F

PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND MARKETING

BY

DENNIS CARRIGAN

RETIRED FORMER FACULTY MEMBER, SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

NTRODUCTION
Times change. Forty-five years ago Philip
Kotler and Sidney J. Levy wrote an article in
which they urged those responsible for the
management of nonbusiness organizations to
include marketing among the functions performed by the organization:
The term marketing connotes to most
people a function peculiar to business
firms. Marketing is seen as the task of finding and stimulating buyers for the firms
output. It involves product development,
pricing, distribution, and communication;
and in the more progressive firms, continuous attention to the changing needs of customers and the development of new products, with product modifications and services to meet these needs. But whether marketing is viewed in the old sense of pushing products or in the new sense of customer satisfaction engineering, it is
almost always viewed and discussed as a
business activity. (10)

Although at the time the Kotler-Levy article

was published public library directors may
have needed to be convinced of the importance of marketing, today they are aware of its
importance. Searching American Libraries,
Library Journal, and Public Libraries for marketing-related public library articles leads to
many citations, and Editor Kathleen Hughes
designated the fiftieth-anniversary issue of
Public Libraries THE MARKETING ISSUE.
Darlene Weingands Future-Driven Library
Marketing is an excellent resource for public
library directors. In The Responsive Public
Library, Sharon Baker and Karen Wallace discuss marketing extensively. Several years ago
OCLC published the results of a large-scale
research project to evaluate the potential of
marketing and communications programs to
sustain and increase funding for U.S. public
libraries (De Rosa xi). In Library and
Information Center Management, Barbara B.
Moran, Robert D. Stueart, and Claudia J.
Morner devote a chapter to marketing.

However, after noting that nonbusiness organizations must perform what the authors refer
to as the classic business functions
finance, production, personnel, and purchasing they commented: When we come to
the marketing function, it is also clear that
every organization performs marketing-like
activities, whether or not they are recognized
as such (11). After discussing concepts
[that] are common to organizational marketing and the main principles of effective
marketing management as they appear in
most forward-looking business organizations,
the authors concluded:
The choice facing those who manage nonbusiness organizations is not whether to
market or not to market, for no organization can avoid marketing. The choice is
whether to do it well or poorly. (12-15)

WHAT IS MARKETING?
In Creating Your Library Brand, public library
director Elisabeth Doucett comments that
Marketing is a term used by librarians to
mean many different things and therefore has
become confusing. To her:
At its simplest level, marketing is the
process of [1] identifying the potential audience that you want to hear your librarys
story, [2] developing that story so that those
potential users understand what makes your
library unique and why they will find it
interesting, and [3] developing ways of
telling the story that will intrigue those
users and attract their attention (1)

In Marketing Management, Philip Kotler and

Kevin Lane Keller turn to the American
Marketing Association for a definition of
marketing:
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Marketing is an organizational function and

a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and
for managing customer relationships in ways
that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. (5)
In Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations,
Kotler writes:
[M]arketing is the effective management by
an organization of its exchange relations
with its various markets and publics.
Each market is made up of significant subgroups called market segments with particular needs, perceptions, and preferences. The
organization has goals with respect to each
significant market or market segment.
Marketing is the organizations undertaking
of analysis, planning, implementation, and
control to achieve its exchange objectives
with its target markets. (xiii-xiv)
A little later he adds:
Exchange is the central concept underlying
marketing. It calls for the offering of [something of] value to another party in exchange
for [something of] value. Through
exchanges, various social units attain the
inputs they need. By offering something
attractive, they acquire what they need in
return. Since both parties agree to the
exchange voluntarily, both see themselves
as better off after the exchange. (6)
MARKETING AT KENTUCKY PUBLIC
LIBRARIES
Those responsible for managing Kentuckys
public libraries know the importance of marketing. Marketing is the first of the four broad
topics discussed in Lexington Public Librarys
Annual Report 2013 (the others are service
capacity, organizational capacity, and results).
In response to my question about marketing
in general and at Marshall County Public
Library, Director Kristi Tucker wrote:
Marketing plays a large role in the success
of a public library. Through marketing, the
library is able to reach out to the community to promote programs and services as well
as illustrate to the public how their tax dollars are being used. It helps to have a clear
marketing goal for the library each year and
to utilize a variety of marketing techniques.
Our library has a team of marketing staff.
The time spent on marketing by the team
members would total to approximately 1.5
FTE.

