Librarians share good practice in marketing

3 July, 2008

A new publication from SCONUL - the membership body for UK and Irish higher education and national libraries - has emphasised the increasing importance of marketing skills to the future of academic libraries.

The publication brings together leading voices in the sector to emphasise the importance of promoting library services to students, researchers, academics and other stakeholders. The study shows that libraries often 'hide their light under a bushel' by offering resources as on-line services which are not easily identified as coming from the library. Students and researchers still tend to view the library as the building itself. Valuable though that is, today's academic libraries reach out far beyond their own walls.

The paper also details how the need for customer-focused marketing has never been greater, with new services, competitors and users, competing for librarians' time and providing libraries with fresh challenges.

Toby Bainton, Secretary of SCONUL said, "Good marketing helps libraries ensure their customers know the full range of services they have on offer, and that those services are being used to their full potential. Libraries should not hide their light under a bushel. A real challenge for us, is that many of our on-line services are not recognised as part of the library. A key theme of this publication is libraries being market-led, not marketing-led, so we always have our customer in mind."

An outstanding example of recent successful marketing campaigns from academic libraries is the 'Sshh...!' bags from Leeds University library, a biodegradable bag in various colours that proved so popular with students they set up a Facebook group and website that displays the library bags next to famous sites all over the world, including the Taj Mahal and White House.

The increased use of the internet for academic research has meant that the library does not have the captive audience they once had for their services. As one author of the publication commented, "In many ways Google is our main competitor".

Copies of the working paper are available at £30 per copy and can be ordered at http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/pubs/publications.html.