Wednesday, September 30, 2009

why are we marketing?

By all accounts, we are not having trouble getting people in the door.
photo by Marcel Oosterwijk

For example: "Public library use in the United States is growing. Circulation and visits to US libraries are increasing and a wide range of services, such as literacy classes, teen programs and public access computing are also experiencing strong demand." From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America.

That's a rather interesting situation when you think about the role of a library marketer. It turns out that my interest in public library marketing as advocacy (it seem like each of my posts ends up there) is just reflecting this. Branding is not so important to get our "numbers" up. It is important to help our users understand that the individual parts of the library that they love are part of a larger whole - X Public Library. When we really need them, we want our taxpayers to be able to remember the X Public Library brand, what it stands for, and all its wonderful parts.

"From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America"
OCLC Report

Dublin, Ohio

2 comments:

  1. Hey there,

    I'm loving your blog, V. Great job!

    Do you take guest posts? SFPL is doing some cool stuff and I'd love to write about it for you.

    Hope you're enjoying the Indiana autumn!


    - Stacy

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  2. Hi, miss! Yes! Would love to read about what SFPL is doing. I'm excited. E-mail me: v.vought at gmail

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