In Spring of 2013, The Ottawa Public Library and IdeaScale launched their first online engagement or crowdsourcing initiative as part of their efforts to understand what residents of Ottawa, and Library staff, were looking for in the library of tomorrow. Read more about how Ottawa Public Library: - created a parallel campaign for both the public and staff/management - launched a promotion strategy that led to 14,750 participants, 2,800 ideas,1,391 comments, and 27,070 votes

1.
OTTAWA PUBLIC LIBRARY
CASE STUDY
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IDEASCALE

2. Ottawa is the capital of Canada, home to close to 1 million residents. The city’s public
library has been in existence since 1906 when it started with a donation from the
Carnegie Foundation. It is the largest bilingual library in North America and currently has
33 branches across the National Capital Region.
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In Spring of 2013, The Ottawa Public Library and IdeaScale launched their first online
engagement or crowdsourcing initiative as part of their efforts to understand what
residents of Ottawa, and Library staff, were looking for in the library of tomorrow.
The program was fully bilingual and was promoted through a variety of methods using
both traditional and new media. Because of the unique nature of this initiative, the Ottawa
Public Library Public Affairs team was able to garner media coverage that helped support
the building of awareness with the public.
The Imagine Online Ideas Campaign included the following elements developed by the
IdeaScale team:
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• Development of a micro-site purpose built for the online engagement campaign
and supporting materials (http://www.imagine-opl-bpo.ca)
• Development of a parallel campaign for Ottawa Public Library staff, management
and board members
• Development of an online engagement strategy for outreach to the public and staff
members
• Promotion of the initiative through social media, info-ads placed on the website
for the City of Ottawa and the Public Library, posters and postcards available at
all the branches and the City
• Moderation support
• Development of a final report for both the internal and external campaigns
The Ottawa Public Library achieved success with the Imagine Campaign and its first
crowdsourcing effort. The campaign ran for one month and resulted in over 15,000
people participating by posting or commenting on ideas, sharing through social media,
or voting. A snapshot of participation showed that over 14,750 people took the time to
participate by posting 2,800 ideas resulting in 1,489 unique ideas, 1,391 comments, or
casting 27,070 votes.
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2IdeaScale Case Studies
Ottawa Public Library
Imagining the Library of Tomorrow

3. 3IdeaScale Case Studies
The Ideas and comments posted were divided into the following categories:
• Customer
• Learning
• Community Development
• Celebration / Events
• Learning
• Creation
This campaign successfully enabled the OPL to engage Ottawa residents to learn the true
passion they have about their Public Library. Participants responded by posting ideas to
improve processes, the content the Library offers, the focus on the Library at its core, the
services it offers, and how the Library should deliver these services.
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“When developing our engagement strategy to help us understand what the citizens of Ottawa
were looking for in their library system, we thought part of that strategy should include an
online component,” said Monique Brulé, of the Ottawa Public Library. “Working with
IdeaScale, we were able to develop an initiative that managed to engage over 14,000
people who focused on ideas on how to improve the Ottawa Public Library for tomorrow.
Many of these ideas have become an integral part of our strategic planning process for the
future and some have been implemented already to the delight of our patrons.”