PLA 2010 Conference: Reaching 'Quarter-Life'; Adults and Young Professionals

Public Library Association - PLA 2010 - Annual Conference - Portland

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 03/29/2010

• Presentations from Brooklyn to Portland; Beaufort, SC, to Omaha
• Authenticity in P.R. style
• Food and drink draw crowds

Sure, libraries reach out to children, teens, parent, and seniors, but what about twentysomething and thirtysomething adults, many of whom are waiting longer and longer to have kids?

There are solutions, involving innovative programming and even alcohol, reported librarians from that generation at a well-attended Public Library Association (PLA) Conference panel on Saturday titled “If You Didn’t Work Here, Would You Come Here?”  (See PowerPoint presentation at bottom.)

Going to the people
“You really have to go to where these people are,” reported Jennifer May of the Multnomah County Library (MCL), Portland, citing a recent library visit to the Stumptown Comics Festival. 

She showed a photo of an oversized library cards, a terrific prop for photos. “They make comments [like], ‘Wow, can I check out a very big book?’” she reported. 

She also displayed a very DIY-style flyer for annual program at MCL, “Zinesters Talking,” noting that the visual language was one that connected with the community. 

The annual Central Library Block Party used to be aimed mostly at kids and families but last year offered more fun for adults. One feature was a snazzy form of RA: a fortune teller with a crystal ball offering Free Reading Advice. 

Going to the stomach
Amanda Brewer of the Beaufort County Library, SC, returned from the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago with an idea: while there wasn't the range of restaurants at home as there was at the “Taste of Chicago” event, she knew she could reach people through food. 

Thus emerged “A World of Beauforts,” a cookbook and event featuring recipes from the many other towns named Beaufort around the globe, in connection with National Library Week. (By the way, almost everyone else pronounces the name of the locality BOW-fort, but in South Carolina it’s BUE-fort.)

Brewer enlisted local restaurants and asked them prepare recipes. (The library paid for the restaurant supplies.) The festival, which included information about the other towns, was held at the most visible place in town, at a waterfront park two-and-a-half blocks from the library.

“Two hundred and fifty people came in a span of 30 minutes,” she reported. “If you feed them, they will come. It was a wonderful community experience, and the businesses really got into it as well.” 

She noted that younger adults like programs with “no strings attached,” i.e., those that didn't require library cards. 

Going downtown
Kansas City Public Library (KCPL), MO, director Crosby Kemper III (a self-described “token aging male, here for comic relief”) said it’s “important to twenty- and thirtysomethings that you're hip, you get it.” One way his library shows it “gets it” is to hold a rooftop movie series, with the “weirder” movies being most successful.

His library had a special challenge in getting women of this generation downtown. Their solution: food. The “Eclectic Eats” series served food and discussion from ethnic restaurants. A series with the University of Chicago Press on the history of food also drew large crowds, as have programs on fashion.

Men gravitate toward cult movies, stand-up comedy, sports programming, and music of many types—and, of course, to events that draw women, he said.

And while it may not be intuitive to librarians, Kemper said that programs on military issues, like a recent one featuring representatives from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS (“basically, the Army's grad school”), generally attract large crowds.

The Meet the Past television series—which began as a library program without the TV connection—features Kemper interviewing prominent historical figures (as portrayed by veteran Chautauqua performers) with local connections. KCPL also offers staged readings of classic plays.

Going to Greenpoint
Mel Gooch of the Brooklyn Public Library’s Greenpoint branch noted that residents were unhappy that the library had discontinued book sales. So her branch offered a Book Swap, a great opportunity to attract people to a library branch that happens to look like a bunker. The event was covered in both a local newspaper and local blogs.

Her branch also held an art show to benefit the library, raising about $1500 thanks to donations from local artists, an effort “to bridge the gentrification gap.”

Going after-hours
Manya Shorr of the Omaha Public Library recounted a successful episode of literary speed dating, “Hardbound to Heartbound” (which helped her win notice as an LJ 2010 Mover & Shaker). “You need to offer things that are quirky and different,” she said. “In the local weekly, we ended up in a new section they created just for us: Urban Nerd.” 

In Nebraska, nonprofit organization can get one-night liquor licenses for just $65. The library’s never had a problem with overindulgence. And they charged money for drink tickets at another event, Board Silly, making their money back and more.

Going to the audience
Audience members offered examples of programs that worked for them:

• a California library put on a ghost-hunter event with the Golden State Paranormal Society
• the Minneapolis Public Library hosted a program for GLBT Pride Month
• library in Washington State promoted Weird Washington, a spinoff from the "Weird USA" travel series
• the Birmingham Public Library, AL, held Bad Art Night, with drinks and food to fuel creativity

Secrets to success
While some programs don’t work—a dating event didn’t fly in Beaufort—a larger hurdle may be getting buy-in from administrators.

Libraries are struggling, Kemper said, “to get a share of the hearts and minds of the political class and voters.” Even if younger adults don’t vote as much as older ones, they will. Libraries must get “show them the library is relevant to their lives,” he said.

Make sure there's a clear budget and don't be afraid to write grants, panelists added.

Gooch noted that, in some cases, the library building may not be considered cool. Nobody came to a book club event she scheduled at the branch, she said, but when she moved it to a bar, it worked.
PLA20somethings_____________________________________________________________________________________
Click here for more PLA 2010 Conference News coverage from the editors of Library Journal and School Library Journal.