Show Me the Awesome: 30 Days of Self Promotion

Written by: Kelly on May 1, 2013.

design by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Remember our call for posts about self-promotion and librarianship a few weeks ago? This is the official starting line, and for every post we receive on the topic, we’ll link it up here for easy, ready access. We’ll update this post as close to daily as possible.

While we have a lineup of official people taking part in the series, anyone is welcome to blog on the topic of self promotion. You can talk about a program you did and loved. You can talk about how you perform strong reader’s advisory with teens. You can talk about the grander idea of self promotion itself. There’s nothing off limits, as long as you’re talking about libraries and self promotion or librarianship and self promotion in some capacity.

If you do post something and want it shared, leave a link and we’ll spread the word. All are welcome to use the graphic above with a post, as long as credit as listed above is given.

A huge thank you goes out to Sophie Brookover for coordinating this huge project, to John LeMasney for the graphic, and an advanced thank you to everyone who decided to take on the pitch and write about this very important, very timely, and very relevant topic.

Here’s to 30 Days of Awesome through the month of May. Show us what you’ve got.

The Illustrated Librarian talks about exhibiting awesome outreach

Rachel tells us all about how and why she rocks out at report writing

Katie tells us about how she grew her story time attendance by 61% . . . and how you can too! She follows this up with a Part 2 and she talks in part 3 about how to keep it fresh. Then in part four, she tells us how she grew her audience. Part five tells us how to stay motivated.

Marcus Ladd at Miami University tells us how to find your voice as a newbie, both in the workplace and in social media.

Carol talks about the ways to have a successful first year in a library in ten easy steps.

Amy talks about finding the awesome within her — this is such a great post, especially for anyone who ever feels down on themselves about anything in life.

Wendy Stephens talks about the awesome ways in which she serves teen moms who use her library. This post is a must-read for anyone who works with teens.

Steve Thomas talks about how he used Kickstarter to help fund his Circulating Ideas podcast and did so swiftly and successfully.

Tibby Wroten blogs about taking a gap year and how that impacted her career.

Jenna talks about throwing herself in head first in a library job, in two parts!

Beth Saxton talks about how she’s staying awesome and in the game while she’s on a career hiatus.

Marge Loch-Wouters talks about one of her most proud accomplishments in her career, which is building strong school partnerships.

Anna talks about all of her duties as a librarian and how she manages them. Because we all joke about “other duties as assigned.”

Charlies talks being awesome on the radio. He brought it to a part 2.

Abby gives us five tips for promoting your programming.

Shannon Robinson talks about her awesome Egypt-based research project.

Matt Finch tells us about the value immersive play has in the 21st century library.

Erin talks about the value of self-promotion and why we need to do it.

Angie Manfredi posts about how to talk about self-promotion when you hate the idea of self-promotion. Remember WHY you’re talking about the things you love to do.

Mark talks about how he shares his passion for librarianship and beer with his community.

Leigh Woznick talks about continually expanding one’s knowledge and skills.

Curious about libraries in other parts of the world? Justine has a great post about her visit to African libraries and what she learned.

Professor Nana tells us about unexpected outcomes of her job.

My contribution for this series is about how I use my platform — this blog — positively.

Angela talks about working with difficult patrons and what the outcomes could be if you’re level headed and in charge of the situation at hand.

Check out this amazing programming idea — StoryWalk.

Anne Clark talks all about how she found her voice — for story time.

Betsy Bird’s talking about how when you have a background in youth services, you can do anything.

Sara — in conjunction with her coworker Brooke — posts about managing the parents in her children’s department.

Are you a people connector? Dianne talks about how her job is less about books and technology. It’s about connecting with people.

Courtney Lewis talks about how librarians were the catalyst in a STEM/History collaborative project.

Samantha says you have to advocate . . . or you have to vacate. What a great call to action.

Been a part of a strategic planning committee? Kristi talks about the value of strategic planning.

David talks about how school librarians are bringing it — the awesome, that is.

Allison talks about how she got her teens to blog at her library and why that matters.

Claire shares why and how she decided to get creative with cataloging and how you can too.

Liz talks about being awesome together, and how collaboration is the way to go.

Patrick “PC” Sweeney talks about how we as a profession need to be shameless in our self promotion. He follows this up with 30 awesome things he’s done, too.

