“in the past 10 years there have been tremendous changes in society that affect the entire concept of what a library is and does. Libraries are under threat. They face critical issues that threaten their very existence. The same issues face all types of libraries: university, research, public, school and special. Libraries face increased cost and expansion in the variety of materials. They face increased competition and the impact of new technologies. But these threats may also be challenges. They give libraries the opportunity to redesign their own future.”
How can academic libraries actively “redesign their own future?” Libraries in an academic setting will always be necessary as a resource for gaining knowledge for students, faculty, and staff. How well they maintain this level of necessity is in the hands of the library. It is easy for an academic library to become complacent because it has no natural information competitors on campus to stimulate the business instincts to market within an institutional structure. With this in mind, library administrators, like all good business people, must resist complacency and market their products. An aggressive written marketing plan should be an integral part of a library’s strategic plan, written as an information policy.
The strategic plan gives the goals and objectives of the library and the means by which the library intends to reach them.[ 2] A written marketing plan, as part of the strategic plan, identifies the actions necessary to be taken by the library to promote itself or its services. These plans are by no means written in stone. Rather, they are meant to give the library direction and to be, periodically, evaluated and updated based upon the goals of the library. In addition, with libraries facing shrinking budgets, written plans assist in preventing splintered programs. A written marketing plan will help a library director to spend budgeted money effectively.
The following is a list of areas for strategic development in libraries. Of course, the type and number of specific areas will depend upon the individual library.

 These areas include:
 Access services;
 Public services;
 Technical services;
Collection development;
Technology;
Resource sharing;
Public relations;
Special services;
Non-Print media; and
Physical facilities.[3]
Virtually all of the categories encompass “products” that the library should market in order to optimize the utilization of resources. For instance, under “collection development,” a library has purchased electronic journal subscriptions. There exists two key elements within this acquisition activity. First, the library purchased e-journals whose subject matter was appropriate for the library collection, therefore succeeding in the mission of the library developing its collection to meet the information needs of its patrons. Second, the e-journal purchased are available through the Internet to users from anywhere on campus. Hence, there are two marketable characteristics: a quality product and convenient/effective access to journals.
Marketing is oftentimes buried among the identified areas of strategic planning and development. Library directors may want to consider elevating marketing to a set of objectives within the plan; at the very least marketing should be considered in most plan categories as a critical tool.
In order to coordinate the marketing effort effectively among all of these product categories, a comprehensive marketing plan is essential. A traditional marketing plan has four component activities:[ 4]
1. DETERMINE WHAT TO PROMOTE
It is important for a library to begin its marketing plan by determining what needs to be promoted. Does the library want to promote a specific service or collection? Does the library want to promote new information technology equipment?

2. DEFINE TARGETED AUDIENCE
Decide who the target audience is for the promotional activity. What is the group of people toward whom the library will direct its marketing efforts? What are the characteristics of this group? For example, what is the skill level of this target group?

3. CHOOSE TYPE OF OUTREACH
Taking the product and target audience into account, choose a type of outreach that will most effectively promote the product. Decide on the promotional strategy that the library will follow. What form of publicity should the library use to raise awareness of the event?

