Practical Marketing for the Academic Library 1440872228, 9781440872228

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Practical Marketing for the Academic Library

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PRACTICAL MARKETING FOR THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY

Stephanie Espinoza Villamor and Kimberly Shotick

Copyright © 2022 by Stephanie Espinoza Villamor and Kimberly Shotick All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Villamor, Stephanie Espinoza, author. | Shotick, Kimberly, author. Title: Practical marketing for the academic library / Stephanie Espinoza   Villamor and Kimberly Shotick. Description: Santa Barbara, California : Libraries Unlimited, [2022] |   Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021058387 (print) | LCCN 2021058388 (ebook) | ISBN   9781440872228 (paperback ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781440872235 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Academic libraries—Marketing. | Academic libraries—Public   relations. | Libraries and colleges. | Academic libraries—United   States—Case studies. | BISAC: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Library &   Information Science / General | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Nonprofit   Organizations & Charities / Marketing & Communications Classification: LCC Z716.3 .V55 2022 (print) | LCC Z716.3 (ebook) | DDC  021.7—dc23/eng/20220111 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021058387 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021058388 ISBN: 978-1-4408-7222-8 (paperback) 978-1-4408-7223-5 (ebook) 26 25 24 23 22   1 2 3 4 5 This book is also available as an eBook. Libraries Unlimited An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC ABC-CLIO, LLC 147 Castilian Drive Santa Barbara, California 93117 www.abc-clio.com This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America

For Velito and Vicente, my best works in progress.       —Stephanie (aka Mom) For Dave Green, mentor and friend. You are missed. —Kimberly

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Contents Preface

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Introduction

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Chapter 1. Building Your Team 1 Formal Teams 2 Informal Teams 4 Best Practices for Building Teams 6 Establishing Your Scope 7 Affective Team Leadership 9 Quick Tips 10 From the Field 10 References 13 Chapter 2. Defining Your Areas 15 What Does Marketing Mean to You? 16 Types of Communication 17 Print Communication 18 Digital Communication 18 Human Communication 20 Types of Outreach 20 Segmentation 23 Quick Tips 26 From the Field 26 References 29 Chapter 3. Marketing for the Mind Why Market Resources and Services? Identifying Your Audience

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Marketing Resources 34 Physical Resources 34 Electronic Resources 39 Marketing Services 40 Enable Academic Success 41 Facilitate Information Access 42 Transform Scholarly Publishing 42 Quick Tips 44 From the Field 44 From the Field 46 References 48 Chapter 4. Marketing from the Heart 51 Empathy and Student Needs 52 Benefits 54 Sharing Stories 58 Giving Back 60 Caring about Concerns 62 Quick Tips 63 From the Field 63 From the Field 66 References 68 Chapter 5. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 71 Definitions 72 Diversity 72 Equity 73 Inclusion 74 Diversity and Marketing 74 Libraries and DEI 75 DEI in Marketing Teams 76 Marketing with Sensitivity and Awareness 78 A Note on Universal Design 81 What You Can Do Right Now 82 Quick Tips 83 From the Field 84 From the Field 86 References 89 Chapter 6. Assessing the Program What Is Library Marketing Assessment? Creating Measurable Outcomes Assessing Marketing Efforts Assessment Methods Best Practices

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Reporting and Acting on Your Data 103 Quick Tips 104 From the Field 105 References 107 Chapter 7. Marketing to Faculty, Staff, and Administration 109 Definitions 109 Why Market to Faculty and Staff? 111 How Can We Market to Faculty and Staff? 112 Marketing to Administration 116 Quick Tips 117 From the Field 118 References 121 Conclusion

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Index

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Preface When we first embarked on writing a practical guide to academic library marketing, Kimberly and I were both actively involved in not only our own library marketing (Kimberly at a technology-focused university in Illinois and myself at a 2-year community college in Southern Nevada), but also as coleaders of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group. During our time working on this project, we both experienced major life events from Kimberly moving to a new job to the birth of my first child. Then COVID-19 hit and everything changed. During the pandemic, everyone’s worlds turned upside down, and that included the academic library world. Although my eLearning Librarian position meant that the majority of my work prior to 2020 was online already, our college had to quickly adapt to unexpected closures and safety precautions that moved at least 90% of our classes and student services online. Due to the work of a fantastic team, even my librarian colleagues without an eLearning title were able to adjust the way they viewed librarianship in order to serve students in a new environment during an unprecedented, uncertain time. I couldn’t be prouder of our team. But, of course, this time period did present a major challenge to our academic library’s marketing. How do you advertise your resources to students who are struggling just to stay afloat in an online class they didn’t intend to take? How do you show the human side of your services when you’re at a distance and behind a mask? By spring 2020, we were all basically in survival mode with very little outside marketing taking place at all. Our Communications/Outreach/Marketing Team did meet virtually during the early days of the pandemic, trying to decide if we should move our bookmark contest online or postpone it and discussing the logistics and budget for ordering and distributing hand sanitizer to students. We quickly realized

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that our event calendar had to be removed from our website because there were no events happening in the immediate future. Fall 2020 was different because we had more time to plan virtual events, social media videos, and even set up in-person displays as many of us returned to campus with our library buildings now open under limited hours. But our marketing still didn’t look anything like it did when Kimberly and I first started writing this book. And yet . . . it did. Despite the upheaval, the basics of marketing do not change even if you’re 100% online—even if you’re in times of crisis. You still have to work with a team, determine your roles and the types of marketing that can take place, think about the diverse populations you need to reach and how you can serve them best, and assess whether or not what you’re doing is working. It might be done more formally when you’re not in crisis mode, but even during a pandemic, each element of marketing is still there. Once we settled into our “new normal,” our library’s marketing team had to ensure we were sending out unified messages across all platforms about what services were available and what services had changed. Students needed to know they could get research assistance online even when our library buildings were closed. They needed to know that our BookDrops were locked but their due dates had been extended. New services emerged to get technology and textbook information to students with the help of library software and personnel—so we had to constantly communicate, reach out, and market to our stakeholders, even if it wasn’t through big events and giveaway items. Ultimately, our students were grateful for the information and grateful to have a point of contact. We didn’t know all the answers—no one did—but as librarians, it was our job to find information and share it with those in need. And if I had to boil down the multifaceted world of marketing into just a single word, “sharing” would be it. We share what we do and how we can help. That’s essentially the business of academic libraries. This is not a handbook for marketing during a pandemic, but it should be a great starting point for marketing an academic library during any time period. We’ve tried to keep it general enough to apply to almost any type of higher education institution, any type of staff, and any type of population you serve. If you’ve already been involved in your library’s marketing, you may be familiar with much of the information discussed in these chapters. But if you’re new to this area of the library world, or want to refresh your team’s structure and approach to marketing, we hope this book can help give you ideas. In addition to including what we’ve learned from working at our own institutions and on the Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group, Kimberly and I have collected case study examples from libraries across the country so you can be exposed to a variety of diverse ideas that might spark something you never thought about before. There are always new ways to

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reach students (and faculty, staff, and administrators). There’s always something you can experiment with incorporating into your own workflow or calendar of events. We encourage you to test and try. My baby is now a toddler (with a new baby brother—another major life event!) and the pandemic is still having an impact on many lives. So, I’ve learned that we have to embrace change and accept the unknown, as scary as that can be. Because it will teach you that you are resilient—you can survive in any situation. We’ve seen this with our students. Once they moved past the survival mode of spring 2020, they were able to thrive, completing classes with the help of faculty, staff, and administrators who were compassionate and flexible given their distinct needs. Chapter 4 discusses marketing to the “whole student,” taking into account their identity and priorities and heart and core. This is crucial during a pandemic, and not just for students. We librarians can’t forget to treat ourselves with that same compassion and flexibility that we’ve learned from the pandemic. As you read through this book and plan your marketing strategy, don’t forget that you’re human too. You have your own unique identity with strengths in many areas and unmet needs in others. Your self-care is necessary to be able to serve others. We encourage you to approach marketing from a standpoint of service while also not giving up so much of yourself that your own cup is empty. The world is different now, and it’s okay to keep things general and approach your field with a more practical, one-step-at-a-time mentality. This book doesn’t have all the answers—but as librarians, we hope to share our information with those in need so you all can thrive too. —Stephanie My very first job out of library school was working nights and weekends in a public library where I contributed to the book displays and social media, as all other adult services librarians there did. My first full time gig was at a university library where I’d tack up posters for workshops and post pictures to Instagram of rare Pokémon in our library from the then-popular Pokémon Go game. I have always worked with an understanding that we all are responsible for marketing library services and resources, from the student worker at the circulation desk to the cataloger behind the scenes. I, like my coauthor, like to tell stories. I also like to create—I vacillated between art education and creative writing majors as an undergrad. If you too possess these skills, you might find yourself being asked to serve on or volunteer for library marketing initiatives. Or perhaps you don’t have a knack for storytelling or creating, but you have the skills related to organization or leadership—these traits also add tremendous value to library marketing. In fact, I think that regardless of your position and individual talents and experience that you can, in fact, make a great contribution to your library’s marketing and to the charitable community of library marketers.

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I’m no longer an “outreach librarian,” and to be honest, I am somewhat relieved by this—I have conflicting feelings about social media, and have even recently deleted my own Facebook account in pursuit of being more present and in protest to their business model that is clearly causing societal harm. However, despite my job change, I still find myself drawn to the activities related to promotion and engagement. Now, as a Student Success Librarian, I am careful to balance my work between communicating our value and providing it. Sometimes, these tasks are the same. Sometimes, they are not. The pandemic has changed my approach to marketing in a couple of ways. First of all, I prioritize more. We are all stretched and stressed— students especially—and it isn’t practical or possible or wise to replicate prepandemic work. Also, we are innovating with technology in ways that will likely persist past the end of COVID-19. I have seen a number of libraries do really exciting things with technology: such as the John M. Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where librarians are engaging audiences using Instagram live (see the case study from Mackenzie Salisbury for an in-depth example), or the many libraries experimenting with virtual escape rooms for their new student orientations. It is vital that as we innovate, we are assessing the impact of these changes and adjusting our approaches accordingly. Regardless of, or maybe even due to these changes, the work that follows is more relevant than ever. Throughout this book, you will find approaches to library marketing that are relevant now and can be adapted as our libraries evolve and adapt to the changing landscape of higher education. Altogether, the book is a crash course in academic library marketing—taken chapter-by-chapter, it is an overview peppered with research and inspiring case studies. Regardless of how you use this book, we hope that it helps ground the work you are doing and demystify work that is now central to the success of an academic library. If you see me out there in LibraryLand, please say hello. It is from the community that this work comes, and you are part of that community too. —Kimberly

Introduction Marketing in the academic library: how does it differ from outreach? The library marketing literature relies on definitions of marketing outside of public service industries, commonly citing Kotler, who defined marketing management “as the art and science of applying core marketing concepts to choose target markets and get, keep, and grow customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value” (1972, p. 4). Marketing, in this definition, has three parts: creation, delivery, and communication of value. Translated into a library environment, we create services and resources of value, we deliver services and resources of value, and we communicate this value to our customers in competition with others (campus buildings for study space, the open web for resources, for example). The work of assessing these services and resources so that we can make the best choices with our limited funding to provide “superior value” to our “customers” that is the work that we do as collections librarians, public service librarians, information literacy librarians—library workers of all types. This book will largely focus on the latter task of marketing: communicating superior value. In an attempt to define and differentiate library outreach, Stephanie Diaz summarized library outreach as “work attributed to library employees; communication between library employees and people not employed by the library; a targeted current or potential user subpopulation; temporary or periodic work; goals focused on changing attitudes, awareness, use, or knowledge of library-related issues” (2019, p. 189). The idea of value that exists in definitions of marketing are suggested in this definition. We hope to make our users (and nonusers) aware of the value the library brings to the institution and even to society. That awareness should lead to changed attitudes and increased knowledge and use of library services and resources. These definitions get used interchangeably despite their different scopes, and

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they will both appear throughout this book because where they overlap is where we see an actionable set of best practices. We will be covering more definitions throughout Chapter 2 as we examine communication, outreach, and overall marketing in more depth, but value is always at the forefront of our minds. Our students, of all backgrounds and life experiences, need to know how the library will be beneficial to them. Our faculty and staff members need to know that the library is valuable for their purposes. And our administrations often want to know the value of our libraries in order to justify funding and promotion on their end. Truthfully, we all have a role in library marketing and outreach. And yet, so often, libraries take this fact for granted and do not pursue intentional efforts to organize, measure, and act upon marketing and outreach initiatives. They need intentional action, through the identification of a “point person(s)” who is tasked with that intentional organization, through the formation of a team, through the dedication of resources— these are the intentional efforts that this book will walk our readers through. This book will provide librarians and administrators new to library marketing with a roadmap to get a formal marketing (and outreach) program off the ground, and it will give the seasoned library marketer best practices and case studies to reflect on. It is the culmination of the work that has come before us, and we build on the many studies and publications that have furthered the work of library marketing. You will find the sources for each of these publications, from books and articles to our own institution web pages, located at the end of each chapter for easy reference and further reading. This book is practical. While we occasionally draw from theory, we do so with practical examples. Each chapter contains a set of best practices drawn from our combined 20+ years of experience working in libraries, the literature, and from the case studies that we’ve gathered from our generous colleagues who help us provide examples outside our experiences. Each chapter follows a structure of main content, followed by “quick tips” that summarize the content, concluding with those “from the field” case studies that illustrate the concept in the real world. We felt this format offered an easyto-read guide to walk practitioners through the seven topics that we have singled out for discussion—key components of any academic library marketing that our audience might undertake.

CHAPTER 1: BUILDING YOUR TEAM This covers a major starting point of academic library marketing—the people available to contribute to marketing. Whether formal or informal, the colleagues on your team need to understand their role in marketing the

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library and the goals that should tie back to the library’s (and institution’s) overall strategic plan.

CHAPTER 2: DEFINING YOUR AREAS Here, we define the structure of academic library marketing, ensuring that those who participate in marketing efforts understand the meaning behind common marketing terms, how they differ from each other, and how they intersect. There are many ways to reach your audience, and many types of audiences you can segment.

CHAPTER 3: MARKETING FOR THE MIND Traditional, and still very necessary, information resources and services are discussed in this chapter as they are marketed (primarily) to students for the purpose of accomplishing academic goals and advancing knowledge. The “mind” refers to the more logical brain that needs and receives such information resources and services in an academic library setting.

CHAPTER 4: MARKETING FROM THE HEART This chapter, by contrast, focuses on the “heart” of the student—catering to their nonacademic needs that will also bring them into the library. Student engagement can be increased by taking into account the student as a whole person with multiple, diverse identities. We address empathetic marketing and building human relationships.

CHAPTER 5: DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION We address the importance of both fostering diversity in your marketing team and marketing with sensitivity and awareness while acknowledging our privilege as White/White-passing library workers ourselves. This chapter is geared toward educating the White, dominant identity audiences in power who do not have the lived experiences of historically underrepresented populations but do have the power to make change.

CHAPTER 6: ASSESSING THE PROGRAM Here, we share different forms of assessment practices and ways to report your data and findings in order to demonstrate the value of the library to stakeholders. This also allows us to make evidence-based decisions for change.

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CHAPTER 7: MARKETING TO FACULTY, STAFF, AND ADMINISTRATION We look at our users and stakeholders beyond students, especially considering the ways that faculty, staff, and administration want to be reached. We share the benefits—the why—as well as the how—with examples that have proven effective at our own diverse institutions. This book is a community effort and describes the work of library marketing as such. We wrote this book together as coauthors and we will occasionally share examples from our experiences in the first person. We hope that these foundational definitions, examples, and best practices inspire you and help build your confidence as a library marketer. We hope to see you and hear about your work in one of the many venues where the community of library marketers shares its successes (and failures) and learns from one another. We look forward to learning from you!

REFERENCES Diaz, S. A. (2019). Outreach in academic librarianship: A concept analysis and definition. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(3), 184–194. Kotler, P. (1972). Marketing management: Analysis, planning and control. PrenticeHall.

1 Building Your Team It is often said that librarians (and, more broadly, library workers) wear many hats. However, one strength of the profession is the ability to collaborate—library workers do not wear these hats alone. Regardless of the size of your library, it is important to do work as a team because working in a team allows a variety of opinions to be heard, engages your staff, builds community, and ultimately better serves both your users and team members. One study of academic librarians engaged in marketing activities found that some of the top challenges that librarians faced included a lack of funding, time, staffing, and resources in their work (Polger & Okamoto, 2013). By serving on a team and limiting the team’s energy to strategic priorities, you maximize your resources more efficiently. Teams can take many different formats—there is no one-size-fits-all template. Rather, team structures should be built based on the organization’s resources, workflows, and goals. Teams can be formal, meeting regularly with defined roles and a reporting structure, or informal, as in ad hoc groups that get together for a particular project. In many, if not most cases, it is appropriate to have a mix of both formal marketing teams and informal ad hoc teams. Even small libraries may want to consider having both an ongoing formal marketing team, for example, while allowing ad hoc teams to form for a particular purpose (a group that meets once to plan for and market Banned Books Week, for example). The point is to be purposeful about these teams, because working on them can take up a considerable amount of staff time and energy. This chapter will discuss the components of formal and informal marketing teams as well as the best practices in organizing and utilizing teams. Examples from the field demonstrate some of these best practices in action to give you some concrete, but diverse, examples of what successful teams look like. We begin here because what follows (the creation of marketing goals, materials, and assessment strategies) is dependent on a

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group structure. If your library is just starting out with formalizing marketing efforts, the following will introduce options and strategies for implementing them. If you are working with an existing team structure, the following will offer a chance for reflection that can inform the team’s strategic evolution moving forward.

FORMAL TEAMS What does a formal marketing and outreach team look like? The answer will depend on many factors, including the size of the institution, current priorities, type of library, strategic plan goals, and so on. If you are in the preliminary stages of formalizing your marketing and outreach efforts, it is useful to consider first, what can formal teams look like? and second, how do I know which structure is best for my institution? The following elements may be helpful to consider when formalizing (or restructuring) a library marketing team: team name, charge, meeting schedule, communication strategy, and reporting structure. Team membership—that is, who makes up your team— deserves its own section and will be addressed separately. When creating a formal team, you may want to begin by designating the structure and charge of your team. The type of group (task force versus committee) is important to consider. Task forces are generally limited in time and are temporary, formal groups formed to achieve finite objectives or address one-time issues. Committees, on the other hand, are typically ongoing and may have formal officer roles built into them. Some institutions may not be able to commit staff to a formal committee on an ongoing basis and may opt to address issues related to marketing in ad hoc groups. But for many institutions, these groups will be ongoing. Regardless of the format, the team should have a clear charge, preferably with input from administration that defines the scope of the team’s work. This should be reflected in the name and structure of the group. While a team name may seem like a trivial detail, having a name formalizes a group and commits an organization to the work of the group. It allows for other formal elements to more naturally take shape, such as reporting and scheduling. Outreach Committee, Marketing Task Force, and Marketing and Outreach Steering Group are some examples of formal team names. When I (Shotick) worked at Illinois Institute of Technology, a tech-focused private research university, our library’s formal marketing team was called POEM: Programming, Outreach, Engagement, and Marketing. The name reflected the wide scope of our work—not only did we focus on library marketing efforts, but we also managed library programs and outreach and engagement efforts. In contrast, at my current institution, Northern Illinois University, our marketing team has a narrower scope that centers around programming, which is reflected in the name (Programming and Promotions Committee). At Villamor’s community college, library marketing efforts

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take place through the COM Team (Communication, Outreach, and Marketing), which is another easy acronym for members to remember and unite around. Northern Kentucky University’s Steely Library has two teams that work together on marketing efforts: a marketing work team and an assessment team (Heinze, 2017). Larger organizations may even have an entire department dedicated to library marketing. If you are starting from the ground up, consider what your institution’s other team structures look like and what the institutional priorities are. Another aspect to consider when formalizing your team is what the meeting schedule and internal communication strategy will look like. Formal teams meet with some regularity. Time is one of our most valuable work resources, so allotting time to the work of a team is vital to its success. Teams tend to fall apart when they do not have a regular meeting schedule, such as weekly, monthly, by semester, or whatever interval makes sense for the organization’s goals and available resources. It is important that team members know and agree to the meeting interval, because committing to a group that meets once a week versus once per semester is very different. Time commitments may change as the group evolves, and while the scope of the team’s work should inform the meeting frequency, newly formed teams may not get a feel for the appropriate time commitment needed. Therefore, newly formed teams need to be flexible in regard to timing, and can formalize frequency and schedules as those needs become clearer. If frequency is not apparent, team conveners should make that transparent when forming the team, and should do their best to establish a frequency that naturally fits the scope of the team (and the scope should be specific and realistic, given the organization’s goals and assets—more on that later). Communication within the group is vital to the group’s health and success, even more so in the COVID-19 era. Tools such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Jira can assist in project management and group communication. Select a tool that is a good fit for the organization based on tool availability, the familiarity of the group with the tool, and the appropriateness of the tool to the group structure and goals. Even a simple email group and shared drive is a good start. Importantly, and often overlooked, formal team members should have their work reflected in their job duties. This serves two purposes: First, it requires supervisors to recognize the employees’ time and effort as valuable, but limited, resources. It is not fair to the employees to ask them to do significant work outside of their formal duties, nor is it fair to the task at hand to essentially underresource it. To advocate for the inclusion of marketing work in your job description, identify job titles and descriptions from similar institutions and bring those to your supervisor. Many job descriptions are available from job opening announcements via listservs—for example, in ALA Connect (the American Library Association’s discussion platform) the Library Marketing and Outreach Interest group which, at the time of

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this writing, I (Shotick) serve with Villamor as outgoing co-conveners, the University Libraries Section, and general Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) groups are a few places to start. Librarians are generally generous with sharing their job descriptions and offering mentorship to others, especially when it comes to advocacy. Using the job descriptions of others doing marketing work, you may want to draft your own marketing-related primary duties to present to your supervisor for inclusion in your formal job description and, if appropriate, a recommendation for a title change. Keep in mind that if you are adding to your job duties, you will need to give something up. It is likely that marketing efforts relate to an existing duty and specifying the marketing aspect would be a minor reworking of existing duties, but there is a danger of overloading yourself without rebalancing your workload. If it simply cannot fit, then the institution needs to make choices about what is most important. While we argue that library marketing is essential for the success of an academic library, chronically underresourced libraries may just need to keep the doors open and lights on. It is the administration’s duty, in those cases, to identify bare-bones duties while advocating for appropriate resources. The second function of formally identifying a library marketing team’s work in an employee’s job is that the employee is then evaluated on that work. This is not to say that employees will not do work that they will not be evaluated on. On the contrary, work will get done because we are a dedicated profession, but the employee will receive no recognition for the work (and, as already mentioned, could easily become overloaded). Further, other formally assigned tasks may need to take a back seat if the team is engaged in a lot of work, so not having these duties in the employee’s job description can actually, in theory, wind up being a detriment to the employee’s evaluation. In a 2011 study of academic librarians engaged in marketing and outreach work, 78% indicated they were juggling too many responsibilities, and over half cited a lack of time, resources, and staff to complete their marketing-related work (Polger & Okamoto, 2013). Library workers doing marketing and outreach work without having it reflected in their job duties can advocate to their supervisors for formally adding the duties. Using data that will resonate with the supervisor, from literature reviews on the impact of library marketing efforts to a localized case study, can help make the case. Also, tying the efforts back to the library and/or institution’s strategic plan can help contextualize marketing work for those unfamiliar with it.

INFORMAL TEAMS Informal teams are often necessary to take on specific events or initiatives. Informal teams may complement formal teams, working together to achieve marketing goals, or they may take the place of formal teams when formal

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teams are not possible (due to a lack of administrative buy-in, staffing shortages, or other reasons). Ad hoc teams are often called together by someone, or some group, charged with marketing for a special purpose. They are often voluntary, with the team members volunteering because of their interest and/or expertise in a particular event, service, or resource to be marketed. While team members may not have marketing in their formal job descriptions, it may be inferred that the occasional support of marketing efforts is closely related to some other job duty. For example, there may be liaison work required for a particular department with which an event is being planned and marketed. Identifying how this contributes to the goals of the institution not only clarifies the larger significance of the work, but also communicates that with stakeholders, such as supervisors, and makes an easy point for annual reports. Identifying the benefits helps you ensure that this is rewarding work and may help with recruitment. For institutions where librarians are tenuretrack faculty, language describing the impact of the work can help individuals identify how their contributions can be used to complement their tenure portfolio, thus helping you recruit the personnel needed to carry out initiatives. When forming an ad hoc team, it is still important, if not more important, to be clear about the scope of the work and meeting schedule up front. Scope creep, or the “adding additional features or functions of a new product, requirements, or work that is not authorized (i.e., beyond the agreedupon scope)” is a potential threat in ad hoc groups (Larson & Larson, 2009, para. 5). For example, an ad hoc team gets together to promote a new chat service. The group starts by planning a social media marketing campaign and decides to expand the library’s presence to new social media platforms and develop guidelines for use for each. The original discrete task, advertising the new chat service, has spun into much larger tasks that may fall outside of the purview of the group. Scope creep is frustrating to the group members and can waste valuable resources, such as staff time. Defining the goals of the group, time commitment, and proposed meeting schedule should be determined and communicated early on to the team members and, if appropriate, their supervisors. How much time a team will take to work on a marketing project may be difficult to calculate. Say you’re marketing for an event that is in three weeks. What needs to get done in those three weeks? For events, it has been my (Shotick) experience that an hour a week until the event, plus an hour or two of outside meeting time work, has sufficed. Thus, group members can expect the group to take up 2–3 hours per week and are told so during the call for volunteers. However, this amount of time can vary drastically based on the objectives of the group. For instance, marketing a new chat reference service will have very different needs and time requirements compared to marketing a donor gala.

