VLM in Northeastern Minnesota

[Hoss]

Greetings ~

I wrote an article for one of my blogs about the virtues of VLM and a Library Director in Northeastern Minnesota wants to know if there is anyone in her area that does low moisture cleaning. Is anyone in the vicinity of the Virginia Public Library in Virginia, MN doing VLM?

This is a link to the article here: http://bestofpublib.wordpress.com/2013/0...ors-clean/

There are more public libraries than there are McDonalds in the US and most of them have commercial carpet. I have a lot of readers, so I expect there will be some more referrals requested for library buildings.

[MikeB]

Robert, very nice article! Thanks for posting.
I'm in north central Illinois if you get any inquiries for this area.

[Hoss]

Just got a request for a referral for Northern Idaho too. Maybe we should try to put together a national referral list.

[Gebb1]

I'm in north Idaho.

[Cyclone]

Great article! I approached many libraries in the area this spring but haven't landed any, yet. Will keep trying.

[TheCleaningDude]

Robert,

Great job.

Is this your own blog or did you contribute an article?

If you contributed, how did you go about submitting the article?

[Hoss]

CleaningDude ~ It is my own blog. I have a couple of contributing writers and it is read by library professionals across the US, Canada, Australia, and England. I know that there are readers in Las Vegas and Boulder City. Cyclone ~ Libraries are sort of a niche market and they simply need to have the VLM service explained to them and endorsed by someone in the profession - if you approach the libraries again, you can refer to my article as an endorsement of the process and validation of the work we can do for them. George - I referred the Northern Idaho request over to your web site.

[MikeB]

I cleaned a local library here ( their media room) and all went well and they said they would be doing other areas soon. That was over a year ago and after contacting them several times with reminders ... Nothing. She seemed a little stunned that the cleaning went so quick but seemed to be pleased with the results. I wonder if they didn't feel they got a good cleaning do to the fast clean time and lack of "traditional" equipment. So with your permission I would like to use your article to help educate them and others here.

[lee@deepclean.us.com]

I have had very little success with government work of any kind. They never seem to have money and I am never the low bid.

[Hoss]

Mike ~ please feel free to reference my blog. Before I post there, it goes to about 10,000 librarians - so there will be some instructional momentum. Maybe I need to do a demo at a library so they can see the difference. Lee ~ many Public Libraries have somewhat independent budgets, so quality of work can trump a low bid. I know that the quality of results with an Orbot, Hydrox, Punch, DS2 trumps everything I ever got from traditional HWE on commercial carpet.

[TheCleaningDude]

Were you a librarian at one time?

The blog is very interesting. Looks like you get a lot of traffic. Blogs are great supplemental revenue sources if you get a lot of eyeballs (Ad Sense, etc.).

I'm impressed!

[MikeB]

Thanks Robert. That will be very helpful to a lot of VLM guys!

[Cosway_Toronto]

My sister works at a HUGE library at the University Of Toronto they call it "Fort Book" I'll send her the blog.

[encapman]

Robert,

Nice article.

There's an added reason to sell VLM to libraries. I learned this from speaking with a library director of a very large metropolitan library...

Libraries are curators of books. Well duh - you already knew that didn't you. Think deeper. Books, especially old books are highly sensitive to moisture. And libraries normally go to great lengths to maintain a low humidity level in their library. So LOW MOISTURE cleaning is imperative.

Now if you're a smart fella, like I thought I was, you may be thinking that makes no sense, because if someone checks out a book, there's no way to control the level of humidity that the book will be exposed to. Well after asking that question, I was quickly corrected. The moisture that is being introduced on a book by book basis, doesn't present a problem for the entire library. But what does pose a potential tragedy is introducing a high level of moisture to an entire building full of old books (the older paper and older book covers are highly susceptible to moisture).

So what can we learn from this? Sell LOW MOISTURE to libraries. If they're not up to speed on the problems associated with adding a high volume of moisture to their building (which they should be) - educate them. Help them come to appreciate that low moisture carpet care is the course of wisdom for maintaing their carpet as well as their collection of books. As VLM cleaners we have exactly what they need.

[Hoss]

Thanks! That is an excellent point. It should even be a consideration for the NEDCC. I will add that concept to the article.