Friday, December 22, 2006

AmericanTowns: A New Vehicle for Library Marketing

My library got an email several days ago from AmericanTowns asking us to join. I had not heard of the service and starting looking. I found that it lists local news stories, events, groups & organizations, and shopping. It seems to be a big operation, building online profiles for communities all over the country, so I registered and started adding upcoming library events.

When looking at Western Springs, Illinois, I found there were other organizations already profiled and numerous events on the calendar. I then saw our village is one of their "Feature Towns." I suspect that someone from AmericanTowns is seeding the information, hoping the local organizations will come on line. Some library events were already listed!

Moving around the website seems to be a little slow and I would like to be able to move forward on a calendar faster. Some of the communities that I viewed had little information. The service must be really new, but it seems promising.

If you are looking for another way to promote your library and its programs, you should consider AmericanTowns.

1 comment:

digital.brarian said...

Thanks for posting about this site, I see a number of our upcoming events are listed too. They do not list every town in Illinois though, I wonder what is their criteria for inclusion. (Sauk Village, IL is not listed) Perhaps you have to list upcoming events on a site they can access.