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Sample call for volunteer text: The ______ Task Force is looking for volunteers to (market, plan, design, ____). The group will meet _ (frequency) _ until _ (end date) _. Outside of meetings, volunteers can expect to (describe tasks, amount of time). Volunteers will be contributing toward (specific strategic initiative or goal) through this work and can expect (some benefit, such as: learning new tools, networking opportunities, coffee and snack). Please let me know if you have any questions.

BEST PRACTICES FOR BUILDING TEAMS When building your team, make sure that team membership represents a diversity of areas, talents, and viewpoints. Diverse teams serve everyone better. Often, frontline staff are left out of groups that impact their work. Staff engagement and communication creates healthy workplaces and results in better outcomes. Creating a diverse team does have its costs, because getting together a group of people with varied schedules and work responsibilities can be difficult. However, as Nicole LaMoreaux noted, “it’s worth it to get a range of perspectives” (personal communication, May 22, 2019). Membership should include both professional and paraprofessional staff, if possible. Consider the team’s charge and scope, and the players who are directly impacted by or responsible for areas related to the team’s charge. Often this will include staff from instruction, collections, and various service points such as reference and circulation. A wide call for volunteers may bring staff to the table that you might not have thought of for the project, but who can provide unique perspectives while also gaining experience in areas that interest them personally. Villamor’s institution ensures that major library decisions are made in teams and working groups that consist of staff members beyond the librarians. Library events, for example, have greatly benefited from having the director’s administrative assistant on the marketing team. Both circulation and interlibrary loan staff are regular contributors to the library’s web team focused on content management and usability testing. As previously mentioned, if your institution offers tenure to librarians, it may also be beneficial to reach out specifically to those on the tenure-track who may be looking for projects, roles, and responsibilities to add to their tenure portfolio. It may be hard to convince a busy librarian to add something extra to their plate, but new librarians in need of the experience could be eager to hop on board, especially if you or other members of the team already have tenure and can explain some of the benefits, or even offer to write a future tenure letter describing the team member’s role and contributions to the project. As far as recruitment processes, a simple conversation in the hallway or group email may be enough to explain the basics of your marketing project

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and generate interest. Sometimes, however, you may have to work with your supervisor—such as the director/manager—to either learn where potential team members’ strengths lie, or to request assistance in recruitment when a call for volunteers ends in crickets. Regardless of how your team chooses to recruit diverse members, students should be involved. We will cover student involvement in marketing in greater depth in the assessment chapter. However, you might consider having a student member in your formal and/or ad hoc group. It might be more appropriate for students to play an advisory role by engaging student workers via a student advisory group or through focus groups. Regardless, students should be present from the beginning of the planning process and remain ongoing participants, rather than just brought in as an afterthought. In libraries of one, or very few staff, a cross-campus advisory group may be appropriate where marketing is one standing item on a list of regular topics. In any case, it is not impossible to do this work in a team structure even if you are a solo librarian. As mentioned in the introduction, the community of library marketers is strong and generous and can be a resource for those working alone. Your team can have members from outside of the library or can work on particular marketing efforts with other teams, such as a library instruction committee. In a survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions on marketing and outreach practices, frequently cited campus partners included campus orientation departments and development, while less often cited partners include study abroad office and the veterans’ center (LeMire et al., 2018, p. 7). While some institutions may prefer to work with a frequent partner, these less often used partners can be fertile resources. One way to maximize resources and minimize redundancy is to meet occasionally with campus partners to explore potential areas of collaboration. Establishing a campus-wide team for marketing and programming collaboration can better target users and utilize scarce resources.

Establishing Your Scope The overall purpose of library marketing is to promote services and resources to targeted populations and to communicate the value of these services and resources to stakeholders (Smith, 2011). According to Smith, “the best way to accomplish this is for a library to have a clear mission and strategic plan. With these in place, a marketing plan with assessable activities can flow logically” (p. 334). It is essential to establish an appropriate scope for your team, especially if the team is ad hoc. Ideally, the charge of the group should come from library administration with input from library faculty and staff and should be tied to the goals of the strategic plan. However, not all libraries have current strategic plans and/or

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administration interested in establishing a formal charge. If you do have a strategic plan, the job of establishing a group scope (thus, a charge), is much easier. A scan of libraries’ strategic plans available online show goals that could be accomplished, or contributed to, by a marketing team: increasing access to resources and services, increasing student success for diverse student groups, enhancing the visibility of specific and/or general collections, and elevating the visibility of the library within and/or beyond the institution (Northwestern University Libraries, n.d.; Paul V. Galvin Library, n.d.; Penn State University Libraries, n.d.; University of Washington Libraries, n.d.). The charge describes what the purpose of the group is, which may be specific (i.e., creating a marketing plan for special collections) or more general (i.e., increase student awareness of services and resources). The scope should elaborate on what work the group will do and may include what it will not. For example, the group for the marketing plan may not be responsible for carrying out the work and assessment of the goals identified in the marketing plan. Their scope might be to research the market, draft a plan, obtain administrative approval, and communicate the plan to stakeholders. A scope is even more important for standing committees with a more general charge as to avoid scope creep. The process, starting with a strategic plan and ending with an assessment of the work done toward marketing goals, is outlined in Figure 1-1. More information about the work of the team and team goals will be explored in the next chapter, Defining Your Areas, and assessment is covered in Chapter 6.

FIGURE 1-1.  The marketing plan moves from strategic plan through goal assessment.

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Affective Team Leadership Once you’ve established a diverse team, it is important to create a culture of affirmation and gratitude. This begins by saying yes—being open to the ideas brought to you by your diverse team members. While this advice is not necessarily specific to library marketing efforts, the power of saying yes to ideas can have a profound impact on the visible work of library marketing. With rapidly changing platforms and technologies, competition for our users’ attention, and limited budgets, we can easily be paralyzed into static marketing routines. For example, a library may create weekly Facebook posts out of habit while there is a lack of compelling data that shows continuing engagement. A team member proposes an engagement strategy that disrupts the weekly post schedule, and the team’s comfort with the routine may lead to shutting down what could be a breakthrough idea. When unconventional ideas come along, consider how you as a leader or group member can say “yes.” In an article applying improv techniques to library team work, Kate Dohe and Erin Pappas discussed the power of affirmations on teams: Individuals who commit to affirmation drop their egos and listen without judgment to the ideas of everyone in their ensemble, regardless of rank or clout. They recognize and promote shared expertise and co-creation over individual recognition. They produce ideas and deliver results that are more than the sum of their discrete parts. Such groups often have momentum, and as a result attract more partners and opportunities to tackle complex problems. Most importantly of all, affirmation engenders trust and strengthened relationships between team members. (2017, pp. 422–423)

If you have the privilege of leading a marketing team, be sure to ask yourself if you are creating a space where cocreation can thrive. While institutional culture may make such changes a daunting task, marketing lends itself to innovative thinking, and building a strong team dynamic benefits everyone. Finally, be sure to express gratitude to your group members. This is especially important for ad hoc groups who may not formally be involved in the work of marketing and outreach. More than just leading to a better workplace culture, expressions of gratitude ensure others will be willing to help again. In a study on gratitude and prosocial behaviors, researchers found that expressions of gratitude, such as saying thank you, make people feel socially valued (Grant & Gino, 2010). This in turn leads to prosocial behavior where the person being thanked is more likely to help again. In the case of executing library events, it can be helpful to keep a checklist and include expressing gratitude on your list. Once an ad hoc subcommittee has completed their task, for example, you may want to formally recognize the team members’ work at the next staff meeting. There are many ways to say thank you: check out The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace:

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Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People by Gary Chapman and Paul White (2012) for more meaningful and individualized ideas of how to express gratitude. This chapter has highlighted the variety of arrangements for coordinating a marketing team, as well as some best practices that are applicable to any type of team formation. There is not a one-size-fits all way to form or run a library marketing team, and these examples provide you with some ideas of what might work at your own institution. Regardless of your library’s size and structure, it is possible to work on marketing and outreach as a team. The practical suggestions that follow in this book will depend on some sort of formal structure to help carry them out. Thoughtful consideration to the team makeup and format will position your team to be productive and leading with affirmations and gratitude will keep your team healthy and strong.

QUICK TIPS • Decide on team elements such as: • name and scope • meeting schedule • time commitment • meeting frequency • Recruit diverse membership, valuing diverse identities and areas of work • Create an appropriate scope, informed by the group charge and library’s strategic plan • Value innovation by being open to ideas • Contribute to a culture of gratitude by recognizing the work of team members

FROM THE FIELD Authors: Kimberly Shotick, Stephanie Espinoza Villamor, and Nicole LaMoreaux Institutions: Paul V. Galvin Library at Illinois Institute of Technology; CSN Libraries at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas, Nevada; and The New School Libraries and Archives in New York Description: Team Structures Across a Variety of Academic Libraries Some libraries may have the ability to build a department focused solely on marketing, such as the San Antonio Public Library, which

Building Your Team

operates an “in-house boutique agency” composed of marketing professionals who are able to focus solely on marketing for the library (Cowart, 2017, p. 240). However, in most cases, libraries do not have the resources to be able to have multiple staff members who are solely focused on marketing (let alone one), and teams may be made up of individuals who tangentially have an interest or stake in library marketing. At The New School Libraries and Archives in New York, their Outreach and Communications Working Group is a collaborative team of eleven staff members from Libraries, Archives, and their University Learning Center. The working group is “responsible for discussing issues and proposing solutions related to increasing awareness of Libraries & Archives services, policies, and events” (LaMoreaux). They meet regularly, once per month, and have a formal structure with leadership from a chair. At the Paul V. Galvin Library at Illinois Institute of Technology, I (Shotick) cochaired the Programming, Outreach, Engagement, and Marketing Committee. The group’s charge was to support and inform programming planning and execution, outreach and engagement efforts, and the creation and distribution of marketing materials to promote resources and services within and outside of the Galvin Library. The group’s work was ongoing and met once monthly (more or less as needed). Membership was open and included librarians and paraprofessional staff. Outreach and marketing objectives were planned and assessed at the meetings and were discussed and informed by standing items at other relevant meetings across the library. At CSN Libraries, at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas, Nevada, Villamor rotates as the chair of the library’s Communications, Outreach, and Marketing Committee. The team is composed of smaller working-group subcommittees for the areas of events, blog posts, social media, print media, and branding. Meetings are held about twice each semester (four times per year), although subcommittees may meet more frequently as needed. Membership includes both librarians and paraprofessional staff. For more examples of marketing teams, see the representative documents in ARL’s SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and Engagement (LeMire et al., 2018). The following interview with Nicole LaMoreaux from The New School Libraries and Archives in New York provides a case study of one institution’s team structure (personal communication, September 11, 2020).

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1. I saw that you have a marketing/outreach team at your library. Can you tell me a little bit about who is on the team (as far as their roles outside of the team)? The Outreach and Communications Working Group is made up of members from the Libraries, Archives, and the University Learning Center. The library’s members include representation from the following departments: Access & User Services, Digital Libraries & Technical Services, Office of the University Librarian, and the Research & Instructional Services. The group was formerly known as the Social Media Working Group but has since expanded to include social media as well and internal and external communications and outreach opportunities for the Libraries, Archives, and University Learning Center. We currently have one chair and eleven group members. The chair leads the meetings and organizes the meeting agenda. The group members contribute ideas and assist with planning and implementing outreach and communications throughout the year.

2. Can you describe the charge (if any) and/or work that the team does? The Social Media working group is re-named the Outreach & Communications Working Group (OCWG). The OCWG is responsible for discussing issues and proposing solutions related to increasing awareness of Libraries & Archives services, policies, and events. Topics include, but are not limited to, Social Media; Signage; Orientation; Curricular involvement; Events; Website recommendations. Existing work on social media platforms should continue unless the group recommends otherwise.

3. How often does the team meet? The working group meets regularly throughout the semester, usually once per month.

4. Are there any formalized roles on the team, such as chair, convener, etc.? Yes, we have one chair. The other group members are all active participants but hold no specific roles within the working group.

5. What works well about working as a team? We know that our end goal is to promote all of the departments in a positive light. We all encourage each other to come up with and share ideas during our meetings and work together to implement these ideas successfully around the university campus.

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6. What challenges are there doing this work as a team (if any)? Coordinating schedules for meetings. Getting feedback and an endorsement from group members can slow things down, but it’s worth it to get a range of perspectives.

7. Anything else you can tell me about the team that you think might be useful for librarians thinking about creating their own team? I think ensuring that the working group is open to new ideas and having members that are excited about this type of work is key to a successful outreach and communications working group. It is also essential to have representation from all departments as well as the directors and university librarian.

REFERENCES Cowart, C. (2017). Marketing libraries is a team effort. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 56(4), 240–244. Dohe, K., & Pappas, E. (2017). The many flavors of “yes”: Libraries, collaboration, and improv. College & Research Libraries News, 78(8), 422. https://doi .org/10.5860/crln.78.8.422 Grant, A. M., & Gino, F. (2010). A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(6), 946. Heinze, J. S. (2017). Library marketing: From passion to practice. Proceedings of the Charleston Library Conference. http://dx.doi.org/10.5703/1288284316698 Larson, R., & Larson, E. (2009). Top five causes of scope creep—and what to do about them. (Proceedings.) Project Management Institute. https://www.pmi .org/learning/library/top-five-causes-scope-creep-6675 LeMire, S., Graves, S. J., Farrell, S. L., & Mastel, K. L. (November, 2018). SPEC Kit 361. Association of Research Libraries. https://doi.org/10.29242/spec.361 Northwestern University Libraries. (n.d.). Strategic plan, 2019–21. https://www .library.northwestern.edu/documents/about/2019-21-plan.pdf Paul V. Galvin Library. (n.d.). Driving innovation through knowledge and scholarship. Mission, vision, and strategic plan. https://library.iit.edu/about/welcome /mission Penn State University Libraries. (n.d.). University Libraries strategic plan for 2014– 2019. https://libraries.psu.edu/sites/default/files/2014-UL-Strategic-Plan.pdf Polger, M. A., & Okamoto, K. (2013). Who’s spinning the library? Responsibilities of academic librarians who promote. Library Management, 34(3), 236–253. Smith, D. A. (2011). Strategic marketing of library resources and services. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 18(4), 333–349. University of Washington Libraries. (n.d.). UW Libraries strategic plan, 2018–2021. https://www.lib.washington.edu/about/strategicplan/pdf

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2 Defining Your Areas When embarking on the prospect of marketing any aspect of your library— whether through initiatives big or small—there are two key elements at play: the people involved in the marketing process and the structure of how you will approach what goes out to your stakeholders. Now that we’ve talked about building your team and the advantages of multiple, diverse voices, it’s important to think about the structure of your marketing team. We begin this process by defining the multiple elements of promotion, understanding what is involved in each part, so we know more clearly how to divide up the marketing team’s initiatives and tasks. This is the benefit of “defining your areas”: you know from the beginning of your marketing journey/evaluation what your team will need to focus on and be responsible for within the context of an organization that is not for profit. Business marketing is fairly clear cut. Look at books by marketing professor and author Philip Kotler, the recognized “father of modern marketing,” and you may get scared away by words like strategy and pricing and buyers. Business marketing involves an overall goal of selling your final product or service. The nonprofit library has fewer resources and an overall goal that is not directly tied to profits. What do we focus on instead when our institution is so different from a traditional business? One way is to find clarity in the shared need to reach our “customers” by understanding the various channels in which we can speak to them and bring them into the academic library. In this chapter, we will define and examine the three main concepts involved in promoting the unique organization that is an academic library: communication, outreach, and overall marketing. We’ll then dive further to define what can make up communication (print and digital), outreach (internal and external), and marketing (from exchange relationships to target marketing). We will note the intersections between academic library

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marketing and traditional business marketing to provide a bigger picture of what library marketing can look like. Once your definitions and goals are clear, you’ll be ready to put your team into action!

WHAT DOES MARKETING MEAN TO YOU? Not just you—but your team in this group effort. Before we can even look at the main elements of promotion that your team will undertake, you’ll need to think about marketing in terms of your overall academic institution, your library, and your people. The best place to start is with a preexisting strategic plan, mission, vision, or value statement. Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma, for example, shares their mission, vision, and list of beliefs and values directly on their website. The first among their list of values is “you belong here,” focusing on fostering “a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion that welcomes and respects everyone for who they are and who they will become” (Tulsa Community College, n.d., para. 3). The Tulsa Community College Library Marketing Team thus ensured that their library’s marketing efforts were reflective of that belief as seen in their case study at the end of this chapter. If you’ve participated in your library’s strategic planning process before, you’ll recognize the importance of tying what you do in your daily tasks to the overall mission and goals of your library or institution. The same process applies to library marketing. While not all academic libraries may choose to draft a specific marketing plan, that is one way to formalize the goals and priorities of your marketing team. If you have an existing strategic plan, your marketing efforts can naturally stem from this document to get you started. For example, the College of Southern Nevada’s CSN Libraries department strategic plan draft documents five overarching goals: Access, Capacity, Information Literacy, Diversity, and Engagement. While marketing efforts can tie into each of these goals, it is Goal #5, “Engagement,” that directly links to what a marketing team sets out to do. CSN Libraries defined the goal—“Engage in continual outreach and marketing with all stakeholders, including students, faculty, administration, and community partners”— before listing specific objectives within that goal (CSN Libraries, 2018, p. 2). These are great ways to begin to define your team’s areas of focus and break up what can seem like a monumental task into the bite-sized, manageable chunks discussed by Dowd, Evangeliste, and Silberman (2010) in their handbook for overworked librarians. We’re likely all a little overworked and overwhelmed at the concept of trying to market an entire library and all that entails. But when we take it piece by piece and understand each individual concept, it makes the tasks easier to take on and dole out to the appropriate members of your team.

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Thus, a key next step after analyzing your plans and establishing your goals is to define that ever-elusive and overarching term marketing, and then figure out each individual part that makes it up. Going back to the 1960s and 1970s, we can look at Kotler again to better understand marketing overall. Kotler has had multiple definitions of marketing over the years and across his many publications, in fact, seeing the word marketing as a simple concept with a variety of ways to define it. However, he did originally attempt to define marketing itself as “the effective management by an organization of its exchange relationship with its various markets and publics” (Kotler, 1972, p. 12). In library terms, we can think of our “markets and publics” as the different segments of our student, faculty, staff, and administration stakeholders. Our “exchange relationship” is not money for goods and services but is closer to a participatory concept. Instead of our stakeholders exchanging money for library services, they are giving their time. Of all the places and resources that they could have turned to, they have chosen to spend their time with ours. Ultimately, the goal in our “exchange relationship” is to leave our “markets and publics” satisfied (their needs met) and satisfied enough to return (they know to come back for future needs). If they are not satisfied, they will spend their time elsewhere—utilizing a different resource that is not ours (Gupta & Jambhekar, 2002).

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION The idea of an “exchange relationship” also directly links into the next area that a marketing librarian might want to define: communication. How do we communicate with our stakeholders so they are aware of our services? The definition of communication is an easy one because we utilize multiple forms of communication in our daily lives no matter who we work for, what our job duties are, or what we do in our personal time. Communication for marketing, however, is more than just exchanging information with each other in the way that we do in a work or personal conversation. In terms of library marketing, communication is how we promote or reach our “markets and publics”—those students, faculty, staff, and administrative stakeholders—through text, imaging, presentations, and often word of mouth. It is our overall established brand, broken down more practically into such areas as: print communication, digital communication, and human communication. You’re likely already familiar with each of these forms of communication that you incorporate into day-to-day marketing efforts, but it’s worth reviewing what can fall into each category to ensure you’re covering all bases and in order to start brainstorming new ideas that you might not have tried yet. Again, it all comes down to clearly defining your areas, which helps to compartmentalize individual tasks.

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Print Communication • Flyers or brochures. Does your library have bulletin boards where events can be advertised in different buildings on campus? Maybe you have flyers sitting out at the reference desk or an informational brochure to explain checkout procedures. All of these ultimately communicate information to your stakeholders and should have matching branding to also communicate the print material has information specifically from your library. • Handouts. Slightly different from flyers. Rather than advertising an event or service, a handout could potentially communicate instructional information or a process (how to cite a source, how to log into the computers, where to find resources for Women’s History Month, and so on). • Signs and posters. Whether it’s directional signage, hours of operation, or call number labels on the ends of the stacks, these print creations assist library users by communicating information that is often necessary to navigate the library and utilize library resources. • Table tents. Signage placed at tables inside or outside of the library containing information about library services, resources, or an event. When placed in common areas outside of the library, such as at cafeteria or student union tables, they have the potential to reach nonusers. • Banners. Often taken outside the library to use during outreach events so stakeholders can recognize your presence as connected with the library.

Print communication can be any visual marketing material that’s physical. Often, these are created by an individual librarian, a team, or your institution’s graphic design department or printing office. To maintain your established brand, it’s important for all print materials that represent your library to maintain the same or similar fonts, colors, logos, and sometimes taglines or verbiage depending on how much space you have. Don’t forget to think outside the 8.5 × 11-inch page. You can communicate information on giveaway items, typically referred to as swag, ranging from bookmarks and stickers to buttons and stress relievers depending on your budget and the amount of information you need to communicate and thus fit on the item. But, of course, in today’s world, many libraries want to move away from traditional print and ensure that they are reaching students digitally as much as possible. With postpandemic remote learning changing the way that many students access the library, defining this area is more important than ever.

Digital Communication • Website. This is often your most prominent advertising tool, especially if you utilize a library website to host online databases and other resources that are an extension of the physical library. At some point, students (and faculty) will

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likely have to visit your website for research and instruction. If your library hosts a blog or online calendar on the website, these are other avenues for marketing your library. • Email blasts. If you have access to student and employee emails, this is a great way to communicate information about upcoming events, new services, and more. It’s a way to send out digital newsletters, a place to promote your website, and gives you direct access to your stakeholders if they need to contact you—the human librarian—for assistance. • Social media. While it can take time to build up followers on your social media platform(s) of choice, this is a great way to reach students and other stakeholders who are already spending a majority of their time online. Best for quickly grabbing the attention of followers, it works especially well when you can include something visual (photos, ads, videos, GIFs) and when you can post frequently so as not to lose the interest of your audience. Don’t feel like you have to be on every platform either—pick one or two and just post consistently, or utilize tools that allow you to post to multiple platforms at once! • Digital flyers. Like their print counterparts, but only sent electronically. This can also include flyers too large to print out, such as infographics. • Videos. Depending on your budget and relationship with your marketing office, you could promote your library through any visual medium from TV ads to online videos. • Learning Management System (LMS). A great way to reach students where they are—if you can get a presence in your institution’s online classes, you might have the ability to provide links to library content, post an advertisement across courses, or even message students and faculty directly.

Digital communication can be thought of as any intangible communication, especially those shared in some kind of electronic form. While the design of the communication will often depend on the medium (you might not be able to change the font on your social media or the colors of your Learning Management System messages), it’s still important to maintain your brand: incorporate logos where you can, use a similar writing style in all forms of digital communication, and if you’re able to attach digital files such as newsletters or infographics, ensure that they follow the same style as your print communication. If you don’t have a graphic designer on staff, these creations will often fall to the library’s marketing team. In order to maintain a consistent brand, the library’s marketing team may benefit from creating a brand style guide and templates that utilize those branding elements. This will not only save the marketing team time, but it will also allow for those not on the team to create materials that are consistent with the library’s brand. But of course, we can’t forget the very real and necessary communication done peer-to-peer, librarian-to-student, and more.

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Human Communication • Presentations. Any time you present library content at a class or conference, you’re marketing your library. • Events. Library events, school events, and community events where the library has a presence and staff can talk to other members of the college. You may be sitting at the library’s table for a campus life event or you may be hosting your own scavenger hunt inside the library. These will always have opportunities for you to communicate with stakeholders who attend the events. • Meetings. Speaking at school meetings, department meetings, and administrator meetings are great opportunities to share what the library can offer to faculty, staff, and administration. More on this in Chapter 6. • Individual conversations with stakeholders. Any time you talk about what your library has to offer, even out in the community, you are promoting your library services to a potential new visitor. While some are more likely to respond by taking advantage of library resources than others (for example, talking with a student on campus vs. talking with your friend over brunch), any individual has the potential to become a college or university student and utilize the library. Preparing an elevator pitch that briefly communicates the value of your academic library can help you, and other library workers, seize on marketing opportunities that arise from our human relationships. • Conversations stakeholders have with each other. This form of promotional communication is outside your control but can be incredibly effective. It is often described as “word of mouth marketing” (Dowd et al., 2010).

