When Jamar Rahming took on the role of executive director and CEO of Delaware’s Wilmington Public Library (WPL) in 2018, his goal was to transform a centuries-old library at the center of a working-class community into a vibrant cultural hub with something to engage every resident. He has made good on his word; the library has hosted a long list of notable figures, from Angela Davis to Dolly Parton to Dennis Rodman to LeVar Burton; brought in rappers from KRS-One to Common; and convened cast reunions of A Different World and Good Times.

BUILDING BUZZ Wilmington Public Library’s marketing team builds successful campaigns across a range of events and platforms. Clockwise from far l.: the team with a sampling of their work (l.-r.): Carl Shaw, Manager of Community Engagement; Leah Howard, Interim Manager at the North Wilmington Library; Nadia Bonilla Gross, Marketing Specialist; Jamar Rahming, Executive Director; and Sebastian Northey-Primer, Executive Assistant. Photo by Emir Lake Photography

But Rahming hasn’t relied on star power alone to stir interest in WPL’s events, nor is he content to only draw on loyal patrons. The library’s marketing team—Rahming, Marketing Specialist Nadia Bonilla Gross, Manager of Community Engagement Carl Shaw, Executive Assistant Sebastian Northey-Primer, and North Wilmington Branch Library Interim Manager Leah Price, along with a contracted photographer and videographer—creates widespread buzz through social media and signage, as well as inviting community members and the headliners themselves to share stories as part of the library’s outreach. These holistic, inclusive, and imaginative promotional efforts, driven by Rahming’s belief that culture has the power to enlarge everyone’s world, earned the WPL team LJ’s 2024 Marketer of the Year award, sponsored by Library Ideas, LLC.

BUILDING BRIDGES

Upon his arrival in Wilmington, Rahming was struck by the fact that, despite it being an established stop along the Northeast Corridor route between New York City and Washington, DC, many residents had never even traveled as far as Philadelphia, 30 miles away. “Pop culture and the arts and humanities create social cohesion,” Rahming noted when he was named an LJ Mover & Shaker in 2023. One of the library’s jobs, then, was to “bring the world to Wilmington.”

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, more than 54 percent of Wilmington is Black, with just over 13 percent identifying as Hispanic or Latine and a little more than a quarter as white. To populate WPL’s two annual speaker series, one in February for Black History Month and the Fall Speaker Series in September, Rahming set out to book big names in the entertainment world as well as thought leaders who would inspire listeners and generate discussions long after the events ended. And in addition to telling the stories of each event—both to generate interest beforehand and keep the momentum going later—WPL made a point of securing the participation of community partners to ensure that the programs would resonate well beyond the library’s walls.

This year’s Black History Month series took the theme “Still I Rise” from the Maya Angelou poem of the same name. Guests included rapper, actor, and author Common; best-selling author Jesmyn Ward; actress and comedian Amanda Seales; poets and authors Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli, and Malcolm Jamal Warner; social justice lawyer Ben Crump; author and actor Courtney B. Vance with coauthor Dr. Robin Smith; and American Ballet Theatre dancer Misty Copeland. Other guests, invited for the series but unable to make the February time frame, included a group of four comedians dubbed “The Kims of Comedy”—Kim Fields, Kim Coles, Kim Wayans, and Kym Whitley—who appeared in October 2023, and the cast of the TV sitcom Good Times, who visited in March.

“We wanted to take this theme, ‘I rise,’ and develop that, because we wanted to rise the library. We wanted to rise our community,” says Rahming. “All the speakers are people that have at some point risen in their life.”

Copeland, for example, was the first Black woman to be promoted to principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre. Vance has had to navigate the trauma of his father’s suicide; he and coauthor Smith were on hand to talk about their 2023 book, The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power. And while the Good Times cast members shouldn’t be confused with the characters they played, the show, which ran from 1974–79, was TV’s first depiction of a two-parent inner-city Black household, and resonated with generations of viewers. “It was about surviving, about rising, about how to be the best versions of yourself as possible when you have odds mounted against you,” says Rahming. The WPL team’s challenge was not only to promote a series of strong speakers, but to envision ways to forge meaningful connections between the notable personalities and the public.

