Uncloaking Your Electronic Collections:

Promoting Library Online Services

Lesley Williams

Head, Information Services

Evanston Public Library

lawilliams@cityofevanston.org

Lesley Williams

Head, Information Services

Evanston Public Library

lawilliams@cityofevanston.org

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.

Strategy 1: Individual Libraries

• Use language your patrons understand

• Make your online services findable

• Think function, not format

“Data - what”?!

• People associate “database” with technology they don’t understand.

• Not everything online is a “database”…

Hennepin County Library

• Online services integrated throughout the website…

Online Resources in OPAC

• Subject guides link to subscription resources

Homework Help

Let’s 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.

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?

• Local Merchant’s Association page links to the library online business resources

Where is the Library?

Homeschoolers Online…• Need online math

and reading prep

• Need reliable online reference books

• Need magazines and newspapers

Will YOU Be There?

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 library’s size or budget.

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

Easier Access

• IP address range: used in Connecticut and Indiana, and Ohio

• Login with state ID or driver’s license: used in Michigan, Nebraska

• Login with personalized password: used in Maine, Massachusetts, Indiana

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

Iconn ads in local media

• Appeared in non-library publications

• Targeted; different ads for business publications, schools, travel etc.

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!!

How End User Marketing Helps

Vendors• Library product promotes the individual subscription product.

• Patrons will encourage libraries to subscribe to a worthwhile tool.

Why should this…

…compete with this?

Who Does Your Vendor Serve?

Does Your Vendor Expect You to Do All the Work?

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

Vendor Marketing “Support”

• Is This REALLY the Best EBSCO Can do?

From the EBSCO Special Event Toolkit

Some Real Marketing Support…

• Proquest’s Marketing Toolkit

• Great graphics

• Can be used for Proquest,or any online product

Unclear on the Concept?

• Great poster…

• Great ideas

• NO MENTION OF LIBRARIES!!

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

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

Vendors As Partners

• Work with libraries to identify media the community reads

• Approach community organizations together

• Collaborative vendor advertising campaign

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.

Strategy 5:Libraries Nationwide

• What are ALA, PLA doing to promote library online services ?

• LET ALA HEAR FROM US!!

Working the Media…

• What sources do your patrons trust?

• Major papers more likely to do stories on national trends

Notice Anything Missing?

Think Like a Travel AgentThink Like a Travel Agent

If you want people to visit Fiji, you DON’T advertise in Fiji.

If you want people to visit Fiji, you DON’T advertise in Fiji.

The Power of Advertising

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

Websites used…• John Kupersmith’s “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.typepad.com/onlineoutreach/index.html

• Indiana’s Inspire.net

• Connecticut’s Iconn.org and ICONN Market Survey www.iconn.org/iConnMarketingSurveyReport.aspx

• EBSCO’s Customer Success Center, www.epnet.com/thisTopic.php?marketID=20&topicID=204

• Proquest Marketing Toolkit, www.proquest.com/division/docs/HowTo.pdf

• Gale’s accessmylibrary.com

Lesley Williams

Evanston Public Library

Evanston IL 60201

Lawilliams@cityofevanston.org

847-448-8646

Thanks!!