Marketing Your Library's Electronic Resources

Finished January 4
Marketing Your Library's Electronic Resources by Marie R. Kennedy and Cheryl LaGuardia

This marketing how-to-do-it manual is actually a general marketing manual with some good examples specific to electronic resources. The manual begins with a short backgrounder of the environment and the obstacles to awareness of libraries' digital resources.
Chapter one then begins with the marketing basic of defining your purpose. Knowing what you want to accomplish with your marketing plan is key to achieving it. It emphasizes the importance of engaging with library patrons, because after all they are the users and potential users of your resources. It talks about the challenge of not having physical resources to browse, the need to have all staff on the same page when it comes to messaging,
Chapter two outlines the components of a marketing plan. It uses the image of a circle to show the marketing cycle and defines nine components to any good marketing plan.
Chapter three moves into implementation of the plan giving examples of each component in action, There is a nicely laid out table of different marketing techniques as applied to marketing e-resources, as well as four main categories these fall into.
Chapter four discusses the written marketing plan report. Creating a report can be done at various points from before to after your campaign, but is an important element for various stakeholders. The report needs to be geared to the audience,
Chapter five looks at assessment. How effective was your marketing plan? Did it meet your stated purpose? As they say, assessment is not a one-time measure, it is ongoing through the life of the plan. Feedback is essential and many examples are given here of feedback forms for different purposes. There is also a list of questions library staff must ask themselves in terms of assessment.
Chapter six looks at revising and updating your marketing plan, the importance of reflection. Reflect on each of the nine components, how well they worked for you, and what you might do differently.
The second part of the book gives four marketing plans. One is for an all-electronic library, two are for public libraries, and the fourth is for an academic library.
This book provides very useful information for libraries looking at developing marketing plans.