KENTUCKY LIBRARIES VOLUME 78 NUMBER 3

I knew, from earlier discussions, that Meade

County Public Library Director Margaret
Benham is aware of the importance of marketing, and when I asked her about marketing,
while gathering information for this article,
she replied:
Marketing is a top priority for the Meade
County Public Library because the library
benefits from enhanced brand awareness.
Ultimately success depends on persuading
significant numbers of patrons to utilize our
librarys services and check-out our collections. The MCPLs vision is to constantly be
on the lookout for new opportunities and
create strategies to take advantage of them.
One of our staff members is totally responsible for marketing.
Pam Mullins, Director of Anderson County
Public Library, said about marketing:
I think that marketing is vital for all
libraries even those that are small such as
Anderson County. A few years ago when we
conducted a patron survey we discovered
that most people found out what was happening at the library by looking at materials
such as flyers or posters posted at the library.
While it was good to know that we were
reaching an audience that already used the
library, it did show us a large gap in our
marketing and publicity efforts. Since that
time we have made a concerted effort to
publicize library services, classes, and special
events outside the library. We have
attempted to utilize the local paper and will
hopefully have much more success with this
method in the future. We have also started
using radio and social media which has
proven very effective for word of mouth.
Like many other libraries, for years we
relied on the existing good will of the public toward libraries to ensure that folks
found and used our services. We didnt really worry about whether they were aware of
issues affecting libraries. We took it for
granted that we were a valued public good;
however, we have found in recent years that
old methods are no longer sufficient. It is
no longer enough to just expect the good
will of those members of the public who use
the library to sustain our operations. While
the majority of our community possess very
favorable attitudes about the library, even
many of our supporters are not fully aware
of all the services we offer and are totally
unaware of the challenges we face with the
lawsuits, funding issues, and negative atti7

LIBRARIES
& MARKETING

CONTINUED

tudes of a few. Without taking direct action

to actively market ourselves, we allow the
negative voices to set the tone and the
agenda. Only by publicizing what we do,
how many people we serve and help, and
the impact that we have on both individuals and the community as a whole are we
able to fight back against these attitudes.
JC Morgan, Campbell County Public Library
Director, agrees with Pam about the need to
incorporate social media in marketing:
Today, its important to focus on the changing face of marketing with social media. For
a small library, social media makes marketing much more affordable. The issue, of
course, is having the time to keep the
chirping/demanding little baby bird of social
media happy. You can set up things like
Hootsuite so that your social media posts
are scheduled (which means you dont have
to drop everything several times a day to
post something) but...it still needs to be
thought through and planned.
In spite of JCs reference to small library,
CCPL is large enough to do what most public
libraries in Kentucky may be unable to do,
devote a staff position to marketing.
Rachel Folz is our Social Media Marketing
Manager here. Rachel has only been here
since December. She came to us from a
local news channel as the manager of their
social media department. I think they had
about 30 accounts that they posted and
watched. Shes a 30-something and has
grown her career around this new media.
MARKETING, BRANDING, AND
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Discussions of marketing often refer to brand,
branding, and public relations. James Keller,
Director of Marketing and Communications
for the Queens, New York, Library System,
wrote an article with branding and marketing
in the title. Alison Circle and Kerry Bierman,
respectively Manager of Marketing and
Director of Community Relations and
Development at Columbus, Ohio, Metropolitan
Library, wrote an article in which they discuss
the importance of brand in a marketing plan.
The title of Doucetts book, referred to earlier,
is Creating Your Library Brand, and her first
chapter is Defining Marketing and
Branding. The chapter includes a section on
Marketing Tactics, which, according to
Doucett, include public relations (7).

