We all market our libraries all the time, but how many of us do it systematically and in a strategic way? At the Karolinska Institutet University Library (KIB) the whole library staff measured the time for every kind of activity he/she did during one month in 2003. The result showed that 4% of our total working hours were spent on specific marketing activities!
In my paper I will discuss
· Is it acceptable to use the words marketing and customers in a library?
· Why should we adopt a systematic approach to marketing?
· What is marketing in a medical (university) library?
· Is it possible to use the concept of relationship marketing?
· Is it possible to work with strategic marketing at a university?
· Is it possible to write a state of the art marketing plan for a library?
· Marketing in practice
- What is easy and what is hard?
- Time and money
- How do you measure success?
· Co-operation or competition with other libraries?
· Learning more about marketing in libraries
In my paper I will use my experiences from being the “marketing librarian” for eight years, describe what my responsibilities are, and also take a look at national and international initiatives in library marketing.
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