Pitching the Library

(An Infopeople Online Learning Course)
May 15, 2007 - June 11, 2007

More and more library folks are being asked to take on the roles of public relations professionals, marketers and salespeople—something they didn't learn in library school!

You can adapt the techniques of professional "persuaders" to the library world and secure the agreements you need. Making that first call is easier with a few sales skills at hand. Whatever your goal – a front and center news story, a key donation or a strategic partnership—this class will help you master the basics of persuasion and make you feel more comfortable in your new role.

Workshop Description: Your instructor will provide a variety of online videos, articles, case studies and tip sheets that can be applied immediately. During the course, you will be analyzing verbal and written communication, exploring case studies, writing press releases, compiling contact lists, doing exercises and taking quizzes. At the end of the course you will write a simple action plan for the "pitch" of your choice. You will also participate in online discussion forums as part of the online learning process.

Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web browser and your Internet connection, you will log in to the Infopeople online learning site and complete the following learning modules.

• Module One: Basics Of Persuasion
  • Persuasion vs. coercion
  • Achieving identification
  • Logic, emotion, and reputation
  • Understanding the range of acceptance
  • Gatekeepers and agendas
  • Framing
• Module Two: Getting Your Story In The Media
  • Journalists and librarians: common ground and competing priorities
  • Writing a news release that gets attention
  • Building relationships with the press
  • "Pitching" your story
  • Controlling the interview
  • Bureaucratese, buzz words and jargon
  • Beyond the press release
• Module Three: Sales Calls for Chickens
  • Principles of consultive selling
  • How do librarianship and salesmanship intersect?
  • The steps of a sale – from approach to agreement
• Module Four: Your Action Plan
  • Case studies
  • Your objectives
  • Questions, talking points, and overcoming objections
  • Closing

Online Learning Details:
This four-week course will be taught online using the web. When you register, you will receive a registration confirmation that will include the URL to get to the course, as well as a username and password.

Every student proceeds through the online learning modules at his or her own pace. Students should expect to commit to spending a minimum of 2 to 2½ hours per week on this course in order to be successful. You can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. However, you will be expected to log in to the course each week to do that week's assignment. We ask that you log in sometime during the first week of the course to begin the course work.

Your instructor will be available for limited consultation support for two weeks after the official end date of a course, and the course material will stay up for an additional two weeks after that, to give those who have fallen behind time to work independently on the course. However, you will be expected to accomplish the majority of the course in synchronization with your peers during the first four weeks.

Who Should Take This Course: Anyone from the library community with an interest in outreach, marketing, media relations, community partnerships or fundraising.

Prerequisites:
This course is taught over the web. You must:

• Have an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.
• Be able to save Microsoft Word .doc or Adobe .pdf files to your computer and print them out. (For .doc files, a free Word Viewer is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. Search for "Word Viewer." For .pdf files, a free Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html).
• Be comfortable navigating on the web and navigating back and forward on a website that uses frames.

To be most successful in this course you should be willing to share information with your colleagues and be willing to spend time reading and participating in the weekly discussion boards.

System Requirements: The online learning product that Infopeople uses is called Angel. The following are minimum system requirements for using Angel. You will need access to a computer that has at least these specifications to participate in an online course:

• Windows:
  • Internet Explorer 6.0 and above, Netscape 7.1 and above, or Firefox 1.5 and above
• Macintosh:
  • Mozilla 1.4 and above (which is the same engine as Netscape 7.1), Safari 2.0 and above, or Firefox 1.5 and above
  • OS X and above (OS 9 will NOT work with our online learning product)

If you are not comfortable with any of the above, please consider taking this course with a colleague who does meet these requirements.

Fee: $75 for those in the California library community and $150 for those out-of-state.

Course Start: This 4-week-long online learning course starts on May 15, 2007.