Ten years in search of marketing excellence!

The IFLA International Marketing Award was brought out in 2002 to libraries to employ marketing and bring out better results and identify the best marketing practices the world over. Now, the award has become a success story and through this paper efforts have been put up to showcase the award before library and information professionals around the world.

The primary data relating to award applications received each year have been collected and used to analyse and interpret in a meaningful way.

The IFLA International Marketing Award was introduced in 2001 and was awarded for the first time in 2002. Since then, this award recognises the first, second and third runner‐ups each year based on the marketing project in all kinds of libraries, worldwide. The award has attracted 276 applications from 55 countries during the last ten years. The paper analyses the award applications chronologically, geographically and by type of library. It also discusses the winning libraries and their marketing activities. It concludes that the award has become a success story and is expected to reach two new countries each year and 750 libraries from 75 countries in the next ten years.

The paper will be useful for library and information professionals to understand the value of marketing being practised around the world and will encourage them to employ a better marketing approach in the libraries.