2008

First place was awarded to Ros Dorsman of Central West Libraries, Australia. The library developed an online classroom partnership: online homework help for school students. The slogan for the winning campaign was "Have you done your homework?" The first-place winner will receive airfare, lodging, and registration for the 2008 IFLA General Conference and Council to be held this year in Quebec City, Canada, and a cash award of $1,000 (U.S.) to further the marketing efforts of the library.

Second place was awarded to Shelley Civkin, Richmond Public Library, Canada, for the Ralphy Card Campaign. The winning slogan was "Go Anywhere, Learn Anything; Read Every Day©"

Third place was awarded to Grant Kaiser, Calgary Public Library, Canada. The winning slogan was "The Neatest People Have a Library Card".

Criteria and Applications

For this sixth award, applications were available on the IFLA Website. The deadline was April 18, 2008. Altogether there were 27 applicants from 16 countries including Russia, Canada, Australia, India, Singapore, Philippines, USA, Belgium, Burundi, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Ivory Coast, Serbia, South Africa, Tanzania.

Any library, agency, or association in the world that promotes library service was eligible to receive the award. The IFLA INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AWARD is to honor organizations that have implemented creative, results-oriented marketing projects or campaigns.

2007

First place was awarded to Olga Einasto, representing Tartu University Library, Tartu, Estonia for "The Night Library and The Mom-Student Library Project." The slogan for the winning campaign was "Students Don't Sleep! Come to the Library!"

The library's campaign goal was to be responsive to diverse student market needs, especially during exam week, providing a comfortable place for reading and study. Hours were extended and babysitting provided for those students who are also parents. A children's room was also created for after hours services, since daytime kindergartens are closed.

The library promoted the new services through the local Tartu and university newspaper, and distributed flyers and posters within the library building and student housing and hostels.
On the first day of the Night Library, staff counted 180 students entering through the main door after 9:00 pm. There were about four dozen 'student parents' using the baby-sitting service. The reading rooms were reported "full and no one slept!" The atmosphere was described as "very practical and enjoyable, both students and the staff were in an elevated mood. Many students thanked the librarians and this was a good motivator!"
The library also won Estonian Best Customer Service Project for these innovative programs.

Second place was awarded to Mladen Masar, representing the Zadar Public Library, Zadar, Croatia for “Knjiga u diru” a localism translated to "Wheel of Books" "Circle of Books" or "Books Taking a Turn". The bookmobile campaign brought services to school children, the disabled and the elderly living in war-affected rural areas of Zadar county. Library staff state, “for many areas the mobile library would mean the only information access. The fact that the targeted area is underdeveloped and presents a vast blank on the map of information access in Croatia made it even harder for promotion of the new service—a bookmobile—a thing not ever seen before. More so because some areas had no library access at al prior to the war, some others lost their libraries during the war while the area was temporarily depopulated.”

The mobile library carried a comprehensive selection of CDs and DVDs equipped with a wireless Internet connection. While some groups were initially targeted, the service made information available to all social strata.

Third place was awarded to Doris Yvon Samanez Alzamora, representing Municipalidad de Miraflores (Public Library) of Lima, Peru, for translated to"Leyendo en el Mercado" "Reading at the Market". The campaign offered books and other materials (and a chance to sign up for a library card) via library staff who were pushing book-filled grocery carts into local markets. Vendors who bring their children to the market during the workday, were one of the targeted customer groups.

Criteria and Applications

For this fifth award, applications were available in the main IFLA languages on the Web. The deadline was November 30, 2006. Altogether there were 24 applicants from 12 countries including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Peru, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, United Kingdom, and USA. Any library, agency, or association in the world that promotes library service was eligible to receive the award. The IFLA INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AWARD is to honor organizations that have implemented creative, results-oriented marketing projects or campaigns.

Objectives of the Award

  • Reward the best library marketing project worldwide each year
  • Encourage marketing in libraries
  • Give libraries the opportunity to share marketing experiences

This year's applicants were carefully judged on the following

  1. Strategic approach to marketing;
  2. Creativity, originality, innovation and social value;
  3. Potential for generating widespread public visibility and support for libraries;
  4. Effectiveness of communication;
  5. Commitment to ongoing marketing activities.
  6. Expression of emotion, sustainability and ethical aspects.

The Jury revised the criteria to facilitate increased understanding of marketing, and participation by a broader range of countries. A new goal that was reached was to recognize marketing efforts by developing countries with fewer resources. For more information contact the following representatives of the Jury of the IFLA International Marketing Award:

  • Daisy McAdam, Chair
  • Christie Koontz, Communication Director

2006

First place was awarded to Cindy van Kranenburg from the public library of Spijkenisse, near Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, for a simple but cost-effective marketing campaign to attract non-user patrons by sending a simple postcard. The library also evaluated the number of non-users who became users. The marketing slogan is "We miss you" (in Dutch: "Wij missen u"). The first-place winner will receive airfare, lodging, and registration for the 2006 IFLA General Conference and Council to be held this year in Seoul, Korea, and a cash award of $1,000 (U.S.) to further the marketing efforts of the library.

