Pages & Voices Podcast
Allen County Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
The Allen County Public Library (ACPL) launched a new podcast featuring local authors called “ACPL Presents: Pages & Voices.” It is produced at the Main Library’s Access Fort Wayne studios by Library Production Coordinator Kay Gregg and is hosted by Senior Librarian Meg Bell. The first episode premiered January 8 and featured Carrie Vrabel of Claypool, IN. Subsequent episodes dropped every other week.
“ACPL Presents: Pages & Voices” centers the stories and creative writing experiences of local and regional authors from various genres. The first season’s featured authors were: Erica Anderson Senter (Fort Wayne, Ind.), Jaclyn Youhana Garver (Fort Wayne, Ind.), Michael Lindvall (Fort Wayne, Ind.), Angela Jackson-Brown (Bloomington, Ind.), Kayleen Reusser (Bluffton, Ind.), and Carrie Vrabel (Claypool, Ind.).
The podcast can be streamed and downloaded at acpl.info/podcast or on most major podcast players including: Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Samsung, Podchaser.
Challenge/Opportunity
The project was developed in response to increasing demand for avenues to connect the local author community to library resources and audiences. These authors often seek out the Library as a place to share their work but we lack the staff bandwidth to support multiple author visits and promotions per year. The podcast was created to solve this problem in a unique way which allows us to spotlight the vibrant and growing art community in Allen County which includes writers, authors, and poets – while also developing new skills in podcast production for our staff. These skills will be necessary as we prepare to launch a new podcast booth service in our Maker Lab in 2025.
Key Elements of Innovation
- We developed a list of authors from many genres and we knew had compelling stories. After scheduling the sessions, Meg read their works and developed questions while the Access Fort Wayne team compiled the equipment to support a podcast. Our experience in radio (WELT) and tv production was key in this endeavor.
- We explored distribution platforms and chose Podbean for its simplicity, reporting, integration with major podcast players, and price.
- We created a landing page (acpl.info/pages-and-voices), as well as, a site where local authors who would like to be considered for future podcast episodes could inquire (acpl.info/local-authors).
- Our marketing team developed a graphic and built a communications plan to launch the podcast to the community. This included digital advertising on social media, organic social media, earned media coverage, and direct patron communication via email.
- We built it into our mobile app so it could be easily streamed by our most engaged users.
Achieved Outcomes
The podcast met with great success and has sustained a loyal following over 2 seasons. It has accomplished its goal of highlighting local authors. We have seen an increase in circulation for the featured local authors and have received more than 100 inquiries from authors who would like to be featured on future episodes. Authors report increase in sales and reviews of their works, as well as, speaking invitations and general word-of-mouth since their episodes have aired.
Additional markers of success include:
- 2000+ Podbean downloads
- 358 Youtube views
Social media/web impacts:
- 263,553 Impressions
- 105,047 Reach
- 818 Reactions
- 108 Comments
- 997 Shares
- 3,312 Total Clicks
- 3,284 Website page views
Earned media impacts:
- 57 Media Mentions
- 1.54 million reach
- $9,005 earned media value
Furthermore, the podcast is an educational tool that is convenient, accessible, and entertaining! It has a reach that extends beyond any author visit we could host and is available on-demand for future patrons.
