Are you looking for new ways of promoting your library? I may an idea for you!

     I’ve been busy working on my End of the Year Library report.  This year, our district coordinator revamped what was needed, so it wasn’t the “hair-pulling-out-horror” that we had had in the past!  (Think excel spreadsheets with LOTS of pre-set function cells!)  
     Instead, we were actually able to sit and reflect upon the year, and write about the library program’s successes and failures, learnings and mistakes, opportunities and challenges.  It was more of a “tell your story” kinda thing, which was much more appealing to work on than plugging in data into different cells! 
     While I was working on my report, I heard about a creative tool from other fabulous librarians to help in promoting your library called a “Smore”.  

     This is an online tool that you can find here.  If you haven’t heard about it, I’m about to make your day!  This is a really cool online tool that you can use for free to create digital flyers to spread the word about your library!  You can use it to advertise different events you may be having, or even to highlight a specific class or activity you may be offering.  It’s super easy to create, and they give you all kinds of templates that you can choose from. 
     I decided to take information from my End of the Year Library Report and create a “Year in Review” to advertise the the exciting things that had happened this year in our library.   

     Once you create your Smore, they give you all kinds of ways that you can share it through social media.  I posted mine on our library’s Twitter page, and also had it posted on our school’s Facebook’s page.  You can also embed it on your blog (like I did here) or on your library’s website.  
     Next year, I plan on making a Smore to help advertise our Book Fairs and other events that we will have in the library.   I think it would also be a fun way to share library information at the Beginning of the year during Open House Night. 
     I’d love to hear if you are using Smores for your school or library, or if you have any brainstorms on different ways to use them with your students!

Sandy