COMMUNITY-CENTERED PROMOTIONS Top row: a billboard on I-95 prominently featured the library’s “Still I Rise” Series; second row: a striking flyer for ballet dancer Misty Copeland; meet-and-greet with moderator Ashley SK Davis (l.), Copeland (second from r.), and aspiring dancers; third row (l.-r.): a young helper putting up yard signs, social media featuring the Jesmyn Ward book club, a patron selfie with Courtney B. Vance and Dr. Robin Smith during the Still I Rise speaker series. Billboard photo by Lamar Advertising Company, Social Media Images provided by Richard Watson of the Cultural Restoration Center and Damali Thomas, and photos of the dancers by Emir Lake Photography

ASSET MANAGEMENT

Rahming describes the marketing team as a “mom and pop shop,” and maintains a high degree of involvement in every aspect of the work. Shaw plays a crucial role connecting the community to the library by establishing relationships with local businesses and organizations. And Gross brings an array of talents to the table, including marketing, media design, and photography.

“Nadia’s graphic design prowess is just out of this world,” says Rahming, and the flyers and on-site signage for the recent speaker series bear out his praise. Each has a unique sensibility, look, and type treatment; some are black and white and some full-color; but the strong “Still I Rise” branding is an unmistakable through-line.

“I love the fact that I have creative freedom here,” says Gross. “I’m not stuck to just one style. If I want to play around and make something whimsical or nostalgic, I can. And I think it makes our patrons excited and curious about what’s to come.”

Video clips are produced in advance of each event to stir interest, and afterward, to build buzz for future events. “It creates that eagerness to come back—FOMO, fear of missing out,” says Gross. “It definitely makes someone want to come in and see an event if they haven’t already.”

These clips include contributions from media outlets—WPL has a partnership with WITN22 News which sends a camera crew with Digital Media Coordinator and Producer Saquan Stimpson to each event to interview guests and creates a short recap video that it uses and shares with the library. WPL’s own contracted photographer, Emir Lake, and videographer, Denis Anyasi Ekhuya of Academy Sounds, LLC, produce content regularly for the library and have helped develop a cohesive look. Lake, who began shooting for the library in 2020, was ultimately able to leave his day job and devote himself full-time to photography thanks to the steady influx of work. WPL “has been able to transform the idea around what a library should be,” says Lake. “It’s fostered an environment where not only does it promote literacy and literature, but it’s also a place where creatives and entrepreneurs and the community as a whole can just get together and reimagine and reinvent.”

POSITIVE PARTNERSHIPS

“We can’t bring famous people here just for the sake of doing it,” says Rahming. “There has to be some kind of lasting community impact.” With that ideal in mind, the library has built a series of robust local partnerships, including several that became key components of the “Still I Rise” series.

A month prior to Ward’s event, WPL sponsored two book clubs to read and discuss her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. Local restaurants hosted the book club meetings, and members were invited to a reception to meet Ward before she spoke. Members plan to keep meeting, tackling James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store next.

Delaware’s Clean Slate criteria give people with past misdemeanors the opportunity to get those records removed, but many don’t understand how to navigate the process. Crump’s event helped raise awareness of social justice reform, and the library stepped up to hold a series of expungement fairs, where people could speak with representatives from Delaware’s Office of Defense Services to help them clear their records. The event also drew several Black teenagers interested in careers in criminal justice. They were able to meet Crump, says Gross, “to learn from him, and even ask him their own personal questions: ‘How did you get this far?’ ‘What should I look for when it’s time for me to go to law school?’ ”

When Common spoke, the library gave copies of his book, And Then We Rise: A Guide to Loving and Taking Care of Self, to 75 teenagers from the Teen Warehouse, a space in Wilmington supporting the city’s youth. After reading and discussing the book, and meeting Common at a reception before he spoke at the library, they were motivated to start a team fitness regimen. “We can tell young people that they need to exercise and take care of themselves,” says Rahming, “but when the iconic Common tells you to rise, you’re gonna rise.”