Georgia de Araujo joined the Boyle County

Public Library staff in 1986 and became
Director a year ago. In her reply to my question about marketing at BCPL, she refers to a
coordinated PR/marketing effort and to the
PR Coordinator at the library:
Marketing is something were new to, definitely feeling our way a bit, and I think that
is true for many public libraries that are on
the small to medium size. For us, over the
last 3 years weve changed our focus from
construction and renovation to programming in and outreach from the renovated
library. That is definitely driving the need
for a more coordinated PR/marketing effort.
We never had a coordinated marketing/PR
plan or presence until 2012, when we hired
a part-time person as a PR Coordinator. She
has been half-time for a little over a year,
and is increasing her hours this year from
50% to about 70%. I think the workload is
such that it should be a full-time position.
But I dearly love our PR coordinator and
dont want to lose her, so were working up
to full-time slowly to accommodate her
schedule with young children.
I think in small to medium-sized libraries
there is generally a sense that spending
money (TAX money, no less!) on PR and
marketing ishmmsomehow frowned
upon. It [PR and marketing] isnt library
materials that patrons use, it isnt actual
programming that dispenses information. It
is something that a person who is upset over
how a library spends its money can point to
as wasteful overhead or not for the public
good. Of course, that is nonsense. I think
this is something that the non-profit and
public service world struggles with a lot.
Kenton County Public Library uses the term
public relations rather than marketing. KCPL
Director Dave Schroeder told me:
I prefer Public Relations. Our department
does so much more then [sic] marketing.
They promote, communicate, connect and
make relationships with residents and leaders throughout the community. We have
had a Public Relations Department since
1998. One Department Head and two assistants. One assistant focuses on social media
(Face Book, blogs, etc.) and the other is a
trained videographer. Quite frankly, with a
library our size, a PR Department isnt a
luxury, it is a necessity. It is so important in
these times to let the public know what we
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are doing and what we can offer them and

their families.

CONTINUED

The work our PR Department has done is

incredible. They do so much to drive program attendance, circulation and good will.
They have won many awards over the years.
The most recent was from Overdrive [sic]
for promoting eBooks.
CONCLUSION: GETTING THE WORD OUT;
DEMONSTRATING VALUE
Dave Schroeder added:
It is vital to get the word out concerning
our role in the community what we do
with day cares, schools, museums, nursing
homes, the local career center and many
more. The library belongs to the people of
Kenton county and we are constantly
demonstrating our value to our patrons.

Pam Mullins concluded her comments by

noting:
We have found that we must take an active
role in getting the word out to everyone
about what the library does and how important a part of the local community we are.
We have also found it necessary to actively
combat the vocal minority in the community who spread false information and the
notion that libraries are no longer needed
or used. When planning a career as a librarian I could never imagine a day when all of
these efforts would be necessary and that we
would have to fight for the very existence of
libraries. On the other hand, it is also very
gratifying to see our efforts pay off and to be
able to demonstrate the continued need for
our services.
Dennis Carrigan
carrigan@uky.edu

WORKS CITED
Baker, Sharon L. and Karen L. Wallace. The Responsive Public Library: How to Develop and Market a Winning
Collection, 2d ed Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2002. Print.
Benham, Margaret. Marketing at Meade County Public Library. Message to the author. 29 May 2014. E-mail.
Circle, Alison and Kerry Bierman, The House Brand. Library Journal 134.11 (15 June 2009): 32-35. Print.
de Araujo, Georgia. Marketing at Boyle County Public Library. Message to the author. 3 June 2014. E-mail.
De Rosa, Cathy, ed. From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America. Dublin, OH: OCLC,
2008. Print.
Doucett, Elisabeth. Creating Your Library Brand: Communicating Your Relevance and Value to Your Patrons
Chicago: ALA, 2008. Print.
Hughes, Kathleen M., ed. The Marketing Issue. Public Libraries 50.1 (Jan./Feb. 2011). Print.
Keller, James A. Branding and Marketing Your Library. Public Libraries 47.3 (Sept./Oct. 2008): 45-51. Print.
Kotler, Philip and Sidney J. Levy. Broadening the Concept of Marketing. Journal of Marketing 33.1 (Jan.
1969): 10-15. Print.
-. Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982. Print.
- and Kevin Lane Keller. Marketing Management. 13th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall,
2009. Print.
Lexington Public Library. Annual Report 2013. 20 May 2014. Web.
http://www.lexpublib.org/sites/default/files/file_uploads/annual_report_fy_2013.pdf
Moran, Barbara B, Robert D. Stueart, and Claudia J. Morner. Marketing Information Services. Library and
Information Center Management. 8th ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited: 2013. 107-116. Print.
Morgan, JC. Marketing at Campbell County Public Library. Message to the author. 29 May 2014. E-mail.
Mullins, Pam. Marketing at Anderson County Public Library. Message to the author. 4 June 2014. E-mail.
Schroeder, Dave. Public Relations at Kenton County Public Library. Message to the author. 28 May 2014.
E-mail.
Tucker, Kristi. Marketing at Marshall County Public Library. Message to the author. 2 June 2014. E-mail.
Weingand, Darlene E. Future-Driven Library Marketing. Chicago: American Library Association, 1998. Print.

KENTUCKY LIBRARIES VOLUME 78 NUMBER 3

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