Let's Get Serious: Promoting Library Online Services

Let’s Get Serious: Promoting Library Online Services

Lesley Williams

Head, Adult Public Services

Evanston Public Library

lawilliams@cityofevanston.org

Lesley Williams

Head, Adult Public Services

Evanston Public Library

lawilliams@cityofevanston.org

Signs of the Times

Be Afraid, Be Very AfraidBe Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Usage stats are downUsage stats are down Library budgets are threatenedLibrary budgets are threatened There is competition everywhereThere is competition everywhere

LET’S STOP FOOLING LET’S STOP FOOLING AROUNDAROUND

The Problem…• People STILL associate libraries with books and

children, not with online services.

• Librarians are NOT generally thought of as an online information source or info savvy.

• Libraries (in general) lag behind the culture in using new media.

Strategy 1: Individual Libraries

• Make your online services findable

• Make them easy to use and access

• Blog them, stick them EVERYWHERE

• Encourage users to

subscribe

Making it Simple

• Article search available on homepage

• Patrons can search and view preliminary results before authenticating

Online Resources in OPAC

Cannibalize current events

Let’s Get RealLet’s Get Real

Redesigning library websites only helps Redesigning library websites only helps people who people who useuse library websites. library websites.

To sell our online services, we need to be To sell our online services, we need to be visible visible where our users already gowhere our users already go..

Strategy 2: Schools, Homeschools and PTAs

Strategy 2: Schools, Homeschools and PTAs

Do they link to your library resources?

Do they know about them?

Do they link to your library resources?

Do they know about them?

Homeschoolers Online…

• Need online math and reading prep

• Need reliable online reference books

• Need magazines and newspapers

Where is the Library?

Will YOU Be There?

Strategy 3: Community Partners

• Chambers of Commerce• Hospitals• City Government• Religious groups• Realtors and Merchants Associations

Do they use your library resources?

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

Strategy 3: Consortia and Systems

• Can get more bang for marketing buck, afford more advertising.

• Easier to build awareness, put out a consistent message

• Risk: if state system loses funding, all libraries could lose online services

Indiana’s 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, Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee and Ohio

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

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

• Geolocation is automatic

• Usage declined 40% when authenticating by barcode was added

• Usage increased by 20% when geolocation was added

Another Cautionary Tale…

• Great marketing campaign

• High recognition• Easy access via IP

and cookies• Usage down from

34.7 million searches in 2007 to 16 million in 2008

This isn’t helping…

Neither is this…

Strategy 4: Vendors

• Why do they make these products so darn hard to use?

• Why won’t they advertise to the public instead of to libraries?

• LET VENDORS HEAR FROM US!! If we go down, they go down.

Ask Your Vendors…

Do they have a mobile version?

Do they support social networking and Share options for blogs, Facebook?

Can users get to library content easily from the vendor website?

How End User Marketing Helps

Vendors• Library product promotes the individual

subscription product.

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

• The less aware the public, the less support for spending on databases

We need current marketing support…

• Proquest’s Marketing Toolkit: nothing new in 2 years

Unclear on the Concept?

• Great poster…

• Great ideas

• NO MENTION OF LIBRARIES!!

How Does the Vendor’s Site Look to Patrons?

Is it Usable?

Are they trying to make it harder??

What about Mobile?

Facebook

• Is your vendor on Facebook?

• Do the products have a share tool?

• What about widgets?

Add search widgets to library or community blog or Facebook site

Database Content on Library Facebook page

Proquest’s Library PressDisplay

Easily post to blogs or Facebook

Are vendors on YouTube? With interesting content?

Go Overdrive!• Fun, splashy, patron

friendly websites

• Active on Facebook and YouTube

• Eye-catching public promotions

• Working with Sony

Some Serious Press…

Search for books available at libraries in your zipcode

Digital Bookmobile on YouTube

The Digital Bookmobile on Facebook…

The LEAST Vendors Should Do…

• Have an easy to use website directing the public to their libraries

• Stop using stupid product names

• Offer mobile and social network apps

• MARKET TO THE PUBLIC

Why support vendors that don’t support libraries?

You are not the vendors’ friend…

…You are their CUSTOMER

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.

COUNTER Intuitive?

• See if your vendors are listed

• Ask for COUNTER reports

• Problems with “free” remote access:

• Based on guesswork, not actual usage

• Vendor has zero incentive to increase usage

Strategy 5:Libraries Nationwide

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

• LET ALA HEAR FROM US!!

Notice Anything Missing?

Working the Media…

• What sources do your patrons trust?

• Major papers more likely to do stories on national trends

WebMD-$33.7 million in TV advertising

Great TV Ad From Calgary Public

The Power of Advertising

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

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.

Websites used…• Evanston Public Library, www.epl.org

• Skokie Library Business Portal, http://business.skokielibrary.info

• Hennepin County Library, www.hclib.org

• Illinois Home Education, www.illinoishomeeducation.org • Indiana’s www.Inspire.net

• Connecticut’s Iconn.org www.iconn.org/

• Tennessee Electronic Library, http://tntel.tnsos.org/

• New Jersey QandJ, www.qandanj.org/

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

• Gale’s widget page, http://access.gale.com/widgets/

• Project Counter, www.projectcounter.org/

Websites used…• Quova, www.quova.com

• Auto-Graphics, http://www4.auto-graphics.com

• AccessMyLibrary.com

• Gale/Cengage app store, www.gale.cengage.com/apps/

• Itunes and App Store, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/accessmylibrary/id342518632?mt=8

• Overdrive Digital Bookmobile, www.digitalbookmobile.com

• “Unethical Library Vendors: A Call to Arms for Libraries to Fight Back” by Sara Houghton-Jan. Posted on the Librarian in Black, http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2010/04/vendors.html

• “Has EBSCO Become the New Evil Empire?” by Meredith Farkas. Posted on Information Wants to be Free, http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2010/04/02/has-ebsco-become-the-new-evil-empire/

• “eResources: Collection Development, Management, Analysis, and Marketing”, Sara Houghton-Jan, http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/files/eResources-NSLS2008.pdf

• “Have We Created a Monster?” By Loren MccRory -- Library Journal, 9/15/2009 www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6696560.html?q=monster+mccrory&

• Calgary Public Library Marketing, blog.calgarypubliclibrary.com/blogs/marketing

Lesley Williams

Evanston Public Library

Evanston IL 60201

Lawilliams@cityofevanston.org

847-448-8646

Thanks!!