Second place was awarded to Suzanne Payette, President of the Public Libraries of Québec for developing a topical and unique marketing campaign entitled "Follow the Stream" (in French: "Suivez le courant") during the Week of the Public Libraries of Québec in Fall 2005, offering sustainable promotion material like reusable shopping bags.

Third place winner was Óscar Arroyo Ortega, of the Regional Library Service of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain for the campaign entitled "Public Libraries: No need to knock!" (in Spanish "Biblioteca Pública, pasa sin llamar"). The Campaign's main object was that the citizens of the small towns of this region knew the new concept, social functions and services of the public libraries in the information society. Thus, they would use the libraries and request to the local authorities of their towns that continued financing and supporting them. The campaign consisted of a travelling exhibition about the new concept and social functions of the libraries, that is going of town in town to be exposed. In the exhibition there are three metaphors to explain what are the libraries: house, tree and river. The exhibition is structured in five areas: opinions; target groups; aims and possibilities that libraries offer; the new spaces and facilities, and how to enjoy them.

The deadline was January 15, 2006. Altogether there were 15 applicants from four continents, sent in from 10 countries including: India, Spain, United States, Canada, The Netherlands, Mexico, Belgium, Philippines, Senegal and United Kingdom. Any library, agency, or association in the world that promotes library service was eligible to receive the award. The IFLA INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AWARD is to honor organizations that have implemented creative, results-oriented marketing projects or campaigns.

Objectives of the Award

  • Reward the best library marketing project worldwide each year
  • Encourage marketing in libraries
  • Give libraries the opportunity to share marketing experiences

Applicants were carefully judged on the following

  1. Strategic approach to marketing;
  2. Creativity, originality and innovation;
  3. Potential for generating widespread public visibility and support for libraries;
  4. Effectiveness of communication;
  5. Commitment to ongoing marketing activities.
  6. Expression of emotion, sustainability and ethical aspects.

The Jury revised the criteria to facilitate increased understanding of marketing, and participation by a broader range of countries. A new goal that was reached was to recognize marketing efforts by developing countries with fewer resources.

For more information contact the following representatives of the Jury of the IFLA International Marketing Award:

  • Daisy McAdam, Chair
  • Christie Koontz, Communication Director

2004

First place was given to the School library of Australian Islamic College, located in Kewdale, WA., Australia for using library resources to promote reading and computer literacy to 300 refugee children from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. The library's slogan is "I came, I saw, I read." The first-place winner will receive airfare, lodging, and registration for the 2004 IFLA General Conference and Council to be held this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a cash award of $1,000 (U.S.) to further the marketing efforts of the library.

Second place went to the Krasheninnikov Regional Research Library, Kamchatka, Russia, for developing and offering outreach programs and services to the elderly and disabled in this region of the country who are psychologically and socially vulnerable. The library's campaign is called, "Remedy for the Soul."

Third place went to the African Rice Center in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, for its project to offer current information to the agricultural researchers in the National Agricultural System (NARS) in West Africa.

For more information contact:
Chairpserson of the IFLA/3M International Marketing Award committee
Daisy McAdam, E-mail: Daisy.McAdam@ses.unige.ch
or, Christie Koontz, E-mail: ckoontz@admin.fsu.edu

Program overview

For this third award, applications were available in the five official IFLA languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Russian and also Mandarin/Chinese) on the Web sites of both sponsors, IFLA and 3M. The deadline was November 30, 2003. Altogether there were 52 applicants from all five continents, sent in from 17 countries including : Russian Federation, Australia, Spain, Nigeria, New Zealand, India, United States, Canada, Argentina, Ivory Coast, Philippines, Cuba, United Kingdom, Sweden, Romania, Indonesia, and Chile. Any library, agency, or association in the world that promotes library service was eligible to receive the award.

Applicants were judged on the following criteria:

  • Strategic approach to marketing communications;
  • Creativity and innovation;
  • Potential for generating widespread public visibility and support for libraries;
  • Effectiveness illustrated by efforts to emphasize the organization's communication and marketing goals;
  • Commitment to ongoing marketing and public relations activities.

The committee revised the criteria to facilitate increased understanding of marketing, and participation by a broader range of countries. A new goal that was reached was to recognize marketing efforts by developing countries with fewer resources.

2003

First Place: Mireia Sala, Concorci de Biblioteques de Barcelona (CBB), Spain
Second Place: Supaporn Chaithammapakorn and Yupin Chancharoensin, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Third Place: Janice Bell and Maureen Carter, Newman College of Higher Education, Birminghan, United Kingdom