May 3, 2019, marked 25 years since I was hired as editor of Marketing Library Services. That’s a biganniversary! I was going to pen a rushed post a few weeks ago just to get itonline for the actual date, but I decided to reflect for a while first. So hereare my thoughts about being in the library marketing field over a span of 25years.
In the Beginning …
I still remember my interviews with the president of alibrary-centric publishing company in Medford, NJ, Tom Hogan, Sr. Back in 1994,the publishing company’s name was Learned Information, and my name was KathyMiller. I liked the small-town and small-company atmosphere. Tom liked that Ihad a journalism degree, years of editorial experience, and 5+ years as apara-professional in academic and public libraries. Soon, I was officially onboard. Over the years, the company name changed to Information Today, Inc. andmy name changed to Kathy Dempsey.
I took on two primary jobs at Learned Information: I editedbooks for that growing division, and I became the new editor of Marketing Library Services newsletter. At that time, MLS was in its 7th volume.
During my first years as editor, I oversaw changes in thefrequency and focus of the newsletter, but I won’t detail that here. The fullhistory is in a chapter I wrote for this book: Marketing Library and Information Services: International Perspectives,edited on behalf of IFLA by Dinesh Gupta, Christie Koontz, ?ngles Massísimo,and Réjean Savard. (Munich: KG Saur, 2006) My invited chapter, “MarketingLibrary Services Newsletter: An Overview,” covered MLS’s history from its beginnings through 2004. So that chapteralso discussed my first 10 years in library marketing.
I started this job on May 3, 1994. Back in the `90s, youdidn't often hear the words "library" and "marketing"together. Most librarians didn't have to do much marketing or promotion becauselibraries were people's main access points for information. But the internetwas a game-changer. Once the public's access to the web became widespread, andreference transactions declined, the concept of marketing libraries slowlybecame more accepted. (Although some still thought of "marketing" asthe dirty "m word.")
What’s in a Word?
Now, in 2019, fewer library employees think of “marketing”as a dirty word, but there are still some holdouts. Over the past 5 to 8 years,we’ve started to view the word a little differently, but still not in the wayI’d like.
It’s funny to me how people in our field have embracedconcepts like outreach and advocacy, and how they’ve gotten so wrapped up insocial media promotion. It’s funny because all of those things are parts ofmarketing, but not many people or publications acknowledge that. They embracethe pieces, but ignore the whole.
Some librarians still don’t like to think about “marketing,”and they don’t create marketing plans, and they don’t work strategically. Butboy, they’re eager to design colorful posters, share social media memes, andsign petitions to rally for funding. I wish they’d realize that accepting “marketing,”doing some market research, and crafting strategic plans to organize all theirone-off efforts would make their work more effective.
All About Education
For 25 years now, I’ve been trying to educate all levels oflibrary workers, to move the needle in that direction. I’ve been working innumerous ways:
- I educate professionals via MLS, by publishing case studies of great marketing initiatives,highlighting best practices, and sharing news.
- In 2005, I started my own library marketingconsulting company called Libraries Are Essential. Organizations hire me to do marketingconsulting and training, and I’ve been speaking at conferences all over NorthAmerica.
- I also started a Facebook page for Libraries AreEssential, intending it as a fun place for marketing info and discussions.However, so many non-librarians followed the page (due to its name) that Ichanged my strategy and made it a public-facing account. Now, every day I posta story, photo, article, or something to showcase the goodness of libraries topeople all over the world. (Today there are nearly 5,800 followers of my LAE Facebook page.)
- Since 2008, I’ve been blogging here at The MWord, though not as often as I should. Nancy Dowd had started this blog yearsearlier and invited me to join; now she’s retired and it’s just me.
- In 2009, I published my book, The Accidental Library Marketer.That massive undertaking allowed me to organize all the knowledge in my headand share it with others. I hoped it would get the whole industry up to speedon the basics of True Marketing: doing research and segmentation, writing plans,then working on promotion and assessment. I created my website for LibrariesAre Essential then too, where I posted my Cycle of True Marketing for everyoneto share. (I need to make time to update my site atwww.LibrariesAreEssential.com!) The book sold really well, and it’s being usedas a textbook in a handful of MLIS courses.
Sadly, that’s still not been enough to help librarianseverywhere to do excellent, strategic marketing and promotion.
Public Perception
The national situation has improved somewhat in terms ofwhat peers understand about marketing and what they’ve accomplished. But evenas that improves, new challenges arise.
The main challenges, the ones that keep me up at night, havebeen the internet and anti-tax sentiments. The ubiquity of the internet hasgiven much of the public the wrong impression—that “everything” is online forfree, so nobody needs libraries anymore. In more recent years, the fiscallyconservative, anti-tax crusaders, who also believe public libraries areunnecessary, have become proactive about voting against the levies that fundthem.
Both of these problems highlight the fact that the generalpublic still does not understand whatlibraries are in the 21st century, and they don’t grasp the myriad benefits ofusing them (and supporting them with usage and funding). OCLC’s original Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resourcesreport—the one that warned us that people around the globe still think oflibraries as being about books, first and foremost—came out in 2005 (pg. 3-1 / pg. 83 of the PDF).
Yet, we still haven’t succeeded in changing thoseperceptions. OCLC’s follow-up report, Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community, revealed that the library brandwas still “books” (pg. 38 / pg. 23 of the PDF). Unfortunately, the situation was even worse:
In 2005, most Americans (69%) said “books” is the firstthing that comes to mind when thinking about the library. In 2010, even more,75%, believe that the library brand is books.
Things like this made me feel as if my 2 decades of work inmarketing had barely scratched the surface of what needed to be done. I thinkit’s necessary to train more library staffers about what marketing really meansand how doing it the right way can benefit their institutions by bringing usersin, quieting the naysayers, and ensuring better funding.
