OLJ Assignment: Marketing Strategies in the Library

Shirley Garcia

Student ID #: 11468539

Info 506: Social Networking for Information Professionals

Lyn Hay—Fall 2010

Since I have limited exposure to the inner workings of library operations, and marketing in general, I can only speculate on what strategies would be effective. This speculation is based on my general knowledge regarding library functioning, and as such would only be a basic outline of how to approach the creation of an effective marketing strategy. I would imagine that the first step would be to encourage or persuade librarians, library directors, and sources of funding/budgeting of the importance of marketing the library to its current--and perhaps more importantly--potential patrons. The importance of such an endeavor must be agreed upon in order to effectively develop a plan that will reach targeted audiences. The second step would be to assess the library’s needs. This could be accomplished in several ways, including analyzing recent trends within the library and among targeted patrons. Goal assessment, or the anticipated or desired result of marketing efforts would also need to be included. Third, analyzing what has worked in other libraries! I think this is very important. By seeing what has (and what has not) worked in libraries with similar patrons can help avoid bad marketing strategies. The next consideration would be deciding which marketing tools and strategies would be most effective. Again, this can be decided by carefully assessing the targeted audience for the marketing venture and the desired outcome. After defining the scope of a marketing strategy and its targeted audience and potential outcomes, funding and budgeting considerations must be considered including what kind of IT support could or would be necessary to achieve the library’s goals.