Does your community plant a lot of flowers or trees? Drink (or make) a lot of beer or wine? Attend a lot of sporting events? Gather numbers for how many and compare them to library data such as door counts or program attendance or circulation that show your library is engaged with your community. Need numbers? Try State of Michigan websites, your local chamber of commerce, local research agencies such as colleges or universities. Get creative! "Library Snapshot" is a national ALA initiative of library advocacy based on data, and we encourage you to take library numbers and compare them to figures of other activities in your community. #MiLibSNAP will begin on Monday June 14th and will run all week, Monday June 14th to June 19th. We hope that you will join us and promoting the awesome things you do! Please participate using whatever social media platforms you are comfortable with. Feel free to post multiple times over the week and make this your own social media campaign to promote your library. Use action verbs in your posts such as: Serve, Answer, Engage, Link, Entertain, Teach, and Create. As you ready your comparisons, think about the distinct value that you provide better than anyone else in your community. Consider how your library is: * An excellent return on investment * Supports strong economic development and impact * Provides great employment support * Delivers provable early literacy development * Serves your community with ongoing lifelong support for formal education and homework help * Provides affordable access to community resources * Serves the whole community equitably * Supports cultural vitality * Is a recognized and valued leisure activities for a majority of Michiganders * Adapted and served during the past year! When you Post, Tweet, Snapchat or Instagram use the hashtag #MiLibSNAP so everyone can easily find (and possibly retweet or share) the great things that you are doing in your library and community. You can also see some examples of what Michigan libraries did last year by going to Facebook and Twitter, search #MiLibSNAP This campaign does lend itself to posts about library data but that needn't be the only thing posted. If you have a great picture of your library, or staff share it. A program or event you are proud of, share it. Creativity is welcome and appreciated. As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Joe Hamlin at HamlinJ2@Michigan.gov. Thank you, Joseph Hamlin Library Data Coordinator Library of Michigan 702 West Kalamazoo St. P.O. Box 30007 Lansing, MI 48909-7507 Ph: 517-335-1501 Email: hamlinj2@michigan.gov<mailto:hamlinj2@michigan.gov> URL: https://michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan Visit the Michigan eLibrary at http://mel.org [#MiLibSnap 2017 In Ingham County last year, enough people attended library programs to more than fill the 75K seat Spartan Stadium.]
