SLO #7: Marketing

SLO#7: The student applies advocacy, marketing, and communication principles for entrepreneurial leadership. 

Library marketing image. Source

Marketing

“Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go.” – Seth Godin

When I tell people that I am pursuing my degree in library and information studies, I often get one of these negative responses:
  
"Wow! Why do you need a Masters for that?"
OR
"Wow! Do people even go to libraries? Aren't they . . . obsolete?"

A totalitarian government declares librarians obsolete in the Twilight Zone episode "The Obsolete Man." Source

  

An excerpt from my final paper I wrote for Lib 600 about this very issue is here:

In October of 2017, New York Observer columnist Andre Walker tweeted the following: “Nobody goes to libraries anymore. Close the public ones and put the books in schools (as cited in Rozska, 2017, first pulled Tweet).” The Tweet went viral—not because people agreed, but the rather the opposite: over 110,000 Twitter and Facebook users expressed their disagreement, prompting Walker to issue a retraction (Walker, 2017). To the (presumed!) relief of Library and Information Studies students everywhere, libraries are still considered to be relevant by many people, even with the availability of wi-fi and smart phones that can provide information to their users instantly. Rather than being warehouses of books, as Walker’s original Tweet assumes, libraries are hubs of the community, providing free technology, meeting spaces, and activities to whoever walks through the doors, no matter their ages, races, or socioeconomic statuses. 

An article by USC Marshall School of Business lists four suggestions for marketing libraries (2020). The suggestions are keeping services and programming up-to-date, use social media effectively, assess the community to see what the needs are, and "go outside of the library building" into the community to connect with people. All libraries I have worked with or at have done some variation of these four marketing strategies. However, the fact that I still get negative reactions to my MLIS degree proves that libraries have a marketing problem. The following assignments prove that I have marketing experience with regards to libraries, education, and retail establishments.

Marketing Experience in MLIS program

Jamestown infographic (cross-posted as an artifact in "communities"): When I was working at Jamestown Public Library, I kept records of the summer reading program. The following is an infographic that I created about the amount of people who participating in summer reading. This was used a reflection piece for the library as well as a way to market the summer reading program for the next summer:

My reflection about the infographic is here.

Digital photography (cross-posted as an artifact with communities): I occasionally act in theater productions with Shared Radiance Performing Arts Company. I also volunteered to help with Shared Radiance's teen acting group. For my library media production class, I completed two projects with Shared Radiance: a digital photography slide show from a play rehearsal and a public service announcement from the teen group. Both of these projects were used as a way to advertise the upcoming Shared Radiance show As You Like It and the PSA was used to advertise the teen program. The following image is from the digital photography slide show:

Rehearsal pictures from As You Like It.

Finding aid: For a library technology and cataloging class, I created a Finding Aid for an imaginary special collection. I used language that I felt would make the collection sound appealing and had a lot of fun coming up with my special items. Here is an excerpt from the Finding Aid that I created:

The Eash branch library received the items on January 7, 1988, with a note reading “display these items only at Halloween to appease the spirits within.” The note was unsigned, however, upon inspection by the thrilled archivists, the items were discovered to be part of a traveling museum, known to locals as “The HAUNTED collection.” Only one photograph remains of the traveling museum: it shows the items displayed on the back of a tractor trailer with a wooden, hand-painted sign reading “Hernando Augawuga’s Unusual Necromantic Traveling Extraordinary Damnatory Collection.” The picture appears to have been taken in the early 1970s, but the exact date is unknown.

Library work for Guilford Green: I worked on cataloging for the Guilford Green LGBTQ Center library. I categorized the books, assigned them call numbers, and stickered the books so that the books could be well-organized and put back in their spots by users.

Marketing experience outside the MLIS program

Teaching and camp counseling: Before I was a librarian-in-training, I spent fifteen years as a teacher. I often joked that most of my job was "selling" assignments to rooms full of junior high students. I also advertised the Washington DC trip and the theater productions I directed. Before I was a teacher, I was a counselor and then assistant camp director at Camp Na Wa Kwa, a Girl Scout camp in southern Indiana. I often had to "sell" camp programs to campers and their parents. Girl Scout events, while fulfilling in a working-together-accomplishing-a-goal sort of way, do not always seem appealing at the outset (i.e. primitive camping).

Social Media: I currently run the Twitter account for Burlington Barnes & Noble, tweeting promotions and event information. I also run the book club (on hiatus due to the pandemic) and recommend books for Alamance Country Club's book club. Both of these book clubs are a form of marketing because they bring customers to events and therefore increase the sales at the bookstore.

"The future is still bright for public libraries."

 

Burgess Meredith as Wordsworth, the "obsolete" librarian, 1961. Source.

I do not think public librarians are "obsolete," like the Twilight Zone episode "The Obsolete Man" claims. I would like to end this section with another excerpt from my final paper for lib 600:

Do libraries have a public relations problem? Arguably, but again, it was heartening for this future librarian to read these viral Tweet from the Angriest Librarian: “You need to close libraries because you have no idea what the f*** they do? Stay the f*** home and shut your mouth. . . Just kidding, everyone is welcome at the library, even the backwards thinking simpletons” (as cited in Rozsa, 2017, fifth and sixth pulled Tweets). The future is still bright for public libraries.

Return to Capstone, or click on other SLOs below:

1. Ethics
2. Research
3. Information Literacy
4. Communities
5. Professional Development
6. Technology
7. Marketing
8. Collaboration

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Jen Reads the Rainbow