wordmark of the consultancy named Libraries Are Essential

Experience and Expertise

Areas of Expertise

  • Library Marketing and Communications
  • Writing, Editing, Proofreading, Publishing
  • Presenting / Training, online and in-person
  • Conference Organizing and Planning
Kathy Dempsey at a microphone, raising her hand

Chairing the first Library Marketing and Communications Conference in 2015

Organizational Leadership

Marketing Libraries Think Tank, 2022 – 2023

  • Invited to serve on the Planning Committee of the annual Canadian conference Marketing Libraries Think Tank. MLTT is supported by the Ontario Library Assn.

LibraryLink New Jersey, 2020 – 2023

  • Elected to the Executive Board of LibraryLink New Jersey for a 3-year term starting July 1, 2020. One of two Lay Representatives to this statewide consortium. Committees: Membership, Strategic Planning, and Fund Development (co-chair; convened Fall 2020).

Library Marketing and Communications Conference, 2015 – 2017

  • I took the initiative to rebuild a small conference that had run for 4 years (under various names) and was folding due to low participation. I gathered a group of volunteers to rebrand and rebuild the next iteration, which we named the Library Marketing and Communications Conference (LMCC). I chaired the first three events in 2015, 2016, & 2017, setting up much of the core structure that has contributed to LMCC’s success and longevity.
  • By 2017, a subset of volunteers had officially formed a nonprofit (Library Marketing Conference Group, LMCG) to continue funding and running the event, so I could resign from the all-encompassing task of designing and chairing a national conference. The LMCG board — in tandem with Amigos Library Services — has continued to run LMCC, which has grown its attendance every year, and has become a well-recognized and respected annual event in the library marketing world. It’s still the only national conference specifically for library marketing and communications workers.

New Jersey Library Association, 2006 –

  • Committees: Information Technology, Technical Services (2006-2008); Public Relations (committee restarted, 2007 – 2010 ).
  • NJLA Newsletter editor (2010 – 2013). I transitioned the state association’s newsletter from a print product to an electronic one.

Philadelphia Writers Conference, 1999 – 2005

  • Judge of the Magazine Article Writing Contest that’s associated with PWC’s annual conference in Philadelphia each June.