The Past 5 Years
I continued to chair LMCC in 2016 and 2017, as the eventgrew in recognition and popularity. After 3 years of hard work, I stepped downand left LMCC in the capable hands of a new nonprofit, the Library Marketingand Communications Group. The LMC Group continues to work with Amigos LibraryServices, which played a vital role in getting LMCC started. I covered ouraccomplishments in this M Word post.
The board and new chair held yet another sold-out event inNovember 2018 (more than 400 attendees!). As I traveled home from that lastfall, I felt certain that LMCC was well-established, and that it will continuefor the foreseeable future. While I certainly didn’t do the work alone, I’mincredibly proud of LMCC, and view it as my most important achievement to date—alegacy I’m leaving for the library world.
Again, I felt like the field hadn’t made much progress atall. But I know it has. Colleagues consistently say that more libraries nowhave people in marketing positions, even if they’re only part-time. And itseems that libraries have been starting to hire experienced marketers for thosejobs. That’s still a debate in our field: Is it better to hire marketers / PRpeople and teach them about libraries, or is it better to hire librarians andteach them about marketing / PR? I know the learning curve can be steep eitherway. But given the fact that we’re not making much headway in terms ofeducating potential end users about what libraries can do for them, Ipersonally vote to go with marketing pros for marketing jobs. We need all thehelp we can get.
So what else have I done in the most recent 5 years? With moretime on my hands after leaving LMCC, I’ve renewed my focus in two areas—writingand speaking.
First, I’ve published more in the last few years than I havein quite some time. The history of library marketing has been on my mind, asI’ve been looking back to help me look ahead. I’ve been fortunate and honoredto have been invited to contribute these substantial pieces to the libraryliterature:
- Documentationet Bibliothèques (a French-language journal produced in Montreal forlibrarians in Canada and France). April–June 2017, v.63, #2. Issue theme: “Marketing libraries and other information services: thestate of the art in the digital era.” My 19-page paper, “The evolution ofmarketing in American libraries,” was translated to French: “L’évolution dumarketing dans les bibliothèques américaines.” Print only.
- Library and Book Trade Almanac (formerly TheBowker Annual).2018 edition. Based on my French paper, I penned a 14-page Special Reporttitled “The State of Marketing in Libraries.” Print only.
- InformationOutlook (SLA’s magazine, full issue for members only). Sept./Oct. 2018. Issuetheme: “Communicating Your Library’s Mission.” My 3-page article is “FiveTactics to Help You Communicate Your Mission.” Single article available here.
- MarketingLibraries Journal (open-access, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal).v. 3, #1, Winter 2019. Using my pieces from Det B and LBTA as a foundation, I didmore research, rewrote in academic style, and passed double-blind peer review.My year of work resulted in a 10,000-word paper with 50+ citations: “An Historical Overview of Marketing in U.S. Libraries: From Dana to Digital.” Onlineonly, free.
The second activity I’ve been focusing on is speaking atconferences and training events. This has been a staple for me for decades, butthe frequency has increased in the last few years.
One big change I’ve seen in library continuing education isthe shift from face-to-face events to online ones. While few things can beatthe energy and excitement of being in a room with 50 library peers, or in abuilding with hundreds or thousands, I’ve got to say that I’ve learned to lovethe simplicity of webinars. Not having to make travel plans or get on airplanesis a big plus. Webinars make continuing education easier all around, fororganizers, speakers, and attendees, and they’re even archived for later usage.
During 2018, I think I presented 15 webinars. This year,which isn’t even halfway over yet, I’ve already given 14, with more planned forthe fall. There are a few groups I speak for regularly, and there are alwaysone-time clients. This has become an efficient way to deliver training, but Iwish I could address all librarians at once. Sometimes I get tired of teachingthe same basic information.
What’s Next?
I’m still impatient about getting everyone up to speed onmarketing, promotion, PR, communication, media relations, and related topics.Libraries’ respect and funding is still at risk across America, and in othercountries as well. So I’ll keep working.
What’s next? I’m not entirely sure yet. I do, however, havesome ideas for rebooting MarketingLibrary Services to increase its usefulness and readership. I’d also liketo advocate to have marketing classes become core pieces of library-schoolcurricula.
Since a mere handful of MLIS-granting universities evenoffer marketing as an elective, getting it taught everywhere—and making it a requiredclass—would be an uphill battle. But with so many people discussing “outreach,”“branding,” “advocacy,” and those other terms under the “marketing” umbrella, Ihope The Powers That Be realize that it’s all marketing already. If theytreated it as such, and taught it consistently, all types of libraries would bebetter prepared to face communication challenges, to change public perception,and to fight for funding.
There is one thing I started doing very recently that couldhave a more-immediate impact. I’ve been helping a search engine marketingvendor called Koios spread the word about an amazingopportunity. Google has a program that gives nonprofits $10,000/month inadvertising credit, enabling them to run campaigns that place their ads at thetop of search results. This allows librarians to advertise anything (services,e-resources, events) for free and appear where everyone is looking. Koios helpslibrarians get these Google Ad Grants and set them up with a free trial.Afterward, a library can administer the perpetual grant on its own, or hireKoios experts to run the campaigns. This altruistic endeavor is already helpingput libraries on equal footing with for-profit businesses, reaching the public attheir point of need.
While I and others who fight for libraries have made majorstrides in the last quarter century, we still have a long way to go. Helpinglibrarians communicate their value to stakeholders and to potential users, andhelping libraries stay open and funded, is vital for having an educated populaceand a true democracy.
As I often say, “I’ve devoted my career to helping librariesmaintain their respect and funding.” Please join my quest!
Look for my next major update in 5 or 10 years. I intend tohave more progress to report by then.
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