pages of the IHLS 2024 Progress and Impact Report in an artistic layout

Annual Progress & Impact Report Mailer

Organization

Illinois Heartland Library System (Edwardsville, Ill.)

Tactics/Skills
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Scenario

The Illinois State Library, under the Illinois Office of the Secretary of State, requires each of Illinois’ three regional library systems, including Illinois Heartland Library System, to annually submit a detailed annual report with very specific information and attachments. This can make the document very long (well over 100 pages) and quite dry. While it was a useful and necessary publication for the State, it was not a document that was especially helpful or consumable by the IHLS board or its 520+ member libraries.

In approximately 2018, in an effort to make the document more engaging for stakeholders other than the State, IHLS staff began trying to make the document more visually engaging by adding photos and infographics. In 2020, I moved the document from Publisher to InDesign, making it easier to apply consistent formatting, place images, and edit text. However, the improved document was still a document primarily for the State. IHLS needed a document that was truly engaging to the IHLS stakeholders, including its Board of Trustees and members.

Action

Primary Objectives

  1. Historical Record & Transparency: Provide members with a simplified overview of IHLS services, finances, and operations (staff, technology, and building infrastructures).
  2. Brand Advocacy: Demonstrate the positive impact of IHLS on the libraries and staff of its 520 member institutions.
  3. Marketing: List and promote IHLS’s many services to its members.
  4. Member Engagement: Engage library members (and not just the State Library and IHLS Board), including those who don’t typically engage with IHLS.

Additional Objectives

  1. Keep the publication costs within budget.

Key Messages

  1. IHLS makes a significant positive impact on the libraries and staff of its 520 member institutions, and throughout the state, through the many services provided by IHLS.
  2. IHLS is a good steward of taxpayer dollars.
  3. IHLS is transparent about its financial standing and operations.

I proposed IHLS produce two documents:

  • a simplified, graphics-removed version for the State, which would continue to have all the necessary details and reports required for a state-funded organization, and
  • a short, graphical version for board members and library members, highlighting IHLS’s impact.

The Annual Progress & Impact Report would be a new, short, and engaging print and digital publication created to demonstrate IHLS’s impact on libraries through highlights of critical services, impact statements, and testimonials. It would also include some of the most important elements of a traditional annual report and an invitation to the Annual Member Celebration (annual meeting). The Executive Director and the Communications Administrator began working with the staff leads a year in advance, reformatting the monthly board reports and coaching them on how to document not just service metrics but the impact of those metrics. The Communications Coordinator then revised the Annual Report Department templates—documents they used to collect the information that would be used for the Annual Report—in preparation for more impact-focused annual reporting. She then copy-edited the materials for consistent brand voice and impact focus.

Meanwhile, I used this information to determine the types of information best suited for inclusion in the Progress & Impact Report, developed a couple of mock-ups, reached out to staff for additional details and metrics to best highlight IHLS’s impact over the last year, and coordinated printing services with a local print house.

The final draft of the first annual IHLS Project & Impact Report was printed and mailed to each of IHLS’s 520 member institutions, distributed at regional trade conferences, published online in flipbook format, and seeded on the IHLS website homepage, news webpage, and e-newsletters. Additionally, an accessibility-compliant PDF was created and published to the Board Documents page of the website.

IHLS 2024 Annual Progress & Impact Report

For the best viewing experience, this flipbook will open in a new window.

Image as a button: IHLS 2024 Annual Progress & Impact Report screenshot -- link opens the flipbook in new window

Results

Members of both the IHLS board and IHLS institutional membership quickly and frequently reached out with feedback about the report, calling it an exciting and impactful representation of IHLS. Several library staffers noted their surprise at the many IHLS services available to them. Testimonials throughout the report put impact stories to the services, demonstrating IHLS’s impact to the board, the State Library, and any interested legislators or taxpayers.

Since we decided to mail the printed report to every member library, IHLS Membership staff could follow up with the small number of returned mailers, ensuring that every single member institution—including those whose directors rarely or never opened IHLS emails, didn’t proactively engage with IHLS, or hadn’t yet learned about IHLS—had at least one touch point for the year.

Additionally, IHLS MarCom staff now had a replicable process and template in place to shorten the project work in the subsequent year.