TYPES OF OUTREACH One of the overall benefits of human communication is, naturally, the human element. Social media posts can get lost in the shuffle of online information. Flyers with plain text can often feel impersonal. But humans have the benefit of connecting via social interaction, which human beings crave. We naturally seek out others and connect through shared experiences and stories, which the library can absolutely provide. While certain stakeholders, such as high-level administration, may pay more attention to the numbers, you’re really going to capture your audience when you can speak about something that touches their hearts (more on this in Chapter 4). Dowd et al. (2010) referred to stories as a way to “take testimonies to the next level and show how that positive experience had an impact on a person’s life” (p. 27). These kinds of stories often work best in informal settings—maybe not during a department meeting that’s scheduled down to the minute, but if you have a few moments to talk to a student or administrator at a

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school-sponsored event, for example, you may want to take advantage of the platform and tell a story that shows your value and builds connection. This leads into one final area worth examining: outreach. With the somewhat obvious definition of reaching out to stakeholders, we can think of outreach more in terms of how it’s separate from marketing in that it promotes and delivers your services outside the library, going directly to the populations you serve instead of waiting for them to come to you. • Internal outreach. When you promote the library inside the library, especially to populations you might not otherwise reach, such as community groups that you’ve partnered with. Most programming and hosted events fall within this category. • External outreach. Programming, events, and promotions that occur outside the library walls, such as at a community fair or at an organization with whom you’ve partnered.

These areas all intersect when your library sets out to do a marketing initiative. For example, say your team decides to launch a text-a-librarian service that has never been offered at your institution before. You might create a flyer to distribute at the circulation desk when students are checking out books. A sign outside the front of your library might also alert students on their way to class. You may put a notice or ad on your website home page and social media pages, as well as send messages through a student email list and in the learning management system for students taking online classes. Finally, the new service might be a talking point at an upcoming faculty senate meeting where you present to faculty so they can share it with their students. You might then speak to students directly about the service during a welcome back fair for the college at the start of a new semester. Thus, at the College of Southern Nevada, CSN Libraries has formed a team of librarians and staff to implement these various forms of promotion and have nicknamed themselves the COM Team (Communication, Outreach, and Marketing). It allows their team to focus on the individual work that needs to get done, accomplished more easily by breaking up into subcommittees that each cover a specific area within COM: One subcommittee for events, one for print media, one for social media, one to manage the library’s news blog and calendar, and one focused specifically on branding. This setup may not work for all libraries, but the structure itself can help a new marketing team think about the priorities within their library and institution when deciding how to divide up the work of promoting their services. Other definitions that are useful to think about stem from traditional marketing elements that adapt more easily to libraries. We’ve previously

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been speaking primarily in terms of promotion, but there are actually other important P-words to consider when putting together the perfect combination of elements for successful library marketing. It can be helpful to first think of marketing in general as a mixing of recipe ingredients to get the desired outcome. In our case, instead of a delicious cake, our outcome is having our services recognized and utilized. As early as the 1950s, Harvard professor Neil “Pete” Borden coined the term “marketing mix,” inspired by a colleague who “described the business executive as somebody who combines different ingredients” (van Waterschoot & van den Bulte, 1992, p. 84). Renowned marketing professor and author E. Jerome McCarthy then ran with the idea of a “marketing mix” and established four “P-words” (McCarthy, 1960) that made up the main marketing ingredients. These four basic elements, while not the only key considerations for marketing libraries, are great starting points to consider when marketing anything to customers or users in order to have what you want to share be recognized and utilized: • Product. The goods (or in our case, services and resources) that the library delivers to its customers (students, faculty, staff, and administrators). • Price. What is required to make this delivery happen? In libraries there is a cost to print, purchase giveaway items, etc. But because we’re not advertising our services and resources to make a profit, we might think of this more in terms of personnel—the human power required to get initiatives off the ground and the time and energy they put in to make them happen. • Place. Primarily “where and how to deliver services” (Jung, 2003, p. 24). • Promotion. Claudia Jung referred to this as “the way an organization communicates with its customers” (2003, p. 25) and lists various forms of promotion that we’ve previously discussed.

Barbie Keiser and Darlene Weingand incorporated the four Ps into the library setting, as noted in an extensive look at marketing strategies by Claudia Jung (2003). Jung equated the typical marketing product to a library service as well, and asked such questions as whether or not certain services should be free or require user fees (price), how services can be made more accessible (place), and how visibility can be increased (promotion) (2003). This marketing mix thus provides academic library marketers with an easy checklist when beginning a new marketing initiative to ensure the project is well thought out, is feasible given your budget and human power, and that a plan can be put in place for what promotion will take place and how. We’ll talk more about marketing plans in future chapters, as well as how to reach the minds and hearts of our audiences, but for now, as we think about

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definitions, the goal is to determine what works best for your institution in order to have the biggest and most important details ironed out before you start drafting a plan or pursuing a new project.

SEGMENTATION As previously mentioned, the CSN Libraries divide up marketing tasks through their COM Team’s subcommittees. Segmenting the larger group to have individual focuses allows a smaller working group to ultimately get the job done and report back. But in order to “divide and conquer” with marketing success, libraries will likely want to think about segmenting their audiences as well. Dating back as early as 1912, the basic idea behind market segmentation is that “consumers have different wants which cannot be satisfied by a single one-size-fits-all marketing program” (Kubacki et al., 2017, p. 2). It’s not about trying to fit your users into specific boxes, but more about taking into account the individual differences and identities that will influence their behavior and thus their use of the library. In the academic library world, your three main audiences are likely to be: students, faculty/staff, and administration. We’ll be discussing ways to market toward each group in more detail later on, but it’s important first to define some of the ways you can segment—and thus better understand and better target—each of the groups. Students, we all know, will likely be your biggest audience, and some of the most basic data we can collect to market to them is demographic information. You may decide to start to survey your students, conduct focus groups, or even partner with your institution’s office of Institutional Research in order to ask questions to determine this type of demographic information. There are many different questions that can be asked and segments that can be examined, but we’re starting with a simple list to get you thinking again about definitions and the meanings behind each one. • Age • Background/ethnicity/language • Socioeconomic status • Health/ability/disability • Field of study • Primary campus/online student • Year in school (first semester? third?) • Education path (plan to transfer/transfer student? graduate? undecided?)

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These demographics are pretty straightforward, but worth a brief explanation. We list age at the top because too often, college students are all assumed to be 18-year-olds fresh out of high school. As a large 2-year community college, CSN’s average student is 25 years old (CSN, 2018). Our librarians have served students as young as 13 up through age 70. Age can absolutely play a factor in how someone interacts with your services. Adults who didn’t grow up with technology might not scan a QR code to access the link on your flyer, for example. Students from low-socioeconomic status (SES) households may not have access to a computer or the internet at home, so if your survey is only online, they may not be able to complete it when you want them to. If you’re hosting in-person focus groups, transportation could be a concern. Transfer students at a 4-year school may not have had experiences with an academic library prior to coming to your institution, or they may have had very different experiences and therefore a different set of expectations than other students who are in their second or third years. We can’t assume everyone’s experiences are the same. Health and ability/disability need to be considered because not everyone can access our events or websites the same way. Are your PDF flyers accessible to screen readers so students with low vision can still read the text? Did you contact a sign language interpreter to be at your event? Is there a place on your website that shows where wheelchair ramps or elevators are located? Then, of course, there’s school demographic information, because a student in their first semester of college is likely going to behave differently than a student who is about to graduate. Students who are 100% online will be marketed to differently than students on a certain home campus who can see flyers, banners, and crowds in person. Aside from typical demographic information, however, we can also think about audience segments based on how students actually view themselves. Personal identities are especially important when you venture into the world of empathetic marketing (Ingwer, 2012), to be discussed in Chapter 4. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it provides a few examples—some of which may also fall under typical demographic information, and some of which may not have been considered as a traditional market segment before. • Gender • Sexual orientation • Occupation • Religion/faith/spirituality or lack of religion/faith/spirituality • Background/ethnicity/language • Social group (the self-proclaimed “jock,” “nerd,” “geek,” etc.) • Library user frequency • Parent/caretaker role

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This starting point offers many ideas to consider when planning marketing strategies. If your event takes place on a religious holiday, you may be losing some of your potential audience for students who can’t attend that day. Likewise, if you market your December activities with traditional Christmas symbols, you may be unintentionally excluding students of other faiths. If your students are parents, they might require childcare before being able to participate in activities. So not only can you target your marketing to specific audience segments, but you take into consideration the needs of those audiences and show them the library truly cares about who they are. You can also think about how students identify themselves in the world. If you learn from focus groups that you have a lot of “video game geeks” in your student population, you might be able to incorporate gaming into an event or market those areas of your library collection. If your campus has a softball team, you may be able to partner with the student athletes on programming that is meaningful to them. Ethnicity and language are important here too. If you have a large Spanish-speaking population, you may want to consider marketing materials in Spanish. Is there a way to create space for extra guests for students who come from cultures where family members make decisions together? While you may not be able to know or plan for all cultural differences, you should be getting to know the students in your population in order to better serve them and ensure you’re being as inclusive as possible. We’ll cover more details on diversity and inclusion in Chapter 5. Beyond students, you’ll also want to think about faculty, staff, and administration as marketing segments. Faculty, for example, may be segmented by discipline, or by whether or not they are currently library users already. Staff may be frontline workers from other departments who interact directly with students every day, or they could be your own library staff members and student workers. We’ll get into more detail on marketing to these segments in Chapter 7. Aside from student, faculty/staff, and administrative groups, your institution may have a strong relationship with community groups. Alumni, community members who live near campus, and local organizations are groups that your library may consider marketing to. Some institutions have dedicated offices that work with these populations and can be valuable assets as you segment your markets. Although the variety of ways to segment your audiences may seem overwhelming, what is important is that your marketing team considers these various factors and focuses on segmentation that compliments the strategic goals of your institution and promotes inclusion. Hopefully, this quick introduction to the basic definitions of marketing can get you thinking on what details to consider moving forward and what areas you have to focus on.

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QUICK TIPS • Define and determine the types of communication pathways you intend to use to reach your audience: • Print and digital • Internal and external • Define and brainstorm the elements of the marketing mix for your libraries, including: • Products (your services to market and deliver) • Price (the “cost” required) • Place (exactly where delivery will be) • Promotion (all previous communication discussed) • Define any subcommittees/subgroups, tasks, and tactics • Define your target audiences through audience segmentation • Students (by demographic and by identity) • Faculty, staff, and administration

Now that you know the direction you’re going in, it’s time to start the fun! From traditional marketing campaigns for your library to more out-ofthe-box ways to appeal to your students, you’ll learn about different processes and see some great examples in our next chapters.

FROM THE FIELD Authors: Lisa Haldeman, Joshua Barnes, Adam Brennan, Melanie Brennan, Natalie Manke, Amy Norman, and Sarah Wagner Institution: Tulsa Community College, Tulsa, Oklahoma Description: Tulsa Community College: You Belong Here Tulsa Community College (TCC) is Oklahoma’s largest multicampus community college, serving urban and rural students in Tulsa and northeastern Oklahoma since 1970. Four state-of-the-art campuses throughout Tulsa County serve approximately 23,000 students annually. TCC consistently ranks among the elite of the nation’s 1,150 community college associate degree producers, serves more college students in northeastern Oklahoma than any other public college or university, and reports one of the largest freshman classes in Oklahoma every year. Just as the college has grown since 1970, so has the library. Each of the four campuses has a fully equipped library with a staff who offers

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the full range of library services. Although staff are based in four locations across the city, they are fully integrated and work together as one library. The TCC Library Marketing Team consists of staff from each of the four campuses. This allows for streamlined library programming, providing a consistent experience for all students, no matter which campus they attend. The college’s belief that “You Belong Here” fosters a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion that welcomes and supports all students, and the library’s marketing efforts are reflective of that belief. The TCC Library is an active celebrant in the nationally observed Banned Books Week, a time when libraries across America observe and praise the tremendous access to information we share. The freedom to read—and by extension, the freedom to be exposed to powerful ideas, beliefs, and truths—is a hard-fought right under constant assault by groups who would seek to suppress access to information for personal, political, or financial reasons. For many years, the TCC Library has used Banned Books Week as a time to highlight victories over censorship and to expose the censorship activities of others. Over the last few years, the TCC Library has celebrated Banned Books Week in a variety of ways. Beginning in 2016, TCC Library has hosted the annual “Freedom to Read” party. During this event, guest speakers and library staff highlight books that have been previously censored as well as the top books currently being challenged for removal in libraries across America. The event is open to all students, faculty, and staff, and class participation is encouraged. The library promotes this event through targeted emails to Liberal Arts and English faculty, visits to classrooms, fliers, the TCC Library website, social media, and word of mouth. In 2017, members of the Library Marketing Team at the event presented the history of censorship in comics, highlighting self-censorship in the industry and obscenity laws. In 2018, library staff personalized the event, presenting their favorite banned books. The event continues to grow in popularity each year. By engaging with book displays and sharing their favorite banned books in a variety of ways, students can express their beliefs and learn the importance of the free exchange of ideas in society. There is a strong correlation between recreational reading and learning, and the TCC Library promotes reading for pleasure. In spring 2013, the library launched the “Blind Date with a Book” program to encourage students to engage in leisure reading. Library users submit a form answering questions about reading preferences and personal interests. The form is available online through the library website as well as in paper format. Library staff match each participant with a

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book based on the information provided on the form. Books are wrapped in a Valentine’s Day themed paper and Student Life provides candy. The event is quite popular, and many participants ask for future readers’ advisory suggestions. Initially, the “Blind Date” marketing campaign targeted developmental reading and writing classes, but by the second year, the program was broadened to include the whole college. The Library Marketing Team works with the college’s marketing department to create materials for print and online promotion. The team also partners with Student Life. The promotion begins in December, with fliers and large posters announcing the coming event. The online form goes live in the first week of January. The program is marketed through fliers, campus-wide emails, social media, and word of mouth. Librarians in information literacy classes and the college’s online newsletter for faculty and staff also promote the program. College-wide participation more than doubled during the second year. In subsequent years, participation has leveled out, averaging between 250 and 400 applicants each year. The “Blind Date with a Book” program promotes pleasure reading, increases circulation statistics, and assists with collection development. It also encourages patrons to visit the library, and fosters relations with students, faculty, and staff. This program remains one of the library’s most popular events. For the last six years, the TCC Library has also reached out to the broader Tulsa community through events such as “Louder Than a Bomb: University (LTAB-U),” a yearly poetry slam. The program stems from “Louder Than a Bomb,” a K–12 poetry competition founded in Chicago that grew into the largest poetry slam competition for teens in America. LTAB-U developed out of a collaboration between students, TCC Librarians, and the Oklahoma Literary Alliance to bring the “Louder Than a Bomb” poetry slam format to a college audience. LTAB-U is held at Metro Campus every April during National Poetry Month. The event is marketed via fliers, social media, and a blurb in the college’s online newspaper. In March, targeted emails are sent to English faculty. Fliers are also sent to librarians at area universities. The program currently receives its funding from the Tulsa Community College Foundation. In the first year, five contestants entered the LTAB-U slam. The number of participants has increased and remains steady at around 12 contestants per year. Attendance at the event has grown from 20 people to approximately 50 per year. Fifty-nine students have competed over the years, each creating and performing three pieces of original poetry. Participants include students from six area universities, several

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high schools, and, of course, TCC. The TCC Foundation acknowledges the importance of poetry, and the power of performative learning; funding has been approved time and again. LTAB-U continues to draw support and interest within the TCC community, as well as from surrounding universities and local poets. These three major programs correlate with the college’s strategic plan by aiding learning effectiveness, enhancing student success, as well as building community engagement and showcasing how the TCC Library engages with students, faculty, and staff to foster a sense of inclusion and belonging within the TCC community and beyond. The Library Marketing Team plans and directs marketing campaigns, but all library staff play an integral role in promoting and implementing programming, further strengthening the bond between the library and the TCC community, cementing the concept that “You Belong Here.”

REFERENCES CSN. (2018). Facts in brief. College of Southern Nevada. https://at.csn.edu/sites /default/files/documents/facts_in_brief_2019_final.pdf CSN Libraries. (2018). CSN Libraries strategic plan 2018–2025. https://library.csn .edu/files/docs/CSN_Libraries_Strategic_Plan_2018-2025_DRAFT.pdf Dowd, N., Evangeliste, M., & Silberman, J. (2010). Bite-sized marketing: Realistic solutions for the overworked librarian. American Library Association. Gupta, D. K., & Jambhekar, A. (2002). What is marketing in libraries? Concepts, orientations, and practices. Information Outlook, 6(11), 24–30. Ingwer, M. (2012). Empathetic marketing: How to satisfy the 6 core emotional needs of your customers. Palgrave Macmillan. Jung, C. (2003). Marketing strategies for academic libraries. SerWisS. https://serwiss .bib.hs-hannover.de/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/5/file/DA_Jung_03.pdf Kotler, P. (1972). Marketing management: Analysis, planning and control. PrenticeHall. Kubacki, K., Dietrich, T., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2017). Segmentation in social marketing: Why we should do it more often that we currently do. In T. Dietrich, S. Rundle-Thiele & K. Kubacki (Eds.), Segmentation in social marketing (pp. 1–6). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1835-0 McCarthy, E. J. (1960). Basic marketing: A managerial approach. Richard D. Irwin, Inc. Tulsa Community College. (n.d.). Mission, vision, beliefs and values. Tulsa Com­ munity College. https://www.tulsacc.edu/about-us/mission-vision-beliefs-and -values van Waterschoot, W., & van den Bulte, C. (1992). The 4P classification of the marketing mix revisited. Journal of Marketing, 56(4), 83–93. https://www.jstor.org /stable/1251988

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3 Marketing for the Mind Libraries thrive on providing access to information. An academic library’s identity is centered around information: from providing the resources themselves through acquisitions or subscriptions to teaching users the skills to evaluate information in complex systems. Marketing for the mind refers to marketing for one of two types of information that libraries provide: resources that provide information and services that allow users to interact with information. Librarians contribute to the growth and development of the individual’s knowledge through the provisioning of resources and services, thus contributing to the knowledge of our societies through this work. It is a noble job, one that we take pride in as a profession. While we may see information (from the resources to the tools) as core to a library’s identity, we still must market these resources and services both to the users and the stakeholders whose image of the library may be incomplete. The beginning of this chapter will outline strategies and case studies that highlight how we can illuminate what, to us, seems obvious: that libraries’ resources and services are foundational to the advancement of knowledge. This chapter will give marketing teams a framework for identifying their audience, selecting meaningful marketing goals, and engaging in the work of those goals. In contrast to marketing with our students’ academic needs in mind, marketing from the heart refers to thinking outside the immediate assignment— even if this is the reason a student came to the library in the first place. We absolutely want to provide the resources and services that connect students with information and allow them to complete their assignments and their courses. Completion, retention, and graduation are high on the list of priorities for most colleges and students themselves. But just because a student has stepped into your library for one purpose doesn’t mean that’s the only part of their identity that defines them. Marketing from the heart will talk about “empathetic marketing” in which we connect with students’ needs and

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identities on a deeper level, with the whole student in mind. First, we’ll begin with the mind.

WHY MARKET RESOURCES AND SERVICES? According to Bellardo and Waldhart, organizations have a particular “marketing mix” that “consists of product design, pricing, communications and distribution” (1977, p. 182), not unlike the “marketing mix” of McCarthy mentioned in Chapter 2. The library’s products are both services and resources and the pricing is often not clearly monetary, but is rather the cost of a patron’s time. Through program and resource assessment, and continuous improvement, libraries address the “product design” of their organizations. The communication about and distribution of services and resources must be explicit about the benefits of using library services and resources, as the cost—the patron’s time—is a limited and sought-after resource. While librarians may clearly see the benefits of using the library, they must be explicit with both their users and stakeholders about these benefits, from increased student success measures to faculty research output. For instance, first-year students would benefit by knowing that increased library use, both of resources and services, results in better student outcomes, such as GPA and retention (Massengale et al., 2016) because they would be able to identify the enormous benefits from the cost of their time. Campus administrators would see the value of their costs, through library funding. One method for marketing the benefits compared to costs is by demonstrating return on investment (ROI). Tools such as the ALA’s Library Value Calculator and the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana’s Create Your Own ROI Calculator are two resources that libraries can adapt to let users calculate their own ROI based on library use. Having services and resources is not enough—people need to not only know about them, but why they should use them. Again, use of the library’s products (services and resources) cost the patron the resource of their time, which, in academia, is a very limited resource. Stakeholders include everyone in the university community. This can be students, potential students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community partners. The various messages that describe the value to each stakeholder group should have a local context but can come from the great wealth of research that has been done about library assessment and value. The Value of Academic Libraries Report summarizes the many areas of value that academic libraries create for an institution. The report contends that in the process of demonstrating value, librarians are “proactively delivering improved services and resources” (Oakleaf, 2010, p. 140). In other words, aside from the benefits associated with increased library use, the act of marketing library services and resources allows us to reflect on their value and improve upon those services and resources. Marketing becomes a form of continuous improvement. This

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chapter will begin with marketing resources and will move to marketing services.

IDENTIFYING YOUR AUDIENCE Marketing for the mind involves identifying the who (target audience); what (resources and/or services); when, where, and how (the actual details of the marketing activity); and why (the larger goal that the marketing supports). The first step, identifying your target audience, is important because it is dependent on the what (chat service for undergrads vs. course reserves for faculty) and the when and where (in dorms and the student newsletter vs. a dean’s message to all faculty). Identifying your audience may not be straightforward, however. A served community can be sliced up in countless ways: graduates, undergraduates, BIPOC students, commuter students, adjunct faculty, STEM faculty, international students, nonusers . . . the options seem infinite and many groupings overlap. This is another time to start with your strategic plan for clues on the institutional priorities. A renewed emphasis on the first-year experience, for example, indicates that first-year students are a priority. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) priorities, for example, may indicate that identifying underserved populations as an audience is warranted. Another way to approach audiences is to create personas. Spenser Thompson describes the process of creating personas for library marketing as “watching the movie” of your library in a three-step process: “(1) building personas through observation and intuition, (2) finding a place for the library in the narrative of the persona, and (3) linking these personas to various stages in the ‘sales cycle’: unaware of the library, aware of it, considering using it, or already using it” (2017, p. 17). Personas give designers of all kinds (web, UX, service, marketing) information about their users and their behaviors. In marketing, this information gives insights into how to reach different types of users based on those behaviors. Creating personas is like “watching a movie” because it involves observation and the gathering of evidence of different user types from surveys, existing data, and others. One library utilized communication students to create personas using existing library assessment data along with data collected from observations and other quantitative research methods (Town et al., 2016). Their personas attempted to identify different types of users and group them by similar needs and behaviors. Their study resulted in 10 personas that describe a range of users not by external markers (such as “commuter”) but by behavior, such as “Explorer” (p. 130). Where personas can be particularly useful is with the actual details of the marketing activity (the where, when, and how). For example, you might identify a segment of your audience as firstyear students in response to the strategic plan’s emphasis on the first-year experience. Within that group you can identify various personas and those

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personas can inform the various messages and messaging strategies that appeal to the different types of first-year students (based on their needs and behaviors). While this may sound like an overwhelming amount of work, it is something we may unconsciously do based on anecdotal evidence, but it replaces the “anecdotal” with the “actual.” For example, sending faculty both an email and a flyer because some faculty don’t read email is adapting your marketing in response to different types of behaviors. Consider a slightly more intentional approach by looking at the evidence you already have (from chat reference, circulation, instruction stats, etc.) and how this evidence can inform your approach to marketing. The following will cover the “what” of marketing for the mind. Particular marketing methods (the when, where, and how) are discussed in relation to the “what,” as are the various audiences. The particular mix of marketing methods is dependent on local needs and priorities. There is no magic formula for identifying what should be marketed, how it should be marketed, and to whom it should be marketed. As long as you approach these questions with intention and assess your efforts, you are on the right track.

MARKETING RESOURCES The list of potential resources to market increases as libraries evolve. Traditional print materials may include monographs and serials in addition to nontraditional materials such as textbooks, anatomy kits, technology, and more. Electronic resources may include e-books, databases, citation management tools, streaming videos, and even web-based learning apps, such as LinkedIn Learning. Case studies and considerations for various formats are presented below.

