Collection Promoting and Merchandising

This area of study is a favorite of mine, as I did a research paper on marketing/merchandising public libraries early in my MLIS studies.   The author agrees that public libraries ought to take a lesson from successful bookstores, such as Barnes and Noble.  These stores are arranged, illuminated, and scented (seriously) to sell books to visitors, not to make work easier for their employees.  Isn’t that what libraries should strive for – high circulation and patron satisfaction?   This chapter covers user behavior as well as types of merchandising and promotion, such as displays, fronting, shelving, and end caps.  This is a highly valuable chapter for the modern librarian.  However, I would have liked to have seen more information on advertising the collection in other ways (online, community promotion, etc.)

Disher, W. (2014). Crash course in collection development (Second ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. pp. 107-114.

Jhana Morlan

INFO 266 / Spring 2016

Is anyone paying attention to Library posting on Social Media?

 Wilson, Shibrie

Dowd, N. (2013, May 7). Social Media: Libraries Are Posting, but Is Anyone Listening? Retrieved from http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/05/marketing/social-media-libraries-are-posting-but-is-anyone-listening/

Considering amount of people using social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, certainly this can be an outlet for libraries to use as a platform for marketing. This is article noticed that this can be both yes and no. According to a recent survey by Library Journal's Survey "86 percent of libraries said they were using social media. The top two social media platforms used by libraries were Facebook (99 percent) and Twitter (56 percent)." Issue with using social media outlets is that some libraries do not have a strategic plan to implement goals. There must be a sense of direction when creating social media in order to connect patrons to utilize services provided. Allowing the social media site to be fun and interactive is another concept in which some libraries are struggling with. Just as Dowd stated in article that you want to be able to engage users and use visual techniques and also make it fun. Challenge people to like your post or follow you and it will increase over time the amount of individuals that are actually paying attention to the Library on social media.

Opinion:
Using social media can be great for some libraries and a fail for many. This article addresses different techniques in which I agree with as to why some libraries are unsuccessful with their social media accounts while others are prospering. Everything is about marketing and how you are engaging users, and keep it social and interactive. After all that is why it is social media and platform for interacting users and advertising. 

20 Great Ways Libraries Are Using Pinterest

Johnson, Stacey

 

Lofland, Lee (2013). 20 Great Ways Libraries Are Using Pinterest. Retrieved from

http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/20-great-ways-libraries-are-using-pinterest/

•  A list of ways to use Pinterest (or maybe other social media) to connect with patrons.
• Although this may not be specifically collection development, letting patrons now about new or special items in the collection is very important too. The article had some great ideas about promoting a library through Pinterest, especially pinning book covers to highlight new books or perhaps holiday books? Also using pins to highlight a historical collection or other special collection, especially an ebook or database resource that may not be so visible to patrons. This would be a great way to highlight any items or parts of the library collection that patrons might not know about.

Marketing Libraries Is Like....

Wilson, Shibrie

Potter, N. (2013, April 18). Marketing Libraries Is Like Marketing Mayonnaise. Retrieved from http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/04/opinion/advocates-corner/marketing-libraries-is-like-marketing-mayonnaise/

Ned Potter describes the difficulty of marketing libraries and it is due to time, funding, and resources. Another issue is perception of what library serves to its users is misunderstood. "Public perception of what libraries actually do is about 15 years behind the reality in a lot of cases." In order to have a successful outcome in marketing a library you must do so regularly. Advertising everywhere and create awareness of services provides to diverse group of patrons. Potter explains Libraries marketing being like that of Mayonnaise and how it is not always appealing but it process of reminder. Make marketing meaningful "then people will think of you when they need you, and then they'll walk in through the door."

Opinion:
Library marketing can be a task but it is all about the approach and time taken to do so. I enjoyed comparison of libraries to mayonnaise simply because they are both things in which people are not rushing towards. Some of the most successful programs are due to great marketing overtime. Marketing programs a month prior to and having it posted everywhere will become a constant reminder and patrons are more eager to attend. You want to avoid rushed marketing and brand your library in a way in which people will notice they need you for various services., 

Building Library Community Through Social Media

Rowland, Sarah

Young, S. s., & Rossmann, D. d. (2015). Building Library Community Through Social Media. Information Technology & Libraries, 34(1), 20-37.

Summary: This paper follows an academic libraries attempt at changing the way they handle Twitter by bringing a more “intentional, personality-rich, and interaction-driven approach to its social media activity” (p. 20). It gives a nice literature review talking about where libraries currently stand on social media and how the conversation so far has been pretty disjointed and not very useful. It also discusses how a majority of libraries use social media for marketing, announcements or promotional material instead of developing an online community. They evaluated Montana State University’s current Twitter activity to gauge user type, action-object mapping and interaction of the followers of the libraries account. They determined by changing the type of tweets they increased the number of students who follow the libraries Twitter account went from 6% to 28%. This was just from Phase 1 to Phase 2. Over the course of one year by using more personality-rich two way interacting their community of students grew by 366 percent and their interaction grew by 275 percent. From this research it was concluded that, “Our research demonstrates the value of social media as a community-building tool, and our model can guide social media in libraries toward this purpose” (p. 32).

Evaluation: This was an excellent study and article that was done. If you are interested in how to increase student usage of social media for your libraries account I think this article gives a great overview. It really showed that moving away from the one way communication that most libraries use social media for that one could build an online library community that students will use.

Promoting a Juvenile Awards Approval Plan: Using Collaboration and Selected Projects for Improved Visibility and Findability to Promote Juvenile Collections in Academic Libraries.

Bailey, Rachel

Shipman, T. (2014). Promoting a juvenile awards approval plan: Using collaboration and selected projects for improved visibility and findability to promote juvenile collections in academic libraries. Behavioral and Social Sciences Librarian, 33, 176-187. doi: 10.1080/01639269.2014.964592.

Summary: This article showcases a plan the University of Auburn underwent to promote awareness and use of the juvenile books collection.  Books, in particular, that had won special medals or awards were the main focus of the plan. In collaboration with professors from the education and teacher librarian departments, collections staff raised awareness of the books by creatively displaying the books, having an open house and instruction about the books, creating subject guides and adding “award winner” notes to the library catalog. Assessment of the plan showed that usage of the books had increased.

Evaluation: This perspective of this article was interesting. Being a former elementary and middle school teacher, I come from a K-12 background. It was interesting to see the process and strategies academic librarians use to promote juvenile books to the college crowd. Typically, when I think of juvenile books, I think of books that are in schools, not college libraries. The marketing of these books is what intrigued me the most. In some ways, the approach was the same for what you would use for a school age child. For example, book displays are one way to get a child to check out a book.

Using Evidence in Practice: Evidence for Development and Enhancement of a Popular Reading Collection in an Academic Library

Bailey, Rachel

Hackman, T., Corlett-Rivera, K. & Larson, E. (2014). Using evidence in practice: Evidence for development  and enhancement of a popular reading collection in an academic library. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 9(4), 82-85.

Summary: Users of the McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland often requested non-academic books. Because of this, the Librarian for English and Linguistics proposed the addition of a popular reading collection. This article addresses the process the librarian goes through to acquire these materials as well as students’ responses to the new collection.

Evaluation: I am glad that the librarian listened to the wishes of the library’s clientele. Although McKeldin Library’s main function is for academic pursuits, it’s nice that the requests of users were taken into account. Since the students, most likely, visit McKeldin often, it’s nice that they can get all their reading needs in one place.