign to reintroduce themselves to Chicagoans to let people know about all the resources and services that are available for free at the library.

They announced a campaign called “Not What You Think”, obviously not with much fanfare because I do not remember ever reading about it.

NOT WHAT YOU THINK AD CAMPAIGN DEBUTS IN CHICAGO

“The Chicago Public Library has created a new ad campaign to reintroduce itself to Chicagoans who may not be aware of many new and updated resources and services available free of charge at the Library. With funding from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the Library retained All Terrain/Chicago to create the“Not What You Think” campaign – which shatters stereotypes many people have of public libraries. The ads are specifically geared toward adults who are post-college and pre-children who may not have visited a Chicago Public Library recently. Ads feature young entrepreneurs, a senior citizen who loves music and our own librarians who highlight resources such as downloadable media, author events, free WIFI and business resources. The ads currently appear on the CTA, print and online media. In 2009, the campaign will expand to viral video, targeted event outreach and highlighted event listings on   www.chipublib.org/notwhatyouthink.”

Because the Chicago Library Foundation is paying All Terrain, the marketing firm, there is no record of what the company received for putting the campaign together, or what they receive to continue working on it.  So much for open government on contracts!  In Chicago, there is always a loophole around full disclosure.

All Terrain’s latest campaign to get people back into libraries was to create monthly Library Lounge Nights at local bars.  I find that offensive on a number of levels.

(1) The website of All Terrain  lists some of its clients as Stoli, Absolut Mango and Kilo Kai Rum, along with the Chicago Public Library.  Is All Terrain “double-dipping” by using bars to promote the library?  Aren’t the liquor companies already paying them to promote bars?

(2)  At the Happy Hour events, people can sign up to receive a library card.  Since one can only use the card at a library, why wouldn’t people get the card at the library?  Maybe because people who get the card at a bar are only using that as an excuse to hang out at the bar? It legitimizes drinking on a Tuesday night by claiming that one is going to go the bar for “educational reasons.”

(3)  It is obvious that only stupid people would get their card by going to a bar by this quote from Ruth Lednicer, Chicago Public Library’s Director of Marketing, about one of the Happy Hour events.  “We had people lined up outside in 95 degree weather to get in, and one woman by the time she made it to the table where I was doing library cards, I asked, ‘How long had you waited?’ And she said, ‘About an hour. I wanted my library card.’   Doesn’t this stupid woman realize that once she has her library card she has to go to a library to use it?  If she went to the library instead of the bar, she would have had to wait just a few minutes to get her card.  Then, she would have been able to use it immediately at the library itself.

It would be interesting to see how many of the people who got their library cards at a bar actually went to a library and checked out a book.  I doubt very many.  I think the only winners in this campaign are the marketing firm and the bars, but certainly not the library.