do you remember the celestine prophecy ???

Hey all,
I am so excited I just had to post this right away.

At the marketing taskforce we discussed how the OCLC study shows that nobody uses the librarys' electronic resources and that our brand is books.

At the Ntl Lib Card Sign Up month committee meeting I mentioned trying to get into high schools to teach our databases at the computer labs (w/ library card registrations being done so everyone has access).

With that in mind let me share:
My contact up at NRE (NR elem) called the morning to mention her response to our libqual survey. She told me that when she does research she starts at MSN. She has never considered the library because, guess what? She associates the library with books! She says the kids at school use, guess what? Google.... She doesn't know what the library has on its web page, and has in fact not considered even trying to take a look. This all so echoes everything in the oclc report, it's wierd. Anyway, we got to talking about what we could do about this at the elem school and she told me they have computer lab twice a week, but only have an actual computer teacher once every three weeks. I'm going to email the principal now to suggest that we work up some bib instruction for any/all grades next year to come during a time when the computer teacher is not there. She said she thought the teachers would be supportive 100%. Then we jumped into talking about library cards and how they could send a cover letter and library applications home to all the parents in their "friday folders" so that they can be prepared for our instruction and have access to the databases. Of course the school's cover letter would strongly advise the completion of the apps. I think this will be awesome because Lynn (yeah, Lynn!) has worked out at way to have 'unactiviated' card apps that allow access to our online resources, but would still need to be 'activitated' in order to check out books. This is a way cool concept, by the way. It's almost like offering two levels of cards. One that registers you for our 'virtual' library, where you don't necessarily need to show your ID to get a card, because you might never want to walk into the building and/or check out books. Can you see where this is going? HOW EXCITING. I am now vibrating with enlightenment so much that I'm about to disappear!
c