HOW WOULD YOU START MARKETING A LIBRARY SERVICE?

Jennifer Croll [University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa] answered this question in an article in inCite, the journal of ALIA, the Australian Library and Information Association, titled “The business of libraries.”

Croll said a lot of important things, but this was my favorite.

“I’d ask, ‘What is our unique selling point?’ I’d position the library as close as possible to the entrance of the organization or make sure it is signposted. And it would appear prominently on the intranet. I make sure the library is really in the face of users. I am willing to be push. I would position the library in the mind of the users in terms of our unique selling point. I also work to position the library in the minds of internal staff, like academics. If you don’t have management support and collaboration, you may not have clients in the long term. I confront my potential user; I drag them over the door, because once inside, I offer a huge world.”

What have you done to “drag them over the door”? What is your library unique selling point? What do you do better than anyone else (either in the organization or outside it)? Make sure your users understand this.

Read the entire interview by Geraldine Barkworth at http://alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2006/01-02/print.html?ID=17.