When she was growing up in Leicester, Massachusetts, Linnea Sheldon found the library to be… boring.

“While I enjoyed reading and admired the librarians, the library itself didn’t feel very exciting,” confesses Linnea. “Today, libraries are dynamic community hubs offering so much more than books, and I love that part of my job is sharing these opportunities with the community. When people say, ‘I didn’t know the library did that,’ I can truly relate.”

Now, in her role as Community Relations and Communications Manager for the Worcester Public Library, Linnea works hard to make sure her community finds the library to be exciting and dynamic. She’s a team of one, communicating to a city of more than 210,000 residents across seven branches and two bookmobiles. She does receive generous help from library staff with tasks like social media posts, flyer design, calendar postings, and more.

And the library is vital to this city. Linnea says nearly 20 percent of her community lives in poverty. So, when she was approached in 2023 about offering a fee forgiveness program, she was fully supportive.

“We had many kids who went home before the pandemic and left books behind in schools,” explains Linnea. “We also have a growing population of unhoused individuals in our community, and we were finding that we were losing patrons because they had lost or damaged items on their accounts.”

 “From a marketing standpoint, I knew that the right hook was key for an initiative like this to succeed. I also knew I would have no budget. My goal was to come up with something fun and easy enough that people would not only want to participate but would also want to tell their friends and family about.”

Linnea, who is a self-professed “cat person,” decided to lean into her love for felines to create her campaign, which she called March Meowness. The premise was simple: People could trade cat photos for fee forgiveness.

“We began planning in the fall of 2023 and chose March 2024 because there weren’t any competing campaigns planned,” explains Linnea. “The actual marketing push happened just a week before launch. With limited time and resources, I created our collateral and focused on social media, signage, and email as our primary channels.”

“One key strategy was timing. We intentionally didn’t announce too early. By waiting until just a few days before the campaign, we created a sense of urgency and excitement that encouraged immediate participation.”

-Linnea Sheldon

“Another pivotal decision was to pitch the story to the media before we launched it ourselves. Local outlets loved the playful concept, and the first article went live within the hour. Even press outlets in Boston picked up the story, and from there it snowballed. By the time we officially launched on our website and social media, we already had significant buzz and community interest.”

Linnea says the community response far exceeded the library’s expectations. Worcester Public Library decided to launch the promotions a few days early, at the end of February. Patrons were thrilled to be welcomed back in such a fun, positive way.

“What surprised us most was that even people without fees wanted to participate,” says Linnea. “Many people asked if their cat photos could be applied toward another community member’s account, a generous show of support that really embodied the spirit of the campaign.”

The library displayed submissions on a “cat wall,” and soon cat photos started arriving from across the country. After the story was picked up by The New York Times, it spread internationally, and the library was suddenly receiving cat pictures from all over the world.

“The volume was incredible, and staff from across departments volunteered to help,” recalls Linnea. “We developed a workflow: Some saved the photos, others responded to emails, others formatted and printed the pictures, and still others hung them on the wall.”

“Our circulation staff cleared fees for patrons, and my director and I fielded multiple media requests every day. It was an all-hands-on-deck effort, and while it was exhausting, it was also one of the most energizing experiences we’ve ever had at a library.”

Besides the multitude of patrons whose fees were forgiven, the campaign led to some incredible marketing results. Those included:

• 10.7 percent increase in physical visits
• 9.2 percent rise in circulation
• 10.2 percent increase in new library card registrations when compared to the previous month.
• 46 percent increase in website traffic
• 244 percent increase in engaged Facebook users.
• 120 percent increase in Instagram interactions
• 16 percent increase in TikTok followers from the previous month.

“We also tracked over 500 media stories on March Meowness,” shares Linnea. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt even came to our library to shoot a story.”

“But the real impact was seen when you look at how our patrons were helped. Staff successfully unblocked 930 patron accounts during the campaign, while the Library Board of Directors later approved the forgiveness of an additional 3,787 accounts due to the success of the campaign.”

This past June, Linnea and her library received a John Cotton Dana Award for the campaign. That’s how I first heard about it. Sitting at the award ceremony, I can tell you there was nary a dry eye in the room when Linnea described the outpouring of cat photos from people around the world, eager to help her community reconnect with their library.

And it’s no surprise that Linnea and the library repeated the campaign this year, with a few adjustments.

“We knew nothing could match the scale and virality of the original campaign,” explains Linnea. “This year, we launched March Meowness 2.0: Marchier and Meowier. For every cat photo donated to our cat wall, the Worcester Public Library Foundation pledged $1 toward our summer reading programming.”

“The response was wonderful, we received 2,500 photos, and once again, community members came out to see the cat wall grow. We also introduced a new element: a cat mascot with a community naming contest, which resulted in the winning name Whooskers.”

“While this year’s campaign was more localized and didn’t capture the international attention of the first, our community was still excited for its return and embraced it as a fun, meaningful way to support the library and one another.”

“One of the best outcomes of this campaign was the way it allowed staff to connect with patrons and the community in an entirely new way. Library work can be particularly challenging. We deal with serious issues every day and support people in deeply meaningful but often difficult ways. March Meowness brought a sense of lightness and joy.”

“The initiative also opened incredible doors for our library and for me personally. In the past year, we have received more awards than at any other time in our organization’s history. The campaign has connected me with library marketers across the country and strengthened relationships within my own community in ways I never imagined possible.”

“We’re still making the case for the importance of marketing and communications in libraries to our city officials, but all of these wins have made it even clearer just how important our field is to the success of libraries across the globe.”

-Linnea Sheldon

And when she’s not creating award-winning campaigns, Linnea says she looks to other libraries, nonprofits, large companies, and this blog (thank you!) to stay on top of trends and get creative ideas.

“I’m subscribed to a wide range of email marketing lists, I’m a regular social media user, and I follow marketing and nonprofit influencers on LinkedIn,” shares Linnea. “I also make a point to research the campaigns and libraries that win marketing awards each year. It’s inspiring to see the creativity and innovation happening across the field.”

“Harris County Public Library was one of the first libraries that really stood out to me on social media; they showed me that taking a slightly unconventional approach could actually expand your reach.”

For a library looking to launch a campaign like March Meowness, Linnea has four key pieces of advice.

1. Always start with your patrons. This campaign may have been fun and lighthearted, but it grew directly out of a real need identified by our New Users Task Force. Our community needed a fee forgiveness program to remove barriers to access. Without that foundation, the idea wouldn’t have resonated the way it did.
2. Lean into what makes your library unique. For us, it was cats. We were already known for our cat memes, and many staff (me included) are passionate cat lovers. That authenticity made the campaign feel natural and genuine, which helped it connect with people.
3. Remember that making marketing fun can actually make your job easier. While responding to the overwhelming interest took a lot of work, the creative and promotional side of the campaign was surprisingly simple. Of course, not every initiative lends itself to this kind of playful approach, but finding ways to add a little fun to a program or campaign benefits both patrons and staff.
4. It helps immensely to have supportive colleagues and leadership. Over the years, I’ve built strong relationships with staff and with our Executive Director, who is always willing to try new and creative ideas. That trust and openness were critical in bringing March Meowness to life.

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