Internship Blog - MEDJ 498

Week six of my internship in the Marketing Department of the Bloomsburg Public Library was a bit more productive and proactive then previous weeks. A lot of what I did this week revolved around outreach and promotion, both digitally and physically. On Monday, I helped with preparation for the upcoming Raise The Region fundraising event which is a regional, yearly campaign set to take place the following week. I assisted in stuffing and sending out letters that were written to inform people about the event and encourage donations. It would be nearly impossible to send out a letter to every patron in our system so instead we focused on only sending them to individuals who had donated 100 dollars or more in the past year as well as members of the board and the Friends of The Library. It was interesting to see how organizations with such a large population of users strategize to reach their most likely donors. It wasn't just about sending information and begging for money, it was abou...

Week five of my internship with the Marketing Department at the Bloomsburg Public Library was by far the most exciting because it was finally time for Murder Mystery! This was the third Murder Mystery fundraiser, and I was there for the first two as well so it's been really interesting to see how these events evolve. This years was called "Murder In The Library - Chapter Three: Publish or Perish" and the premise centered around a fictional publishing company called “Linden Tree Publishing,” which had narrowed down a contest to four finalists competing to become the next big author. The winner was set to be announced at the “Susquehanna Valley Writer’s Festival,” hosted right at the library. Guests got to meet the authors and their esteemed judges before, of course, a murder took place. Each night featured a different victim and a different murderer, which kept things fresh and unpredictable. And meant we could possibly raise more money by convincing people to come twice! ...

My fourth week as an Emergent Media intern in the Marketing Department of the Bloomsburg Public Library was focused a lot on preparing for the 3rd annual Murder Mystery event with a mixture of creative work and problem solving. It was nice to finally feel like there was some sort of goal and I was contributing to something.  Monday, I learned more about how nonprofits fundraise and also did a little inventory. First, I was introduced to the organization  Candid  which is a nonprofit database that helps organizations maintain public profiles with information about their mission, programs and finances. Funders and donors often use it or websites like it to research nonprofits so keeping information updated and accurate is really important for transparency and credibility. However, the purposes I needed it for were finding EIN numbers for the partner libraries that were also going to be benefiting from the Murder Mystery event. EIN is an acronym for Employee Identification N...

My third week as an intern in the marketing department of the Bloomsburg Public Library, I continued to learn how much was really happening behind the scenes and even did a little bit of actual physical/manual labor. It was a week focused on organization, visibility, and making sure patrons had the most accurate and up-to-date information about things happening not only in the library but in the wider community. A lot of what I did revolved around upkeep. Monday was spent printing and hanging materials, specifically for the upcoming "Murder Mystery: Publish or Perish" which is the third installment of the library's biggest and most lucrative fundraising event. I printed 16 posters, in 8.5 x 11, and then hung them in every possible high-traffic area of the library: all of the bathrooms except the children's library, on both front doors as well as the back one, above the water fountain and computer stations, in the elevator, and even in the staircase leading to the libr...

During my second week interning with the marketing department of the Bloomsburg Public Library, I started to really learn and understand how much thought and intention goes into even the smallest details of marketing and design. This week was a lot more hands-on, and I learned a lot about sizing and settings for social media posts, posters, and printed materials, as well as how printing works behind the scenes and how materials are chosen to be displayed physically throughout the building. I also got my first chance to create actual graphics for social media, which was a lot more anxiety-inducing than it was exciting. Alongside the design work, I helped reorganize part of the workspace. On Monday, I learned a lot about the specific dimensions used for different types of posts and printed materials. For Facebook posts, they typically use a 16x9 ratio. I also learned that Facebook headers must be exactly 851x315 pixels so that they stretch across the entire header on monitors or desktops...

My first week as an Emergent Media intern in the marketing department of the Bloomsburg Public Library was a decent introduction to what goes on behind the scenes of  community-focused marketing. I haven't created any content or done much of anything just yet, but I learned a few through observing, listening, and getting familiar with how the team works. One of the first things I did this week was sit down with my internship supervisor, the head of the marketing team, and talk through a schedule. We discussed the availability of both of us, and decided on Mondays 10-3, Wednesdays 5-8, and Thursdays 4:30-6 with the possibility of extra work on the weekends during big events that require a lot of planning, promotion, and community engagement positions. This helped me understand the expectations of time dedicated and give me a clearer understanding of how I will fit into the marketing team during this internship. Throughout the week, I sat in on a few events that the marketing team re...