Door to Door Outreach Campaign in Florida, NY

Florida Public Library, a school district public library in a farming and bedroom community on the edge of metropolitan New York, serving a population of 4,991, engaged in a door-to-door outreach campaign in 2016–2017 to raise its profile in the community, reach non-users and increase the number of patrons from 56% to 60% of its service population. Through walking local streets and knocking on doors, library staff hoped to sign up 200 new patrons. The article describes the steps used to develop and conduct the campaign, using teams of staff, trustees and Friends of the Library. How prospective patrons and their home addresses were discovered and what databases and software was used, materials and methods employed and the chronology of the campaign are detailed by following the library’s plans for summer, fall and spring activities. Mistakes made and lessons learned are shared from walking one community’s streets and speaking face to face to residents about library services, offered and desired.