Kate talks about “leaning in” to librarianship. A must-read for those who think a lot about gender and how it plays a role in self-promotion.

Anna’s post about why we need diversity in our library collections even comes with tips and pointers to make sure you’re doing this well.

Kate’s “no whining” project resulted in some interesting discussion and outcomes.

Sondra’s post talks about how she uses math in the library and why.

How about being on and available whenever you’re needed? That’s what makes Kate awesome — it’s the adding up of a million little things.

Carmel talks about how awesome doesn’t stop, even after you retire.

Debbie Reese talks about how and why she puts the effort into discussing American Indians in Children’s Literature.

Amanda talks about how her work on the internet is REAL work and how online culture IS mainstream culture.

Emily Clasper shares why it is she is awesome.

Double or nothing — tips for increasing your library’s social media following.

Drea talks about changing up her Summer Reading Program and what she thinks may or may not happen this year.

Laura Damon-Moore talks about bringing the library to new and unexpected places.

Sue talks about how she brings the awesome to her middle school library. She’s made big changes and small ones to get kids excited about the library.

Maureen talks about using her knowledge and experience as a service learning librarian in an embedded librarian experience for one of her school’s courses — info literacy as its finest.

Amy’s awesome post? Talking about making reading appealing to all.

David Green talks about his anime and manga group in the library.

Written by: Kelly on April 21, 2013.

One of the big things that’s been talked about in the library blogosphere over the last year or so has been recognition. Over the course of ALA, Liz Burns, Sophie Brookover and myself had a discussion about what we could do to allow people a chance to talk up some of their thoughts on the topic of self promotion or even more specifically, talk up the things they want to promote about the work they’re doing.

Thus, Show Me The Awesome: 30 Days of Self-Promotion was born.

During the month of May, library/librarian type bloggers are being welcomed to join in by posting about anything relating to self-promotion, be it a project they’ve worked on they love or be it talking about the topic of self-promotion itself. We’ve already reached out to a number of folks we’d love to participate, but because we want a post each day through the month, we’re opening it up even further to those who want to join in.

Here’s the official pitch and details. We hope you consider participating or pass along the invite to those who might be interested:

This is your opportunity to share with the broader library community what you’ve got going on that you’re especially proud of. What we’re looking for: briefly, your best foot forward! This can mean actual things you are doing in your library and community. It can also mean discussing the greater ideas of promotion and self-promotion and what they mean. How can we effectively promote ourselves and librarianship itself — both within the field and with those outside the field?

This idea grows out of the broader conversation in librarianship about gender, different areas of librarianship and how they are recognized and honored in our field as a whole. We want to recognize and celebrate ALL areas of librarianship as they are practiced now: urban, suburban, rural, big libraries & small, in children’s, YA, adult and technical services, in academia or museums, in schools and public libraries, on budgets ranging from shoestring to Kardashian (hey, we can dream!).

What are you doing that is interesting, unique, innovative, practical and helpful in your community? What do you wish more people knew about you & your library? What do you hope to bring to the profession in the next five years? Ten? Twenty?

We’re reaching out to a variety of library bloggers, both to share their thoughts on the topic and to cross-promote Show Me The Awesome beyond any one area of librarianship. We’re hoping that the academic library blog readers will find useful insights from and make great connections with the children’s librarian blogs, and vice-versa. Likewise, we’d like to open this up to anyone you may think could be interested, as well. If you have a suggestion for a librarian we should approach, please let us know and we will get in touch with them.

So. Are you interested? Sure you are! What’s involved, you ask?

It’s pretty simple: agree to write a post that you will publish in May. Sophie will be the grand organizer of what goes up when; so if you prefer a certain day or date, leave it in the form.

Use the handy, chic banner image, which we will provide.

Include a link to the introductory explanation of what Show Me The Awesome will be about; we’ll provide the links. Both Liz and Kelly will be writing up intro posts, so you can link to one, or to both, if you’re a completist that way.

If you decide to tweet about this, we will be using the hashtag #30awesome

In addition to hosting the introductory posts, Liz and Kelly will publish daily posts linking to your individual posts, as well as a wrap-up post once the series concludes.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Let’s….be awesome! Together.

And if you missed the link to the form, go here. It is easy and painless. We want to know what you’re doing and what you’re thinking.

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