4. EVALUATE THE PROGRAM
Review the feedback about the program (e.g., statistics and comments) and make recommendations for the next time.
The promotional strategy can be planned once the library decides on an outreach activity. Promotion is the communication link between sellers and buyers;[ 5] it is the link between the library and its patrons. According to Lousi E. Boone and David L. Kurtz, there are five objectives for promotion:
Provide information to consumers and others;
Increase demand;
Differentiate a product;
Accentuate a product; and
Stabilize sales.[6]
All of these principles can aptly be applied to the academic library setting. Marketing a library as an institution, or a specific collection within a library, can be accomplished just as a consumer product is marketed. “The information gathering public should be viewed as consumers of a product produced by the library.”[ 7] The library seeks to inform the clientele about the particular good or service (e.g., a specific collection or training on an online service like Lexis-Nexis). It wishes to increase or stimulate the demand for the use of the library. The library needs to highlight the various divisions within a library explaining their purposes. As a result, library clientele familiarize themselves with the library facilities, services, and staff. The library needs to accentuate the value of the library. Users are aware of the value of libraries, but that does not mean that libraries should stop reminding them; academic libraries are an information marketplace. Lastly, it is essential for the library to build and maintain good relations with their primary clientele whether they be students, faculty, the general public, or paying members so that it can sustain and even increase usership.
SUGGESTIONS FOR PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR A LIBRARY
There are many forms of creative promotional activities. By using a combination of outreach programs, libraries can reach different audiences. A library may hold lectures by inviting interesting guest speakers to discuss topical issues. This type of event will heighten the awareness of a specific library collection or the library as a whole. It is also an opportunity to mix business with pleasure by serving as a medium for library personnel to socialize with library patrons, and to convey the message of activism on the part of the library. In addition, library personnel can change library exhibits to inform and entice patrons about new resources that are available in the library. Changing exhibits routinely will demonstrate the library’s desire to be dynamic and flexible.
Departmental or library tours, classroom instruction, or oneon-one appointments with library patrons are an excellent way to get to know library patrons personally and to understand their information needs better. All of these activities give users an opportunity to review library services and resources which will help to de-mystify its services. It allows the library an opportunity to “toot its own horn.”
Homepage development via the World Wide Web (www) is a real art of organization. Who better to create an organized homepage than a library? Another great use of the WWW for academic libraries is to create a homepage to inform as a basic information medium. The homepage can include library hours and policies, introduction of staff members, and direction to resources in the library as well as provide links to electronic subscriptions. Special programs can be publicized on the library homepage, too.
It is quintessential for library employees to give superior quality of service. Quality of service goes beyond the walls of public service and flows into the other areas of the library as well. In the public services area, one has to develop continually new approaches to make patrons feel more comfortable about asking questions and using library resources. Superior quality of service is demonstrated with public services library personnel keeping informed of new resources. They can then better advise patrons in their informational searches and assist in collection development by making sure that the library acquires quality resources that patrons need. Technical services personnel may demonstrate superior quality of service by the exactness in the performance of their job. Catalogers make it possible for a publication to be identified in the online catalog; they assist in making the collection accessible and visible to users.
FORMS OF PUBLICITY
A library’s marketing plan should take full advantage of the new technologies as a publicity tool. Electronic forms of communication are efficient, creative, and allow a library to market itself not only within an academic institution, but outside as well, tapping into a whole new audience. Examples of electronic publicity include: a WWW homepage design, list services (servs), and e-mail. A specific section can be created within a library’s homepage to announce a new library resource or service or a special event. A library may also choose to post a special event on a list-serv inviting participants (e.g., GOVDOC-L, a list-serv for those individuals interested in discussing government information). By using the broadcast feature of an e-mail system, one can send a message within a single building or throughout campus announcing a special event or a new service.
Traditional methods of publicity are also effective through media coverage: newsletters, newspapers, and flyers. The library can publicize new services, products, staff, or events occurring within the library in organizational/association newsletters and campus/community newspapers. Creative promotional flyers can be distributed to patrons personally or through the mail and posted in the local community or on campus.
Other forms of publicity use word of mouth or a Public Relations Department. Information concerning new services or library events may be spread by personal interaction among and between library staff, students, faculty, employees and others. Befriend the members of the university public relations department and develop a good relationship with the institution’s media people. Media personnel can assist with press releases to major news agencies in a given area. What is great about these publicity recommendations is that most are free. An excellent publicizing campaign uses labor, but the key is good organizational skills and awareness of deadlines. Additionally, a library can choose to pay for publicity using advertising.
EXAMPLES OF WHAT HAS WORKED/RESULTS
The Government Documents (GovDocs) Department of Lauinger Library has experimented with various activities and forms of publicity which are shared here.
The best marketing strategy for a collection is superior customer service. A library needs to have good relations with its clientele. Word will spread about good service and, as a result, increase awareness and usage of a collection. This statement may seem obvious; however, it takes a focused effort to achieve and maintain a high caliber of service for library patrons. One has to be prepared to handle the vast personality differences as well as differing research needs of the library’s patrons. This relationship is built over time; the goal is to earn the confidence of patrons.
Good relations with faculty, students, and staff will generate requests for one-on-one training by patrons, requested classroom instruction, or requested tours of the collection to help familiarize patrons with the government resources. Departmental statistics from GovDocs indicate almost a 13% increase in reference service in the past four years (1994-1997) from the prior four years (1989-1993). In addition, one-on-one training for services and products has steadily increased as well as requests for classroom instruction.
During the past four years, the GovDocs Department has sponsored guest lecturers on various topics from human rights to the economic transition of Vietnam. Informational packages are created for each lecture which highlight the collection as well as other library resources. At the onset, attendance was sparse. By persevering and implementing several aforementioned marketing strategies, attendance at these events now averages 50 to 100 people. Library patrons expect that this lecture series will continue and frequently inquire as to future speakers.
Bibliographic information about the library’s government documents were not included in the online public access catalog. A two-year endeavor by a GovDocs staff member and the Cataloging Department was undertaken to add bibliographic information online. As more bibliographic records appeared in the catalog, the users’ awareness of the existence of the documents collection increased. As a result, average monthly circulation statistics increased 19.9% and 87.4% during the past two academic years. Circulation even increased 26.8% and 54.2% during the slower summer months.
CONCLUSION
These are a few examples that worked for the Government Documents Department of Lauinger Library. Each library (or department within a library) needs to evaluate what type of marketing strategy best suits its products and target markets. However, no matter what strategy is chosen, a written marketing plan is an important component of the library’s strategic plan in its effort to realize goals. A written marketing plan is a long range plan, but it is also an active information policy document which is intended to render promotion activities as routine and second nature to library personnel. Aspects of the plan can be accomplished in the short term; however, results take time and patience. It should be reemphasized that while an academic library can have a great marketing plan, it must also have a quality product. These two characteristics are not mutually exclusive. All the marketing in the world will not help a library if it is not good at what it does and if the “products” which are being sold are suspect.

NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Rudi Denham, “Strategic Planning: Creating thc Future,” Feliciter 41 (November/December 1995): 38.
2. Donald E. Riggs, Strategic Planning for Library Managers (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1984), p. 2. 3. Ibid., pp. 50-51.
4. Susan Anthes, “Outreach, Promotion, and Bibliographic Instruction,” in Management of Government Information Resources in Libraries, edited by Diane H. Smith (Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1993), p. 175.
5. Lousi E. Boone & David L. Kurtz, Contemporary Marketing Wired (Fort Worth, TX: Dryden Press, 1998), p. 25. 6. Ibid., p. 568.
7. Peter Hernon & Charles R. McClure, Public Access to Government Information: Issues, Trends, and Strategies (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1984), p. 135.
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By Ellen Dodsworth