Young dancers from local dance theaters got to meet Copeland. Members of the Wilmington Urban League, who had long wanted to invite Seals to speak but couldn’t afford her fee, collaborated with WPL on her event. And after hearing Vance and Smith, whose book addresses mental health in the African American community, several people reached out to say they had sought therapy themselves.

Culture Restoration Project, Inc., which provides cultural education and enrichment programming to youth and adults in the area, has collaborated with WPL since early 2020. For the library’s Juneteenth event in 2021, the two organizations coordinated outreach, working together to get the word out through local news stations and social media, absent physical, hand-to-hand distribution of promotional materials in a city still wary after recently reopening from pandemic shutdowns.

“It was kind of difficult,” recalls Culture Restoration Project Executive Director AliShah Watson. “How do you get people to feel comfortable coming out? We had not had any festivals or anything in the 2020 period, so 2021 was like, ‘Okay, are we ready?’ ” They key, she says, were “little quirky posts, and different iterations of the flyer to appeal to the people in the city.” She adds, “It definitely worked, because people came out.”

TEAM EFFORTS

A billboard advertising the “Still I Rise” series was put up over I-95, the main artery running through Wilmington. People from up and down the east coast saw it as they drove past and messaged to comment on it, says Rahming—many of them wondering how a small library in a small city was able to attract such big names. Several of the guests, he notes, only charged WPL a quarter of their usual fees because the event was for Black History Month, and many return for repeat engagements.

In addition to the billboard, the marketing team tried something new: yard signs, similar the ones people put up to tout their candidates of choice—but these proclaimed “I’m going to see…” each speaker, alongside eye-catching graphics and the date of the event.

“We wanted the same kind of fervor that people have during the political season, when they put up signs for politicians—that same kind of energy in relation to Black History Month and the library events,” says Rahming. “We wanted people to drive through the community and say, ‘Hey, these people are voting for the library.’”

Local youngsters were hired through Culture Restoration Project to place signs—with property owners’ permission—in high-visibility areas. “We work with a lot of young people who are aspiring artists and we have an artist development program, so part of that is that they have to learn how to market their own art,” says Watson. “So when the library contacted us about getting young people to market this, we were like, ‘All right!’ Because this is part of the whole curriculum: How do you market an event? How do you market your product? It was a win-win.”

Signs were also given out to some 50 regular library customers, asking them to display them at their own homes and then pass a couple more along to neighbors. And, to help boost the signal, the library also requested that they take photos with their signs to post to their social media accounts, tagging the library. “Not only are we reaching people through traditional marketing,” says photographer Lake, who also helped distribute signs, “but we’re able to get boots on the ground and get out there and actually touch the community in a way that’s kind of like a lost art.”

Everyone attending one of the events is encouraged to post photos, of course; some of WPL’s liveliest promotions are homegrown. Ultimately, says Gross, the library’s social media around events is built of “organic posts, paid promotions, and then any kind of engaging videos or sound bites that we can use.” Partner organizations will reciprocate as well, posting library content on their own social media accounts and websites. As for participating speakers, publicity is part of the library’s ask. “I will put in the contract that they will have to do a video soundbite,” Rahming explains, “and that they will have to post the event flyer on their social media pages.” (When considering which guests to invite, he adds, he and Gross also look at their social media engagement and follower counts.)

The result is a promotional capacity that extends far beyond Wilmington. For the Kims of Comedy event, “we had people fly in from Chicago, from Arizona,” says Rahming. “They booked hotel rooms, they patronized the downtown restaurants. I mean, they flew thousands of miles for a library event.”

GOOD TIMES AT WPL Cast members from the 1970s TV sitcom Good Times and guests (l.-r.): Ralph Carter; Rhonda Crowder, National Recording Secretary for the Wilmington (DE) Chapter of The Links; Bern Nadette Stanis; moderator Ernest Lee Thomas; and Jimmy Walker. Photo by Emir Lake Photography

CITIZEN MARKETING

The WPL Commons Room holds 400, and thanks in no small part to the savvy marketing, lines for the free events tend to wrap around the block. The library sends staff out to buoy the people waiting, and also to encourage them to pull out their phones and take photos. Before the Kims of Comedy event, the Kims themselves worked the line, greeting and connecting with waiting fans. “We let the community be our chief marketers by virtue of them checking in at the library and posting selfies and pictures,” says Rahming. “That just creates even more hype.”

