Public relations for a university library: a marketing programme is born

In 1999 a library marketing committee was created on the University of Northern Iowa campus. The aim of this committee was to heighten administrator, faculty and student awareness of library resources and services. This marketing committee was charged with helping administrators, faculty, and students realise what we librarians already know – that the library is capable of galvanising, nurturing, and supporting the research of the university community. During 2000 and 2001 various marketing efforts and experiments were employed by this committee including: promotional newsletters and e‐mail postings, student surveys, co‐operative marketing studies conducted with marketing students, participation in student and faculty orientations and creative advertising via library pens, library shirts, online library newsletters and sidewalk slogans. While results from this ongoing experiment are encouraging, committee members discovered that significant time, effort and money can be expended in marketing a library.