Librarians are often early adopters of technology. Nevertheless, there is still a perception that the Library (space) is a repository for old (and useless?) print. In contrast, many libraries are now information hubs, with the library space being virtual as well as physical.
Browsing through innumerable search results can be frustrating when you are looking for information on a specific subject, or searching for a particular article. As observed by John Palfrey in the foreword, these days library staff are all too familiar with the situation where a client asks, “What could you possibly be spending all that money on in your library, when all we need is Google?” By way of contrast, Palfrey observes that in the digital era the role of the library is greater than it has ever been before. John Palfrey is currently Head of School at Phillips Academy Andover. Formerly he was Harvard Law School's Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice-Dean of Library and Information Resources, thus his foreword lends weight to the impact of this publication.
The reality is that many people are not aware that they have free access to electronic resources (such as peer-reviewed journals and full-text articles) at their local library. This means it is a vital task for librarians to effectively market their products and services, including e-Resources. However, in order to successfully promote their e-Resources, library staff must understand what such an undertaking entails.
This is where Marketing Your Library's Electronic Resources comes to the rescue, as immediately one is struck by its practical nature. There are 178 pages and six separate chapters on how to design your marketing plan from start to finish. Whilst the focus is on e-resource marketing plans, the basic strategies are applicable to many other library services.
The introduction outlines the various reasons why electronic resources need to be promoted in the first place. Electronic resources can be somewhat hidden when clients are inundated with online information. In the digital era, libraries are spending more and more of their budget on e-Resources. So it is logical to ensure clients are able to select and use resources that suit their requirements.
The emphasis in this publication is that it is essential to understand the rationale behind your marketing strategy, as this will form the basis for many other decisions along the way. This process is viewed as collaborative effort between the marketing team, library staff, and library clients. Essentially, at the core of any promotional activity should be a deep understanding of the library community, its information needs and behaviours.
Libraries have become more social, casual, accessible, meet-and-greet places in recent times. In very broad terms, modern public librarians see their role as facilitating access to both the library building and library resources, for a diverse range of people, in a democratic manner. Libraries, although public places, are probably one of the last bastions of security in a pleasant social space.
One of my major roles in this context was to support library clients in the use of information and communications technology. During 2004-2005 as the Manly Library representative on the Shorelink e-Book Committee, I was responsible for marketing this collection to the wider community. In addition, I trained our staff and clients in how to access this collection. In those days, it was really difficult to get our clientele interested in e-Book technology. In fact, the library had to lend our clients the e-Book readers as well (in order to access the e-Books). How times have changed technology wise – the shift to tablets and smartphones for communication, news and entertainment has dramatically changed the media (and library) landscape!
Equally, it is becoming increasingly obvious that often our clients do not realize libraries provide access to authoritative online content. Consequently there is a need for more advocacy to ensure all stakeholders are aware of what library products and services are available to them. As Kennedy and LaGuardia emphasize (Preface, pg. xix), “So marketing, to us, is an ongoing circular process of assessment, advertisement, training (of staff), instruction (for researchers), assessment, advertisement and so on”.
In summary, this publication is an extremely useful, practical and evidence-based approach to the topic. Personally, I found that this book very easy to read as the authors' demonstrate a sound knowledge of e-resource marketing, with a strong focus on public and academic libraries. Of particular value, this publication also contains sample marketing plans for examples of leading practice. It is recommended for librarians with a need to develop, implement and assess their own marketing plans. From my perspective, the only limitation was the lack of specific advice for those who are involved in the special and/or corporate library sector.
As part of the Research Library team at the ABC, my role involves contributing to the development and implementation of electronic resources including review of existing services to improve availability/delivery options for clients. As someone with a particular interest in digital information services, I am sure that I will be referring to this publication constantly; especially given that I am in the process of formulating a marketing strategy for the ABC Research Library e-Resource collection. This book would also be a valuable reference tool for LIS students who need to understand the practice and rationale behind library marketing.
On a final note, if you are interested in this topic I encourage you to join the group “eBooks in Libraries” on LinkedIn. There are over 2,700 members, and this forum facilitates interesting debate and discussion.
