[Baynet] Infopeople's new online course "Pitching the Library"

[Linda Rodenspiel]

Since some people who may be interested in 
participating might not receive this notice 
directly, we would appreciate it if you would 
print and post or route this announcement to staff and colleagues. Thanks!


Title:  Pitching the Library (online learning course)

Dates:  May 15, 2007 - June 11, 2007

To register for this workshop:  Use the online registration form at
http://infopeople.org/workshop/328

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


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

Instructor:  Ann Miller.  Ann started her career 
as a library page while she pursued her BA in 
speech and drama at the University of Notre Dame. 
After stints as a waitress and aspiring-actress, 
MBA student, pharmaceutical sales representative, 
and marketing director for a Bay Area theatre 
company, Ann found her way back to libraries. At 
the Solano County Library she started as a 
part-time volunteer coordinator and became the 
library's first Community Relations Coordinator.

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.

To view a complete list of Infopeople workshops 
and for general information about Infopeople 
training opportunities, go to the main Infopeople 
Workshops page at http://www.infopeople.org/workshop

If you have questions about registration or 
scheduling of workshops, please contact Linda 
Rodenspiel, the Infopeople Project Assistant, at 
assist at infopeople.org or by phone at 650-578-9685.