MARKETING OF LIBRARY SERVICES IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

INTRODUCTION
In the context of libraries, marketing means sufficient change
in the traditional attitude of librarians towards acquisition, organization, processing
and retrieving information. The basis of library services should be to help its users to
solve their information gathering and processing needs. The academic library must
adjust its services, policies, and procedures to the requirements of the users
As library professionals, we also make assumptions about what
our users want and need, and accordingly continue to provide services that we feel we
should deliver, regardless of their value to our users. In order to create awareness
among users about library services, and perhaps also to create desire for the services,
build understanding of the value of the services, increase the level of usage, and
expand the user base, a successful marketing strategy is necessary. In recent years, the
need for marketing of library services has gone beyond the traditional approach
particularly since marketing has spread to non-profit organizations like libraries and
information centers. Kotler argues that marketing need was felt and marketing
philosophy has been successfully applied to nonprofit and public organizations.
Marketing is considered essential for the following reasons:
1. The libraries invest huge funds on collection, processing, and storage of information
resources. It is usually observed that these valuable resources are put to a meager use
which by implication is wastage of precious funds. In view of the increasing cost of
information there is need for the promotion and use of information resources.
2. The needy users have casual or almost need perception because of which they do not
demand and use information resources. In view of the inadequate resource utilization,
information marketing is essential to facilitate need perception of the needy and
thereby create demand.
3. Information is considered as the fifth need of man; hence users must be conscious of
their needs for information. Lack of realization of this aspect puts one to disadvantage
and deprivation of proper information use. Marketing of information based services
will eliminate these lacunas and make the needy an information rich user.
4. The information providers must not confine themselves to their corners; they must
come out and promote their services effectively to ensure their optimum use.
5. As marketing creates and increases demand for library and information services, the
image of library and status of information providers (librarians) will improve as well.

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 EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE FOR MARKETING OF LIBRARY SERVICES

PROMOTIONAL APPROACHES

Promotional tools that can be used by academic libraries to promote their services and
resources include: digital media, such as the library's Website, e-mail lists, blogs and
podcasts; print materials, such as posters, handouts and giveaways; events such as
orientation tours and workshops; and other tools such as library publications, contests,
brochures, direct mail, Web 2.0 applications and displays. A good Website helps to
bring services and resources together in a unique way, because it is a direct link
between the library and its specific users (for example students and academics) and the
services it is seeking to promote. It also provides a channel for communication with
target clients. Some media can be cross functional; for example, traditional tools, such
as flyers, brochures and posters, can be used to promote events and programmes,
which are promotional tools in themselves. Newsletters can introduce new
developments as well as highlight current services. Target audiences can be easily and
effectively targeted through e-mail lists and the Internet. These services are cost
effective, as they require little investment in resources and reach the intended client
directly.

Author : Fisher and Pride, 2006; Mathews, 2009; Webreck Alman, 2007

Review : In survey of Sokoine National Agricultural Library ( situated in Tanzania

Country of East Africa ) in terms of which techniques used were considered effective,
87.5% thought that Library website was effective. 86.8% of respondents thought that
training sessions were an effective promotion technique, with 7.5% of respondents
perceiving that library Website was an ineffective technique, and 5.0% a somewhat
effective technique. 86.8% of respondents perceived that face to face events were an
effective promotion technique, with 84.2% of respondents thinking that workshops
were an effective technique, 10.5% ineffective, and 5.3% somewhat effective.
Brochures were perceived as effective by 76.3% of respondents. 21.1% of respondents
perceived that brochures were ineffective and 2.6% of respondents reported that
brochures were somewhat effective. Phones were perceived as effective by 75.5% of
respondents. Leaflets were reported as effective by 75.0% of respondents. Catalogues
were perceived to be effectively and more effectively used to promote library services
and resources by 74.4%. 71.9% of respondents thought that e-mails 9 were effective
and 18.8% of respondents thought that e-mails were an ineffective technique.
Newsletters were thought effective by 71.1%, and 68.4% respondents thought that
advertising was effective. Booklets were perceived to be effectively to promote library
services and resources by 62.5% of respondents. Classroom instruction was seen as an
effective technique by 59.4% of respondents, 34.4% ineffective technique, and 6.3% a
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somewhat effective technique. Booklets and newsletters were perceived to be
somewhat effectively used to promote services and resources by 62.5% and 31.3%
respectively. Direct mail was perceived to be ineffective by 56.3% of respondents

By above survey report it is clear that which technique is better for attract
more to more patrons towards library for using library resources.

Reference : Fisher, P. H., & Pride, M. M. (2006). Blueprint for your library marketing
plan: a guide to help you survive and thrive. Chicago, IL: American Library
Association

Mathews, B. (2009). Marketing today's academic library: a bold new approach to

communicating with students. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Webreck Alman, S. (2007). Crash course in marketing for libraries. Westport, CT:
Libraries Unlimited.

