Virtual but visible: developing a promotion strategy for an electronic library

The National electronic Library for Health (NeLH) was highly commended in 2003 by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, for an awareness campaign delivered in autumn 2002. This article outlines the promotions activity leading up to the award and the achievements made since. The NeLH is now over three years old and has a regular user base of 120,000 users per month, with around 50 per cent of users making repeat visits within the month. A range of activities and tools has been devised to promote the service to the health community. Increasingly, the NeLH works in partnership with health librarians, mainly through the Digital Libraries Network, established during 2003. This collaborative approach has enabled a greater reach for marketing campaigns and offered economies of scale.