Whether you’re a marketer who hasn’t set foot in a library in years or someone looking for hidden gems to power up your business, this episode is packed with tips and inspiration you won’t want to miss!

We sit down with Christine Minx, the Marketing and Communications Manager at the Upper Arlington Public Library. This library is a true pillar in our community with nearly three decades of experience.

Christine shares insights on how libraries have evolved into dynamic community hubs and unveils a wealth of free resources for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers. From exclusive access to top-tier business databases and digital learning tools to reservable meeting spaces and unique sponsorship opportunities, discover why your local library might be your secret weapon for Q4 and beyond.

Plus, get all the details on the upcoming Small Business Resource Fair and learn how libraries like Upper Arlington can help you market smarter, connect deeper, and stay ahead of the curve.

Here are our top 3 takeaways:

Unlock Hidden Resources: Libraries like UA offer free access to powerful tools like LinkedIn Learning, A to Z Databases, and Business Source Premier. Perfect for professionals and entrepreneurs looking for training, research, and even tailored mailing lists.

Meeting Spaces That Mean Business: Need a spot for team brainstorming, interviews, or small group strategy sessions? UA Library’s meeting rooms are tech-equipped and available to the public—just remember, no sales pitches allowed!

Librarians Are Your Secret Weapon: Not sure where to start? The dedicated research staff are ready to guide you, whether you need help finding data, accessing digital subscriptions (like the NYT or Wall Street Journal), or simply want to tap into the library’s expertise.

Moments

00:00 Small Business Resource Fair

03:37 Promoting Library Relevance and Value

08:36 Business Source Premier Overview

10:30 Library's Research Aids Local Authors

15:06 Access Ohio Libraries' Digital Tools

16:54 Library Event: October 18th, 2025

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Copyright 2025 Rebel Marketing

And today we have Christine from the Upper Arlington Library.

Well, Christine, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at the UAA library?

Yeah. I'm Christine Manx. I've been at the Upper Arlington public library since 1998. So almost 27 years now. You can imagine I've seen a lot of changes over that time. I've been here under various titles. Right now I am the marketing and communications manager where I develop and implement strateg about telling people about all the great stuff that the library does. We're heavily focused on programs and events.

So a lot of it is trying to convince people to come here and hang out with our book club or our craft gathering. We're a two person team, myself and our graphic design and digital marketing creator. And we do the typical, I think kind of PR and marketing things. Our big projects are our quarterly program guide called Library Link and we have a bi monthly e newsletter that we share with the city of UA and the UA school. So we put all of our stuff in one piece and share the cost and it goes out to all the homes. So those are kind of our big flagship projects.

Let's start with some exciting news. Tell us about the Small Business Fair.

Yeah, we've got a small business resource fair coming to our main Library at 2800 Tremont Road that is on Saturday, October 18th from 10 to 4. It's going to have various components. There are going to be tables in the atrium set up fairstyle where you can talk to a variety of organizations, mostly our government and nonprofit as well as on that day we're going to have speakers on various topics such as getting started and financial topics and reputation management. We're trying to get a speaker about legal stuff and marketing with Revel Marketing. You guys will be there on that day. Our research manager is also going to be giving tours of the resources that we have for small businesses. And we're going to have some mentoring roundtables with representatives from SCORE Service corps of retired executives. So this is our second year and we hope to make it an annual thing.

Yeah, we're excited to be attending again and speaking again. Every time I go it seems to be growing a lot and I get really good questions from the audience. They're really engaged.

Yeah, it really ties into the library's mission, which is we build connections that make lives better. You know, we connect people to info to other people all the time. So whether it's families or older adults or small business people. So it's really a Good fit for us. Anybody can go on our website to see the full schedule. It is a six hour day. You can go to ualibrary.org and up at the top it says events and programs to kind of plan your day that way. A lot of the sessions are shorter, like 20 to 25 minutes.

There's a couple that are longer, so check it out. We'd love to see you all there. All right.

Well, we didn't just have you here to talk about the fair, but if you are in the Columbus area, I would recommend checking it out. You're here also to tell us a little bit about what the library has to offer in terms of resources. But before we dive into your top five, how do you define your role at the library and how does marketing a library differ from, say, marketing your brand or business?

Well, I try to do kind of the obvious measurable things like get people to come to our programs to check out items, to vote for our operating levies. But I also feel strongly about the kind of public relations side where I want people to see libraries as valuable and see that we're relevant and will always want to use us and be a part of their community. You know, most of my career has been outside of the business world, so I'm not sure I'm the best one to really speak about marketing when there's an obvious money making angle. Libraries already have lots of fans, which I am so grateful for. So it's more about cluing people into the hidden gems that are in the treasure chest that they already love.