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BY FIVE LAWS OF LIBRARY SCIENCE

The main segmentations of the library marketing are their users, i.e. students, faculty
members, staff, Research scholars, General users of the library, International students
studying in various courses etc. It is difficult to work out single marketing strategy for
all the category of segments. However it will be worthwhile to formulate different
strategies for individual group of segments

Dr. S.R. Ranganathan, father of library and Information Science,

philosopher, mathematician devised five laws of library science which promotes the
usage of resources :-

Books are for use :

This law itself promotes that each book available in the library is for use. If the books
kept in lock and key without providing it to the readers, then it is a dead investment of
the organization. Hence books should be freely available to each user coming to the
library. Library staff should take initiative to attract their users to read more and more
books. But while giving more books to the users, they should see how it come back
for further use to other readers. It is a skill of the library staff , how the attract the
students/customers towards the library. Books are for user promotes the use of book.
Staff should tell the users what are the good books available, it should be placed on
the prominent place , may be entrance of the library where every user come and see.

Every Reader his book :

Here Reader of the library is main factor/customer, every staff must see how library
users are satisfied with the services by the libraries. We must focus to the needs of
such readers and their satisfaction. It is true that library cannot satisfy each and every
customer, however efforts should be taken by the staff to satisfy users maximum.

Every book its reader :

According to this concept/law Dr. Ranganathan expressed that every book which is
purchased by library must get reader. Here we must see what the needs of the readers
are. Dr. Ranganathan expect that find a reader for every book. To find a reader for
every book library staff should conduct such studies/surveys to obtain the needs of
their readers. Once you identify their needs then you can promote the resources and
increase the use of it. Here attitude of the library staff is more important. They should
be always positive to solve the problems of the users with smiling face.

Save the time of a reader :

The users time is very precious, to save the time of users in the library, staff should

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organise the information in such a way to fine it promptly. Reader should not waste
their time in searching the information, searching the books and journals in the
library. Of course arrangement of library material is a scientific method which is
taught to the library staff.

Library is a growing organism :

Here more emphasis is on evolutionary growth of the library. However librarian must
see how library collection grows with qualitatively not in quantity. Now a days e-
books are more popular and easy to access. Hence vendors are promoting and
marketing their products in package or pick and choose model where choice of
selection of required books are with faculty members.

Author : Dr. Ranganathan

Review : By following five laws of library science , user/patron interest could be

known and could be updated library resources with time not in quantity but in quality
helpful to use library resources in a better way and library staff behavior towards its
user/patron should be good

Reference : Ranganathan SR (1988) Five laws of library science. (2ndedn), Sarada

Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, Bangalore.

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7PS MODEL OF LIBRARY ( MARKETING MIX )

The library has many products and services that it can market. Each library needs to
identify what it wishes to market and how. Marketing is not just about developing and
promoting new services and products but also about bringing awareness to clients of
existing services and products and determining their appropriateness. Marketing plan
needs to be developed and implemented with ongoing enhancement of the services
and products should follow. Many libraries have come to appreciate the contribution
and application that marketing concepts can make. In designing the marketing mix
and developing the marketing plan, the so-called 7Ps have become
central to libraries – product, price, place, promotion, participants, physical evidence,
and process. According to K Sharma and S Bharadwaj (Sharma & Bharadwaj 2009),
7Ps of Marketing Strategies of libraries are:

Author : K Sharma , S Bharadwaj

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Review : Product: the good or service that the user/patron buys Price: how much the
user/patron pays for the product or service Place: how the service is distributed to the
user/patron Promotion: how the user/patron is found & persuaded to buy

People/participants : the people who make contact with user/patron in delivering the
product or services Process: the systems and processes that deliver a services to a
user/patron Physical Evidence: the elements of the physical environment the
user/patron experiences. All this 7 point helpful to create a strong market strategy

Reference : Sharma A Bharadwaj S, ―Marketing and Promotion of Library Services

ICAL 2009 – ADVOCACY AND MARKETING”, 461-66

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GUERRILLA MARKETING

This type of marketing explains untraditional marketing campaigns and/or strategies

which are very effective to promote products and services. The major highlight of this
marketing is that it can be achieved with minimum budget. Ries & Trout explained
the term in a book as ‗Marketing Warfare‘ and depicted marketing activities as a
combat to surmount the user‘s mind. The basic principles have seven rules that
describe the principles of this technique as:

• Concentrate your resources

• Sell the ideology along with the product

• Identify established patterns, analyse them and overcome these patterns

• Search for synergies

• Try to outsmart any perception filters established

• Avoid the direct way

• Be flexible and agile

Author : Ries & Trout

Review : Really a good technique to promote library services instead of investing

money in the marketing process invest time, energy and imagination.‖

Reference : Ries, A. & Trout, J. Marketing warfare. McGrawHill, New York, 1986.

