Sample Letter to Community Groups

SAMPLE LETTER TO COMMUNITY GROUPS

(NOTE: In mailings to the media and community groups, include announcements, flyers and brochures of library programs related to the exhibition. Letters to the media should also include press kits, offer assistance in developing stories and include a library contact.)

(DATE)

Dear Library Friend: (PERSONALIZE GREETING WHENEVER POSSIBLE)

The (NAME OF LIBRARY) is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition, “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine” on (DATE). The traveling exhibition was organized by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. The exhibition tour is coordinated by the American Library Association Public Programs Office, Chicago.

“Harry Potter’s World” uses materials from the National Library of Medicine’s History of Medicine collections to explore Harry Potter’s world, its roots in Renaissance science and the ethical questions that affected not only the wizards in J.K. Rowling’s books, but also the historical thinkers featured in the series.

Exhibit panels feature the works of 15th- and 16th-century thinkers, such as naturalist Konrad Gesner, alchemist Nicolas Flamel and occultist Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, and explore their understandings of natural philosophy, medicine and magic. The panels also highlight illustrations from Renaissance texts of some of the fantastic creatures and plants featured in “Harry Potter,” including basilisks, dragons, merpeople and mandrakes, and use them to explore the intersection between the novels and Renaissance thinkers, lore and practices.

We would like to invite you to a special preview of the exhibition on (DAY, DATE) at (TIME) at the library (OR PARTICULAR LOCATION IN LIBRARY). (NAME) will be the guest speaker. A news release included with this correspondence provides additional details. Please contact me at (TELEPHONE, E-MAIL) if you have questions.

We hope you can join us as we introduce this exciting exhibition to our community.

Sincerely,

(NAME)