Strategic Marketing in Library and Information Science

Linda S Katz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780789021427
• eBook ISBN: 9781136413797
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Combine marketing and strategic planning techniques to make your library more successful!

With cutting-edge research studies as well as theoretical chapters that have not been seen before in the marketing literature for LIS, this book examines the current and quite limited state of marketing by LIS practitioners and institutions. It provides you with examples of how marketing can be made more widely applicable within LIS and illustrates some of the usefulness of marketing in special LIS settings and contexts. The book explains how and why managers should combine marketing strategy with strategic planning and demonstrates the means by which LIS could move toward a more full-fledged use of marketingrelationship marketing and social marketing in particular.

In order to be a more effective tool, Strategic Marketing in Library and Information Science is divided into two sections: The Basis and Context for Marketing (theoretical information) and The Application of Marketing (practical applications that you can put to use in your institution). Chapters cover:

• existing literature on marketing in LISwhat it has to offer and what it lacks
• strategic planning that must take place before marketing money is spent
• the branding process and how it can be helpful in LIS marketing
• a marketing method for bridging the gap between staffing needs and the current shortage of librarians
• a way to use relationship marketing techniques to respond to the challenge of marketing electronic resources
• marketing applications relevant to theological libraries
• the effective use of social marketing at the Austin History Centera fascinating case study!
• a fresh marketing approach to bridging gaps between cultural history and education
• the importance of marketing for public libraries

THE APPLICATION OF MARKETING

Strategic Marketing of Electronic Resources

Dennis Dillon

SUMMARY. Electronic information represents a special marketing challenge for libraries. Because libraries must compete with the publicly available resources on the Web, they need to provide a succinct marketing rationale for library users to make the effort to use the library’s electronic resources. They also need to be careful to maintain the library’s credibility and library users’ trust in the library by not over-promising on the capabilities of electronic resources, or prematurely forcing users into the electronic realm when print may better meet their needs. In marketing electronic resources it is helpful to adopt the techniques of “relationship marketing” and to be aware of typical new product adoption behavior and the effects of disruptive technologies. The most effective approach to marketing electronic resources is to involve the entire organization in a strategic program focused on becoming a “marketing aware” organization. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights re sensed.]

KEYWORDS.Marketing, relationship marketing, electronic texts

In marketing an electronic resource to library constituents, the library is often in the position of promoting a resource whose name means nothing to library users. That has no track record with the audience, that has (as far as the audience is concerned) mysteriously unclear contents, scope, and purpose; and to top it off, that has no tangible physical presence.

In today’s environment it is easy for library users to confuse the library’s electronic resources with those that are freely available on the public Web. Every library now has a wide world full of competitors that offer instant access to electronic information. The implications of this change in the information landscape are profound. Peter Drucker made note of this phenomenon in an article in the Economist in which he said “every institution in the knowledge society–not only businesses, but also schools, universities, hospitals and increasingly government agencies too–has to be globally competitive, even though most organizations will continue to be local in their activities and in their markets. This is because the Internet will keep customers everywhere informed on what is available anywhere in the world.”¹ Libraries can neither ignore nor wish away this reality, instead they have little choice but to embrace the full world of electronic information and make a clear case for how the library’s electronic resources fit into this new larger online universe. Libraries have to be able to demonstrate to their users that the library is a source of both professional help and professional information tools that go well beyond what is publicly available on the Web. By emphasizing that the library is not just a physical place but also a collection of valuable electronic resources that are not available elsewhere, libraries will be able to distinguish themselves from other electronic information providers. This is more important than the marketing of any single library electronic resource. The marketing of the concept of the electronic library as an effective and time saving information tool is the pre-existing first step in the successful marketing of any single specific electronic resource. By employing this approach libraries are using their marketing skills to promote the library’s electronic resources both as a new way of using the traditional library, and a new way of suing the Internet. This conceptual positioning comes before the marketing of any particular e-book or e-journal or database, just as in the print environment, libraries have always marketed the library’s collections and services, rather than specific individual books or journals.

INNATE ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

Electronic resources bring many advantages that are an innate a part of the electronic format. Users can use web-based library information at any time and from any location. Electronic formats allow advanced searching capabilities with the added ease of copying, downloading, e-mailing, and otherwise manipulating or saving digital information. All of these elements give electronic information resources strong marketing advantages that resonate with time-strapped users who want to make the most of what time that they do have. By folding the marketing of individual electronic resources into the broader framework of the library’s entire electronic collection, every individual library resource thus re-enforces the value of the other resources, making for efficient use of the library customer’s time, and reinforcing the concept that the library whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

MARKETING AND LIBRARIES

Nevertheless, marketing information resources to library constituents can be a touchy enterprise. One of the things that sets the library apart from the rest of our over-commercialized culture, is that it is a sanctuary that is free of hype, empty promises, and self-promotion. Library users expect to be able to trust the library, and to rely on the information the library provides. Library patrons want to be informed about information that might be of value to them, but they don’t want to be assaulted by a continual library marketing campaign or pressured into trying a service that may not be right for them.