So one of the top five resources is LinkedIn learning. Can we hear a little bit more about that?

Yeah. LinkedIn Learning used to be known as Lynda.com and it switched over to LinkedIn Learning. It is a site available through our research tools. You're probably going to hear me talk about that a lot here because four of these five top resources are through our website and you need a library card for them. But there's some really great stuff in there. So LinkedIn learning with your library card, you get free access to a library of skill building courses in varying lengths. Some are very short, some are several hours. It covers social media, AI, Adobe content marketing software, analytics, and, you know, many others.

I've took quite a few of them for social media. They're really interesting and they're vetted presenters. They're not just YouTubers out there and the users who have watched them leave ratings. So it's a really good source for some careers building skills.

That sounds really Cool. So another one of your resources that you provided to us was, is it A to Z databases?

A to Z databases database. You know, it's not always the maybe sexiest term, but there's really some good information out there. A to Z has demographic information, and it uses publicly available information sources to find residents with, say, certain interests that you might want to market to. For example, let's say you make homemade cat collars. You can use A to Z databases to find people in your zip code or wherever that make, say, $150,000 more. And have a cat you can search so that only one name per address pops up. And then you can download an Excel doc for a mailing list. Then you can filter by things like location, income, marital status, gender, and age.

It does not provide email address, but if you're interested in doing direct ma, go in and check it out and see what you get.

That's awesome. You can also get free access to New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Columbus Dispatch.

That's right. We all need to stay up on the news, I think. And with the library card, you can get to read these daily newspapers at no cost. Now, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have a short kind of registration process, but it's really easy. And Columbus Dispatch, of course, the local paper here, we have issues online going back to 1871. So if you want to see how they. Way back in, you know, half past one and a half centuries, check it out. And there's current issues, too, but, you know, if you were going to try to get New York Times on your own, you'd have to pay for that.

So this is, this is free and it's one of our more popular resources.

I didn't know that because every time I click on a link and it takes me to one of those pay walls and I get very frustrated and I don't need another subscription. So that's actually pretty cool.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right, so for me, one of my favorites that you have on your list is meeting rooms. As a remote business, meeting rooms are needed.

Yes.

So can you tell me a little bit more?

Yeah. We have rooms for public use at our Tremont Road and Lane Road ranches with technology in there. So you can do things like cast from your device onto monitor. Now, there are some caveats with the rooms. You know, you can't sell products or do any kind of direct solicitation, but they are great for. For things like staff retreats or interviews or marketing focus groups. They are available first come, first serve and no more than eight weeks before your date. So you just want to go online to our website again, ualibrary.org and up@ the top it says meeting rooms.

You can just see a calendar and see what's out there. We have a theater. We have small, intimate kind of conference rooms with seats for four and seats for eight. So there's a few in there. So check it out. Just don't, don't sell anything or you know, kind of be creepy that way.

What about Business Source Premier?

Business Source Premier is great if you want to do a deep dive and read some marketing kind of academic products. There are tons on there journals of marketing, marketing, management, marketing, research, theory and practice and advertising. There was an article on there called Capabilities and Collaborative Marketing practices among Rival Cluster Based Wine Producers. So if that is your thing and you want to really get in to see what the academics are talking about, that's really good. And case studies and things like that. That Business Source Premier also has full issues of popular business magazines like Bloomberg Business Week and Forbes. Those are normally like $100 a year if you buy it on your own and Entrepreneur. So check that out.

All right.

And I know you listed out a bonus, so why don't you tell us a little bit about that.

Well, my bonus tip is check with your library to see about sponsorship opportunities for their summer reading programs. We do that. We have a summer and winter reading program and we use local businesses who are willing to donate coupons or maybe one, say a gift card or something for a grand prize drawing. We had I think over 3,000 kids. Typically it's more like I think 3,600 kids participate every summer. We do a winter version as well. So if your product is appropriate, especially for kids or families, you would get exposure for your brand. And you know, it helps the library out too and it helps the kids have a little incentive to read.

So check with your library if they're open to doing something like that.

Can you share to change the subject, can you share a real example of a small business or nonprofit that use the library's resources to grow or just market themselves a little bit smarter?

You know, I asked our research manager about that and because we are often the jumping off point, we don't always hear about the final result. But what I can tell you is there was a local Upper Arlington author named Lee Lewis who used our research staff when she was writing her book called Pirate Queens, which was published by National Geographic. And she included the library in her acknowledgments. So we Thought that was real cool. And we also recently could see that someone used that A to Z databases I was talking about to download over 3,000 records, presumably to do a mailing list. Exactly what we were just talking about. So we don't always hear kind of maybe the big, splashy things, but we think they're out there and they're working.

