For Anythink's 2013 Banned Books Week campaign, we had three challenges: 1. Engage staff from the onset so that we can tap into their great ideas and encourage them to take ownership of the district-wide program/promotions 2. Disrupt our usual approach to Banned Books Week by moving away from library speak and framing the discussion in a way that the community understands 3. Design a comprehensive campaign that gets our community thinking about this important topic in a way that resonates with them We also knew that we would be hosting a 60-panel exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., called "Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings" during the weeks leading up to and including Banned Books Week. We needed a strategy that would help put this powerful exhibition in context and hopefully bring in new audiences.

The success of the campaign depended strongly upon the cross-district collaboration. In July, two months before Banned Books Week, the Communications team hosted a conference call to gather ideas about how to promote the event. Everyone was invited to attend – in person or via phone – no matter his or her branch location or role. Staff discussed why it’s important to celebrate Banned Books Week; they shared their programming ideas and brainstormed creative ways to spread the word. From that discussion, we understood that “Banned Books Week” is a term specific to librarians, and we wanted to focus on censorship in a broader context, one that would hit closer to home. We also gathered some fantastic ideas for implementation generated from all areas of our staff. Collection Development Director Logan Macdonald suggested we put signs on our courier vans and bookmobile that read, “This vehicle fueled by banned books.” HR Generalist Scott Lupo brilliantly crafted the tagline “Censorship happens.” Leilani Schrichten, Anythink designer, came up with the question answered by hundreds of customers: “Would you risk jail time to defend your favorite book?” Each branch was responsible for designing its own programs and activities with this messaging in mind. The topic of censorship was further explored via the "Fighting the Fires of Hate" exhibition and an opening reception where holocaust survivor Walter Plywaski shared his story of life in the Auschwitz and Dachau Nazi concentration camps. Anythink already fosters a culture of collaboration, but this project took it to a new level. The end result was a well-executed campaign that helped our community think about censorship (and Anythink) in a whole new way.

Staff’s early involvement in the planning led to this campaign’s success. They saw their ideas in action and took ownership of the campaign, which led to a lot of hand selling and some great one-on-one conversations with customers about censorship. Staff had a blast; this energy was transferred to our customers. The district-wide collaboration also helped us to really think about the “why” behind Banned Books Week and the effect that censorship has on our lives. This helped to shift our message from the traditional “Banned Books Week” verbiage to “Censorship happens. Get the whole story,” which resonated on a personal level with staff and customers alike. For the opening reception of Fighting the Fires of Hate, over 350 people attended Walter’s presentation. It was one of the most powerful programs we have offered at Anythink, and half of the people who attended were seeing the library for the first time. We gauged how many people viewed the exhibition by posing the question “Would you risk jail time to defend your favorite book?” Customers picked up wooden nickels at the beginning of the exhibition and at the end answered the question by adding their nickel to the container saying “yes” or “no.” Over 800 people answered the question over the course of the week, and the question’s image was the highest trending image on Anythink’s Facebook page ever. The cross-district collaboration was so effective that we plan to use this as a model for our district-wide programs moving forward.