Annual Reports: Public Relations Committee

Co-Chairs: Deborah Ginsberg and Lauren Odom Liaison: Pamela Cipkowski (Robert Martin) Members:

  • Emily Barney
  • Janice Collins
  • Ella Delaney
  • Carolyn Hersch
  • Lyonette Louis-Jacques
  • Sharon Nelson
  • Scott Vanderlin
  • Kara Young

Meetings

In the 2013-2014 year, the Committee conducted two in-person status meetings, in addition to an online meeting. The in-person meetings were well received, as they better facilitated discussion and brainstorming among the members regarding Committee plans and objectives. Following the meetings, the Committee members were provided a meeting summary with action items.

Public Relations

The Committee continued to seek opportunities to promote CALL and its members to the public and through AALL.

CALL at AALL/AALL Marketing Award

Member Scott Vanderlin set up a unique and engaging table display at AALL’s 2013 Annual Meeting. The display, “Call CALL in the Exhibit Hall” featured a phone which attendees used to listen to pre-recorded information about CALL. The table was submitted for an AALL Excellence in Marketing Award, Best Use of Technology and was selected as the winner.

Scott will also design the table for the 2014 Annual Meeting.

Brochure

With the help of member Carolyn Hersch and Membership Committee Member Karl Pettit, the CALL Brochure was revised for the 2014 AALL Annual Meeting. The new brochure is informative yet visually engaging.

Law Day

Working with outgoing Director Pamela Cipkowski, CALL put an ad in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin for Lay Day 2014 (May 1).

Pictures at Events

Member Emily Barney and other members took many pictures at CALL business meetings in 2013-14. The pictures have been useful for projects such as the new Brochure. CALL also now has a Flickr account to help share these pictures and promote their use.

CONELL/Give-Away

CALL will participate in the CONELL Marketplace at the 2014 Annual Meeting. Members will be on hand to answer questions as well as give away brochures and lip balm.

Plans for the Future

Over the 2014-15 year, the Committee plans to work more closely with AALL, providing the organization with more information about chapter events and members. The Committee will also reach out to the Meetings Committee to help promote events and speakers. The Committee will also work more to promote relevant events at individual libraries and member happenings.

Social Media

Facebook/Twitter

The Committee is currently engaging with the CALL membership through the social media platforms Facebook (79 Likes), Twitter (64 Followers) and LinkedIn (76 Members). This year, the social media efforts were focused on improving user engagement on Facebook. Through Facebook Insights, we were able to determine that the posts that users engaged with the most were announcements for the CALL business meetings. Our Facebook fans also responded well to articles on the law librarian profession. Other posts that had a large reach discussed current news and developments related to the Association, including CALL award winners, AALL election results and the AALL Annual Conference.

In the 2013-2014 year, the Committee unlinked the CALL Twitter account from the Facebook account. This allowed us to generate more Twitter friendly content, which entailed limiting our posts to 140 characters or less. The Committee aims to use Twitter as a platform to interact with CALL members, potential members and the law librarian community. To achieve this goal, the CALL twitter page has begun following the feeds of individual CALL members, law school libraries and professional library associations.

Website

Archives

The Board requested that the Committee research how other chapters archive their websites. From what the Committee was able to learn, other chapters do not have procedures to formally archive their sites.

Website Updates

The Committee added a Grants/Awards section to better promote these important activities. While no longer in the navigation menu, CALL website continues to promote “Finding IL Law” through a prominent side button.

The Committee upgraded the CALL WordPress installation to version 3.9 to ensure that the site remains secure and up to date.

Plans for the future

The Committee will solicit member feedback on the website’s usability. We will also work with the Bulletin Committee to help create a more web-friendly CALL Bulletin.

Listserv

Member Kara Young monitored CALL’s listserv and made changes as needed. Kara will serve as co-chair in 2014-15.