RRLC/Ad Council Marketing Assistance Grants
Application deadline: October 28, 2011
The Rochester Regional Library Council is again offering small grants to area libraries to help them better market their library programs and services. The grants allow the libraries to work with marketing and communications professionals recruited by the Ad Council of Rochester (http://www.adcouncilroch.org), whose programs help non-profits increase their marketing and communications knowledge, handle marketing and communications problems, and create marketing plans.
This is the fifth year of this highly regarded RRLC “mini-grant” program. These are the recipients from last year, and their projects:
Rochester Civic Garden Center Horticulture Library– Strategic Roundtable ($500)
“…(the library) is a local treasure, with over 4,300 titles, both current and historical, which we believe to be the largest publicly available collection of gardening materials in the Rochester area. Unfortunately, it is underutilized because our existence is not well known…[with the help of the Ad Council] the result we dream of is to have local gardeners clamoring to use our collection…”
Rochester Public Library– Brand Development Workshop ($1,250)
“The Rochester Public Library begins its 100th year of service in 2011, and finds itself in need of an identity renewal … in many ways, RPL has lost is identity separate from the Monroe County Library System. Both share the same logo and website, which blurs the boundaries … for both organizations”
Scottsville Free Library – Strategic Roundtable ($500)
“Our goal is for guidance in our efforts to create a more efficient fundraising effort and financial stability for our library. We recognize that every organization is looking for more funding through creative means. In recent years we have made several improvements in our efforts and realize we now need a fresh (and more experienced!) perspective. “
The Wallace Center, Rochester Institute of Technology – Marketing & Communication Planning Support ($250)
“The Wallace Center at Rochester Institute of Technology currently offers a continuum of opportunities for scholarly publishing for faculty, supporting both traditional and leading edge publishing models. RIT’s open access scholarly journals, RIT’s digital repository, support of self-publishing with OpenBook@RIT and the RIT Press are all initiatives of The Wallace Center. Marketing and communications planning support would assist in clearly defining and communicating to faculty the models and options available to support scholarly publication, and to expand the reach of The Wallace Center’s publishing services.”
Walworth-Seely Public Library– Brand Development Workshop ($500)
“We would like to find out what value the residents place on this library by exploring what the current perception of our brand is. We will then make changes that are needed to provide better services which, hopefully, will translate into funding the library from direct tax support. …We will be able to develop a realistic plan for a new library that will meet the needs identified by the community.”
RRLC has limited funding available in 2011/2012 for libraries to work with the Ad Council. RRLC member libraries or libraries that are members of RRLC member library systems are eligible to apply.
Interested libraries must:
a) Attend one of the Ad Council qualifying sessions held on September 27 (2:30 - 3:30 p.m.) or October 5, 2011 (9:00 am – 10:00 am) in order to learn more about the services that the Ad Council offers (see https://workshops.rrlc.org/orgMain.asp?sid=&orgId=19&wsid=1481);
b) Complete the RRLC/Ad Council Assistance Application Form found on the RRLC website: http://www.rrlc.org/tabid/859/Default.aspx.
c) Submit the form to RRLC by October 28, 2011.
Awards will be made by November 11, 2011.