Marketing Academic Libraries  

Data, Trends and Suggestions

Created by Andrea Mullen and Julia Furay for the Brooklyn College Library

How one respondent described the library’s key to success: “Engagement with our audience that includes having

a presence at their activities; rather than having them come to us, we come

to them.”- Lynda James-Gilboe

Our Goal

• To find creative ideas for marketing academic libraries through recent literature

Challenges

• Library literature tends to be anecdotal: case studies are plentiful, but wide-ranging data on marketing and its effectiveness is difficult to find

Reports from the field: What has been done

(And has it been successful?)

1. Proactive marketing

(New ideas for traditional outreach)

Giveaways(a few highlights of our research)

Giveaway ideas (a few highlights of our research)

Giveaway ideas(a few highlights of our research)

Giveaway ideas(a few highlights of our research)

"I cannot help you, for I am just a cookie. But a librarian can"

Giveaway ideas(a few highlights of our research)

"Get Smart @ the WSU Library"

Promoting Literacy (a few highlights of our research)

Promoting Literacy (a few highlights of our research)

Reports from the field (a few highlights of our research)

2. Partnership marketing

(Calling on students to become part of an outreach effort)

Partnering with Marketing Students

 

(a few highlights of our research)

Results

Contests

 

 (a few highlights of our research)

Contests (a few highlights of our research)

To Grill a Mockingbird

Frank in Stein

Candied Voltaire

The Malted Falcon

Social Media Marketing

(You knew we were going there)

College students and social media

Source: Facebook Users Average 7 Hours a Month (The Nielsen Company)

College students and social media

Source: Facebook Users Average 7 Hours a Month (The Nielsen Company)

College Students and Social Media

Source: Trends in Teen Communication and Social Media Use: What’s Really Going On Here? (Pew Internet)

What Does this Mean?

Is it worth it to invest the effort and time into a Twitter feed when the teen usage statistics are so low?

(questions to consider)

What Does this Mean?

Is it worth it to invest the effort and time into a Twitter feed when the teen usage statistics are so low?

(questions to consider)

Should the Brooklyn College Library use its Facebook page as a marketing channel?

What Does this Mean?

Is it worth it to invest the effort and time into a Twitter feed when the teen usage statistics are so low?

(questions to consider)

Should the Brooklyn College Library use its Facebook page as a marketing channel?

What other social media marketing channels might BCL consider?

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Specific Services or Areas We May Want to Market

Specific Services or Areas We May Want to Market

Specific Services or Areas We May Want to Market

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Why?

o An easy outlet for Brooklyn College Library to express itself

Why?

o An easy outlet for Brooklyn College Library to express itself

o Promotes image of the Brooklyn College Library as the forward-thinking, inventive library it already is!

Why?

o An easy outlet for Brooklyn College Library to express itself

o Promotes image of the Brooklyn College Library as the forward-thinking, inventive library it already is!

o Students are using it

Why?

o An easy outlet for Brooklyn College Library to express itself

o Promotes image of the Brooklyn College Library as the forward-thinking, inventive library it already is!

o Students are using it

o Minimal staffing

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Suggestions for Moving Forward

Thanks for listening

(We’d love to help put these thoughts into actions)

Works Cited

Cummings, L.. (2007). Bursting out of the box: Outreach to the millennial generation through student services programs. Reference Services Review, 35(2), 285-295.

Duke, L., MacDonald, J., & Trimble, C. (2009). Collaboration between Marketing Students and the Library: An Experiential Learning Project to Promote Reference Services. College & Research Libraries, 70(2), 109-21. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database Elliott, J. (2007). Academic Libraries and Extracurricular Reading Promotion. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 46(3), 34-43. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Facebook users average 7 hrs a month in january as digital universe expands [Web log message]. (2010, February 16). Retrieved from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/facebook-users-average-7-hrs-a-month-in-january-as-digital-universe-expands/ 

Hendrix, D., Chiarella, D., Hasman, L., Murphy, S., & Zafron, M. (2009). Use of Facebook in academic health sciences libraries. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 97(1), 44-7. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.97.1.008

Hillery, L.B., & Henkel, H.L. (2010). Literature, Community and Cooperation: The Big Read at Regent University. Public Services Quarterly, 6, 331-342.

Works Cited

James-Gilboe, L. (2010). Raising the Library Profile to Fight Budget Challenges. The Serials Librarian, 59(3/4), 360-9. Jennings, E., & Tvaruzka, K. (2010). Quick and Dirty Library Promotions That Really Work. Journal of Library Innovation, 1(2), 6-14. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://www.libraryinnovation.org/article/view/18    Salmond, K. & Purcell, K. (2011). Trends in Teen Communication and Social Media Use: What’s Really Going On Here? Retreived from http://pewinternet.org/Presentations/2011/Feb/~/media/Files/Presentations/2011/Feb/Pew%20Internet_Girl%20Scout%20Webinar%20PDF.pdf  

Smith, R. & Young, N. (2008). Giving pleasure its due: Collection promotion and readers’ advisory in academic libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34(6), 520-526.