Internet Librarian 2009 – Meredith Hammons

Marketing on the Cheap. I’ve become really fascinated with marketing efforts on the part of the library. I think this is an area that has traditionally been neglected, because of the assumption that everyone knows the library is there and what it has to offer. With the technological changes, and changes in perception of libraries, there are needs to market that we are not just a place of dusty books. OCLC has produced a paper called “From Awareness to Funding” which illustrates some of the concepts that should be emphasized when marketing the library, which include seeing the library as part of the community infrastructure, like police or fire departments, seeing the library as a necessity, rather than a nice thing to have, focusing on the future, rather than the past, etc. The full report can be found here:

http://www.oclc.org/reports/funding/default.htm.

Something I’ve noticed is that single adults with no children are a market that would join the library, but there is no advertising directed toward us. When I started working for the public library, my single thirtysomething friends were all astonished that one could rent DVDs in the library. I know people cut back on spending by canceling subscriptions to audible.com, but were totally unaware that audio books, including playaways, were available at the public library.
With the current budget crisis, one of the speakers emphasized the need for library support marketing, in addition to library use marketing. She mentioned that her community had defeated a number of library bonds, and they realized that they could not simply market a few months before an election. Thus, they are gearing up now for support marketing for the 2012 elections.
There were a few specific suggestions, which included having a plan with specific goals and including Web 2.0 in the plan, considering policies on access, content creation, monitoring, measuring return and a schedule.
Another emphasis was on local marketing, including not just social media, but partnerships with local media, or taking advantage of the skills of community members, to teach classes.
There were a lot of good ideas, for both programming and marketing that came out of this section.