BROWARD COUNTY, FL – Broward County Library is proud to announce that the Library’s Marketing, Communications and Publicity Section was recognized nationally with honorable mention in Library Journal’s 2020 Marketer of the Year. for their campaign “Data Talks, Broward County Library Listens: Customers Drive Broward County Library’s COVID-19 Response.” 

The award recognizes the importance of innovative approaches to marketing of library services, the role of marketing in building library engagement, and the value of quality marketing  to help build a vibrant sense of the library and define its relevance in the community. The Georgia Public Library Service took top honor as Marketer of the Year, with Los Angeles Public Library also earning Honorable Mention. 

“Broward County Library is honored to be recognized for our marketing efforts and their impact,” says Broward County Library Director Kelvin Watson. “It reflects the library’s commitment to finding and creating ways to reach out to our community during crisis.”

The “Data Talks, Broward County Library Listens: Customers Drive Broward County Library’s COVID-19 Response” marketing campaign used customer surveys togauge customer needs in relation to the crisis, using the results as the basis of an email, online and social media campaign to inform customers of library services that directly addressed those needs. As a result, checkouts of the library's eBooks, particularly those for children and teens, rose dramatically and there were over 13,000 new registrations of online e-library cards from March to June 2020. 

The Broward County Library Marketing, Communications and Publicity Section includes Stephen Grubb, Public Information Officer; Della Attisani, Ari Rothenberg and Pamela J. Smith, Publication Specialists; Vena Paylo, Public Information Specialist and Catherine McElrath, Public Communications Specialist. 

Read more about Broward County Library's “Data Talks, Broward County Library Listens: Customers Drive Broward County Library’s COVID-19 Response" campaign in the October 2020 issue of Library Journal. 

About Broward County Libraries Division
Broward County Libraries Division, named 2020  Library of the Year by the Florida Library Association and the 2020 American Library Association's Library of the Future, was founded in 1974 and is the largest library system in Florida by square footage. Broward County Libraries Division provides convenient access to a full range of innovative and cost-effective services that satisfy the changing needs of the people of Broward County for information, education and recreation. Visit our website, Broward.org/Library, or follow Libraries on Facebook and Twitter.

DATE: October 1, 2020
MEDIA CONTACT: Catherine McElrath
Libraries Division
PHONE: 954-357-7402
EMAIL: cmcelrath@Broward.org