Physical Resources Physical resources are the foundation of libraries. While libraries without physical materials exist, and the purchasing of print resources in academic libraries has declined steadily (Daniel et al., 2019), physical materials, namely books, have been and will continue to be foundational resources. Marketing print resources can increase collection usage as well as inform users of the variety of resources that exist in scholarship (Park & Dantus, 2018). Additionally, they offer unique opportunities for place-based marketing. Libraries have increasingly focused on space design and the transformative power of library spaces, as evidenced by conferences such as Designing Libraries, an international annual conference centered around planning library spaces. Promoting print resources also allows for the promotion of physical spaces, which is covered below. The following will discuss marketing books via book displays and methods for marketing nonbook materials.

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Book Displays Book displays are popular in public libraries; they have long innovated in this realm. Erica Freudenberger describes this as merchandising in the library, “While primarily associated with retail, when implemented strategically at libraries, merchandising can lead to increased circulation, stimulate robust discussions, and generate foot traffic” (2019, para. 2). Despite being a tool traditionally associated with public libraries, academic libraries can benefit from merchandising in the same way public libraries have. Book displays also provide their own built-in assessment method: by recording data about books on display and check-out counts, display effectiveness can easily be measured. They can also serve as cross promotional tools for library events and services. An eye-catching display upon entry that promotes an upcoming faculty lecture in the library, for example, allows for visibility of and engagement with the event. Book displays increase circulation (Camacho et al., 2014; Jacobson, 2012). Targeting collections, such as new books on business management, or bringing books together under a timely theme, such as Women’s History Month, are two popular methods for determining display content. Pop-up displays can be placed anywhere from within the stacks to outside of the library, in a residence hall, for example. To determine where a book display would be most impactful, begin by selecting a content theme and surveying spaces. High-traffic areas and physical spaces related to the content of the display are obvious best choices. If the primary audience is students, having student input on the location and content of the displays increases the relevance and usefulness of the display. If your marketing team takes on book displays, consulting with student workers (if there is no student member on your team) is an easy way to get valuable input. Take a tip from retail and place displays on endcaps and at the circulation desk for impulse checkouts. Consider the types of materials you see at the checkout counter at the local grocery store—things like sweets and necessities such as bottled water. Popular reading and study guides are good items to replicate. Academic library books can look pretty unappetizing. Unremarkable hardcover volumes with faded labels and coffee stains is the truth to much of our collections. Dress up books with dust jackets, when available, or makeshift covers, books propped up with specialized book display products (or creatively with boxes, paper, and other found items). Face books outward, if on a shelf. Create attractive signage with a graphic design tool such as Canva (which has a limited free version) or Adobe Illustrator, or work with your college of visual art on a student project, if that is a possibility. Regardless, signage should be clear that the books are available for checkout. Cross-promote electronic resources, services, or events at the book display by using QR codes (which can be scanned by most

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smartphones camera, without the need for a specialized app) and/or shortened URLs. The benefit of using a customized shortened URL is that they are easier to read and remember, but many URL shorteners additionally allow for tracking so that you can best assess the impact of your marketing efforts. Calendar Ideas for Book Displays: While it is important to create book displays relevant to local priorities, events, and initiatives, there are recurring dates that can be appropriate for book displays. While this list is not exhaustive, it is a starting point for libraries to consider displays related to diversity and inclusion, literature, research, and the work of libraries. Further events and celebrations are available from the Programming Librarian website, a website of the American Library Association Public Programs Office, at: https://programminglibrarian.org/articles/calendar-events-celebrations February Black History Month March Women’s History Month April National Poetry Month National Library Week, usually the second week in April June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month September Banned Books Week, last week of September October American Archives Month Open Access Week, the last full week in October

Best Practices in Merchandising for Book Displays: • Locate displays in high-traffic or otherwise relevant areas • Include (or replicate) dust jackets • Include visual information that makes it obvious the materials are meant to be taken from the display, to be checked out • Create a stock of books to restock the display as materials are taken • Record statistics to evaluate the impact of your display

Beyond Books Beyond the typical book displays, libraries have a wide variety of materials worthy of displaying. This may include board games, video games, kits, and technology, to name a few examples. In the case of technology

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such as laptops, physical displays of the actual items might not be practical. However, libraries may use display space, such as a dedicated display case, to advertise these resources through signage and/or samples. Libraries may circulate devices, such as phone chargers, that patrons may be unaware of. Some libraries have special types of circulating collections such as anatomical models that are especially eye-catching, but they may usually be kept hidden or locked behind the desk. By utilizing dedicated display space, especially between curated book displays when the space may otherwise be empty, libraries have a ready-made ad campaign for patrons to discover. Similarly, display cases outside of the library may routinely be available for libraries to take advantage of. Mobile displays are a great way to lure nonlibrary users into the library spaces and promote to an otherwise hard-to-reach segment of the population, the nonuser.

Marketing Library Spaces Marketing involves taking stock of products offered and competition. Libraries offer the product of space, and have competitors in the form of other “third” places that are “neither domestic nor work spaces” (Chandler & Munday, 2020) in addition to competition on campus of learning spaces. Third places in the university community may be on or off campus and are places where you might find students studying or meeting to work on a group project. Libraries are a third place, but they are usually not the sole third place within the community. However, library workers would argue that the library is a unique third place in that it has resources and services that other third places do not have. According to Elmborg, “The solution is that we market the library as a direct competitor to the coffee shops, bars, and cafes more typically identified with the Third Place. We must produce this library space as commodity and market it in competition with retail outlets . . .” (2011, p. 348). The library space must have desirable characteristics that make them competitive and it is our job to make those characteristics apparent to prospective users. Unique library spaces may include cafes, study spaces, collaborative spaces, lecture and instruction spaces, makerspaces, and spaces to relax and/ or for spiritual practice. Competition for these types of spaces include coffee shops outside of the library, living spaces such as dorms, classrooms, auditoriums, and places of spiritual practice such as a mosque or church. Depending on the goals of the institution, the library may have designed spaces to meet the particular needs of its patrons so that they do not need to leave to eat, observe a religious practice, pump breast milk, or have a library instruction session, for example. These spaces are often enhanced with technology, lockers, comfortable seating, or other items that meet the needs of the patrons and support the goals of the space.

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Given the amount of competition and increasingly available digital resources, some may wonder why students would choose to physically visit the library (and indeed, this is unfortunately the view of too many uninformed administrators). Modern libraries have responded to the way that students work as multitaskers (Demas, 2005). Contrary to assumptions that students use the library solely to check out books, if at all, students “come to the library to do many different things, all of which support in some way sustained engagement with academic work” (p. 25). Marketing library spaces can highlight this unique feature: varied spaces, resources, and services. This variety is truly unique to libraries. Students may not be aware of the various spaces within the library, and certainly may not be able to readily identify the benefits for using the spaces. There are a few direct ways that we can market our spaces. The best marketing tool for library space is the library tour. At Illinois Institute of Technology, the library tour is a scavenger hunt specifically designed to market the unique assets available in the library. For example, the scavenger hunt has students explore the makerspace and textbook reserves. Other institutions that utilize gamification in their orientations use an escape room format to market library spaces as well as teach information literacy skills (Koelling & Russo, 2020). Aside from library tours and orientations, marketing material for physical spaces can be effective in places where (1) people gather and (2) the existing space is deficient in some aspect that the library is sufficient in. Begin by identifying your target audience; marketing space for faculty will likely be very different than marketing spaces for commuter students, for example. Identify gathering places, particularly those that may be problematic. For instance, although modern college dorms are equipped with technology and flexible spaces, many college dorms often have physical limitations due to age. Match the message with typical space usage in which the library spaces would offer some clear benefit. For example, a table tent in the cafeteria might read “need group space with outlets? Visit us in the library.” Dorm door hangers, posters in a faculty lounge, and digital signage in dorm common areas are strategic places where library spaces can be marketed. The goal is not to vacate these other spaces, but to move the students (or other group) to the library spaces when those spaces would indeed benefit them in some way. In other words, it increases university community members’ awareness of their options and enables them to make informed decisions about where they complete tasks and how those spaces impact their success. Regardless of the format and placement of the marketing materials, there is an opportunity to market library services in conjunction with library spaces. After all, much of the library’s value is in the adjacency of resources and services that exist in space. Marketing of services will be discussed in the next section.

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Electronic Resources Electronic resources, such as article databases, e-books, and streaming media are easy to market in digital environments because they are generally not bound by time and space. For example, a physical book display is only accessible during the physical library’s open hours and patrons must be physically present in the library to discover and access the displayed materials. E-book displays, on the other hand, can be discovered and accessed 24 hours a day, regardless of building hours and the location of the patron. The following will overview various types of electronic resources to consider when marketing, as well as marketing tools that can be utilized for those resources. Electronic resources are a broad category. They are commonly thought of as electronic journal subscriptions and e-books but include much more. Resources may include content such as streaming videos and data sets, as well as discovery tools such as a discovery layer, indexing and abstracting databases, or an institutional repository. The eResource category is also complicated by the fact that electronic resources are also often services and/ or have services associated with them. This complication presents an opportunity to cross promote resources and services. For example, when promoting a database for article abstracts you can also promote the interlibrary loan service that delivers the full text to the patron. Once you’ve taken stock of your electronic resources, you must identify which resources or resource types your library and its patrons would most benefit from knowing more about. This goes back to the strategic goals of your institution and may also be a fluid process. For example, many libraries had to shift from promoting physical resources to electronic resources when library collections became inaccessible due to the threat of COVID-19. However, strategic plans can generally provide direction for which of the millions of electronic resources a libraries’ marketing effort should focus during a particular year. For example, a strategic plan that prioritizes diversity and inclusion could inform a marketing goal of promoting e-books about diversity and inclusion efforts in higher education. The target audience, in this hypothetical, could be university administrators and the directors of campus centers that support women and ethnic minorities. Another goal from the strategic plan of supporting distance students may result in more broadly marketing electronic resources but targeting those particular groups. The truth is, there is an endless combination of “resource plus target audience,” and they all support the mission of the library. However, because our resources are limited, we must be strategic and judicious when establishing marketing goals. Once you’ve identified electronic resources and target audiences, you can establish the how of your electronic resource marketing plan goals. A common marketing tool for electronic resources is a LibGuide, or other digital

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pathfinder for listing resources. Library pathfinders emerged in the early 1970s as tools to instruct users as to what information sources were available on a given topic in the library (Canfield, 1972). Their format was limited to the technologies of the time, resulting in printed lists of physical materials. Modern pathfinders have all the advantages of being digital and have morphed into dynamic, interactive, and visually appealing tools that have a dual purpose of both instructing users how to research a given topic and marketing electronic resources. LibGuides, or other electronic lists, can be distributed via email lists and linked to in electronic places where the target audience can be reached. For faculty, this may be in their departmental newsletter or in a message from the provost. For students, messages can appear in their Learning Management System (LMS). Links can be sent out via social media, targeting the intended audience by using the platform most associated with that audience. One prominent place to market electronic resources is on the library’s homepage. In an assessment study of the impact on promoting specific databases on the library’s website, Rogers and Nielsen found that there was a significant increase in the use of six out of seven databases featured on their library’s website (2017). Their promotional materials for the featured databases appeared on their library’s main page in a “Featured Services” box (p. 19). This method can be particularly effective for those who already use the library but will miss nonlibrary users.

MARKETING SERVICES Services are defined in this section to be “outputs that libraries produce in order to serve their constituencies” (Malpas et al., 2018, p. 41). Library service outputs are difficult to market in that they are different from material resources in ways that make their costs (to the organization) and benefits (to the user) less transparent. Also, many service costs are ongoing, such as reference service, and/or are time-bound, such as workshops. They cannot simply be stored on a virtual or physical shelf for later use the way that some library resources can be (Bellardo & Waldhart, 1977). There are a number of services offered by academic libraries. The most common are reference, instruction, interlibrary loan, and document delivery. Emerging services include publishing, open educational resources (OER) consultation, curriculum design, and digitization. While these lists are not exhaustive, they provide examples that can be placed into the services framework developed by ITHAKA S+R and OCLC in their University Futures report: Convene Campus Community, Enable Academic Success, Facilitate Information Access, Foster Scholarship and Creation, Include and Support Off-Campus User, Preserve and Promote Unique Collections, Provide Study Space, Showcase Scholarly Expertise, and Transform Scholarly

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Publishing (Malpas et al., 2018, p. 42). Three service framework areas will be explored more in depth for the purposes of this chapter. However, when thinking about services, libraries should consider marketing services that fall into other framework areas, especially as they align with campus priorities.

Enable Academic Success Services that fall inside this area may include research support and instruction. Spalding and Wang (2006) recommended marketing services to individual groups based on personalized motivations—for instance, undergraduate students may be motivated by the desire to both save time and do well in their courses. Teaching faculty may be motivated by the desire to grade papers with higher quality references. These benefits should be transparent to the individual. The benefits for faculty utilizing library instruction (whether through getting support building information literacy into their curriculum or by requesting one-shot instruction) have been documented in the library literature. The outcomes of these various library value studies can become marketing tools themselves. The primary audience to receive the marketing messages about instruction are teaching faculty. A low-cost method for marketing all services, including instruction, is email. Librarians can time their email communications to coincide with the time when they are most likely working on their syllabus, near the start of the semester. However, it might be the case that faculty do not check their email or are not yet on contract (in the case of many adjunct faculty). Because of this, shortly after the start of the semester is another window of time when faculty may be more receptive to email marketing instructional services. Instead of blanket emailing all faculty, or those in a particular liaison area, targeted emails to courses which would likely most benefit from library instruction can be particularly useful. To do this, scan the course offerings for courses which require students to use library-provided resources and/or services. In these courses, the benefits to both the teaching faculty and students of utilizing library instruction are greater. In either scenario, the email message should be short, direct, and visually interesting. Attaching a video message, for example, may be more effective than a text description of services. Utilizing the email clients’ word processing features, by creating headings, including links and bullet points, and including a graphic (such as a headshot or infographic about the value of library instruction) distinguishes the message and can draw attention to the “selling points” of incorporating library instruction in their courses. Beyond direct email, digital marketing materials such as infographics and digital flyers can reach faculty via faculty guides on the university or library

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website, departmental listservs, and via social media. Similarly, print marketing materials can be sent to faculty mailboxes, posted near departments, and be handed out at relevant events. What the appropriate marketing mix to be effective is for one library will differ for another. Therefore, the marketing plan should identify stakeholders and specify marketing methods to best reach them. More about marketing to faculty will be discussed in Chapter 7.

Facilitate Information Access Information Access might include circulation, fulfillment, document delivery, interlibrary loan, and reserves. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic made Information Access as a set of services more transparent as physical materials became much harder to access. Libraries had to invent new service models for achieving their services in this area, and the impact was global, further highlighting the seriousness of the pandemic and reliance of libraries on each other to fulfill patrons’ information needs. Although these services were once invisible, libraries brought the work to the surface as lack of physical access and staff made information inaccessible. New services, such as “grab and go” or “contactless pickup” emerged and services such as document delivery increased. Many libraries began or expanded textbook reserve services, scanning and emailing students course reserves or a needed book chapter that were previously only available in person. Lessons from the COVID-19 era remind us that these library services have immense value to our patrons and should be marketed not only to increase their use among patrons, but to make them visible as valuable work done by the library. However, the number of information access services it takes to get patrons the information they use can be confusing, as can the terminology around them. While it may be important for our users to see the work that libraries do to get them resources, they do not need to study the definitions of these various services. Consider that the internal needs of differentiating, for example, document delivery and interlibrary loan are just that—internal needs. The user has one need: to get the information.

Transform Scholarly Publishing Academic library services that transform scholarly publishing seek to “Drive toward modernized formats, revamped business models, and reduced market concentration” (Malpas et al., 2018). Services under this umbrella vary, with some institutions now engaging in them. Indeed, the OCLC and ITHAKA S+R survey of Association of Research Libraries and Oberlin Group libraries showed that this category was once of the

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least-resourced across surveyed libraries. However, looking ahead 5 years, respondents see this area as one that will show an increase in the amount of resources put toward it. Services in this area might include scholarly publishing consultations for faculty, open educational resource initiatives, and open access (OA) publishing services. The nature of these services may identify the audience segmentation for marketing purposes, and that will often be faculty and graduate students who are engaged in academic research and publishing. Marketing teams wishing to engage in marketing their services that relate to transforming scholarly publishing can benefit from working internally and externally with individuals engaged in this work. A scholarly communication, digital scholarship, or open educational resources librarian (or team) are internal partners. External partners may include Centers for Teaching and Learning, Research and Innovation units, and Graduate Colleges. Working with these various partners can help a marketing team identify opportunities to market services in this area. One common service in this area is the institutional repository (IR), a digital archive or institution’s research and other scholarly and creative work. Over a decade ago, Jantz and Wilson noted that “institutional repositories [had] become one of the fastest growing elements of the digital library genre” (2008, p. 187); however, they lacked support from marketing and outreach efforts. Although IRs generally show robust usage by readers, they do not generally show robust submissions by faculty in part because libraries have not sufficiently relayed the value of submitting work to the IR to faculty (Scherer, 2016). A lack of awareness of the IR combined with a lack of understanding of their value results in low usage statistics (other factors, such as ease-of-use, aside). What, then, can we do to increase the use of the IR and/or OA/OER consultations, or other services that involve the transformation of scholarly communications? The strategy depends on the particular needs of the users, but methods include highlighting the IR’s value in print and digital flyers, content across the library’s website, targeted social media campaigns, and through strategic communications from both the library and its partners. At Illinois Institute of Technology, I (Shotick) worked with stakeholders to create a video series featuring faculty champions of OA and OER on campus describing the value of open from their perspectives while promoting the scholarly services that support open at the library (see: https://youtu .be/B2Ryh8mqrH8 and https://youtu.be/BF4rEYh6cdM). The videos were then pushed out through social media channels in conjunction with Open Access Week as well as through targeted communications. This type of marketing is based on a specific segmentation of our users and related directly to our strategic plan. Consider marketing in the area of scholarly publishing if it is a good match to your institution’s priorities.

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QUICK TIPS Audiences • Segment your audience based on groups identified in strategic priorities. • Utilize existing data to better understand and describe your various audiences. • Consider creating personas to tailor marketing messages and strategies.

Resources • Utilize digital and physical book displays to maximize discovery, increase circulation, and promote events and/or services. • Consider mobile displays to attract nonusers. • Utilize existing digital tools and spaces to market digital resources. • Consider the library’s main page as a premier marketing space.

Services • Target specific programs, through curriculum mapping. • Personalize communications to specific faculty. • Explain, use simple and universally understood language. Do not make assumptions. Reference desk? May need rebranding to fit the needs of your population. • Use focus groups, such as a student advisory group, to market for you and give you feedback on your marketing methods and materials. • Identify partners who can be channels for your marketing messages.

FROM THE FIELD Author: Lisa Thornell, Student Engagement & Outreach Librarian Institution: DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut Description: Offering clubs and individual students a physical and virtual space to curate resource displays at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Fairfield University Librarians, library staff, and library student workers make resource displays all the time. Inviting students outside the library staffing structure not only provides them with an opportunity to engage with library collections, but it also showcases how the library can offer students curation opportunities (which may be beneficial for their

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career paths) and may get more attention by their peers. The Student Engagement & Outreach Librarian at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library coordinated the following displays with undergraduate students. The Library typically uses two small tables on both sides of the large staircase at the center of the main floor, which is highly visible when entering the building from the two entrance doors. Fairfield University is located in Fairfield, Connecticut, with an undergraduate population of approximately 4,000. During a brainstorming session to think through how the DiMennaNyselius Library could collaborate with university student clubs, it seemed like a natural fit to invite the Film Club to curate a DVD display. Officers of The Film Club, including their faculty advisor, compiled a list of their favorite films. They were also asked to provide their reason for choosing each one, which was featured on the library’s blog, The DNL Report (Thornell, 2017). The display varied the library’s typical book displays by promoting the DVD collection, and in following semesters the club was approached for other collaborations. Another student group of willing and interested members was the Student Library Advisory Board. Members were offered a list of optional volunteer opportunities and one was curating a display of their favorite books. A junior nursing student who loved leisure reading across diverse genres provided a list of books, short explanations for choosing each, and a photo of herself to include on the display sign and on the library blog. The book blurbs all started with “Read this if. . . .” and were not only listed on the blog but they were also printed and placed into plexiglass sign holders to entice display browsers (Thornell, 2018). There was no cost to put together either display, which is standard for resource displays at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library. Signs are made on the library printer and additional table décor was reused from “the Outreach closet.” Winter snowflakes that had been on a librarian’s office door the previous winter season were used on the “Read this if . . .” student board member display, and a shiny giant film reel banner that is used for the library staff’s annual Oscar party was added to the Film Club display. Both student displays generated visual interest by library visitors, but the additional value was that the record of them through the blog posts proved useful when trying to explain to other clubs and student board members about the opportunities for collaboration with the library. The links to the posts could be shared to offer similar opportunities to other students. The student curators were asked to share the blog links with their peers. In the future, a follow-up on how this was done would be of interest.

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FROM THE FIELD Author: Ashley Granger Institution: The University of Missouri Columbia Description: Using Your Library’s Instagram as a #bookstagram The University of Missouri Columbia (hereafter known as Mizzou) has its main library, Ellis Library, as well as specialized libraries: veterinary, journalism, engineering, geology, math, and health sciences. The Instagram account @mizzou.libraries is the official Instagram of the Mizzou campus libraries, with over 3,800 followers, and we seek the audience of Mizzou students and alumni, as well as people who love books, reading, and libraries, which makes our account a bookstagram account. Our unique content and hashtags even lead to us being included on a Buzzfeed list of top university libraries to follow! Our social media team is made up of volunteers who are assigned posting days by a member of our marketing team, ensuring that we post varying content that highlights all our libraries and departments. Each volunteer can include their own personal hashtag to credit the individual contributor while still under the Mizzou account. What exactly is a “bookstagram” account? On Instagram, “bookstagram” has two definitions: it’s a commonly used hashtag that leads to an endless number of posts that are book-related, and it also refers to specific Instagram accounts that are dedicated to books and book-related things. I post a variety of content that is not limited to academic or university related items. I find that this not only provides a break for students but can also steer students toward reading material they may not have otherwise considered, as well as creating an interactive forum and a marketing tool. Because this is a bookstagram account, we post all different types of content, including quotes, whether from books or by writers. These have become unexpectedly popular. We also try to tag the authors/books to lead people to their content and promote their work. Many writers love libraries and librarians, and it’s a great way to have someone else promote your work! I like to post “altered book covers.” A book will come across my desk that has a cover that I find funny, or I can imagine a conversation between the two people in the painting reproduction featured on the cover. A book cover that featured a painting of an angry looking man, a dog, and a cowbell led to an altered book cover with a caption about “more cowbell,” a popular meme. Our library has a Canva business account, which is helpful and easy to use.

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I also post covers that strike me as beautiful, interesting, or funny. We make sure to add the full title, author name, and call number for the book. By doing this, we can draw in people who may not have known the book existed or may not have normally been interested in the book. I also like to post books that we’ve received that are being turned into TV series or movies. We don’t get many fiction titles, so highlighting those is also important as an academic library. Our fiction section may be small, but it’s there! This is also a way to promote the MOBIUS consortium, which is a collection of Missouri libraries that makes interlibrary lending incredibly easy. You can request a book and have it delivered to any library on campus for pickup. It’s a great resource to highlight. Memes, memes, memes. In the past, memes were considered images or videos that were popular and passed around online over and over, but it’s a more general term now, basically meaning a video or image that uses humor and is relatable to a particular audience. Often, people add quotes or phrases to already well-known memes, but this term is now quite vague and applies to nearly anything. I post memes related to buying books, libraries, librarians—basically all the bookstagram content I can. People are particularly interested in quotes and memes related to the idea of reading whatever you want. It surprised me at first, but people are so often told that they “should” read certain classics, or shouldn’t leave a book unfinished, or branch out on their desired reading material. However, I believe you should read what you want, when you want to, no matter the format or material, and this has proven to be a popular opinion among our followers, with these posts being some of the most popular. Did you know that there are more libraries than McDonald’s in the United States? I didn’t, but when I found out, I made sure to post it on our Instagram, and our followers were pleased to hear it. We’ve posted information about how libraries are used beyond the typical lending of books—people use computers to apply for jobs, or children go for story time. People love libraries, and in this particularly budgetconscious time, it’s important for everyone to be reminded of how libraries are still so important and very relevant to everyone. Did Random House have a particularly funny post today? Following other bookstagram accounts can lead to great content, but be sure to always tag the original poster. Credit should always be given to the people who created the content. Another idea is to post a cartoon detailing the “different types of readers” and ask your followers what kind of reader they are. Post a picture of what you’re reading and ask for suggestions. This kind of

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interaction between the library and the account followers can have positive benefits for your library and Instagram account. Also, they’re a lot of fun! Photos are important. Encourage people to tag your Instagram account in their own personal related photos. Post pictures of students in your library, your school’s mascot, the outside of your library— anything people might find interesting. We have a café in our library, so posting delicious baked treats is a great “filler post” if you don’t have anything specific to highlight, and can also help the café with their business and bring more people into the library. A video showing it snowing outside our library recently was well-received. Highlight unique parts of your library. A recent picture of the different ways our special collections department scans rare documents was interesting for our followers. We have a large reading room with huge, beautiful windows, so our social media team created a template in Canva and we now use that as a background for our quotes. Content related to the academic year is also important: relaxation techniques during finals week; information about orientation activities; posts about open electronic resources. A bookstagram account is fun and informative, but at the core, we are an academic library, and our account is geared toward students of the university, so it is important to remember your audience and post what they need to know. Using your library’s Instagram account as a bookstagram account can create many opportunities for marketing, interaction, and information for your followers. By not focusing solely on content related to your school and library, you can attract more followers from outside that population and create a more popular and relevant account.

