Promoting Your Library
The GMR staff and the Advocacy Working Group of the Regional Advisory Council have partnered to assist you in celebrating your library. We have gathered and maintained a set of free online tools as well as designed an advocacy campaign that you can put to use in your library this October to celebrate National Medical Librarians month. Please download these helpful aids from the repository below.
Librarians Save Time and Money
NOTE: The provided materials may take a few seconds to load. Right click on the link to save them to your desktop. Please share with the region how you used the campaign in your organization.
- Poster (5 MB; jpg) - can be easily printed on a white 11 x 17 page or a 2 x 3 poster for mounting on form core.
- Handout (98 KB; doc)
or Handout
(89 KB; pdf)
– can easily be printed on plain paper but for a more polished look try white 65 pound cougar opaque. - Bookmark (2 MB; jpg) or Bookmark2 (2 MB; jpg) - two have been provided to give you a perforated version as a cutting guide. For best results use white cardstock and laminate.
- Large Clock (3 MB; jpg) or Small Clock (2 MB; jpg) The large and small clocks have been furnished to give you creative license. Build a bookmark of your own, use as an email signature file or customized a library brochure.
- Table Tent (1 MB; jpg) print on white card stock. Fold and crease along the vertical line use the remaining blank space to tape your tent together.
National Medical Librarians Month
Assistance from the GMR
- Promotional items you can order from the GMR - Outreach is the foundation of the work we do. We know that the same is true for many of you. When you promote the products and services of the National Library of Medicine consider ordering free promotional materials to support the presentations, exhibits and classes that you do.
- Educational Supplements - The staff of the NN/LM often create class material as part of their work. We offer these items to network members to support their efforts.
- Patient Safety: Librarian as Advocate - This page invites libraries wanting to take a more active role in patient safety to use the resource provided. The ten minute PowerPoint presentation highlights the different areas in which the library may become involved in patient safety in their institution.
- Measuring Your Impact is a workshop offered free to network members. We invite consortia to request this training. You can learn to use evaluation for library advocacy, make an evaluation plan or develop a logic model.
Assistance from NLM
- Information Rx - NLM's free program that assists physicians in referring their patients to MedlinePlus. The toolkit is an online guide to help health science librarians promote Info Rx to physicians, patients, families, and community groups.
- Linking to MedlinePlus - You are welcome to place the MedlinePlus search box on your website or link to MedlinePlus or any of its 800 health topics directly. Graphics and suggested text are also provided.
Assistance from other Sources
- @ Your Library: The Campaign for American's Libraries from the American Library Association
- Advocacy for Librarians and Libraries, a bibliography maintained by the Pacific Northwest Region
- Advocating for Librarians, Information Outlook, September 2011, SLA (Special Libraries Association)
- The MidContinental Region maintains business calculators for you to judge the value of your library.
- Valuing Library Services Calculator focusing on the value of library resources and services
- Library Value Calculator examining cost benefits and the return on investment
- E-Metrics Instructional System (measures of the library's electronic resources and services) developed by the Information Institute, Florida State University
- Marketing @ your library maintained by the Association of College and Research Libraries
- WebJunction's Focus on Demonstrating Impact 2005. Also search WebJunction for other advocacy resources
Additional MLA tools for Advocacy
- Making a Difference Communications Toolkit
- Vital Pathways for Librarians
- Hay Group MLA 2008 Salary Survey, MLA 2005 Salary Survey and MLA 2001 Compensation and Benefits Survey
- MLA Benchmarking Network Resources 2001-2002 Survey