You kind of already touched on, like, how people have been using these resources. But how can someone get started with these tools? And is it overwhelming, or is someone there that can help them walk through, like, what they're trying to accomplish?

Oh, definitely. We. You know, the best thing I think anybody can do is get to know your librarian. It can feel overwhelming, I think, due the number of resources that. That we have for personal and business use. And again, on the surface, databases might seem boring. Right. But once you're.

You're in there, I mean, there's really. There's a good chance you become a fan. Here in ua, we have a dedicated research department, is kind of rare these days. They are the experts in those tools and are happy to help in person over the phone or by email@referencealibrary.org and their direct phone number is 486-3342. So they. They love to get questions. They'll do some research. They'll steer you in the right direction of where you can do it yourself.

But there is definitely guidance for some of these. Well, all of these products that aren't, I don't think, really well known, people don't think of it. They think of books and libraries, which. And we always will. But there's service and these hidden resources that you just wouldn't think about it if you didn't know about it. So, yeah, just call us and we'll get you started.

What would you say to a marketer who hasn't stepped into a library for a while?

Well, you might not recognize it. I mean, we're still gonna have books. But libraries are really embracing the idea of being a community hub. You know, we have the meeting rooms, we have group study areas just where students can meet and talk. Some libraries, like around here at Westerville and the Powell Library up in Delaware, are the ones I know for sure. They have maker spaces and big, like, laminators. You know, you could go in there and laminate your print and laminate a big, huge poster. So they're not.

They're not necessarily like, you may remember from, you know, 30 years ago. I think the core is there, but it's expanded so much, and it's you. You really should check it out and see what's new.

Yeah, I use our local library for things like just printing, faxing, scanning things in, because my printer doesn't love me at all. It hates me. But the libraries have always been supportive of my printing and faxing and whatever needs. And then I haven't gotten shushed at all.

No, we don't shush. We've kind of broken that stereotype, I think, unless you're just really acting crazy. But yeah, we have pretty cheap printing. You know, when I compared it to like a FedEx, our. I think she said our color copies are 50 cents, black and white are 10 cents. And I looked up at FedEx and it's. It's probably 50 more than that. So that's.

That's pretty nice. We've got nice laser printers over here, so. And faxing. Who knew you still needed it? You do, right? Sometimes, yeah. And scanning. Scanning, yeah. In our research department, they're working on a memory lab that's not quite ready yet, but it's going to be a little section with equipment where people can bring in their old VH tapes, maybe some old 8 millimeter reels or something and transfer them into digital files and have. I can't wait for that.

That's going to be a really nice service for. Maybe for personal use more than business, but, you know, that's what we're here for. That's cool.

All right, so if someone listening today wanted to use the library as like their secret weapon for Q4, what's the first step that you recommend?

Get to know their webpage. Go in there and search for reference research database. You know, ours is@ualibrary.org research but all libraries are going to have some kind of content like that. And I don't know that a lot of people know this, but anyone in Ohio, any Ohio resident can get any library's library card because of the state funding that we get. This includes an E card. So it's not even a physical card, an E card to access these digital tools. So even outside of the Columbus area, you can get one of our E cards, virtual card, with instant access to these databases and to ebooks and audiobooks for professional or personal use. And again, just get to know your librarians and library staff.

How do you market? Like it's hot.

With a passion for libraries and what they stand for and with the fervent hope that we will always be needed and relevant. And I just encourage everybody, support your libraries by using them, volunteering at them and voting for them.

I also have an E card for multiple libraries. I have to say that because of my Kindle. So I knew exactly, exactly what you're talking about there.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah. The digital Just being able to have that library card log in, do the research from home, or just grab, I don't know, whatever magazine or anything that's out there onto a digital device is really, really cool.

Yeah.

So tell us again just before Izzy closes us out, when is the fare? How can they find out more and register for it?

Yeah, it is Saturday, October 18th. Let me just open my lovely library link Saturday, October 18th, from 10 to 4 at the Upper Arlington Tremont Road branch. And that's 2800 Tremont Road in Upper Arlington. On our website, there's a programs and events tab up there, there's a calendar. If you go to that date, October 18th, you can click on there and you see the full list of all the organizations that are going to be there, the specific topics and times of those topics for the speeches, and that's about it. We'd love to see you.

Until next time, stay strategic, stay spicy, and whatever you do, don't settle for boring.