REFERENCES Bellardo, T., & Waldhardt, T. (1977). Marketing products and services in academic libraries. Libri, 27(3), 181–194.   Camacho, L., Spackman, A., & Cluff, D. (2014). Face out: The effect of book displays on collection usage. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 19(2), 114–124. Canfield, M. P. (1972). Library pathfinders. Drexel Library Quarterly, 8(3), 287–300. Chandler, D., & Munday, R. (2020). Third place. In D. Chandler & R. Munday (Eds.), A dictionary of media and communication. (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Daniel, K., Esposito, J. J., & Schonfeld, R. C. (2019, January 29). Library acquisition patterns. ITHIKA S+R. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.310937

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Demas, S. (2005). From the ashes of Alexandria: What’s happening in the college library? In K. Smith (Ed.), Library as place: Rethinking roles, rethinking space (pp. 25–40). Council on Library and Information Resources. Elmborg, J. K. (2011). Libraries as the spaces between us: Recognizing and valuing the Third Space. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 50(4), 338–350. Freudenberger, E. (2019, December 30). Merchandising your collection. Library Journal. https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=Merchandising-Your -Collection. Jacobson, A. (2012). Building displays that move the merchandise. American Libraries, 43(1/2), 42–44. Jantz, R. C., & Wilson, M. C. (2008). Institutional repositories: Faculty deposits, marketing and the reform of scholarly communication. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34(3), 186–195. https://doi.org/10.7282/T3862DVK Koelling, G., & Russo, A. (2020). The mystery room: Discovering the flexibility of an information literacy-based educational escape room. Public Services Quarterly, 16(1), 1–11. Malpas, C., Schonfeld, R., Stein, R., Dempsey, L., & Marcum, D. (2018). University futures, library futures: Aligning library strategies with institutional directions. OCLC Research. Massengale, L., Piotrowski, P., & Savage, D. (2016). Identifying and articulating library connections to student success. College & Research Libraries, 77(2), 227–235. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.77.2.227 Oakleaf, M. (2010). The value of academic libraries: A comprehensive research review and report. Association of College and Research Libraries. https://www .ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/issues/value/val_report.pdf Park, J., & Dantus, S. (2018). Marketing academic library resources and services [White paper]. Choice. Rogers, J., & Nielsen, J. (2017). Assessing a promotional strategy for marketing electronic resources in the library environment. Serials Librarian, 73(1), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2017.1317687 Scherer, D. (2016). Incentivizing them to come: Strategies, tools, and opportunities for marketing an institutional repository. In B. B. Callicot & A. W. Scherer (Eds.), Making institutional repositories work (pp. 159–173). Purdue University Press. Spalding, H. H. & Wang, J. (2006). The challenges and opportunities of marketing and academic libraries in the USA: Experiences of US academic libraries with global application. Library Management, 27(6/7), 494–504. https://doi.org /10.1108/01435120610702477 Thompson, S. (2017). Watching the movie: Using personas as a library marketing tool. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 57(1), 17–19. Thornell, L. (2017, April 4). Film club officers tell us their favorite flicks. The DNL Report. https://thednlreport.fairfield.edu/film-club-officers-tell-us-their-favorite -flicks/ Thornell, L. (2018, Nov. 9). Student book display: Read this if . . . The DNL Report. https://thednlreport.fairfield.edu/student-book-display-read-this-if/ Town, S., Zaugg, H., & Rackham, S. (2016). Identification and development of patron personas for an academic library. Performance Measurement and Metrics, 17(2), 124–133.

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4 Marketing from the Heart When we look at a student as just “student,” we are essentially ignoring the many roles that make up who they are. One student might also be a caregiver, a breadwinner, an artist, a geek, an English language learner, a veteran, the first in their family to go to college . . . the list goes on and on. Some pieces of a student’s identity affect their daily lives, such as those living with anxiety or depression. Other roles will always end up taking priority over their student status, such as parents with limited childcare options, or just being a parent in general. To pretend these aspects of a student’s life don’t exist is a disservice to the student who can’t simply come to campus, take a class, finish all assignments, and graduate. That may be the goal, but it’s usually only a small part of what’s on a student’s mind. Author Brian Mathews noted in his marketing manual: “Students moving throughout the day develop a wide variety of obligations. Librarians can benefit by acknowledging these needs and aligning our services to address each one” (2009, p. 26). Thus emerges “marketing from the heart.” Marketing from the heart can be seen as a way to market the library and present student engagement opportunities that help ease student fears, whether they be dreading an upcoming test, wanting a friend who can share in their fandom, worrying about undocumented status, or wondering where their next meal might come from. The library cannot solve all these problems, but we can present programs and resources that are tailored to more personal needs, showing we see the student as a whole person instead of just a customer here to complete a single transaction. This idea is not new in the business world. Business psychologist Mark Ingwer referred to the concept as “empathetic marketing” and suggested that “In identifying the deeper emotion-based needs of specific audiences, the business community can discover and fine-tune insights that transcend standard marketing practices” (2012, p. 8). In a sense, he stated how

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beneficial it is to focus on core human needs in order to influence consumer behavior. This chapter will apply that human, needs-based focus to libraries, but not just to influence student behavior so they will use the library. Yes, we want students to continue (or start!) to utilize our resources. We want them coming in the doors. That’s why we market in the first place, isn’t it? But if you think of empathetic marketing only in terms of how it can benefit you and your library, you’re not being completely empathetic. This chapter intends to discuss and share examples of how to focus on the student as a whole person (with students being our primary “customers”), but also why we should focus on the student as a whole person. How does it benefit the student? Because the library’s goal may be to get the student to use our resources and services, but we want students to use our resources and services in order to do better on their assignments so they do better in class, so they graduate, find jobs, and succeed in their personal life goals.

EMPATHY AND STUDENT NEEDS Applying empathetic marketing in libraries means focusing on “the core emotional needs of students and demonstrates how the library’s staff and services can help meet those needs” (Girton, 2018, p. 209). When we think about what a student might need in general, one easy way to understand is in remembering the popular Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from psychologist Abraham Maslow. Usually represented as a pyramid (Bridgman et al., 2017), the needs rise from the basic physiological necessities of food, rest, and shelter at the bottom of the pyramid to then personal safety, love, and belonging as you go up. Then, at its highest peak, esteem and self-actualization (Francis, 2010). If you’ve never viewed a library from this perspective before, it may be beneficial to brainstorm how your library might respond to each category. Some examples follow below. Physiological Needs • Food. Offering snacks during the week of Final Exams for a quick study break. To assist with food insecurity, serving as a drop-off location for campus food drive donations or providing accessible directions to the nearest food pantry. • Shelter. Keeping the temperature of the library warm in the winter and cool in the summer to provide a comfortable place to come in from the cold or heat. Some libraries have even offered blankets for checkout! (Potter, 2017).

Safety • Security of body or property (Francis, 2010). Having (or not having) a presence of police or campus security. It’s important to note that some

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populations may feel safer with law enforcement nearby while other populations may feel less safe. • Financial security. Providing computers, internet, books, and films for free. Offering a textbook assistance program such as through course reserves or open educational resources. • Emotional safety. Ensuring the environment is welcoming by having all library employees train on positive customer service interactions. Enforcing policies that have zero tolerance for harassment, such as bullying, stalking, intimidation, unwelcome physical contact, hate speech, discriminatory practices, and more. Offering programming in partnership with campus counseling services. • Library-use security. Combatting “library anxiety” with anything from signage to proactive librarian outreach. Researcher Constance Mellon (1986) studied library anxiety as early as the 1980s, and noted how the library can cause students to feel lost and overwhelmed when they are not familiar with the collection, processes, or librarians (Gremmels, 2015). Most of us are likely familiar with how challenging it can be to both speak up to a stranger and admit we don’t know something—imagine how much harder that is for a new student with an information need.

Love and Belonging • Friendship. Providing spaces for social interactions—the library as a community hub in lack of, or in addition to, a campus student union. • Belonging. Developing “programming and collections that give nontraditional library users the sense that they are welcome and a part of the library,” building personal relationships through one-on-one interactions with librarians, and learning—through marketing efforts like surveys and focus groups—what makes your student population comfortable in the library (Francis, 2010, p. 141).

Esteem • Feeling of accomplishment. Assisting students in completing their assignments, understanding how to do a certain computer task, and understanding how to perform research and create correct citations.

Self-Actualization • Achieving full potential. Teaching research, information literacy, and critical thinking skills that allow students to in turn solve problems on their own. For example, a reference desk interaction or a formally taught instruction session in the classroom can show students how to create search strategies to find information. When students successfully implement the strategies and find what they need, their problem is solved by their own doing and their potential is realized (Francis, 2010).

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Although it may seem overwhelming to try to address every one of these categories, they essentially build upon each other. Library science professor Mary Francis put it simply: “in our instruction and daily interaction with students, we must also give attention to their more basic needs, for it is only after the fulfillment of those needs that an individual can focus on those skills required for information literacy” (2010, p. 140). We can’t expect our students to be able to utilize a new library database for school if they’re dealing with food insecurity. We can’t hope to bring them into a library event if they feel nervous entering our building. But what can we reasonably hope to accomplish given our own limits with resources, staff, and funding? Mathews recommended focusing on five specific areas of student need: social, entertainment/recreational, service, personal, and rejuvenation needs (2009). Is your library a place where students can not only learn, but relax, socialize, and even creatively express themselves? You could also choose to start with just addressing the basic physiological and safety needs and then watch as a sense of belonging and feelings of accomplishment naturally grow from your efforts. Ultimately, it’s the library’s overall mindset that’s important. Mathews summed it up well in describing how libraries should aspire to be “user-sensitive” organizations: “we should not see library users as mere customers, patrons, transactions, statistics, or web hits, but instead view them as students with unique needs, problems, talents, opinions, preferences, and suggestions” (2009, p. 84). Marketing from the heart is about seeing our students as people first—the whole human package. The library’s involvement in student wellness should not replace essential services on campus. It is the responsibility of the institution to provide adequate services (and funding) in a holistic support of students’ needs (Beuoy, 2021). However, the library has a unique relationship to those we serve and can support our students in coordination with other campus services in our shared goal of helping students succeed.

BENEFITS The benefits of marketing to and providing for the whole student, taking their hearts into consideration as much as their minds, is more than just knowing you made someone “feel good” or “feel better.” We want our students to feel good, of course, but empathetic marketing in the library should go a step beyond that. When we are in the “business” of student success, the end goal is to improve our students’ lives, while also staying true to our purpose as a library and what we can uniquely offer our students. One of the first, and most obvious positive outcomes of marketing from the heart is that, if done right, it can likely increase student traffic within the library and increase engagement. Students see events they are interested in— something that seems fun or useful beyond their initial academic query— and continue to stay engaged with the library. They may tell their friends,

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taking on some of that marketing of the library themselves through word of mouth (Dowd et al., 2010). It’s a chance to bring in nonlibrary users who might not have set foot inside the building at all if not for the lure of an event or resource that really “speaks to them.” This, in turn, “builds a deeper connection” between the library (and the college as a whole) and the students within it (Girton, 2018, p. 211). Creating this relationship, and building this welcoming environment, ensures that students will come back. Best of all, if they began as nonlibrary users and now see the library as a safe, welcoming, and friendly environment, they are more likely to return when they do have an academic need that the library can serve. That both increases foot traffic and increases student success when they ultimately benefit from library information services to improve their papers and grades and get one step closer to graduation and future aspirations. Multiple studies continue to link personal connections to persistence and retention. The Ohio State University (2021) compiled evidence to support the importance of “sense of belonging” in the college classroom, especially as it applies to student engagement, and shared tips on supporting that sense of belonging in the classroom. And what applies to the classroom—such as greeting students when they enter, using their names, and acknowledging their good ideas (The Ohio State University, 2021)—can often easily be applied to the library. We also have the ability to make a student’s academic life easier by removing, or partially removing, one small roadblock from their personal situations that could be preventing engagement in their studies. A snack event during Finals Week might allow students to focus on their exams a little more than they could have before by alleviating the roadblock of hunger. A list of free on-campus tutoring at the reference desk might remove the financial stress of worrying about paying for a private tutor and the stress of having to navigate disparate campus services. Looking at the even bigger picture: students might be a little less afraid of some aspect in their life because they know that there is someone who cares. More public libraries are beginning to employ social workers in-house to provide patrons in need with access to mental health services, job and housing assistance, and even legal support (Dwyer, 2019). At academic institutions, demand for counseling and other wellness services is increasing, and these support services are “now a key dimension of college and university life” (Holder & Lannon, 2021, p. 2). And while academic libraries might not have the ability to employ in-house social workers if hiring is controlled by the overall institution’s administration, we can provide and market services within our scope. One such attempt by my (Villamor’s) institution was to create an entire Springshare LibGuide web page for social services linking students to local organizations that can help with food and shelter, affordable healthcare, personal care resources, LGBTQIA+ and sexual health

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resources, suicide and abuse resources, disability resources, and veterans’ services. Although the guide was ultimately unpublished due to the difficulty in keeping over 160 links up to date without a dedicated librarian, a smaller and more focused LibGuide, handout, or section of the library’s website could be one solution to connect students with services in a way that is less overwhelming and easier to maintain. Or linking to existing services on campus that have already been compiled on the college website might be more feasible. Any such attempt, whether large or small, is going to provide some help to some students, and show that the library does care about their needs. At Illinois Institute of Technology, I (Shotick) partnered with the Student Health and Wellness division on programming, displays, and coordinated service offerings. For example, during midterms, we offered a pop-up table in a busy student area within the library with stress-relieving activities, such as making a stress ball. During Finals Week, we turned a meeting room into a “Stress-Free Zone” with light therapy lamps, crafts, kinetic sand, and journaling activities, offering yoga and other stress-relieving programs in the space. Additionally, we partnered with the Behavioral Health and Wellness program at Lewis College of Human Sciences to offer exercise bikes to students in the library in support of their physical and mental health during Finals Week. At each of these events, literature about campus services was available to help guide students in need to campus resources. Even if you can’t put together elaborate pages of resources, you may be able to partner with groups on campus who are already working on similar projects, including diversity committees or your campus student service office. And taking these student needs into account treats students like human beings instead of just statistics. This will go a long way toward improving lives and providing stories for stakeholders beyond just usage data (more on marketing to administration in Chapter 7). I (Villamor) will never forget the student who spent all afternoon petting a therapy dog at our library’s 2018 animal therapy event to help students de-stress before final exams. The student then left feedback on the library’s whiteboard with a comment: “My mom was diagnosed with cancer this morning and I didn’t think I would make it through the day. Thank you.” You never know how even the smallest effort can make the biggest difference in students’ lives. Finally, marketing from the heart can benefit students who may not feel completely seen on a regular basis. While all diverse populations can benefit from empathetic marketing, members of minority communities may be needing that care and empathy even more so. “Research has shown that minority students tend to report lower sense of belonging than their peers” (The Ohio State University, 2021, para. 3). But when you recognize and celebrate Pride Day or National Coming Out Day with rainbow cupcakes, messages of support, and showcasing the LGBTQIA+ authors in your

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LEFT: A whiteboard captured thank you notes from students at the College of Southern Nevada after their “Love Dogs” therapy animal event. RIGHT: After the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, students at the College of Southern Nevada were able to smile again thanks to the therapy animals who sprang into action for an emergency visit on campus.

LEFT: Students gather around a blind therapy cat at the College of Southern Nevada’s CSN Libraries West Charleston campus during a spring 2019 therapy animal event. RIGHT: Therapy dog Boise cuddles up with a student at CSN Libraries’ first year bringing therapy animals to campus in 2014.

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library’s collection, you are showing your LGBTQIA+ students that they are welcome in the library and can be their true selves. If a large-scale event isn’t possible, even creating pride pins for staff to wear in order to show support or hanging a “safe zone” sticker in library or office windows (Safe Zone Project, n.d.) can show students that they will not be turned away and belong at the library. (Safe Zone stickers are awarded at the completion of Safe Zone trainings on LGBTQIA+ inclusive practices. For more information, visit https://thesafezoneproject.com). Back in 2012, library author and trainer Ned Potter published his marketing handbook, The Library Marketing Toolkit, and addressed “marketing to multicultural communities” with a case study example that talked about filming library service video clips in native languages (p. 147). In today’s world, however, we need to take a step further into understanding our multicultural populations. We can’t just reach out to diverse communities to come up with new programming ideas or think putting up a book display during each multicultural history month is enough. If we really want to reach their hearts, we can’t ignore their struggles. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of 2020 made this especially clear. With one of the largest movements in U.S. history (Buchanan et al., 2020), members of our Black community took notice when organizations showed public support for their cause—such as through statements, commercials, and social media posts— and when they didn’t. We’ll discuss more of these topics in Chapter 5’s covering of equity, diversity, and inclusion, but for now the most important takeaway is that our diverse communities can benefit from marketing that is purposefully empathetic, taking their community’s unique history and unique needs into account. But what does this type of marketing look like in practice? We’ve given a few small examples of marketing from the heart already, but because each heart is different, marketing from the heart can manifest itself in a variety of ways. We’ll have several real-world examples at the end of this chapter, but you’ll find most of these efforts fit into one of three overarching categories: sharing the stories of our students, giving back to our students, and caring about the issues and concerns that our students care about.

SHARING STORIES If we want to acknowledge the value of the people we serve, we have to understand who they are. The easiest way to understand someone outside ourselves is to listen to them. Sharing stories should be all about the student—listening to them, hearing them, and providing opportunities where they can tell their experiences from their perspectives. This also allows for creativity, such as through writing, art, or other ways that students express themselves, which in turn helps reach the kind of “self-actualization” that Maslow, and Francis (2010), wrote about.

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A writing contest may be one of the most obvious ways to share a story— through written word—with prompts that can both tie to the library and ask to hear more about the students participating. The winning entry of an April Poetry Month contest can be easily shared on social media while also promoting the library’s literature collections. In fact, this type of marketing initiative is relatively low-cost as well. If only one winner is selected, only one prize may be needed. If your library can’t afford to purchase swag right now for prizes, recognition on the library’s website and social media may be all a student is hoping for when entering. If the entries are not too long, you may be able to recruit librarians and staff members to participate in the reading and judging of the contest. This not only gets your entire library involved in the marketing initiative, but it adds the bonus benefit of your librarians getting to know more about their student population and what’s on their minds. How do you ensure entries are not too long to have your colleagues be able to make time to review them? My (Villamor’s) institution hosted a “6-word story contest” for several years, asking students to tell a story in just six words. The idea was “based on the urban legend that Ernest Hemingway said he could tell a story in just six words. He supposedly then proceeded to write: ‘For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.’” (Espinoza, 2017, para. 8). One humorous winning entry under the theme “March Madness” was from an anonymous student who wrote: Spring Break begins! “Blink.” It ended. Stories can also be told through feedback: anonymous comments and messages on a blank poster, bulletin board, or whiteboard in the library, or a space or form on the website for posting comments online. If your institution uses Google products, or if a large number of your student population prefer using Google Docs for their coursework, you could introduce Google’s interactive whiteboard, called a Jamboard, on your website with a question at the top of the virtual page and a space for students to type, draw, or leave virtual sticky notes. When comments are anonymous, you may be able to collect some fun and intriguing library confessions that can help promote the library or be used in future marketing materials. While you may also collect some complaints—which can help the library know where they need to improve—this is a great medium for capturing students’ stories. If we hadn’t offered a space for commentary on the library’s therapy dog event, we would have never heard the story about how the library helped deal with a cancer diagnosis. You can think outside the “written word” with art or photo contests or spaces to share visual stories in the library, or partnering with students (your student workers, an advisory committee, student government) to get input on book displays that ultimately tell a story about what’s important to them. Even acknowledging students’ successes—like having a student poster session event or creating a brag board wall in the library for posting

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accomplishments and awards won by your student population—helps build community in a public way. Now everyone who comes into the library knows how great your students are. Now everyone who comes into the library knows how much you care about your students. If you want to try to share longer stories from students, there are many great options that might fit an academic library institution. Many libraries may have a news blog on their website and could feature guest posts from students interested in writing. Try reaching out to departments on campus that already require student research papers (such as English, History, or many of the sciences) and suggest cosponsoring a white paper contest. These stories can tie to the library and information literacy education through ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education as well. Students participating in research contests share their unique voices while also learning that information creation is a process and participating in scholarship as a conversation—something that libraries strive to encourage (Espinoza, 2017, para. 10). Finally, if you learn that a current student or graduate of your institution actually published a book—fiction or nonfiction—consider purchasing it for the collection and highlighting it for other students (and their professors!) to see. If you’re not sure where to begin, ask your institution’s creative writing faculty to see if any of their students are working toward book publication. Repeat the process in other departments and let them know that the library is willing to share their successes and host a copy of the finished work for circulation.

GIVING BACK Giving out physical materials is always going to be associated with some kind of cost (unless you’re able to obtain donations), but it is a very visual and personal way to show students you support them. We’ve already discussed food as a physiological need that libraries can help to fill, but you’ll also have a chance to read about the success of the University of North Florida’s Thomas G. Carpenter Library’s Random Acts of Snacks events in our case study at the end of this chapter. Food can be a powerful and popular motivator, scaled up or down depending on budget. If you don’t have funds for coffee, soda, or chips, a small bowl of candy may still show students who walk in the door that you’re willing to give back to the students who make use of your resources. It’s both a “thank you” and a no-stringsattached gift of good will. The same can be done with swag given out free at the library desk, at campus-wide events, or as contest prizes. Again, the cost of giveaway items can scale up or down based on what you can afford. My (Villamor’s) institution likes to purchase squeezable stress relievers in the shape of stars (and we’ve seen other stress relief objects ranging from brains to light bulbs to

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teddy bears) that can be given out during Finals Week when stress is especially high amongst students. But if stress relievers are outside your price range, even a free pencil can be appreciated—especially when students have forgotten their own right before an exam is about to start. Finals Week is one time of year that many academic libraries practice marketing from the heart with events, giveaways, and other forms of support that are more focused on relaxation than on academics. Many libraries leave out adult coloring book pages for students who need some coloring stress relief in between classes. The library supply company Demco, Inc. even has a line of “Upstart Color Craze” products (Espinoza, 2017, para. 14) ranging from bookmarks and stickers to entire tabletop coloring sheets that can be placed on desks and tables for students to sit at and color in between studying. Of course, there is a variety of free coloring pages that can be printed out from online as well. And don’t forget to think outside of traditional stress relief. A LEGO box, Play-Doh kit, or other children’s toys that allow for creativity can spark nostalgia and be a relaxing way for adult students to pass the time. Finally, don’t forget about the no-cost events and activities that give back something less tangible: good will, positive vibes, and happy students. If your institution hasn’t already partnered with a local therapy dog organization, now may be the time to start. Pet Partners is one of many nonprofit animal-assisted therapy organizations that can bring volunteer animals to schools for events designed to both educate others on animal therapy and alleviate the anxiety of attendees (Pet Partners, 2021). In 2014, the College of Southern Nevada’s CSN Libraries first met with “Pet Partners of Las Vegas/Love Dog Adventures,” (then simply, “Love Dog Adventures”), the Las Vegas affiliate of the national Pet Partners program (Love Dog Adventures, n.d.). A November visit was scheduled with licensed and trained therapy dogs to help students de-stress as final exams approached. The event is now offered twice a year—once every semester— on all three of the College of Southern Nevada physical campuses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual events were hosted as well, where students could log into an online meeting to see and greet the therapy animal volunteer teams. While many students love dogs in general and may have their own “fur babies” already, there are more benefits than just hearing adults squeal with joy at the sight of a cute pup, blind cat, or skinny pig (a hairless breed of guinea pig) inside the library, ready for petting. Multiple studies reveal both physical and mental health benefits of petting a dog and interacting with therapy animals. From lowering blood pressure to increasing immunity to improving social interactions (Bjick, 2013), there’s a reason that so many academic libraries are already using therapy animals to help their students de-stress.