Enlisting the public in marketing efforts has also helped the WPL team shift the tone of some stories from criticism to commiseration. The Misty Copeland event filled up to capacity quickly, leaving a number of would-be attendees out on the sidewalk. When several kids climbed up on a ledge to watch the event through a window, onlookers snapped pictures of them.

Initially, it wasn’t a great look. “The story was, these poor kids could not get into the event,” Rahming recalls. But Copeland stayed after her talk was over, and everyone who couldn’t be at the event was able to come inside to greet her; that became part of the social media narrative as well. The mother of one young fan posted the progression, from waiting outside to meeting Copeland, as an Instagram story.

“EXPERIENCE BEHIND THE ASK”

Rahming believes that the library’s publicity, in its many forms, succeeds because it is done with the energy of a political campaign but in the spirit of supporting the community and commemorating Black History Month. “We’re not even trying to pass a bond measure,” he notes. “You can’t do these types of things just when you’re trying to get money, or when you’re trying to pass a referendum or a bond bill. Marketing is something that has to be at the epicenter of what you do.”

Which is not to say that the event campaigns don’t touch traditional areas of promotion. The marketing team uses the DETV clips to help mobilize new donors and sponsorships, and shows them as part of the annual Dancing with the Stars gala. “It’s how we raise much of our programming dollars,” says Rahming. “We leveraged the social capital and the momentum from these events into our annual fundraising initiative.” Thanks to that promotion, this year gala tickets sold out so quickly that the library had to find a larger venue.

VIP receptions are held half an hour before each event, and invited guests—many of them targeted potential donors—get to spend time with the speakers. That way, says Rahming, “when we go and ask them for money, there’s a memory and an experience behind the ask, and they know what they’re supporting.” Several VIP guests have offered to sponsor future events.

“That’s why marketing is so important, because libraries are still trying to tell their story by quantitative data—and we’re doing qualitative work,” he adds. “Funders are encouraged by these types of stories, because it shows that they’re going to get a return on their investment and that we’re being a good steward of their resources.”

PLANTING COMMUNITY SEEDS

“The interesting thing about Jamar is, Jamar likes to be behind the scenes,” says Lake. “He has a very strong team, and his team is influenced heavily by his leadership, and so that, in turn, translates into seeds being planted within the community that just blossom all over the place.”

The team’s innovative outreach and high regard for community involvement dovetail nicely with the fresh look and energy of the materials they create. “All in all, it’s fun—I enjoy the process,” says Gross. “When it finally gets put out to the public, you can see that everyone enjoys not just the person who’s coming, but what they’re seeing” in the campaigns. And there is plenty to look forward to: the library will be hosting a variety of exciting guests this fall and beyond, including Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, TV journalist Don Lemon, hip-hop duo Kid ‘n Play, and many others.

In the past five years, WPL has “completely revamped and changed the concept of what a library is, and a lot of that has to do with how they market themselves,” says Watson. “They keep the regular library marketing about getting library cards, checking out books, and the services that they offer, but also they have connected to the greater community that doesn’t go to the library for typical library things. They’ve managed to market to our city and let them know the importance of that building, and how we can use it in different ways.”

“People have so many things trying to capture their attention,” notes Rahming. “Libraries have to be even more robust when it comes to marketing initiatives. So that’s what we have done here, to increase our brand equity and to develop advocacy for the library. We seize every opportunity that we possibly can—to not only have library users, but to have library activists and advocates.”

HONORABLE MENTIONS

SAN JOSÉ PUBLIC LIBRARY, CA

ELIZABETH CASTAÑEDA | Public Information Manager

NANCY MACIAS | Sr. Public Information Representative

MOISES MORENO | Public Information Representative

JILL BOURNE | Director

The marketing team at San José Public Library (SJPL) knows its audience. Elizabeth Castañeda, Nancy Macias, and Moises Moreno are first-generation Americans raised in East San José, fluent in Spanish and English. Their successful initiatives reflect that local flavor—literally, at times—and give it a national, hashtag-worthy spin as well.

