Real-Life Marketing and Promotion Strategies in College Libraries

Connecting With Campus and Community

Barbara Petruzzelli, Barbara W Petruzzelli

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136444319
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Practical advice on how to promote your library and how to better understand and serve library users

Real-Life Marketing and Promotion Strategies in College Libraries is a how-to guide to marketing and promotional activities that will raise your library's visibility in the face of increased competition from other information providers. Academic librarians draw on their own experiences with real-life examples of what works (and what doesn't) when developing, implementing, and evaluating on-campus marketing initiatives. You'll learn how to use surveys, focus groups, advertising, target audiences, community outreach, and public relations to learn more about the needs of your library's users, how to make improvements to meet those needs, and how to communicate those improvements to students and faculty.

Academic librarians just getting started or well into their careers will benefit from the book's practical approach to using marketing and promotional techniques that are effective and affordable. Each article of Real-Life Marketing and Promotion Strategies in College Libraries includes tables, figures, and appendices that provide tangible examples of marketing and promotional activities that really work. The book also includes a bibliography of effective marketing resources that's kept up-to-date through an accompanying Web site.

Real-Life Marketing and Promotion Strategies in College Libraries shows you how to:

• incorporate the results of LibQUAL+ and student focus groups into your short- and long-range planning
  
• use posters, displays, brochures, newspaper ads, and giveaways in your public relations campaigns
  
• get the word out to the community about your library and its services
  
• use the right media to match your message with your audience
  
• increase awareness of your library's virtual reference services
  
• use postcards to promote your services
  
• collaborate with students to develop an advertising campaign
  
• implement a marketing action plan
  
• stage large-scale special events and programs
  
• and a whole lot more!

Real-Life Marketing and Promotion Strategies in College Libraries is an essential professional resource for practicing academic librarians and library directors at colleges and universities.

Index

Academic libraries. See also individual academic library

audiences of, 36

continuing education resources for marketing, 89-90

Internet resources for marketing, 87-89

literature analyzing promotion of, 31

lobbying and, 59-60

marketing in, 48-49, 82, 154

photographing events at, 42-43

programs and exhibits for, 36-37

public information offices, 40

resource guides for marketing, 83-84

resources for promoting new services, 84-86

reviewing publicity of other, 43

summary about, 61

vendor resources for marketing, 86-87

Advertising. See also Publicity

direct, 75

paid, 75

After-the-fact publicity, 42-43

Alumni, as external audience, 56-57

American University, 2

American University Library, 2-3

assessment at, 2-3

reflections on, 10-12

focus groups at, 4-5

application of findings of, 8-10

data analysis of, 7-8

methodology used for, 5-6

reflections on, 10-12

LibQUAL+survey at, 3-5

Assessment

culture of, at American University Library, 2

libraries and, 2

reflections on, 10-12

@ your library, 21

Audiences

brainstorming worksheet for library hours reduction and, 64

communications grid for matching media to, 63

external, 56-61

internal, 55-56

of Milner Library, 54

Brainstorming worksheet, library hours reduction, 64

Branding virtual reference services, 69-70

Calendars, community, 42

Chat reference services, marketing, 66-67

Coates Library (Trinity University), Frankenstein exhibit at

developing programming ideas for, 103-104

educational component of, 107-109

enlisting help for, 104

evaluation of, 114-116

funding for, 110-114

fun events for, 110

publicity for, 104-107

reasons for, 102-103

Collaboration, virtual reference and, 72-73

College libraries. See Academic libraries

Communications, tailoring, to community audiences, 41-42

Community calendars, 42

Community users, as external audience, 60-61

Consortia, as external audience, 58

Continuing education resources, for marketing, 89-90

Creighton University, 154. See also Reinert/Alumni Memorial Library (Creighton University)

Direct advertising, 75

Display panels, for library promotion, 22-24

Editing, of postcards, 97

Elected officials, as external audience, 59-60

Electronic mailing lists, 37

E-mail, for marketing, 135

Exhibits. See also Frankenstein exhibit, Coates Library (Trinity University)

for academic libraries, 36-37

for library promotion, 27

External audiences, 56-61

External mar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Using Student Focus Groups to Inform Library Planning and Marketing
• Marketing the Academic Library: Building on the “@ your library” Framework
• Getting the Word Out: Publicizing Library Programs and Services to the Community
• Matching Media to Audience Equals Marketing Success
• Marketing Virtual Reference: What Academic Libraries Have Done
• Marketing Resources for the Busy Librarian
• Drop Them a Postcard: Another Way to Reach Your Patrons
• Frankenstein @ Our Library– Monstrous Opportunities for Marketing
• Affordable, Effective, and Realistic Marketing
• Collaborating with Students to Develop an Advertising Campaign
• Implementing an Action Plan: Strategies for Marketing Library Services
• We Better Get This Party Started!
• Index