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CARING ABOUT CONCERNS Caring about a student means that you also take into consideration what a student cares about. What issues are important to them? What causes do they support and why? This can range from something as small as a perpetually broken copy machine to as big as the BLM movement. Note that it will take time to get to know what your particular students are concerned about. You have to heavily utilize techniques shared for collecting feedback—from surveys and focus groups to whiteboards and story contests—before you begin to see the issues stand out and the patterns emerge. Outreach is also key. If you can network with campus organizations and community organizations, you’ll be able to learn more about your student population than if you just stay inside the library realm and try to guess “What’s trending with teens today?” (not to mention the fact that this line of thinking excludes your older students). Your institution likely has an Office of Diversity Initiatives or similar office with a different title. This may be a good place to start in order to learn what groups exist on campus. Are there heritage committees or alliance groups formed by students (or formed by faculty who work with students)? They may be willing to partner with your library on events. What resources or services might you be able to provide that their students would benefit from? These groups may even be able to offer food, space, or a guest speaker in exchange, especially if your library doesn’t currently have the budget for similar events (Espinoza, 2017). Diversity events, whether partnered with an outside committee or not, can often address students’ real-world concerns. The College of Southern Nevada’s Women’s History Month events, for example, are not simply celebrations with food, but panels of guest speakers talking about women’s reproductive rights, domestic violence, female leaders, and so much more. If your library has a medium for discussing current event issues—whether it’s a classroom space that guest speakers can be invited to, or a mobile whiteboard next to your current event literature display—you can be a part of the conversation and create a space for students to be a part of the conversation too. Many students are also so supportive of particular issues that they are looking for ways to give back as well. Provide them. If your science students are especially interested in environmental conservation, organize a service activity that cleans up a local habitat. Connect it to the library through literature displays, or even having your own librarians participating as a staff activity. Even if students can’t make it to the activity themselves due to the busy schedules or other commitments, you can always report back the success through your marketing channels for students to see that the library cares about what they care about. Why venture so far outside the library? Is it really reasonable to expect an academic library to be thinking about cleaning habitats or hosting guest speakers that aren’t related to library information? Yes. Because, ultimately, it’s going to be worth it. My (Villamor’s) institution once received an

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anonymous student marketing suggestion that sums it up: “Find something to unite people. Make people think about issues that we are facing. To care more about just getting your major and getting out and that’s it.” When you listen to students, consider their needs, and treat them like the real people they are with their own unique experiences, you’re going to be able to better reach them and be in a better place to help them succeed. Marketing from the heart doesn’t mean we ignore the traditional marketing for the mind discussed in the previous chapter. We all want students to do well on their assignments by utilizing our information resources. But, we are “inviting the whole person back to the library by showing it’s not just a place for ‘students’—it’s a place for them” (Espinoza, 2017, para. 21).

QUICK TIPS • Brainstorm ways to address Maslow’s hierarchy of needs • Physiological • Safety • Love and belonging • Esteem • Self-actualization • Focus on building human relationships and connection • This fosters a sense of belonging • Benefits both students and libraries • Share student stories • Let your students be the authors and use their own voices too • Try contests, or solicit feedback digitally and in person • Give back to your students • Food and swag if you have the budget • Free events that give good will, like therapy animal visits • Show you care about what’s important to them • Partner with campus and community groups • Host service-oriented activities

FROM THE FIELD Authors: Rachael Muszkiewicz and Alina Shiller Institution: Valparaiso University, Indiana Description: Librarian Rex: Using Humor in the Library

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Valparaiso University is a medium-sized, private, baccalaureate granting institution with a student body of 3,100 (FTE). The Christopher Center Library is centrally located on campus; the triangle the building makes with the student union and the chapel puts it at the figurative heart of campus. The library has a faculty of 11 librarians along with 10 staff members. The librarian who heads up the marketing and outreach efforts has no marketing background, and the library marketing team, such as it is, consists of that librarian and a Library Marketing Student Assistant (LMSA), who is a marketing and business analytics major. Our small team is responsible for displays, programming, and social media posts across three platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), as well as the traditional public relations required by an academic library. While most of our social media posts are designed to bring attention to what is going on in the library, we have had success with posts just for humor’s sake. This is especially true when trying to reach an undergraduate population. Typically, these posts go out on Friday with the hashtag #FunFriday. These “just for fun” posts have a high response rate from our followers, and research into humor and marketing confirms why this is happening (Barry & Graca, 2018; Eisend, 2009; Koneska et al., 2017). Since noting this phenomenon, we have attempted to add a touch of whimsy to most posts—and much of our marketing in general. Fall semester of 2018 saw a mascot join the

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ranks of our marketing team. We purchased an inflatable T-Rex costume and so Librarian Rex was born. We have made many photos and videos featuring Librarian Rex, most of them advertising various library resources and programming, but some just for fun. During spring semester 2019, the LMSA was taking a Digital Marketing class that included a group project. The LMSA and three of her classmates chose the Christopher Center Library as the subject of a semester-long project. The students were all junior marketing majors who wanted experience working on a campaign for a real organization. They chose the library because the LMSA was already involved in its marketing and they were all familiar with its operation and offerings. They were tasked with creating an integrated digital marketing plan for the library that included a video, social media posts, and tools for measuring its success. Due to the timing of the project during spring semester, the group decided to do a video around April Fool’s Day, featuring Librarian Rex playing pranks on students while at the same time highlighting different types of library resources: the physical space, online resources, our book collections, and that librarians can also be a resource. The students created shot lists and filming took approximately 2 hours of librarian time. The student group shot and edited the video, added music and titles, and set up several social media posts to tease the video’s release before the video went live on April 1. Using April Fool’s Day as a setting was imperative to the process because it gave us a reason to include the pranks that linked humor to the resources via the students. For example, in the video, Librarian Rex jumped out from behind a whiteboard to scare a student who was using that physical resource. In another scene, Librarian Rex moved objects on a librarian’s desk and wrote “ROAR” on their whiteboard to highlight librarians’ offices and librarians as a resource. The various social media platforms used required different types of posts—Twitter and Instagram, for instance, don’t allow for longer-form videos, but Facebook does. Therefore, the group decided to break up the video into clips on those two platforms, while encouraging viewers to go to the library’s YouTube page to see the whole video, entitled “Librarian Rex celebrates April Fool’s Day!” (ValpoLibrary, 2019). This video was highly contingent upon the brand that the library has been making for itself on social media—factual advertising with a humorous component. While some academic libraries do employ mascots (Bennett & Thompson, 2016; Eastman et al., 2018), the literature does not reveal any other inflatable ones. We firmly believe that the humor in our form of advertising is what makes us memorable and

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further breaks down library anxiety—silliness makes us more accessible. This project was successful because it was a rewarding collaboration with students. Valparaiso University is a teaching institution first and foremost. The library not only benefited from having the students engage in peer-to-peer digital marketing, but these students were able to complete a class project where they learned valuable skills and earned an A. It was also successful for the library because it used humor to effectively engage with the library’s target markets about the resources it offers. On Facebook, the post reached over 2,000 people, had almost 300 post clicks, and over 125 reactions, comments, and shares. On Instagram, each clip had an average of 65 views and 14 likes. On Twitter, each clip had an average of 53 views and 2 likes. To put this in perspective, our posts on Facebook now reach an average of about 200 people and about 30 engagements. More specifically, the five posts before this campaign reached an average of 200 people, had 6 post clicks, and 17 reactions, comments, and shares. We also posted a survey about which part of the video audiences enjoyed most and on Facebook we reached 293 people and received 19 votes. The video also had some serendipitous success. It just so happened that April 1 saw a meeting between the Dean of the Library and Valparaiso University Advancement (fundraising and alumni relations) where she highlighted what we had been doing in the library via social media. The video dropped about an hour before this meeting, so she, and the Advancement team, were pleasantly surprised. Advancement had not seen Librarian Rex before and were enthused to use this with donors. They even requested to watch it a second time. This type of reach, both internal and external, promoted the library’s resources and furthered the library’s brand.

FROM THE FIELD Author: Maria Atilano Institution: University of North Florida’s Thomas G. Carpenter Library, Jacksonville, Florida Description: Random Acts of Snacks When it comes to engagement and creating a sense of belonging, the University of North Florida’s Thomas G. Carpenter Library in

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Jacksonville hosts numerous events and activities for its more than 17,000 students. One of the library’s most popular initiatives is Random Acts of Snacks, a series of pop-up events where students receive free treats just for being in the right place at the right time, with no strings attached. Random Acts of Snacks may occur at any time of the semester. While they are planned and scheduled by library staff, students are unaware when a Random Act is about to occur because they are not advertised ahead of time. The Carpenter Library has hosted most Random Acts before and during Finals Week, when students require the most support and nourishment. Since fall 2017, the Carpenter Library has hosted 92 individual Random Acts of Snacks events, most of them sponsored by other campus departments. Over 10,000 students at the University of North Florida have been reached during Random Acts as of February 2020. Snacks are typically prepackaged due to environmental health and safety standards, but have also included hot coffee, freshly-made popcorn, and prepared food from the university’s Dining Services unit. Random Acts are extremely cost-effective, especially when the snacks are purchased in bulk, sponsored by other departments, or are left over from library events. Depending on the nature of the snack, there are usually several options available and students are given the option to choose one of whatever they would like. Salty and sweet choices are equally popular, but so are nutritional choices like fresh mandarin oranges. The process of a Random Act is simple: snacks are placed in containers or arranged on carts in a visually appealing way. Volunteers then walk around the library, visiting heavily populated areas where students have congregated, and ask if they would like a snack. If a student answers affirmatively, the volunteer hands them their chosen snack, and then moves on to the next person. During peak times of the semester, library campus partners are invited to host their own Random Acts event in the library. By providing their own snacks and walking around the library, this allows departments the opportunity to reach students who might not already utilize their services, while also showcasing the fact that the library is the place to be. On the surface, Random Acts of Snacks is about feeding students. In reality, these pop-up events are about promotion and advocacy. The Carpenter Library often schedules Random Acts during key points in the semester when students are most vulnerable, but outreach staff also schedule them to coincide with a specific marketing initiative. For example, 2 days before a Research Party event in fall 2019, a Random Act was scheduled to hand out over 100 bags of cookies and chips to

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students who were studying on the second floor in an area adjacent to where the event would take place. Each student who received a snack was also told about the Research Party and was given a flyer with more information. Library staff described the event (drop-in research assistance with librarians and other campus representatives) and emphasized that there would be free pizza and soda. A few students who received a snack during the Random Act made a point to stop by the Research Party 2 days later. Random Acts therefore allow the library to connect with students and promote valuable services in a casual exchange without the target audience even needing to leave their seats. Random Acts also provide an opportunity to market the library as a resource, whether it be as a friendly face or as a means to provide assistance or support. Every Random Act interaction begins with a greeting and a smile. During Finals Week, snacks are often branded with a label that includes the library logo and a friendly note that says “Best of luck!” or “You got this!” These targeted messages are often noted by students and sometimes end up on social media with grateful comments like “I love my library.” While it takes time to design, print, and place hundreds of stickers on hundreds of snacks, this simple act of good will helps promote the library as a positive entity. Students notice and are appreciative, making them more likely to utilize the library in future and encourage their classmates to do the same. While the Carpenter Library tracks each Random Act of Snacks event and number of interactions, its impact is difficult to quantify. Outreach staff collect anecdotes, such as when a student burst into tears when she received a granola bar because she hadn’t eaten all day. Or the time when a student went to the front desk and asked for a specific librarian by name because they saw a friend’s Snapchat that said a librarian named Tom was handing out free boxes of Girl Scout cookies. These examples of Random Act successes are part of what makes the initiative worthwhile: for very little cost and effort, any academic library can purchase or collect a random assortment of snacks and make a student’s day.

REFERENCES Barry, J. M., & Graca, S. S. (2018). Humor effectiveness in social video engagement. Journal of Marketing Theory, 26(1-2), 158–180. Bennett, D. E., & Thompson, P. (2016). Use of anthropomorphic brand mascots for student motivation and engagement: A promotional case study with Pablo the Penguin at the University of Portsmouth library. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 22(2-3), 225–237.

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Beuoy, M. (2021). A case for the empathetic librarian. In S. Holder & A. Lannon (Eds.), Student wellness & academic libraries: Case studies and activities for promoting health and success (pp. 59–73). Association of College & Research Libraries. Bjick, M. (2013). The effects of a therapy animal on college student stress and arousal. (Master of Social Work Clinical Research Paper). St. Catherine University & University of St. Thomas. https://sophia.stkate.edu/msw_papers/152 Bridgman, T., Cummings, S., & Ballard, J. (2017). Triangulating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: The construction of management studies’ famous pyramid. Academy of Management Proceedings, 1, 14177. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2017 .14177abstract Buchanan, L., Bui, Q., & Patel, J. K. (2020, July 3). Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes .com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html Dowd, N., Evangeliste, M., & Silberman, J. (2010). Bite-sized marketing: Realistic solutions for the overworked librarian. American Library Association. Dwyer, C. (2019, July 17). Your local library may have a new offering in stock: A resident social worker [Podcast]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/17 /730286523/your-local-library-may-have-a-new-offering-in-stock-a-resident -social-worker Eastman, T., Saulnier, J., & Richardson, K. (2018). Ask a catbrarian: Marketing library services  using a cat. Marketing Libraries Journal, 2(1), 24–30. http:// journal.marketinglibraries.org/august2018/MLJ-v2i1-24-30.pdf Eisend, M. (2009). A meta-analysis of humor in advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37, 191–203. Espinoza, S. (2017, October 24). Engaging the whole person in library outreach to students. Ideas+Inspiration from Demco. https://ideas.demco.com/blog/engaging -whole-library-outreach-students/ Francis, M. (2010). Fulfillment of a higher order: Placing information literacy within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. College & Research Libraries News, 71(3), 140–159. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.71.3.8336 Girton, C. (2018). Showing students we care: Using empathetic marketing to ease library anxiety and reach distance students. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning, 12(3-4), 209–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/1533 290X.2018.1498634 Gremmels, J. (2015). Constance Mellon’s “library anxiety”: An appreciation and a critique. College & Research Libraries. 76, 268–275. https://doi.org/10.5860 /crl.76.3.268 Ingwer, M. (2012). Empathetic marketing: How to satisfy the 6 core emotional needs of your customers. Palgrave Macmillan. Koneska, L., Teofilovska, J., & Dimitrieska, S. (2017). Humor in advertising. European Journal of Economics and Business Studies, 3(2), 116–123. Love Dog Adventures. n.d. About us. Pet Partners of Las Vegas/Love Dog Adventures. http://www.lovedogadventures.com/about-us/ Mathews, B. (2009). Marketing today’s academic library: A bold new approach to communicating with students. American Library Association. Mellon, C. A. (1986). Library anxiety: A grounded theory and its development. College & Research Libraries, 47(2), 160–165.

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The Ohio State University. (2021). Sense of belonging in the college classroom. University Center for the Advancement of Teaching. https://ucat.osu.edu/bookshelf /teaching-topics/shaping-a-positive-learning-environment/sense-of-belonging -in-the-college-classroom/ Pet Partners. (2021). About. https://petpartners.org/about-us/ Potter, N. (2012). The library marketing toolkit. Facet Publishing. Potter, N. (2017, September 26). The library blankets are lush, grab one. Lib-Innovation. http://libinnovation.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-library-blankets -are-lush-grab-one.html Safe Zone Project. (n.d.). What is safe zone? The Safe Zone Project. https:// thesafezoneproject.com/about/what-is-safe-zone/ ValpoLibrary. (2019, April 1). Librarian Rex celebrates April Fool’s Day! [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XRti4tFk-JE

5 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion We want to open this chapter by stating our support for BIPOC library workers and library workers with identities from other underrepresented populations. We value you and your contributions to the profession and acknowledge our advantages and biases as White/White-passing library workers ourselves, who have the privilege of a published platform. This chapter is designed to help inform and educate the White, dominant identity audiences in power who do not have your lived experiences but have the power to make reparations, and who are responsible for changing current cultures of discrimination and oppression. We do our best to put our own commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion into practice in this chapter, but we acknowledge our gaps in knowledge and experience. We cannot speak for you. We do not speak for you. We remain open to listening and learning more about these important issues, but stress that the burden is not on you to educate us. We want to always do and be better.

Discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in library marketing have increased as institutions become more willing to address these issues. Donald Trump’s tenure as president decreased multicultural marketing efforts by bringing the existing structures of White supremacy and racism into the forefront of the public’s mind (Morse, 2018). Now we must work on pushing these back and engaging in the conversations that help bring diverse concerns to the table again as one of our foremost considerations when we engage in library marketing. There is a business reason for engaging in multicultural marketing: the United States, and, particularly its institutions of higher education, are increasingly diverse. Beyond business reasons, however, institutions are beginning to recognize the structures of White supremacy and oppression that they were built upon and have (in many cases) reacted by identifying these histories through land acknowledgements, renamings, and community conversations.

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In the backdrop of police brutality and racial unrest in the spring of 2020, academia responded by making a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. For example, over half of California’s community colleges joined the California Community College Equity Leadership Alliance, committing $25,000 and promising “to act on racial disparities on their campuses” (Brown, 2020, p. 6). Likewise, the American Library Association (ALA) recognized their role in upholding discriminatory systems and pledged to engage with membership through conversation, assess governance structures, and to address the disparities that exist for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)s’ access to information (2020). The following chapter offers working definitions for diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), strategies for incorporating DEI into marketing teams, methods for diverse marketing materials, and case studies that exemplify issues related to DEI and library marketing. While it is irresponsible to think that the work of understanding White supremacy in library marketing practices is enough to foster equity and justice, it is an important endeavor in the context of the overall DEI work of the library. As Leung and López-McKnight asserted, “If we are going to think and converse about real movement toward change, that means switching from progress narratives to liberatory imaginaries, which then opens up room to ask different, deeper questions about teaching and learning and the architecture of libraries that are designed to uphold White supremacy” (2020, p. 14). It is not enough to talk about progress, as doing so results in complacency. By engaging with DEI efforts through our library work, we can examine our own library’s practices and structures that are exclusionary and harmful to BIPOC and other individuals with nonhegemonic identities, and work to disrupt those practices and break those structures toward the goals seated in radical social change.

DEFINITIONS Before delving into DEI in library marketing, it’s useful to establish working definitions for each term. The following are definitions culled across ALA’s websites and outside sources, along with examples within the context of library marketing.

Diversity ALA’s Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services defines diversity as “the sum of the ways that people are both alike and different” (2017, September 7, para. 4). These differences include those that can be perceived, such as age and race, as well as those that are invisible, such as ideologies and religion. Beyond a recognition of these definitions, diversity relates to a respect for those differences and for the traits that make individuals unique.

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Marta Tienda advocated for educational institutions to “harness the pedagogical benefits of diversity” by engaging diverse viewpoints that emerge from the many differences in our students’ ideologies, social classes, values, religious beliefs, and so on (2013, p. 471). In the educational context, then, diversity is descriptive of the visible and invisible differences between people, as well as a respectful engagement with these differences in the pursuit of the educational goals of the institution. In library marketing, we can engage with these differences through our marketing practices.

Equity ALA’s definition of equity is centered around fairness: “Equity . . . assumes difference and takes difference into account to ensure a fair process and, ultimately, a fair (or equitable) outcome” (2017, September 7, para. 3). Part of this assumption of difference is a recognition of disadvantages and the systematic marginalization of individuals. Equity attempts to increase diversity by improving the conditions that lead to marginalization. A common image that has been used to explain equity is of kids standing at a fence with stools of equal size. The tallest kid can easily see over the fence, but the shortest cannot. This image is in contrast to one where the stools are of different sizes, allowing all of the children to see. The idea is to demonstrate that what is equal is not always equitable. However, this image is problematic because it oversimplifies the issue and avoids the systemic nature of marginalization, conceals the White supremacy at work, and places blame on the smallest person, encouraging deficit thinking. The founding director of the Center for Urban Education (CUE) wrote: “Equity, once viewed suspiciously as racially divisive and associated with the activism of social justice movements that academic purists disdain as ‘advocacy’ work, is now being enthusiastically embraced on the academic scene” (Bensimon, 2018, p. 95). Bensimon noted that equity was at risk of being whitewashed, and the racial justice that buttresses equity be cleared away by White, male leaders in academia. Bensimon argued, “Equity and equity-mindedness accept that it is whiteness—not the achievement gap—that produces and sustains racial inequality in higher education” (2018, p. 97). The CUE definition of equity is centered around two axes: one, student outcomes will have racial parity when an institution is accountable to equity; two, an acknowledgement and critical understanding of Whiteness. This second axis is often missing from DEI initiatives and definitions, including ALA’s definition. However, we want to recognize these dimensions of equity and honor their roots in civil rights and racial justice. In library marketing, an awareness of the existence of White supremacy that impairs efforts for equity and inclusion can help us make informed decisions about how to best achieve our marketing goals in a way that subverts the oppressive systems that disable our attempts at equity and inclusion.

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Inclusion In their Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, ALA defines inclusion as “an environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully; are valued for their distinctive skills, experiences, and perspectives; have equal access to resources and opportunities; and can contribute fully to the organization’s success” (ALA, 2017, para. 4). However, we recognize that equal access may not result in equitable access. For instance, in a library where there are equal opportunities for library workers to join a marketing team, the work may benefit a tenure-track librarian more than a circulation staff member. The statistics show that individuals in exempt positions at Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions are over 10% more White than individuals in nonexempt positions (Schonfeld & Sweeney, 2017). Simply put: professional library positions are more White because of the systemic structures that suppress underrepresented groups. Inclusion in an academic context can be defined as: “organizational strategies and practices that promote meaningful social and academic interactions among persons and groups who differ in their experiences, their views, and their traits” (Tienda, 2013, p. 467). Library marketing practices provide opportunities to promote the interactions that lead to inclusion, but it must be an intentional effort and not an afterthought.

DIVERSITY AND MARKETING Libraries can learn lessons from the DEI efforts in business marketing. Two of the “P’s” from the marketing mix are products and promotion. In business marketing, product diversity is a worthy pursuit because not everyone’s needs and desires are the same. Diversity in promotion efforts are worthwhile because they promote inclusion. Although advertisers have made intentional efforts at inclusion, for example by increasingly including diverse models in their advertisements, Henderson and Williams (2013) noted that intentional efforts have led to shameful missteps by companies. They pointed to the example of a Toyota ad that ran in African American publications with the headline: “Unlike your last boyfriend, it goes to work in the morning” (p. 2). Their attempt at “inclusion” was not only ineffective, but it relied on a racist stereotype that was exclusionary and harmful. However, when marketing is “mono-ethnic,” geared toward a single (White) culture, identities and ethnicities that are not of the dominant culture are excluded (Licsandru & Cui, 2018, p. 333). This can cause those individuals to feel that they are not accepted. The implication for academic libraries not intentionally pursuing multiethnic marketing is that those libraries are actively excluding non-White individuals.

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LIBRARIES AND DEI Libraries serve diverse populations. By 2060, the U.S. Census Bureau expects that 64% of children will belong to racial and ethnic minorities (Colby & Ortman, 2014). Under the Obama administration, the Department of Education undertook efforts to assist institutions of higher education in recruiting and retaining diverse student bodies through guidance, grants, technical assistance, and support of related litigation (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). While the Trump administration pulled back some of these efforts, with some institutions pausing their diversity efforts in response to Trump’s “Executive Order no. 13950: Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping” (Flaherty, 2020), President Biden revoked the order on his first day in office (Schipma, 2021). While diversity initiatives have been in flux in recent years, institutions of higher education reflect the increasing diversity of the United States, and many have centered strategic plan initiatives around DEI. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data demonstrate the diversity of undergraduates in the United States. The 2019 data digest reported that 19.4% of undergraduate students in 2015–16 identified as having a disability (NCES, 2019). The NCES projects that by 2027, 52.7% of students will be White, down from 84.3% in 1976 (Hussar & Bailey, 2019). The projection and trends show increasing numbers of Hispanic and Asian students with fluctuating, but generally increasing, numbers of Black students. Increasing student diversity requires that institutions increase DEI efforts in order to provide a more equitable education. Libraries are natural places for DEI activity, because public libraries have historically been places of radical social, educational, and political change through advocacy and the provision of resources and services to all (Jaeger & Sarin, 2016). However, libraries have also been agents of White supremacy, and librarianship has been an overly White profession with hostility experienced by BIPOC librarians at the hands of White colleagues (Hathcock, 2015). This context is essential for library workers engaged in DEI to understand. The work that we do is situated between the profession’s social justice aims and the reality of the White supremacy that is systemic not only in academic libraries but also in the institutions of higher education that we serve. Libraries have begun conversations around DEI within their institutions and the profession, with some releasing statements of commitment to DEI. While the commitment to this work has been initiated at administrative levels, we are all tasked with dismantling systems of oppression. There are several ways that academic librarians can consider the diversity of the patrons they serve when approaching marketing. Library patrons can be grouped in many ways for marketing and outreach purposes, as discussed in previous chapters, and this includes diverse identities and underserved populations. The ARL SPEC Kit 361 reported on a survey that asked

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librarians engaged in outreach work about underserved groups or specific populations that respondents worked with. The most frequently targeted groups included international students, 83%; first-generation students, 61%; LGBTQIA+ students 54%; people of color, 48%; people with disabilities, 43%; and/or veterans, 41% (LeMire et al., 2018). Respondents were doing less outreach work for underserved groups identified by the ALA Office of Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services, which included adult literacy patrons, incarcerated or ex-offenders, homeless people, and bookmobile users. In addition, few respondents reported that their libraries were doing outreach to commuter students. Awareness of the diverse identities on campus, along with a will to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in your marketing efforts, comes in two forms: fostering diversity in your marketing team and marketing with sensitivity and awareness.