When the library expanded service to Sunday hours at 16 of its 24 branches in 2022, the team chose to celebrate with something sweet: Sundaes on Sunday. During the expanded hours launch, all Sunday locations gave away a total of 2,000 Mr. Softee ice cream sundaes in cups branded with the logos of the library and SJPL Foundation, which covered the cost of the ice cream. More than 5,000 people visited the newly opened branches that day, and Sundays remain the second-highest checkout day of the week across all branches.

In 2023, SJPL collaborated with San José State University (SJSU) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library—SJPL’s main branch and the nation’s first joint university-municipal library. Campaign assets included an anniversary logo, 10 commemorative library cards, and large multilingual entry decals co-created by both institutions. To build excitement around the celebration, the team developed a video series with shoutouts from notable library supporters, such as figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, comedian Tiffany Haddish, actor Danny de la Paz, and Los Tigres del Norte, a local Mexican band. Marketing materials included e-newsletters, staff t-shirts, and—because sweet outreach clearly works—2,100 branded cookies. Nearly 500 people attended the community event that day, and almost 5,000 visited the library.

The last two years have seen an uptick in challenges to libraries and the right to read, and the team saw an opportunity to reinvigorate SJPL’s #RightToLibrary campaign. Since the hashtag was launched in 2017, it has been used around the world, now celebrating programs, readings, contests, and ticket giveaways with new partners such as the San Francisco Giants, Tech Museum, Cirque du Soleil, Telemundo 48, Broadway San José, San José Earthquakes, and many others. #RightToLibrary has been used across social media more than 9,200 times by SJPL and its fans; promotions include branded t-shirts, tote bags, notebooks, mugs, and lanyards—but, so far, no ice cream.

Photo courtesy of San José Public Library

WORCESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY, MA

LINNEA SHELDON | Community Relations & Communications Manager

JASON HOMER | Executive Director

Linnea Sheldon, community relations and communications manager at Worcester Public Library, MA, has many feathers in her cap: communications strategies that helped the library navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, a target-smashing summer reading campaign, new rebranding efforts. But with the March Meowness fee forgiveness initiative, the library’s strategy went unexpectedly viral.

While working on the strategic plan and collecting patron feedback, leadership discovered that fines were preventing some community members from using the library, particularly school-age children and unhoused patrons. The New Users Task Force decided to forgive fees on lost or damaged items—late fines had been eliminated already—but how could they best get the message out? What would reach the greatest number of people?

The answer, of course, was cats. Rather than an exchange of goods, such as food for fines—which, for some, could constitute as much of a hardship as the fines themselves—all the library asked was that people send a cat photo to have those fees forgiven. And if cats were in short supply in a household, substitutions were accepted—a “dog, raccoon, orca, capybara, or any other animal,” marketing materials suggested.

People from across Worcester—and the world—began sending pictures, including some who didn’t have fees of their own, as collateral for others who might be catless. Pictures poured in on social media, through email, and even one fax, and were collected on what became the library’s “cat walls.” Staff and patrons alike enjoyed following the steady influx, reading their names and stories, and seeing where they hailed from. “Honorary cats” included guinea pigs, goats, horses, snails, and goldfish.

News publications around the world featured stories about March Meowness—nearly 500 press pieces in countries that included New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Spain, South Africa, and Brazil; hundreds of thousands of interactions on social media; and more than 3,000 emails. Ultimately, the library received more than 10,000 cat pictures. More important, staff cleared fees from 930 accounts in person, and, thanks to the campaign’s success, the library board agreed to clear any remaining accounts of existing fees, for a total of 4,717 people. Between February and March both visitor and new library card counts increased by more than 10 percent. And Sheldon and the New Users Task Force—the library’s coolest cats—were honored by the mayor with the keys to the city.

Photo courtesy of Worcester Public Library