Checking Out Recipes, Along With a Pan

Martin Thoma

If you had no idea that Central Arkansas Library System members can check out a fishing pole with a book on angling, or binoculars with a book on birdwatching, or seeds with a primer about gardening, or cooking supplies with recipe books, don’t feel ignorant.

Martin Thoma says only a quarter of the Library System’s members knew about its “library of things” when his marketing agency, Thoma Thoma, conducted a survey on knowledge of the system’s resources.

And you don’t have to check out a book at all. The modern library lends out far more, Thoma said, and he and the firm’s executive creative director, Shawn Solloway, are working to close that gap.

Their campaign is called Check Out Both, and the mostly digital effort is spreading the word that the modern library is more valuable than ever to members and the community.

“We want people to know that with a library card, they can check out musical instruments and power tools,” Thoma told Arkansas Business. Their campaign, the latest effort in several years of work Thoma has done on a theme of “The Library, Rewritten,” launched April 1 in advance of National Library Week, which begins April 23.

“Later in the year the campaign will have a component that emphasizes the value of a library card in monetary terms,” Thoma said. “With your library card, with all of the digital assets available, you could replace your Netflix subscription, you could replace your Audible subscription. You could even learn languages without buying Rosetta Stone, through the library’s language-learning tools.”

Thoma and Solloway are reframing the value proposition of CALS.

“The services, resources and capabilities that they provide to the central Arkansas community go vastly beyond a great collection of books,” Thoma said. “For several years, we’ve helped CALS through a number of means.” But this is the first time that the library system has put an advertising budget behind telling that story.

Solloway said the ads take a direct approach, “showing members and nonmembers these unique offerings.” He offered examples like a book on astronomy paired with checking out a telescope. “We want to give the whole story; all these different, unique things are available for free to you through your public library. ”

The library’s internal team is “fired up about it,” Solloway said. “We want to build awareness in central Arkansas that people can go to the library and get some great stuff. It’s there, and it’s free.”

The “Library, Rewritten” theme also speaks to the CALS’ huge community impact, Thoma said. He hopes to reinforce that impact with community leaders, business executives, elected officials and others. He mentioned programs like Be Mighty Little Rock, which provides meals for children at library sites. “There’s also the Summer Reading Club, the Six Bridges Book Festival, the Rock It! Lab, so many things,” Thoma said.

The Rock It! Lab, in the Cox Building at 120 River Market Ave., gives entrepreneurs tools and guidance to start and scale their businesses.

“Boyette Strategic Advisors, led by Del Boyette, produced an economic impact study a couple of years ago that they’re updating now,” Thoma said. “They measured a billion-dollar impact in central Arkansas from the library and its programs over a 10-year period. So one of the goals of the campaign is to help our community recognize the tremendous economic, social, entrepreneurial and educational benefits that the library drives. The true economic and social contribution of the library is under-recognized.”

Even members don’t fully see the library’s impact, he said.

“We found that only 25% of the respondents to this survey indicated familiarity with what we call the library of things, fishing rods, telescopes, hand tools, power tools and so forth,” Thoma said. “Almost 30% indicated unfamiliarity or limited familiarity with the millions of digital assets that are available. The library delivers millions of e-books, streaming movies, music, audiobooks, language skills, just a profusion of digital assets available for free.”