DEI in Marketing Teams When composing marketing teams, efforts should be made to include diverse identities. U.S. Census data continues to confirm that 80% to 90% of academic librarians are White (Kung et al., 2020), and we’ve mentioned the ratios of professional library positions being more White than nonexempt positions (Schonfeld & Sweeney, 2017). Given this continuing Whiteness of the profession, it can be a difficult task to ensure that diverse identities are represented on your team—especially because library workers of diverse identities are increasingly asked to serve as representatives of their identities across their institutions. However, inclusion is essential to impactful marketing, and libraries should make sure that the work of BIPOC librarians is equitably honored and compensated. There are inequities in making marketing work extra, rather than carving out job duties and/or scheduled time within current jobs. This is an important consideration when trying to build a diverse team. If you are a cisgender White librarian, realize that it is your job to understand the needs of your diverse constituents, and while you should include diverse voices, do not set up expectations for BIPOC librarians or library workers to “speak for” others with similar identities. Also, do the work to recognize the structures of White supremacy within your institution and consider how you can reduce them without putting the burden on librarians in underrepresented groups. The BBC reported that regarding diversity initiatives in the workplace, “People of color are often tasked with this heavy lift while juggling their usual duties amid the coronavirus crisis— and not being offered additional compensation for the work. The burden also carries a high emotional price tag” (Nance-Nash, 2020, para. 3). Particularly, library workers of a dominant identity in a position of power must ensure that group membership is equitably optional and equitably compensated. If you are a BIPOC librarian experiencing tokenism or other harmful expectations from your peers, taking care of yourself might mean avoiding

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such work, if possible. Institutions of higher education are still a long way from being anti-racist, equitable, and inclusive. How can you bring diverse voices to the table? Begin with a call for volunteers that keeps diversity in mind. When you send out a recruitment email, talk to your colleagues about your marketing project, or seek help from your supervisor in bringing in team members, explain that you are actively seeking members from underrepresented identities; however, diverse members should truly have the ability to say no without penalty. And explain that you are seeking these members for a reason. Just as you would clarify the significance of your marketing work by explaining how it contributes to the goals of the institution (as mentioned in Chapter 1), you can identify the benefits of recruiting diverse voices to your team. In a field where we do not fully reflect the demographics of our users, diverse librarians and staff can serve as role models, advocate for diversity in marketing practices, and share the information needs of their communities (Kung et al., 2020). It’s also important to highlight what you mean by “diverse voices” and “underrepresented identities.” Multicultural diversity is important, but so is diversity of age, ability, gender, sexual orientation, and religion/ideology. If asking for volunteers from your current staff does not result in a representative team, you may want to broaden your call outside the library. We’ve previously mentioned outreach and partnerships with campus groups—but it helps if you can bring students from these groups in from the beginning. Not only will you have the student perspective in your marketing initiatives, but you’ll also have diverse student perspectives contributing to each initiative. It’s also essential to recruit and retain diverse employees from even earlier on—when going through the hiring process. While, as a librarian tasked with marketing, you may not have much control over who gets hired in your institution or department, you may be able to share ideas with your supervisor, or work with those in charge of hiring within your department (for example, a Head of Circulation who hires student workers). Suggest language you can add to future job ads that shows your library’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Volunteer to serve on hiring committees if that’s an option at your institution. If employee recruitment is too far outside your current job duties, you can still apply your marketing skills when advertising the job. It may be possible to advertise some positions through flyers or on your website—especially when recruiting for student workers. Ensure that any photos or graphics on your advertisements contain diverse individuals in the images and that language has been updated to be inclusive and shows your commitment to DEI. Your institution may already have an “equal opportunity” or “nondiscrimination” statement for college-wide advertisements. Contact your campus Title IX Coordinator if it’s not easily found on the website. Consider writing your own that is specific to the library.

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Note that if you are a librarian from an underrepresented group, this work may be triggering and/or inequitably burdensome. It is okay to distance yourself from the suggestions here as it is on the librarians of dominant cultural identities, and particularly those in positions of power, to fix the broken systems from which they benefit.

Marketing with Sensitivity and Awareness In order to market with cultural sensitivity and awareness, you must apply a DEI lens to every aspect of marketing that you do. Going through the chapters of this book alone, you can think about how DEI can be incorporated into your marketing definitions, your traditional marketing materials, your empathetic marketing, and your assessments. We touch briefly on each below. • DEI in Definitions • Before you even create a new marketing material or campaign, draft a plan for how diversity can be included in the different areas of marketing. What must you be sensitive and aware of in both print and digital and internal and external marketing? How can you include and represent diverse voices in the images, languages, and creation of the entire material? Ask for feedback from your diverse team, but don’t assume one member of an underrepresented group can speak for their entire group. For areas you’re less familiar with, look into what trainings may be available at your institution or online. Your department may be able to cover the cost of online workshops or explore free options like Junko Takagi’s “Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace” course on Coursera.org. • Reconsider the 4 Ps: Products (Is what you’re offering diverse?), Price (Is it obtainable to all groups?), Place (Is it accessible to all groups?), Promotion (Do your communication methods reach all groups?). • How diverse is your audience segmentation? Which groups have you chosen to target? Which groups are missing? • At this opening stage, it may be beneficial to conduct a diversity audit of your current marketing areas before you begin something new. While many libraries specifically apply diversity audits to collections (Jensen, 2018), you can conduct an audit of the current marketing practices at your library (policies, processes, and plans) by taking the broader steps of gathering data, analyzing, and evaluating that Chun and Evans applied to diversity audits across entire institutions of higher education (2019). • DEI in Traditional Marketing Materials • Design for those on the margins. Instead of an afterthought, underrepresented populations should be considered first for both the content traditional marketing materials contain and how the marketing materials will be accessed, helping to disrupt the centering of the White/male/heterosexual/ nondisabled identity.

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• Representation matters. Not only is it important to graphically include diverse populations in your marketing materials, it’s important to look at how those populations are being portrayed and the messages your images convey. Are your underrepresented students always the ones asking for help in photos or are they providing assistance too? Are only male students shown studying from STEM books? Do your winter and spring break hours’ flyers have Christmas and Easter symbols? (Even more secular icons like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are still associated with Christian holidays, excluding your students and faculty of different faiths). Think about the holidays you’re recognizing on social media and the decor you put up in the library as well. It’s not about trying to represent every single faith or marginalized group, but about ensuring students from those populations don’t feel unwelcome in your space. While diverse representations are important, be aware of cultural appropriation and inauthentic use of diverse imagery. Particularly for cisgender White librarians, be gracious if you make a mistake and commit yourself to do better. A later case study illustrates the evolution of a librarian’s book display through the process of her learning. • Accessibility matters. Marketing materials and events should be physically, mentally, and emotionally accessible to your student populations. Does your website make sense when read through a screen reader? Do images have alt text? Do marketing videos have closed captions? These are bare minimum ideas to consider. While some digital learning objects may be more complicated to make accessible to people of all abilities, you can start with requiring all digital flyers pass an Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat, for example, and adding captions to any videos with speech (possible through YouTube or many screencast software packages). Work on moving up to following accessibility standards for all printed and web-based materials. A great place to start is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines located at https://www.w3.org (Web Accessibility Initiative, 2020). Ensuring marketing materials are emotionally accessible may be a bit more challenging, but content warnings can help when sensitive material is covered, and preresearch into accepted terminology can help avoid stereotypes and offensive language because . . . • Language matters. Many institutions are now posting DEI glossaries of terms on their websites to help decrease the use of outdated terms and encourage respectful language. Such glossaries show the preferred wording used by specific communities or to be avoided when referring to specific communities. Examples include using undocumented immigrant instead of illegal alien and person with a disability instead of handicapped (National Disability Authority, 2014). Caring about your students means taking a moment to reword a sentence that may cause harm. You can also share your pronouns if you’re comfortable sharing your own identity—having pronouns in your email signature, on your website, in your video conferencing name, and in your oral introductions shows students that you recognize their gender identities and creates a safe space for them. Therapists who work with transgender and nonbinary clients are already encouraged to

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PRACTICAL MARKETING FOR THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY disclose their own gender pronouns in therapy “to create a safe space where the client can express and explore their own gender and pronouns” (Knutson, 2019, p. 219). The higher education community can easily follow suit, especially we who market our libraries. Your messages, whether written or spoken, are marketing tools as well.

• DEI in Empathetic Marketing • Marketing from the heart should include the above considerations as well. Marketing that’s targeted to the whole student, beyond just academic goals, should still be designed for students on the margins, with representation, accessibility, and inclusive language. With empathetic marketing, you are taking students’ identities into account more than ever as you foster a sense of belonging with underrepresented populations who have historically been known to report a lower sense of belonging in higher education (The Ohio State University, 2021). • Share the stories of students and colleagues from underrepresented groups who may not have had an opportunity to speak before, and highlight the social issues that they care about and that affect their world. Examples of this can be seen in our case study about diverse blog posts by Noelle Cruz at the end of this chapter. Giving space for your diverse populations to speak about their real-world experiences on your website blog, newsletter, social media, and so on, creates a place for them to share what’s meaningful to them, and allows students outside of their experiences to learn from their peers. • Collaborate! This work cannot be done alone. While we’ve discussed campus partners and diversity committees before, consider such offices as: Disability Services, TRIO, Veterans Office, Study Abroad, International Office, Women’s Center, Gay-Straight Alliance or other LGBTQIA+ groups. Building relationships with both student affinity groups and employee resource groups can foster continued conversations and allow the library to solicit input on everything from events and resources to collections (Baildon et al., 2017). • Diverse Assessments • Assessment for diverse collections. MIT Libraries suggested practical strategies for ensuring diverse collections and creating a social justice mindset, including: reviewing collection development policies to ensure there are materials to help students “become responsible global citizens,” including “works that focus on ethics, values, and social and political concerns through a critical lens”; and supporting “diversity in the marketspace by identifying alternative vendors (e.g., women or BIPOC-owned businesses) for materials and services of all kinds, from collections to catering to office supplies,” promoting and adopting open educational resources (Baildon et al., 2017, p. 12), leaving room for values-based evaluation instead of just “quantitative measures of collections assessment” (Baildon et al., 2017, p. 13). Beyond these initial measures, MIT Libraries also stressed the importance of incorporating strategies to help represent

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marginalized perspectives in the collection to combat a publishing market that is overwhelmingly White and male (Baildon et al., 2017). Building these strategies into your collection policy will allow for assessing and evaluating your collections more critically as you strive to be representative, inclusive, and begin to change dominant library culture. • Assessment for diverse initiatives. In order to assess the diverse initiatives of your library, it helps to begin with a diversity plan tailored specifically to your populations, or ensure that diversity is included as a major section of your marketing plan and library strategic plan. Author Julie Edwards at the University of Montana shared ideas for creating a diversity plan, and noted that the plan not just be “comprised of a list of action items and goals but [also situate] diversity in the scope of the library, the university, the profession, and human rights” (Edwards, 2015, p. 6). • Share, share, share! Your stakeholders need to know the good and the bad of how marginalized groups feel at your institution and in the library. As with building your diverse team, you should be recruiting students from all communities when conducting focus groups, and crafting surveys that not only capture demographic information but ask what the library can be doing to support students from all communities. Report out the numbers and the stories. Make sure the assessments that you distribute and share also use inclusive language and are fully accessible to students of all abilities.

A Note on Universal Design When designing marketing materials, programming, and outreach initiatives, the use of a Universal Design (UD) framework through a lens of inclusion puts accessibility and equity at the forefront, rather than putting the impetus on the user to adapt or request accommodations. UD comes from movements related to barrier-free and accessible design of environments, and has grown to Universal Design for Education, to encompass instructional design in its scope and includes Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) (Ostroff, 2011). In its essence, UD argues for the design of environments and products that are universally accessible without requiring users to be accommodated for. An easy example is a ramp for going uphill. The ramp can be utilized by both wheelchair users and persons who do not use a wheelchair. It will be appreciated by caretakers pushing children in strollers and students who may choose to or need to pull their belongings on a cart. The seven principles of UD are: Equitable Use, Flexibility in Use, Simple and Intuitive Use, Perceptible Information, Tolerance for Error, Low Physical Effort, Size and Space for Approach and Use (Connell et al., 1997). How might library marketing fit into the UD paradigm? Consider that environments and products can be artifacts of library marketing. For

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instance, an electronic flyer for an upcoming study event is a marketing product with which we hope our users will interact. Consider both the accessibility of the flyer and the action you wish the flyer to produce (signing up for and attending the study event, for example). Application of the principles of UD allow us to consider design elements that promote equity and inclusion. Accompanying the seven principles of UD, the Center for Universal Design noted that “Principles of Universal Design address only universally usable design, while the practice of design involves more than consideration for usability. Designers must also incorporate other considerations such as economic, engineering, cultural, gender, and environmental concerns in their design processes” (NC State University, 1997, note). This illustrates the need to be intentional about expanding the principles to take the diverse needs, experiences, and expectations of users of different gender, ability, race and ethnicity, citizenship, wealth/material resources, religion, age, and sexual orientation into account.

What You Can Do Right Now While we recommend the above applications of DEI to marketing, if you’re just starting to think about diversity, equity, and inclusion in your library, there are many ideas you can implement immediately as you start to strategize more long-term building of DEI into your work culture and all marketing. Even small steps will begin to change the culture and contribute toward dismantling current practices in academic libraries that have been created and shaped by majority voices (Baildon et al., 2017). The Lafayette College Library documents their role in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion directly on their website, and can serve as a template when looking at the different categories your library can consider for putting DEI values into action. Examples include: hosting community discussion groups on social justice topics, and other diverse events; curating exhibitions focusing on marginalized voices; using open educational resources to make textbooks affordable; providing formal and informal mentoring to support underrepresented groups; building diverse collections; converting outdated catalog language to more inclusive terms; incorporating UD principles to make digital assets accessible; being active in professional organizations to work for change; and several others specific to the institution (Lafayette College Library, 2021). While a page on your library website must have action behind it, you can begin to document the work you are currently doing that incorporates DEI principles, and then expand as you go. Statements of support make a difference as well, as you show that the library is not afraid to stand in solidarity with those who have been marginalized and oppressed. This

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means paying attention to the current social climate and speaking out, for example, to support Black Lives during historic protests and Asian Americans facing increased discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic. It means articulating your commitment to DEI and against racism, harassment, and hate. Libraries are not neutral entities. By taking a position on diverse issues of our community, we can help to break down the barriers these communities face rather than contribute to continued marginalization and oppression. It is only then that social change can begin to happen in our libraries, in our institution, and in our world.

QUICK TIPS • Understand the working definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion • Diversity. The sum of the ways we are alike and different, including perceived differences and invisible ones. A respect for those differences by engaging diverse viewpoints. • Equity. Ensuring a fair process while recognizing the disadvantages and systemic marginalization of individuals. Improving the conditions that lead to marginalization. • Inclusion. “Organizational strategies and practices that promote meaningful social and academic interactions among persons and groups who differ in their experiences, their views, and their traits” (Tienda, 2013, p. 467). • Foster diversity in your marketing team • Recognize the Whiteness of the profession. • Identify the benefits of recruiting diverse voices to your team. • Reach out to diverse student groups. • Share ideas with those involved in the employee hiring process. • Market with sensitivity and awareness • Apply DEI to your definitions. Conduct a diversity audit to obtain data and determine your gaps. • Design for those on the margins, with representation, accessibility, and inclusive language at the forefront of your traditional and empathetic marketing initiatives. Collaborate with diverse outside groups. • Create diverse assessments. • Consider Universal Design. • Act now! Even releasing statements of support and updating your website will be small steps you can implement quickly as you work toward greater change. • If you are a BIPOC librarian, while your voice is valued, realize that it is on the administration and White colleagues to do better.

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FROM THE FIELD Author: Noelle Cruz Institution: College of Southern Nevada, Nevada, and Alameda County Library, California Description: Marketing through Blogs at CSN and Alameda County Library How to use blogs as a means of reaching out to diverse students and faculty. Institutions that will be examined are College of Southern Nevada and the Alameda County Library. About CSN: The College of Southern Nevada (CSN) is the largest and most ethnically diverse college in Nevada, with 70 academic programs and 3 main campuses easily accessible for Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson residents (CSN, n.d.). About ACL: Alameda County Library (ACL) in the San Francisco Bay Area provides library services from 10 libraries in the cities of Albany, Dublin, Fremont, Newark and Union City, and the unincorporated communities of Castro Valley and San Lorenzo. Mobile and Outreach services are provided through the Mobile Library, the Education and Literacy Program, and the County Jails (AC Library, 2021). WHEN: In 2017, I was an Adjunct Reference Librarian at the College of Southern Nevada. I struggled with feeling like I had a place at the library as a professional librarian due to a developing bout of imposter syndrome. One of the main outlets I used to feel part of the internal library community and that helped shut down my feelings of inadequacy while also reaching out to students was creating blog posts for CSN Libraries. In 2018, I continued pursuing my undiscovered passion toward current events and diversity, equity, and inclusion as I moved on to work as a Teen Services Librarian at Alameda County Library in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of the projects I created was a blog written in the aftermath of the George Floyd uprising in May 2020, and the activism for and resistance against the Black Lives Matter movement. HOW: Blog about what you know. The student demographics I saw at the CSN reference desk were primarily Asian and Asian American, so I created blogs relevant to the current events, like my personal experience while attending the Women’s March in Las Vegas in 2018, and connecting my childhood reads, their influences, and the struggle of hiding and keeping my Asian identity in a blog posted during National Library Week in April 2017.

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Blog about what you are passionate about. The blog I created for ACL was targeted toward those who wanted to use the library services to find anti-racist resources, book recommendations, and—more importantly— a written support for those in the community who want to see public institutions publicly state their support for Black Lives Matter. In both library systems, I was fortunate to have the full support of those in decision-making roles allowing me to write what I want. At CSN, I had the full support of the library staff and those who moderated the blogs. At ACL, I had the support of the Directors and our Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee (JEDI) to blog about racial equity in our communities. WHY: In both of these endeavors, my marketing strategy intentionally included a more personalized and casual voice because the demographics at both libraries are youthful and venturing to a new phase in life with optimism. To capture their trust while dispelling negative librarian stereotypes, I made the mindful decision to structure the blog so the tone and voice included heart. The following are blogs I created at CSN and ACL: “The Book That Made Me,” http://blog.csn.edu/library/2017/04/15 /the-book-that-made-me-2/ Excerpt: I didn’t grow up instantly in love with the written word. Unlike most, I did not learn to read until after the age of six and when I finally did, I unknowingly used reading to learn my second language after migrating to the United States at eight years old. My first memories of reading were during weekend afternoons after everyone had returned from church or the market; we all sat around the living room taking turns reading Filipino komiks (comics) that draw their inspiration from local folklore and mythical creatures. “Women’s History Month: Free Library Films!” http://blog.csn.edu/ library/2017/03/17/womens-history-month-free-library-films/ Excerpt: In keeping with the celebration of Women’s History Month, Kanopy Videos created a Special Collection of content for, by, and about the female experience. In a time when diversity, inclusion, and equality are often viewed as partisan issues, you can use the Kanopy database as an education tool to further your understanding about race and gender relations in America (and it’s a perfect way to practice analyzing bias and alternative facts, and then apply what you learned in your library instruction session!). “Women’s March Nevada,” http://blog.csn.edu/library/2017/03/03 /womens-march-nevada/

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Excerpt: We marched from the LLama lot to the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse chanting, “Stronger together we won’t fall. Justice, peace and equality for all.” As the event had drawn an estimated 15,000 people, it took a while for people to gather outside the courthouse to hear the speakers. I managed to find a space near the front and listened to several Congress members and public servants, including Dina Titus and Ruben Kihuen, and Stephanie Streuber, the President of the Southern Nevada NOW chapter. Their speeches rallied and encouraged the crowd to contact our representatives and hold them accountable for the decisions they make for their constituents. “Let’s Talk About Race. Let’s Talk About Black Lives,” Archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20200612025941/https://guides.aclibrary .org/blog/Lets-Talk-About-Race-Lets-Talk-About-Black-Lives Excerpt: Conversations about race are difficult. But the current climate we are experiencing now is the result of decades long social injustices and racism against the Black American men and women of the United States of America. These conversations are no longer avoidable. Commit yourself to understanding the pain and causes of that pain to Black communities. I asked AC Library staff what book they would recommend to a friend who’s scared of joining the bigger conversation about systemic racism and its impact on our Black communities, or share a book that introduces a friend to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) authors. . . . Read about ways to help Black Lives Matter here: https://blacklivesmatter.com/

FROM THE FIELD Author: Tanner Lewey, Outreach & Evening Librarian Institution: Hoover Library at McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland Description: Book Displays with Diverse Voices in Mind In September 2019, the obsession with Lizzo’s song “Truth Hurts” was at its peak, and many organizations and brands took advantage of the song’s popularity. As the Outreach & Evening Librarian, I saw a bulletin board created by the Nyack Library in a library-related Facebook group, and immediately thought it would make for a perfect book display for my college population at McDaniel College’s Hoover

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Library. The idea seemed relatively straightforward: pair up books with lyrics from the “Truth Hurts” chorus and include the bookmarks freely shared in the Facebook post. I meant the display to be a simple, quick, and easy one to pull off during the busy start of the fall semester. Thus, I only spent about 2 hours putting together the booklist, selecting books that immediately came to mind with each lyric and that I knew likely would be available in Hoover Library’s collection. The decorations—including two 8.5×11 signs, lyric labels for each book, Lizzo photos, bookmarks, and bookmark holder—took about 3 hours to create, cut out, and put up on the display. It certainly was not the flashiest or even the most creative display that I had created, but, like so many things in outreach and marketing efforts, the book display and associated social media posts on all platforms were unexpectedly huge hits. Within just a few hours of posting on September 17, the Facebook post of the display had already shattered Hoover Library’s previous record number of people reached. Within two days, the post had reached over one million people and was being featured in news stories as far as Los Angeles and on major social media accounts like Reading Rainbow (https:// www.facebook.com/readingrainbow/posts/10158489430374796). Within one week, the post had reached over 2.3 million people on Facebook (5,080 reactions, 3,188 comments, and 13,431 shares), 3,642 on Instagram, and 612 likes and 328 retweets on Twitter. A majority of comments on all platforms were full of praise and positivity for the theme, the books selected, and the display overall. Not everyone who interacted with the display felt the same way, though. As the post about the display gained popularity, some pointed out the obvious issue of contrast between the theme and the book choices. For a display highlighting a powerful Black woman, there were only a few books that featured Black women as characters or authors. Some of the choices, upon reflection, were stereotypically— and problematically—White, like The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lean In by Nell Scovell and Sheryl Sandberg, and The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. I understood these criticisms because they had made me uneasy while assembling the display, but the urge to “just get something up” won out, and I made no initial adjustments before sharing the display on social media. The emergence of this public criticism offered me a second chance to really do the display right. I began by engaging with the negative commenters on social media. Via the Hoover Library account, I thanked them for their feedback and welcomed them to offer suggestions for a new and improved version of the display. Using

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those suggestions and my own additional research, I compiled a new list—one that took over 20 hours to complete. Despite the great length of the new book list, Hoover Library did not have access to many of the titles, particularly ones physically available at Hoover rather than as e-books or via Hoover’s consortium partners. Any books not available physically at Hoover became part of an additional booklist handout available alongside the bookmarks. Version 2.0 of “I Just Took a DNA Test Turns Out I’m 100% #ThatBook” was assembled and shared on social media on September 25. The updated display did not garner as much attention as the first display (27,238 reach on Facebook, 731 reach on Instagram, and 27 likes and 15 retweets on Twitter), but it offered me and other library staff important lessons on diversity, equity, and inclusion work in libraries and marketing. Hoover Library has a staff almost entirely composed of White women, and 89% of credentialed librarians (Davis and Hall, 2007) overall and 85.5% of academic library professionals are White (Morris and Kyrillidou, 2014). Those statistics demonstrate the limited perspective of a White librarian when making the automatic choice of Lean In as a solid career advice book or The Notebook as a book that makes people “crying crazy.” However, these statistics do not excuse this mistake. The world, this country, and the College’s own student population are not homogeneously White. In order for the library to support its diverse community, it must share diverse perspectives and help uplift voices from people of color (POC), especially on displays that utilize POC and their cultures as part of the display’s theme. The experience showed me how much I had to learn about my own bias and prompted me to establish methods moving forward to help ensure such a mistake would not happen in future displays. For example, I made a commitment to highlight books featuring Black joy in displays made during the 2020–2021 academic year and made it a personal requirement to have at least one third of the books feature POC authors or characters in each display. I recognize that mistakes may still happen as I, and the rest of the library staff, learn how to better support DEI efforts. Luckily, this experience also taught this me how to respond to future feedback and make meaningful change as a result. Address the negative comments quickly by acknowledging their concerns and offering some kind of apology or progress toward a solution, especially one that involves them and incorporates their feedback. Then, make good on and follow up on that solution publicly and, most importantly, take steps to ensure such incidents will not happen again. With such proactive measures in place, the library can

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be sure that the book display theme and book selections do not offend traditionally marginalized groups of people or identities before even physically assembling the display. Put in the time and make the effort to find and include diverse voices, no matter how busy you may be already, because promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in library marketing is worth it.

