Uncloaking Your Electronic Collections: Promoting Library Online Services

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Uncloaking Your Electronic Collections
Promoting Library Online Services

• Lesley Williams
• Head, Information Services
• Evanston Public Library
• lawilliams_at_cityofevanston.org

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The Problem

• People associate libraries with books and
  children, not with online services.
• Librarians are NOT generally thought of as an
  online information source.
• Most marketing efforts target our traditional
  users, in traditional formats and media.

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Strategy 1 Individual Libraries

• Use language your patrons understand
• Make your online services findable
• Think function, not format

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Data - what?!

• People associate database with technology they
  dont understand.

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• Not everything online is a database

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Hennepin County Library

• Online services integrated throughout the website

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Online Resources in OPAC
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• Subject guides link to subscription resources

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Homework Help
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Lets Get Radical!

• Most of our potential users are NOT reading
  library publications or visiting library
  websites.
• To sell our online services, we need to reach
  beyond our core audience.

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Strategy 2 Community Partners

• Chambers of Commerce
• Hospitals
• Schools and PTAs
• City Government
• Homeschool Associations
• Realtors and Merchants Associations
• Do they link to your library resources?

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• Local Merchants Association page links to the
  library online business resources

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Where is the Library?
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Homeschoolers Online

• Need online math and reading prep
• Need reliable online reference books
• Need magazines and newspapers

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Will YOU Be There?
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Strategy 3 Consortia and Systems

• Can get more bang for marketing buck.
• Easier to build awareness if everyone in state or
  region has same access.
• Consistent message, regardless of librarys size
  or budget.

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Inspire.net

• Has a 200,000 annual marketing budget
• Cable tv ads hit as many as 300,000 viewers per
  day
• Does targeted marketing to businesses, college
  students

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Easier Access

• IP address range used in Connecticut and
  Indiana, and Ohio
• Login with state ID or drivers license used in
  Michigan, Nebraska
• Login with personalized password used in Maine,
  Massachusetts, Indiana

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ICONN Marketing strategies

• Insight 1 Emphasize offerings with the most
  widespread appeal.
• Insight 2 For communications to targeted
  audiences, identify the offerings that appeal to
  various subgroups
• Usage has grown from under 5 million logins in
  2001 to over 33 million in 2006

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Iconn ads in local media

• Appeared in non-library publications
• Targeted different ads for business
  publications, schools, travel etc.

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Strategy 4 Vendors

• Have marketing experience, budget
• Most are uncomfortable targeting end users may
  fear conflict of interest
• Need incentives to target the public.
• LET VENDORS HEAR FROM US!!

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How End User Marketing Helps Vendors

• Library product promotes the individual
  subscription product.
• Patrons will encourage libraries to subscribe to
  a worthwhile tool.

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Why should this
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compete with this?
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Who Does Your Vendor Serve?
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Does Your Vendor Expect You to Do All the Work?

• Some great ideas, but none of them came from EBSCO

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Vendor Marketing Support

• Is This REALLY the Best EBSCO Can do?
• From the EBSCO Special Event Toolkit

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Some Real Marketing Support

• Proquests Marketing Toolkit
• Great graphics
• Can be used for Proquest,or any online product

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Unclear on the Concept?

• Great poster
• Great ideas
• NO MENTION OF LIBRARIES!!

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AccessMyLibrary.com

• Free 30 day access to Thomson Gale content
• Encourages patrons to use libraries
• Developing virtual library card for easier
  nationwide authentication
• Advertised on NPR

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The LEAST Vendors Can Do

• Have a website for the public
• Direct patrons to libraries
• Leave space for the library url on their
  materials
• Re-direct some marketing efforts

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Vendors As Partners

• Work with libraries to identify media the
  community reads
• Approach community organizations together
• Collaborative vendor advertising campaign

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Negotiating With Vendors

• Set shared goal for usage.
• Ask about marketing assistance BEFORE signing a
  contract.
• Be clear you will cancel if usage remains low.

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Strategy 5Libraries Nationwide

• What are ALA, PLA doing to promote library online
  services ?
• LET ALA HEAR FROM US!!

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Working the Media

• What sources do your patrons trust?
• Major papers more likely to do stories on
  national trends

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Notice Anything Missing?
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Think Like a Travel Agent

• If you want people to visit Fiji, you DONT
  advertise in Fiji.

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The Power of Advertising

• Can library online services become the bottled
  water of tomorrow?

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Websites used

• John Kupersmiths Library terms that users
  understand www.jkup.net/terms.html
• Evanston Public Library, www.epl.org
• Hennepin County Library, www.hclib.org
• Portland Public Library, www.portlandlibrary.com/
• Marketing the Library from the Ohio Library
  Council, www.olc.org/marketing/
• Reaching Patrons Online Outreach for Public
  Libraries, Sara Houghton-Jan, librarianinblack.ty
  pepad.com/onlineoutreach/index.html
• Indianas Inspire.net
• Connecticuts Iconn.org and ICONN Market Survey
• www.iconn.org/iConnMarketingSurveyReport.asp
  x
• EBSCOs Customer Success Center,
  www.epnet.com/thisTopic.php?marketID20topicID20
  4

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Thanks!!
Lesley Williams Evanston Public
Library Evanston IL 60201 Lawilliams_at_cityofevansto
n.org 847-448-8646