The objective of our Know-It-All Library Card Sign-Up Campaign was to increase overall cardholder numbers. Our county was hit hard by the economic recession and our cardholder total had steadily declined during the years when the Library had to reduce staff, branch hours and purchases of books and other materials due to a reduction in funding. As the economy improved and our funding increased, our cardholder numbers continued to decline. We decided to take action to both increase our new cardholder numbers and to remind the public about all the Library has to offer and its value in the community.

In addition to our promotional materials, which included tshirts, cards, signage, bookmarks, and car magnets, we challenged each branch to do four community outreach activities where they could sign-up new cardholders, as well as promote the Library programs and services. To assist staff in this task, we created guidelines with a FAQ detailing the purpose and timeline for the campaign, branch expectations and suggestions for outreach activities, and effective use of the promotional materials they received. This outreach was new to most of our library staff, but we believed it was essential to promote outside our walls.

This campaign was a huge success. We far exceeded our goal of signing up 11,175 new library cardholders. In actuality, we signed up 12,404 new cardholders and another 4,300 lapsed cardholders who re-activated their cards to bring our total card registrations for the campaign to 16,704. Almost every branch exceeded its goal for new cards issued. Our highest branch exceeded its goal by 55 percent. The second highest branch exceeded its goal by 46 percent and the third highest branch exceeded its goal by 39 percent5. Most branches did more than four outreach activities and one branch did 19!