A PR Intern Journey In Library
Interning in Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri
Has provided a very great opportunity for me
in learning new knowledge and
experiencing new practices.
What have I learnt ?
First, It is the news article clipping!
On the very first day of my internship in the library, my supervisor has assigned the first task for me and my intern colleagues, which is news article clipping.
It might be curious on why should we do clippings on newspapers instead of the social media?
Well, newspapers that considered as the old media has gradually faded out from the society nowadays where the social media has replaced most of the old media. However, there are few reasons on continue doing the news article clipping.
Reasons of continue the practice of news article clipping:
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It has a given a great overview for the achievements and efforts that have been done over the year. People nowadays can read the news through online. However, there are still have people who prefer reading newspapers instead of online news. The act of cutting out the related articles from newspapers and keeping every article in a file have provided the opportunities for the readers to review every article that have done in the past years.
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A transparency given for the stakeholders to acknowledge the library. As my supervisor said, "Every year, we will collect all of the news articles regarding to the library from the newspapers, compile them together and turns it into an annual scrapbook." She continued that it is a great opportunity for them on giving out the books to their stakeholders, so that they will get to know more about the library and the activities and events they have hold.
Secondly, it is the event, Sarawak Children Festival!
Sarawak Children Festival, it is an event that organized on the 5th and 6th of December in 2019. The purpose of the event is to provide an opportunity for the children to learn from the activities provided. It has also given a chance for enhancing the relationship between the parents and their children.
The event is conducted with 6 different stations which are the storytelling station, creative stations, outdoor game stations, indoor game stations, S.T.E.M stations and the workshop stations. In each of every station, different activities and competitions are offered for the children to participate in such as the coloring and painting sessions, beyblade competitions and so on.
During the two-day event, I was assigned by my supervisor in helping the Amcee of storytelling station in traffic controlling and in charging with the entrance of the storytelling station that located at the Auditorium. After attending the event, I have learnt some knowledge and lesson from it such as the time management and provide clear information to the audience. In the PR perspective, it is essential in evaluating the performance of an event conducted and the feedback from the participants. During the event, I have received several complaints on the poor time management done by our staffs and the unclear instructions that caused the participants in not knowing the venue and time changed and thus, unable to find the venue.
These feedbacks from the participants can affect to the reputation of the library and hence, it is the responsibility for a PR practitioner in solving the issues intelligently and politely in order to maintain the reputation and avoiding the issue to become worst. Although I have not been assigned in evaluating the event, however, I have learnt a lot during these two days and it is worthiness.
Of course, Press Releases should not be excluded!
During this 2 months of internship, it is appreciate of having the chances to construct several press releases for library. Although it is known that press release is just a basic requirement that every PR practitioner should have done. However, this is the first opportunity for myself in writing the press releases for an industry, but not an assignment for studying anymore. During these months, I have done with 5 press releases for the library which are The PeKa B40 event, Aedes Awareness, Book Offered - Winged Beauties, Introducing to Library Services and the press release of represent library attending the conference of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Miri.
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I have learnt a lot from composing these press releases as press release is an approach for an industry or company in creating awareness and notifying the public regarding to the events, promotions and more that have done by the company. Besides, it is important for writing short and precisely in order to get more attention from the readers in finish reading the press release and thus, achieve the objective of increase the awareness. Apart from that, it is important as well of developing in excellent languages for the press releases. In Malaysia, English and Bahasa Malaysia are the essential languages for every company, industry and even the non-profit government to develop in documenting as well as the press releases. Meanwhile, the main languages of newspapers in Malaysia are Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin. Thus, as a PR practitioner, we have to engage the public with differ languages by composing the press releases in two languages which are English and Bahasa Malaysia. It is challenging, but I have learnt a lot and recall a lot to Bahasa Malaysia that I have seldomly utilised after I ended my middle school life.
Next, Design Is A Way Of Attraction To The Public!
Aside from news article clipping and writing press releases, I have also learnt a lot in designing posters for the library.
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In library, posters are often used by the librarians in delivering the messages to the audiences and also to attract the attention from the public. Regardless to the contents of the posters are library services, facilities introduction or create awareness to the society, it is the better approach for the library in producing posters in attracting the audience to aware of the services, events and awareness hold by the library.
Hence, I have done with several posters for the library such as the fishtail posters of informing the audience regarding to the facilities offered by library, Aedes Awareness and introduction to the new services provided in library.
Last but not least, Transmedia Storytelling? Major Project is Here!
Before the end of the internship, my intern partners and I have collaborated in producing a Transmedia Storytelling project for the library.
What is Transmedia Storytelling? It is a technique for Public Relations in transmitting the messages with constant objectives through different media platform either it is new media or traditional media.
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Regarding to this project, we are asked for applying our skills on filming and editing in producing several short videos with the constant purposes of introducing the creating awareness, library services and guiding the users in utilising the services online. Since it is a transmedia project, we have also uploaded this videos to YouTube channel which the library can share the videos in every online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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Apart from that, an additional PR strategy recommendation has been proposed to the CEO of the library in Miri. The strategy we have recommended is collaborating with the social influencers. This strategy is recommended as in order to create and increase the awareness of the library among the public as well as the students from elementary schools to the universities and colleges and thus, attracting more audiences in visiting the library and utilising the facilities and services provided.