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MARKETING CULTURE

In his study, Singh while examining the Finnish research libraries, found three kinds of
marketing cultures— (i) strong, (ii) medium, and (iii) weak. Germano advocated the
development of service with a valuable plan. The marketing activities must have their
own narrative to patrons while reflecting their specific needs at appropriate times. In
this way, libraries can establish a strong sense of value among its users to create
loyalty. Singh advised in his study that organisations ought to know their marketing
culture prior to the move for branding information sources and services.
Robinson communicated that, to remain relevant in this fast
changing world, libraries must adopt a marketing orientation. Libraries must try to
understand who their users are and what they do. Garoufallou conducted a survey in
151 central and departmental libraries in Greece and found that majority of libraries
recognised the concept of marketing but had not adopted very well. Operational
problems are identified as the main hindrance in application of the marketing concept
in these academic libraries. These libraries need to go a long way to implement
marketing efficiently.
Author : R. Singh ; M.A. Germano ; C.K. Robinson ; E. Garoufallou

Review : Without knowing the demand of market if we promote any services will
cause of fail so first know the demand of market and according to it start to promoting
services
Reference :
Singh, R. Does your library have a marketing culture? Implications for service
providers. Library Management, 2009, 30(3), 117-37.
doi:10.1108/01435120910937302.

Germano, M.A. Narrative-based library marketing. Bottom Line, 201, 23(1), 5-17.
doi:10.1108/08880451011049641.

Singh, R. Branding in library and information context: the role of marketing culture.
Inf. Serv. and Use, 2004, 24(2), 93-98.

Robinson, C.K. Peter Drucker on marketing: application and implications for libraries.
The Bottom Line, 2012, 25(1), 4-12.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08880451211229153
.
Garoufallou, E.; Zafeiriou, G.; Siatri, R. & Balapanidou, E. Marketing applications in
Greek academic library services. Library Management, 2013, 34, 632-49.
doi:10.1108/LM-03-2012-0012.
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COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS

Several collaborative efforts have been identified which can be used as a model in
promoting library resources and services. Duke highlighted a collaboration among
students and library to promote the library‘s reference service. In this project, library
reference service and sources were promoted using the students‘ ideas and feedbacks.
Besides this, collaboration has been done between libraries and information
aggregators. Betzreported a peer-to-peer outreach programme in marketing the
citation databases namely, Scopus and Web of Science. They named the programme
as student ambassador program (SAm). The programme imparts training, and
instructional and marketing material to the participants. Fourie & Ball revealed that
librarian, faculty members and students should be part of the promotional
programmes to promote the use of newly subscribed resources and services.
Competition programmes can be organised for active participation.

Author : Duke ; Betz ; Fourie & Ball

Review : With collaboration of student and library staff , library services can be
promoted in a better way because student know what is colleague want and library
staff know how to convince its user to its library services

Reference :

Duke, L.; MacDonald, J. & Trimble, C. Collaboration between marketing students

and the library: An experiential learning project to promote reference services.
College & Res. Lib., 2009, 70(2), 109- 21.
Betz, B.; Brown, S.; Barberi, D. & Langendorfer, J. Marketing library database
services to end users: peer-to-peer outreach using the Student Ambassador Program
(SAm). Serials Librarian, 2009, 56(1-4), 250-4.
Fourie, I. & Ball L. Promotional strategies for information products and services:
Aligning with the serious and entertainment facets of information consumers‘ lives.
Library Hi Tech., 2012, 30, 683- 92. doi:10.1108/07378831211285130

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LIBRARIANS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS MARKETING

Marketing concept is not well adopted by librarians. Shontz surveyed 623 library
professionals in public libraries in New Jersey to understand their attitudes on
marketing library resources and services. The study found that library administrators
and library professionals who have done a course in marketing or attended any
workshop on marketing have a high priority to apply the marketing concept in their
respective libraries. Grunenwald, Felicetti & Stewart postulated that several library
professionals are unwilling to adopt and implement marketing in the library and
information centres. Majority of them believe that marketing of library resources and
services is unnecessary and unsuitable for libraries. Hence, the adoption of the
concept is subject to and varies from professional to professional. Librarians with
good knowledge of marketing prefer to apply the concept to promote the library
resources among users. Besides this, they market the library resources to enhance the
reputation of library.

Author : M.L. Shontz ; J.P. Grunenwald Felicetti & Stewart

Review : Librarian staff should be trained in marketing so that they could know the
importance of marketing and how it will benefit to attract more to more patrons to
library. Increase in number of patron will utilize the full potential of library.

