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Boston Public Library
Press Release - Campaign
News and Events

Mayor Menino Announces First Community Outreach Media Campaign for the BPL
September 4, 2000

"Books Are Just the Beginning!"

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today announced an innovative public awareness community outreach campaign for the Boston Public Library. It is the first community outreach media campaign produced for the country's oldest public library.

"At the Boston Public Library, books are just the beginning," said Mayor Menino at a news conference to unveil the campaign. "All of our branches around the city have free Internet access, great children's programs, the latest bestsellers, and access to one of the greatest research collections in the country. With the help of Arnold Communications' brilliant creative team, the Boston Public Library is reaching out to tell its story to new Bostonians who have never visited a library, as well as to lifelong residents who want to learn more about everything from technology to world famous art."

The advertising campaign was created at no cost by Arnold Communications, the largest advertising and design firm in New England. The campaign includes a new library logo, as well as ads for television, print, Internet, transit and billboards. The public awareness community outreach campaign begins with the advertising project and then will expand to include multilingual brochures on how to use the library, new library cards, and a redesign of the library's website.

"The Boston Public Library has perhaps the greatest product a communications firm could ever hope to work with, information and education that's free to everyone," said Ed Eskandarian, President and Chairman of Arnold Communications. "Under Mayor Menino's leadership, the library has made tremendous strides recently. It was our job to dust off its musty image and tell people what's really going on at the Boston Public Library. As you can see from the ads, we had some fun with it in the process."

"When I was asked to help the library with this project, I was glad to get involved," said musician Peter Wolf, former lead singer of the J. Geils Band and a Boston resident who appears in one of the library's TV spots. "I think the library is an amazing resource that people take for granted rather than explore and use to their advantage."

Books are just the beginning is the tag line used on all of the material. Four themes run through the ads, free Internet access, 27 branch libraries across the city, great programs for children, and a maximum fine of only $1.25 for any overdue book.

"Lots of people tell us they fear coming back into the library because they have a book that's been overdue for years and they think that we will somehow punish them," said Bernard A. Margolis, library president. "The fact is, we want people to make the best use of the informational, educational and entertaining aspects of the library and $1.25 shouldn't stand in their way."

jobfind.com, the employment website, is a sponsor of the campaign, as is Houghton Mifflin Company. The Boston law firm of Peabody & Arnold worked with the city of Boston's legal department on a pro bono basis to provide legal support. Local media outlets are generously running the ads as a free public service. The contributing media sponsors include The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, WCVB-TV, WBZ-TV, WHDH-TV, WLVI-TV, FOX 25, NECN, Cablevision, the MBTA and AK Media.

"In the past year, we've doubled the number of computers our customers can use in all of our branches, broken ground on our 27^th branch - the first branch built in Boston in 20 years, and spent millions of dollars renovating and restoring libraries from Copley Square to Lower Mills," said Mayor Menino. "We are expanding library hours on the weekends and keeping at least one branch in every district open at night to make using the library more convenient. Today, we begin telling our customers about the progress we are making."

The Boston Public Library (BPL), established in 1848, was the first publicly supported municipal library in America, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and materials, a truly revolutionary concept at the time. In 1870, the BPL was the first library to institute a system of branch libraries linked to a central library with the opening of the East Boston branch. It was the first library to establish a space specifically designed for children with the opening of the children's room in Copley Square in 1895. Today, the BPL has more than
six million books; serves more than two million people every year and is one of only two public libraries in the country that is a member of the Association of Research Libraries. It is in the process of building its 27th branch library, and all
of its events are free and open to the public. At the Boston Public Library, books are just the beginning!

Prepared by the Boston Public Library's Communications Office. For more information about news, programs and events at the BPL, call 617-859-2212 or send a message to P. A. d'Arbeloff, Communications Officer.

Boston Public Library, 2001