Using AI to Easily Create Library Newsletters

 

    We know that communication is a key component to cultivating a warm and welcoming library space, but creating newsletters from scratch to share with your campus and community can be a time consuming task. I find myself reviewing and revising things I write several times over for just the right word or phrasing. While I do enjoy crafting thoughtful information to share, sometimes I just don't have the time to hold space for that task. To assist me in creating this March newsletter for my campus library, I utilized Canva's templates and Magic Write AI text generator in combination with Google Gemini chatbot.

    I find myself using Canva for all sorts of digital graphic content and thankfully I have access to an educator account through my district. From newsletters, slide decks, and even videos, there isn't much Canva can't help you create. Because I am more visual, I began looking for a newsletter template that fit the design and aesthetic that matched my campus. I tried a few searches: "library newsletter", "March newsletter", "newsletter purple". I found a template that matched closest to what I was looking for and easily found a fun font and changed some of the graphics and headings to purple and green. Canva also has an AI text generator called Magic Write that will return ideas from a prompt. I asked it to generate "newsletter about March Madness in the library" and could have asked for changes to wording or other information. I pasted the portions I liked into sections of the newsletter template and updated the names and dates of specific details.

     I have used ChatGPT, but I had yet to try Google Gemini and decided to compare the same search prompts. I asked "create a library newsletter for March 2025" that returned my town name in the information (I was signed in through my school Gmail) and then asked "update newsletter for Canyon Intermediate School Library". There was a section about March Madness that I wanted to sound more exciting, so I copied that section and asked it to reword in a more fun voice. Gemini gave me five different reworded options. Even a rhyming option: "March is here, the books are near, It's time for brackets, have no fear! Pick your favorites, one through eight, Decide their literary fate! At the library, grab a sheet, Vote all month, oh so sweet! Prizes wait for those who play, So join the fun, hip hip hooray!" I can see using Google Gemini to plan out an entire school year of newsletters easily and just updated specifics when needed. Gemini could help you brainstorm ideas to propose programs and events for the library with holidays or important events as your theme to engage your school community. I found Google Gemini to be helpful with very little effort put in to search prompts. 

    Combining these two AI generators took the exhausting re-reading for proofs and mistakes and making text boxes that format just right completely out of my process. I had an idea of what I needed to include in my newsletter and let AI come up with the wording and some enhancements and then quickly moved on to my next project. No more embarrassing wrong use of their/there/they're, or fragmented sentences because my thought was interrupted 27 times. Canva and Google Gemini are fairly user friendly AI tools and will make creating communication for your campus a less frustrating task. 

    Posting newsletters on social media and on your school website can extend your library community even farther. In addition to the newsletter itself AI could help you generate content around that newsletter ahead of time and have a bank of content to post and share. If increasing awareness and engagement and saving yourself time in the process is your goal, I would highly recommend getting familiar with all that AI can offer you.