Reference :
Shontz, M.L.; Parker, J.C. & Parker, R. The library quarterly: Information,
community. Policy, 2004, 74(1), 63-84.
Grunenwald, J.P.; Felicetti, L.A. & Stewart, K.L. The effects of marketing seminars
on the attitudes of librarians. Public Lib. Quart., 1990, 10, 3-10.

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MARKETING VIA MOBILE PHONE

Goh & Liew states that mobile-based services have been

adopted by many users. These services have become extremely popular among the
users. The technology has been used to start a library alerts service. A study was
conducted by Anbu & Mavuso at University of Swaziland in collaboration with
Emerald Group Publishing Limited and a need was identified to create a prototype
model for SMS-based service to do marketing of the library resources. Study also
found that longer SMSs need to split up to shorter messages. The SMS service is found
effective for timely delivery of information resources to the users in an economic way.
Rheingold found the use of mobile phone in marketing library services and resources
as economic. Further, it also provides instant response and contacts with users. Modern
tools and technology are versatile and SMS-based services are cost effective. These
SMS-based services can be used as a tool to cater to the information desire of users.
Five gaps have been identified which are responsible for
unsuccessful delivery of service and affect the quality of service. First gap is between
users and perception of the management. The major reason is that managements do not
understand what exactly the users need. The other reason of this gap is that most
libraries don‘t conduct user‘s survey prior to the start of any service for the users.
Second gap is between management perception and service quality specifications. The
reason is, most of the time specifications prescribed by the management do not adhere
to service quality specifications. The third is quality specifications and service
delivery. The fourth is between delivery and promises to the users. The fifth and last
gap is between perceived service and likely service.

Author : T.T. Goh & C.L. Liew ; K.J.P. Anbu & M.R. Mavuso ; H.A. Rheingold

Review : To contact by sms with short & effective message to know the
consumer/user interest and provide a service according to user interest is really a
good idea.

Reference :
Goh, T.T. & Liew, C.L. SMS-based library catalogue system: a preliminary
investigation of user acceptance. The Electronic Library, 2009, 27(3), 394-08.
Anbu, K.J.P. & Mavuso, M.R. Old wine in new wine skin: marketing library services
through SMS-based alert service. Library Hi Tech, 2012, 30(2), 310-20
Rheingold, H. A conversation with Howard Rheingold. In Design for Community: The
Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places, edited by D.M. Powazek, New
Riders, Indianapolis, IN, 2002, pp. 286-96.

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MARKETING VIAVIDEO

Library instructional video can be used in promotion and marketing the library
resources to save the time of users and library personnel. Martin shared his
experience of using a video in the promotion of the library at California State
University, Northridge. Videos of library resources and services were posted on the
library website. The videos were shared using YouTube. 2744 people viewed the
videos between September 9, 2010 and July 26, 2012. The campaign received
positive feedback from faculty members. Using the video the library increased the
users‘ awareness about resources and services, and communicated well. Similar
attempt was made at Dartmouth College by G. Little and results were satisfactory in
promotion of library activities and services.

Author : C.M. Martin ; G. Little

Review : Most of the user take low interest in reading but same material is promoted
through video is most effective process of marketing of library services. Nowadays so
many library services is promoting through YouTube capable to make attention of lot
of user.

Reference :
Martin, C.M. One-minute video: Marketing your library to faculty. Ref. Serv. Rev.,
2012, 40(4), 589-600. doi:10.1108/00907321211277387.
Little, G. The revolution will be streamed online. J. of Acad. Lib., 2010, 37(1), 70-2.

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RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Relationship marketing (RM) is the approach to build relationships with users.

Broadly, RM cultivates the relationships among users and staff. Thus, it helps in
retaining the existing users and enhances loyalty among staff. The RM uses ICT to
contact and communicate more easily with library users and potential users in the
society. David & Sagun in a study conducted at Rizal Library of the Ateneo de Manila
University, suggested that libraries ought to start relationship marketing strategies with
students, faculty, to make the library resources and services visible, and open lines of
communication. Henderson stated that RM approach be adopted by library
professionals while marketing digital collections. Further, he described the reason of
adopting this approach as follows:

 No cost involved
 Less need to offer incentives to users
 Less price sensitive
 Satisfied customers will recommend the service to others users. Thus, library
visibility will be enhanced among the user groups.
Author : David & Sagun ; K. Henderson

Review : Satisfaction of most of the user to the services provided them responsible
for success of any business or organization and satisfied customer will advertise
services free of cost increase the no of user of any business or organization. So
making good relation with user or customer by relationship marketing method is
game changing method.

Reference :
David, L.T.; Kim, A. & Sagun K. Increasing awareness and use of the library's
resources and facilities through relationship marketing strategies. Library
Management, 2012, 33(4/5), 292-6.

Henderson, K. Marketing strategies for digital library services: Digital directions.

Library Reviews, 2005, 54(6), 342-345. doi:10.1108/00242530510605467

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