If handled properly the library marketing of electronic resources can lead to a deeper and richer relationship with library constituents, to new library partnerships with other organizations, to additional funding resources, to new and expanded roles for the library within the community, and to increased morale among the library staff. However, library marketing efforts need to be careful that they do not direct library users to inappropriate resources, or otherwise lead library users down a path of disappointment that contributes to a loss of library credibility. It is the library user’s trust in the library that is the library’s most important marketing asset. Because of these concerns, effective library marketing efforts must go beyond mere promotion and take a more comprehensive approach to marketing that considers the entire ongoing relationship between the library and its users.

When an entire organization devotes its efforts to more effectively serving the customer, it is called a marketing-aware organization. One of the more useful current definitions of marketing is “the way in which an organization matches its human, financial and physical resources with the wants and needs of its customers.”² This paper is an overview of the marketing of electronic library resources from this perspective, from the point-of-view of a marketing aware organization. For electronic resources to be appropriately presented, for users to be aware of the existence of these resources, for librarians to be able to offer suitable appropriate help when questions arise, and for those resources to work when a user tries to access the resource–all require the ongoing support of a fully functional, competent, and well-run organization. Without this broad-based infrastructural support the user runs the risks of being disappointed in the resource and frustrated with library services no matter how often they are reminded of the electronic resources through marketing efforts.

Marketing electronic information can also present special problems if it involves an expectation among librarians that a majority of library users will be willing to change long established research habits, and that these users will be willing to invest the time required to learn a new and changing technology. These librarian assumptions don’t always match with user expectations of library services, and can be the source of conflict and irritation between the library and its constituents.

Getting anyone to change habits is always a challenge. Diffusion of innovation studies have found that there is a natural reluctance among people in all walks of life to adopt new technologies until that technology has proven itself among its early adopters and until it has demonstrated significantly improved benefits over the previous technology. In other words, people don’t change without good reason.³

With electronic resources the problems facing librarians are twofold. Some users may harbor a distrust of all electronic formats, while other users may not be aware of newly available resources that would meet their needs. Not everyone is comfortable with the changes that technology is having in their day-to-day life, and not all electronic resources have not achieved the level of familiarity, stability, and reliability that are associated with print. Because electronic resources are new and don’t have long established brand names, many library users are unfamiliar with the contents, scope, and coverage of even the most common electronic resources. These users need to be specifically directed (through the library’s marketing efforts) to those resources that will serve their needs.

In academic settings many library marketing issues translate into a need for the librarian to develop a critical mass of users for electronic resources (to build the audience), and to identify specific resources that can be packaged and marketed to meet specific needs (to target those resources to a specific audience). However, it is also incumbent on librarians to be aware that electronic resources may not be appropriate for every audience. If only one faculty member in the art department is using e-journals while the remaining twenty-five members of the department prefer print journals, then this presents the library with a situation that requires further investigation. It may be that the library needs to not only evaluate its marketing strategies, but also its strategic collection development and instructional plans, and how well it is actually communicating with and meeting the needs of its constituents. If, after credible and realistic marketing efforts by the library, a few faculty in the art department do begin using e-journals, then the widespread adoption of electronic resources among the library constituency becomes a more realistically achievable objective. But if the art faculty is adamantly opposed to e-journals for pedagogical reasons, research reasons, or for reasons of personal preference or habit, then little can be achieved by persistent library e-journal marketing efforts except the irritation of a client group that the library is ostensibly there to serve.

With all new technologies, different individuals will adjust to the newly available options at different rates. Understanding where library constituents are in this adoption process is crucial to designing effective library marketing plans. The strategies used to reach the early adopters of any particular innovation are very different from the strategies used to reach those bringing up the rear. Throughout this adoption process, librarians also need to be careful to preserve the trust library users have in the library. It is very much in the library’s best interest not to not overreach by aggressively promoting innovative services prematurely when many users may still be in a stage where they harbor strong feelings of distrust or rejection for the particular innovations the library is implementing. Maintaining library users’ level of comfort, familiarity, and trust in the library is arguably the most important step in the introduction of any new library technology.

Effective marketing involves more than simple promotional activities conducted by whatever librarian is assigned those responsibilities. If a marketing plan is to achieve its objective, the entire organization needs to work together to effectively fulfill the user expectations that the marketing plan establishes, as well as to continue to meet these expectations over the long term.

The classic marketing plans used by large corporations are well researched, intricately structured campaigns that typically involve a review of the overall marketing situation followed by an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, to and from, the product or service being promoted. As a result of this analysis, key issues are brought to the fore, objectives are discussed, strategies are developed, and a marketing action plan is established. Controls are then put in place against which the success or failure of the plan can be measured, and contingency plans are developed to deal with foreseeable but unexpected developments.

Libraries seldom have either the resources or the need to be this formal in their marketing plans, but by following the path of the classic marketing plan processes many missteps can be avoided.

Librarians have an innate advantage over traditional business marketing efforts, in that librarians are acutely aware of whom their customers are. They know who is using the library, and who is not-and they know who constitutes their potential audience. Librarians are also intimately familiar with the library resources available to their u...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About The Editor
• Introduction
• The Basis and Context for Marketing
• The Application of Marketing
• Index