The Accidental Library Marketer

Citation

Folkman, A. (2011), "The Accidental Library Marketer", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 248-250. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330331111129813

With library funding continually coming under threat, librarians should consider marketing to be a key component of their job, one that needs to be given time and attention to be carried out effectively. This book aims to get librarians to understand the underlying concepts of marketing and how they can be used to ensure that marketing effort is not wasted. The author has experience as a librarian, journalist and marketer and these strands are apparent as she attempts to put a professional structure on the business of library marketing. The book is organised into 14 chapters and is meant to be read in full and in order, rather than dipped into. It also has a web site associated with it, which usefully contains a list of links, chapter by chapter.

In the introduction the author explains that her aim is to take the guesswork out of marketing by using the processes used in the business world, something she labels “true marketing”. The beginning of the book sets the scene by considering how many librarians fall into the marketing role, with no training or knowledge and often end up doing what they think is marketing, but is really just promotion (this is a point often made but is worth emphasising). The next chapter then introduces a few background basics, including: What really is marketing; The cycle of marketing; How businesses use marketing; and What's in a name? This section acts as a useful precursor to the main chapters and includes the vital fact that we may not even be using the right vocabulary as many users simply do not understand basic library terms: index, e‐journal, periodical or serial. A link to the research that backs this up is provided.

Chapter 3 asks that you assess your current situation and examine how you present yourself: as a physical space, in print, online, and from a customer service viewpoint. After this the next chapter addresses the data, procedures, and mindset you need to adopt if you want to become a proficient marketer. It begins, rightly enough, with the customer and suggests using available data to build up profiles of your users and at the same time perform a SWOT analysis of your organisation. Following on there is a chapter that does two things; first, very usefully telling you which marketing mistakes to avoid and second, presenting the expertise of other library marketers expressed in their own words. These I felt were of varying usefulness, as were the round up of reports which were all US‐centric. Chapter 6 looks at the tricky task of getting “buy in” or how to get your co‐workers to understand what is being done and why, and how to get them to be prepared to spend (extra) time on the task.

The next section of the book, comprising chapters 7 to 13, looks at the serious marketing areas that concern most marketing professionals: making decisions based on evidence; using statistics and proving return on investment (ROI); understanding the cycle of marketing; writing a formal plan; producing good quality promotional material; communicating your message and getting the most out of your web site. This is really the hard grind of marketing, that concerns itself with getting the processes right, and the author explains what needs to be done in clear language and with a light tone, providing library focussed examples along the way. In these chapters there are many subheadings and numbered lists, which could have been made far more attractive to the reader if the page layout and graphics had been of a higher standard. Even the graphic showing the vital “cycle of marketing” is hard to read.

Intentionally, the author leaves the fun stuff to the last chapter which is about: “Fun events and success stories”. Certain ideas could be adopted by UK public libraries, but I have considerable doubts about book cart drill teams catching on outside the USA (see the videos on YouTube). However I was delighted to see some suggested responses to the question: if we have the Internet why do we need libraries?

The book covers a lot of ground and does so in an easy manner, but I would have hoped to have seen more on marketing electronic resources; there was, for example, only one reference in the index to databases and there was not a great deal on using Web 2.0 for marketing. This aside, the book neatly combines guidance on how to be thorough and businesslike in your marketing endeavours, as well as providing examples to inspire you. It also supplies an appendix containing three articles from the journal Marketing Library Services, web links and further readings. Despite the US bias it has plenty to offer public library marketers, accidental or otherwise.