REFERENCES AC Library (2021). Who we are. Alameda County Library. https://aclibrary.org /who-we-are/ American Library Association (ALA). (2017, July 5). Equity, diversity, inclusion: An interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. http://www.ala.org/advocacy /intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/EDI. American Library Association (ALA). (2017, September 7). ODLOS glossary of terms. http://www.ala.org/aboutala/odlos-glossary-terms. American Library Association (ALA). (2020, June 26). ALA takes responsibility for past racism, pledges a more equitable association. News and Press Center. http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2020/06/ala-takes-responsibility-past -racism-pledges-more-equitable-association. American Library Association (ALA). (2020, July 6). Defining diversity—strategic planning for diversity. Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. http://www.ala.org /advocacy/diversity/workplace/diversityplanningdefinitions. Baildon, M., Hamlin, D., Jankowski, C., Kauffman, R., Lanigan, J., Miller, M., Venlet, J., & Willer, A. M. (2017). Creating a social justice mindset: Diversity, inclusion, and social justice in the Collections Directorate of the MIT Libraries. DSpace@MIT. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/108771 Bensimon, E. M. (2018). Reclaiming racial justice in equity. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 50(3-4), 95–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2018 .1509623 Brown, S. (2020, July 10). Banding together to fight racism. Chronicle of Higher Education, 66(33), 6. Chun, E., & Evans, A. (2019). Conducting an institutional diversity audit in higher education: A practitioner’s ’guide to systematic diversity transformation. Stylus Publishing. Colby, S. L., & Ortman, J. M. (2014). Projections of the size and composition of the U.S. population: 2014 to 2060, Current Population Reports, P25-1143, U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications /2015/demo/p25-1143.pdf Connell, B. R., Jones, M., Mace, R., Mueller, J., Mullick, A., Ostroff, E., Sanford, J., Steinfeld, E., Story, M., & Vanderheiden, G. (1997, April 1). The principles of Universal Design. The Center for Universal Design. https://projects.ncsu.edu /ncsu/design/cud/about_ud/udprinciplestext.htm. CSN. (n.d.). About us. College of Southern Nevada. https://www.csn.edu/about-us Davis, D. M., & Hall, T. D. (2007, June 24). Diversity counts [report]. ALA Annual Conference, Washington D.C. http://www.ala.org/aboutala/sites/ala.org

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.aboutala/files/content/diversity/diversitycounts/Diversity_Counts_CORS _Diversity_Aug07.pdf Edwards, J. B. (2015). Diversity plans for academic libraries: An example from the University of Montana. Library Leadership & Management (Online), 29, 1–15. Flaherty, C. (2020, October 7). Diversity work, interrupted. Inside Higher Ed. https:// www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/10/07/colleges-cancel-diversity-programs -response-trump-order Hathcock, A. (2015). White librarianship in blackface: Diversity initiatives in LIS. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org /2015/lis-diversity/ Henderson, G. R., & Williams, J. D. (2013). From exclusion to inclusion: An introduction to the special issue on marketplace diversity and inclusion. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 32(1_suppl), 1–5. Hussar, W. J., & Bailey, T. M. (2019). Projections of education statistics to 2027. NCES 2019–001. National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov /pubs2019/2019001.pdf Jaeger, P. T., & Sarin, L. C. (2016). The politically engaged public library: Admitting and embracing the political nature of libraries and their goals. Public Library Quarterly, 35(4), 325–330. Jensen, K. (2018, October 22). Diversity auditing 101: How to evaluate your collection. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=diversity -auditing-101-how-to-evaluate-collection Knutson, D., Koch, J. M., & Goldbach, C. (2019). Recommended terminology, pronouns, and documentation for work with transgender and non-binary populations. Practice Innovations, 4(4), 214–224. https://doi-org.ezproxy .library.csn.edu/10.1037/pri0000098 Kung, J. Y., Fraser, K., & Winn, D. (2020). Diversity initiatives to recruit and retain academic librarians: A systematic review. College & Research Libraries, 81(1), 96–108. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.1.96 Lafayette College Library. (2021). The libraries’ role in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Lafayette. https://library.lafayette.edu/the-librarys-role-in-promoting -diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ LeMire, S., Graves, S. J., Farrell, S. L., & Mastel, K. L. (2018). SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and engagement. Association of Research Libraries. Leung, S. Y., & López-McKnight, J. R. (2020). Dreaming revolutionary futures: Critical race’s centrality to ending White supremacy. Communications in Information Literacy, 14(1), 2. Licsandru, T. C., & Cui, C. C. (2018). Subjective social inclusion: A conceptual critique for socially inclusive marketing. Journal of Business Research, 82, 330–339. Morris, S., & Kyrillidou, M. (2014). Minority representation in US ARL university libraries as of 2012–2013: Taking a closer look at the evidence [poster]. Library Assessment Conference, Seattle. http://old.libraryassessment.org/bm~doc /24morrisposter.pdf Morse, D. R. (2018). Multicultural intelligence: Eight make-or-break rules for marketing to race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation (2nd ed.). Paramount Market Publishing.

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Nance-Nash, S. (2020, September 13). How corporate diversity initiatives trap workers of colour. BBC: Worklife. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200826 -how-corporate-diversity-initiatives-trap-workers-of-colour National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2018). Table 311.10. Number and percentage distribution of students enrolled in postsecondary institutions, by level, disability status, and selected student characteristics: 2007–08 and 2011–12. Digest of Education Statistics: 2018. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2019). Chapter 3: Postsecondary education. Digest of Education Statistics: 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/programs /digest/d19/ch_3.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_311.10 .asp?current=yes. National Disability Authority. (2014). Appropriate terms to use. http://nda.ie /Publications/Attitudes/Appropriate-Terms-to-Use-about-Disability/ NC State University. (1997, April 1). The principles of Universal Design. https:// projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/about_ud/udprinciplestext.htm The Ohio State University. (2021). Sense of belonging in the college classroom. University Center for the Advancement of Teaching. https://ucat.osu.edu /bookshelf/teaching-topics/shaping-a-positive-learning-environment/sense-of -belonging-in-the-college-classroom/ Ostroff, E. (2011). Universal Design: An evolving paradigm. In W. F. E. Preiser & K. H. Smith (Eds.), Universal Design handbook (2nd ed., pp. 1.1–2.0). McGraw -Hill. Schipma, S. (2021, January 25). Biden revokes workforce training restrictions executive order. The National Law Review. https://www.natlawreview.com/article /biden-administration-revocation-executive-order-13950-eliminates-workforce -training Schonfeld, R. C., & Sweeney, L. (2017, August 30). Inclusion, diversity, and equity: Members of the Association of Research Libraries. ITHIKA+SR. https://doi .org/10.18665/sr.304524 Takagi, J. (n.d.). Diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Coursera. https://www .coursera.org/learn/diversity-inclusion-workplace Tienda, M. (2013). Diversity ≠ Inclusion: Promoting integration in higher education. Educational Researcher, 42(9), 467–475. https://doi.org/10.3102 /0013189X13516164 U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development and Office of the Under Secretary. (2016). Advancing diversity and inclusion in higher education. http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/advancing -diversity-inclusion.pdf Web Accessibility Initiative. (2020, October 17). Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) overview. W3C. https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/

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6 Assessing the Program Assessment is deservedly a hot topic in librarianship because libraries are increasingly asked to demonstrate their value and assist with accreditation and other evaluative activities on campuses (Oakleaf, 2010). Assessment can be defined as a form of research that has one of two functions: for program evaluation in order to improve internal operations and outcomes (including information literacy outcomes), or for demonstration of value to an external audience. Often, assessment activities can meet both criteria: to inform continuous improvement and to demonstrate value to stakeholders. In order to understand how to approach marketing and outreach assessment, it’s important to understand definitions of assessment, recent applications of assessment in academic libraries, the various assessment methods available, and how to act on collected data.

WHAT IS LIBRARY MARKETING ASSESSMENT? ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries report from 2010 sets the backdrop for assessment in higher education. Oakleaf describes the shifting national conversation around higher education, beginning in the 1970s, as the increase of globalization expanded the demand for knowledge workers in the United States. The government’s stake in a well-trained workforce meant that institutions had to demonstrate their outcomes. A 2006 report from the U.S. Department of Higher Education scrutinized the state of higher education, calling for “urgent reform”—including improved transparency and accountability (p. ix). The higher education sector was, in the commission’s view, full of inefficiencies and declining value while the cost of college was rising. Assessment offers institutions a chance to demonstrate the inverse: their return on investment (ROI). A library’s ROI can be calculated as: library value = perceived benefits/perceived costs (Oakleaf, 2010). A clear

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example of this is the practice of some public libraries including a calculation of how much money a patron has saved by using the library on a checkout receipt. In fact, as of this writing, ALA has a library value calculator that can calculate the individual value of using the library based on average prices for resources and services (Archived at: https://web.archive.org/web /20210227082710/http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/advocacyuniversity /toolkit/makingthecase/calculator_new). Academic libraries have no shortage or things to measure: student learning, impact on faculty research, and collection use, to name a few. Marketing and outreach assessment is one opportunity for library assessment that often gets overlooked despite the fact that it is through marketing that libraries can demonstrate their value. In a review of the literature, Farrell and Mastel found outreach assessment lacking; while there is an abundance of instruction on engaging with outreach activities, assessment methods are rarely discussed (2016). Recently, academic librarians have taken on assessment more formally with projects like ACRL’s Assessment in Action and the Consortium of Academic Libraries in Illinois’ (CARLI) CARLI Counts. Assessment in Action was born from a 2012 grant received by ACRL from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for the program “Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success” (AiA). The purpose of the grant was to support efforts in academic libraries to design, implement, and evaluate programs that led to “data-informed advocacy” (Malenfant, 2012, para. 1). The result was numerous projects that identified correlations between library services and student success. This body of work supports the advocacy efforts of all academic libraries by providing evidence for stakeholders of the impact of the libraries’ work on student success measures. Findings from the various projects include: (1) students benefit from library instruction in their initial coursework, (2) library use increases student success, (3) collaborative academic programs and services involving the library enhance student learning, and (4) information literacy instruction strengthens general education outcomes (Brown, 2018). CARLI was also a recipient of an IMLS grant in order to continue training librarians on library assessment and to build on the body of evidence that libraries contribute to student success. The project, “CARLI Counts: Analytics and Advocacy for Service Development,” was a 3-year project that began on October 1, 2018 (CARLI, 2018). I (Shotick) was a participant in the first year of the training program funded by the grant and my focus was on the impact of student employees working in the library on their academic success. The results were to be used as a form of advocacy to protect (and possibly grow) the student worker budget. These two recent efforts demonstrate the growing importance libraries

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place on data and other evidence for library advocacy and program improvement. Individual marketing and outreach activities can be assessed in order to one, inform their continuous improvement and two, demonstrate their value. This assumes that all marketing and outreach activities have value, and while this may be accurate, the ROI may well vary. When assessing the whole of marketing activities (i.e., the end-of-year assessment of marketing initiatives), individual activities with lower ROIs can be reconsidered. Have you spent a lot of effort on social media campaigns with little return? The marketing team might want to reconsider their approach or put their investment elsewhere. Together, the library marketing and outreach activities make up a body of library work and those efforts can be measured to show the overall impact of a library marketing and outreach program.

CREATING MEASURABLE OUTCOMES In order to be successful with library assessment, marketing and outreach programs must have measurable outcomes. Outcomes are generally used to describe learning and are often used in library instruction. Outcomes are student (or “learner”) focused, and are “concerned with attributes and abilities, both cognitive and affective, which reflect how the student experiences at the institution supported their development as individuals” (Dugan & Hernon, 2002, p. 377). In order to identify what it is you want participants to learn, do, or feel as a result of an activity or initiative, you need to first identify the broader institutional goal. Institutions generally have a set of goals set forth via a strategic plan. These goals are broad strokes that represent the bigger picture. Outcomes, in contrast, are specific and measurable. Outcomes describe your intentions, and the assessment tells you whether or not your intentions were successful. The strategic plan (or, in its absence, an identified institutional goal) informs the outcome. If a sociology teacher wanted her students to develop empathy, she might have an outcome of students being able to articulate the struggles faced by people living in poverty, for example. The larger goal of developing empathy might involve many interactions and activities over the students’ course, and the outcome is one specific, measurable path toward that larger goal. The associated activity, in this example, might be watching a documentary and having a discussion. Those two activities attempt to facilitate the outcome. The outcome is then assessed to see if it was achieved. In this case, the teacher asks her students to write a summary about the struggles of individuals living in poverty. Measuring these outcomes over the life of the course, the instructor makes a case that her students have developed empathy. This relationship between strategic plan and assessment is modeled in Figure 6-1.

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While this is much more easily illustrated by classroom instruction, it is translatable to any intentional activity. In the case of marketing, outreach, and engagement, librarians may hope that their constituencies learn, feel, or do something as a result of their interactions. This is true from a reference transaction all the way to final exam stressrelief planning. Increasingly, librarians are asked how their resources are contributing to the overall institutional goals. By starting with FIGURE 6-1.  Design assessments to evaluate the institutional goals in whether or not you achieved your intended planning, we intentionally focus our resources on the outcome. things that matter to the institution. Resources on creating measurable outcomes are numerous. For more information about writing outcomes, consult the classic Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross (1993).

ASSESSING MARKETING EFFORTS While outcomes-based assessment is an essential approach to evaluation for institutions focused on student learning, other assessment efforts can tell library stakeholders how they are doing in a number of key areas unrelated to student learning. This assessment may include traditional offerings mentioned in Chapter 3, such as the provision of resources and spaces, reference services, and so on. When assessing a service (reference) or resource (database) for example, we can assess our own marketing efforts separately. It is an important distinction: you want to assess how effective your reference service is (e.g., Can people find the desk? Do they find the librarians approachable?), but assessment of a particular marketing effort, such as promoting the service via door hangers in dormitories assesses not the service but the marketing effort (Annala & Shotick, 2020). The outcome in the latter case is tied not to student learning but to actions related to marketing: awareness, desire, interest, and action. These domains are

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described in the attention, interest, desire and action (AIDA) model, developed in the late 1800s, and is widely used by marketing professionals (Hassan, 2015). The model describes a process that a consumer goes through when being marketed to: first, successful marketing catches the attention of the consumer. Next, the marketing effort must produce interest in the product that leads to desire. The desire, if the marketing effort is effective, leads the consumer to some action. Usually, this action is purchasing a product. In the case of library marketing, the desired action is related to the consumer’s engagement with the library—usually by using a resource or service, attending an event, initiating a reference chat, checking out a book, etc. Marketing efforts that are unsuccessful fail at some level that disrupts the AIDA model. Perhaps the marketing materials didn’t catch the students’ attention. Perhaps they did, but the information didn’t stir an interest or desire. In either case, the effort fails when the student doesn’t take the intended action. Assessment of learning outcomes and of the effectiveness of the marketing activities may be pursued simultaneously and are not an either/or activity. The following description of assessment methods provides a variety of ways to assess both. The methods are not meant to be an exhaustive list but are intended to demonstrate the variety of methods available.

Assessment Methods The Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) SPEC Kit 361 surveyed ARL libraries on the frequency of assessment methods utilized for outreach activities. According to the survey, the most commonly used assessment methods are headcounts (98%), observations (95%), feedback from volunteers and/or partners (88%), and collected comments (82%) (LeMire et al., 2018, p. 8). Less common methods included minute papers, interviews, and focus groups. These methods can be divided into two categories: qualitative or quantitative. Quantitative assessment measures, such as headcounts, can serve as important frames for the rest of the assessment. They can help contextualize outcomes related to the participants’ learning. What is inside the frame, like a work of art, tells a story. However, in the ARL SPEC Kit 361 it’s noted that respondents reported assessing data such as attendance, which lends itself to numerical data, like headcounts. It is rarer that libraries reported the kind of assessment that looks at learning. By designing initiatives around goal-based outcomes, libraries can dig in deeper to what participants think, feel, or can do as a result of the activity. To be clear, there is no “best” assessment method. Qualitative is not necessarily more impactful than quantitative. What matters is the appropriateness of the assessment method to the thing being assessed. The importance, then, lies with the creation of meaningful outcomes. The rest is (relatively) straightforward: assess the thing you meant to achieve.

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The following is a brief description of various assessment methods. Pros and cons are identified, though the real evaluation of an assessment method should be its level of appropriateness to the outcome. Note that if you plan on sharing your data beyond your institution, you may need to go through your campus’s Internal Review Board (IRB) for approval. While assessment activities geared toward program improvement may be considered exempt, check in with your IRB first.

Quantitative The following list describes common quantitative methods used to assess library marketing initiatives including a brief description of pros and cons to consider when selecting an assessment method. Headcounts Headcounts are counts of individuals at an event, whether it be virtual, in-person, or hybrid. Pros: Easy and nonintrusive. In addition to manually counting individuals, tools such as gate counts and online attendance lists can provide data automatically. Cons: May not provide meaningful assessment for your desired outcome.

Social Media Analytics Social media tools, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, readily provide data about engagement and audience characteristics. Pros: They are generally free and can provide unique details about users who are already engaged with the library. Cons: Although nonintrusive on the surface, users may not fully be aware of the data that are being shared. Also, there are some questions about the reliability and meaningfulness of these data, given that they are reported by for-profit companies, who also sell paid ways to boost engagement. It is also worth noting that while social media analytics are easy to obtain, they don’t tell us much about a desired action. Someone can “like” a post but never make use of the service the post is about. Additionally, only “followers” see the posts, so you’re not reaching populations who aren’t actively following you (outside of paid posts).

Website Analytics Website analytics can include data such as Google Analytics and those built into webtools, such as LibGuides. Pros: Easy to obtain and create distinct reports from.

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Cons: Google Analytics can be misleading. For example, they offer information about where traffic comes from: through a search, from another website, or directly typed into an address bar. LibGuide analytics, like others, includes views from librarians and can be inflated by views due to active LibGuide projects. Understanding these limitations is especially important when using the data to make decisions.

Circulation Counts Statistics about how many times an item was checked out or browsed (picked up but not checked out, indicating potential usage). Pros: Circulation statistics are easy to obtain and are a great way to measure the impact of a book display or other physical material marketing efforts. Cons: Generally, library circulation statistics show a decline and should not be considered as a measure of the library’s use; however, that narrative is one that is commonly held by those uneducated about modern libraries. Consideration of this narrative should be taken when using circulation statistics for assessment.

eResource Usage Statistics about electronic resource usage, typically database, journal, and e-book usage. Pros: These data are generally easy to obtain via reports created via the vendor or within the database’s admin portal. Cons: There could be, and have been, whole books written about the complications with eResource statistics. There are irregularities on how usage is recorded and reported. Although standards for data collection, such as COUNTER, exist, not all vendors are compliant.

Qualitative The following list describes common qualitative methods used to assess library marketing initiatives including a brief description of pros and cons to consider when selecting an assessment method. Interviews Interviews are consultations with individuals about their experience. Pros: Interviews can be a quick way to get feedback from an individual as they leave an event, for example. Student workers can be a readily available source of opinions on marketing material and can be informally interviewed during their work. Cons: Individuals may not feel comfortable giving negative feedback in a forum that is not anonymous.

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Focus Groups Focus groups are similar to individual interviews but are composed of more than one individual. Pros: Focus groups can be great ways to get feedback from diverse viewpoints. The group dynamic can solicit additional feedback you might not receive from an individual interview. They also allow you to gather multiple opinions in less time than conducting each interview individually. Cons: It can be difficult to recruit for focus groups, as student and faculty time is at a premium. Additionally, groupthink, the tendency for group members to conform to each other, may damper opinions.

Observation Observation is watching how individuals interact with marketing materials or at an event. Pros: Observation is a nonintrusive way to identify the impact of marketing materials (i.e., are they capturing attention?) and the impact of other marketing and outreach initiatives. Cons: Observation is time-consuming, and it may not be possible to execute in some scenarios (such as in evaluating the effectiveness of dorm advertisements). Additionally, observation reports can be biased based on the observer.

There are many other assessment methods not listed above. Farrell and Mastel additionally list mystery shoppers, minute papers, and vox pops (short audio/video recordings of event participant feedback)(2016). The most important practice is to match the assessment to the goals of the activity. As you develop meaningful assessment methods that match your marketing activities you will be able to reuse those assessments, saving you time and leading to consistency across assessment data.

Best Practices The most important first step in assessing library marketing and outreach begins by creating measurable outcomes. By determining what it is you want to accomplish and relating it when possible to the strategic goals of the institution, you set yourself up for meaningful assessment and impactful reporting. Library outreach assessment can fail to assess the intended outcome without prior planning. For example, a therapy dog event around Finals Week could be assessed by taking a headcount. However, what outcome does the headcount address? If the intention was to bring students into the library, the headcount may be an appropriate assessment. But if the intention was to reduce stress, then a headcount alone is actually meaningless. Maybe 50 students attended but became even more stressed out because

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they started to miss their own dog at home. Unlikely, but it illustrates the point. A headcount can tell us one part of the story, a Likert scale represented by sticky notes on a whiteboard to assess how much de-stressing the dog provided can tell much more. As noted in the SPEC Kit 361, “If libraries were developing more specific outcomes related to outreach participants’ learning or experience with the activity, then there would be an opportunity to utilize a larger variety of assessment methods, including more time- and resource- intensive methods such as focus groups and interviews” (Farrell & Mastel, 2016, p. 8). Even if time and resources are scarce, well-developed outcomes can facilitate the creation of more meaningful assessments, such as the sticky note exercise.

Developing Meaningful Outcomes 1. Begin with your library or institution’s strategic plan. If your library and/or institution does not have a strategic plan, look for mission or goal documents. 2. Brainstorm, with your team if possible, potential outreach activities and organize them under specific points in the strategic plan/mission/goals. 3. Focus on a few activities and develop their outcomes: what is it you want the intended audience to do, think, or feel? 4. How will you assess this outcome? What tools will you need?

For example: 1. Strategic plan goal. To create a sense of responsibility to the university community. This is the bigger-picture level. 2. Activity. Human Library Activity where students from diverse backgrounds are available for participants to “check out” to ask them questions and learn more about their identity, thus widening the participant’s perspective. The event is a popular one in libraries. 3. Outcome. Students will feel an increased awareness of the diversity of the student body. What you hope they will think and/or feel, in this case. 4. Assessment. A short minute paper for participants asking what they gained from the experience. Need: paper, pens, and raffle prize for completing the minute paper.

Can you map the responses to your intended outcome? By going further than assessing participation via headcounts, the minute paper allows for assessment of the intended outcome. Although the assessment method is more time consuming and requires the participation of the attendees, it is quick and inexpensive. Combined with a headcount, it has the potential to tell a powerful story to library and/or university

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administrators. It can also be a useful internal tool. If the event missed the mark somehow, a headcount would not have captured that. The only thing worse than facilitating an ineffective event is facilitating an event and not knowing that it was ineffective. Assessment tools help librarians track, store, and analyze data. For example, Springshare’s LibAnalytics tool allows users to input data about an event, such as attendance, and has robust reporting features. Similar forms can be created in-house using a free tool, such as Google Forms, that can record data such as event date, name, and time, and postmortem information. Other tools, like Eventbrite, are designed for event registration, marketing, and tracking. Sample postmortem information includes: event cost, volunteer information, and a reflection on what went well (and what didn’t). This information can be useful for repeating events, such as a Finals Week stress-relieving event, in order to inform future iterations. Descriptive data, such as narrative detail about what went well, can be captured in Springshare’s LibInsight platform or in a Google Form text box. The major difference between the two is the reporting functionality—LibInsight has reporting built in that can crunch numerical data, compare it with other data sets (such as reference transaction data), and display it all graphically, as demonstrated in Figure 6-2. With some training, one can manipulate data that was entered into a survey-like Google Form in Google Sheets, achieving a similar effect as LibInsight. However, it can require some advanced training, while LibInsight is designed for the novice and can do advanced analysis such as a graph of how many individuals attended events over a period of time compared to cost and hours spent on preparation. A number of products exist to aid in survey creation and distribution. A common application in educational settings is Qualtrics. However, Qualtrics costs money and the free option is extremely limited. Institutions that

FIGURE 6-2.  Springshare’s LibInsight can demonstrate ROI for library events.

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have access to Qualtrics through an institutional license can take advantage of this. For others, there is SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and dozens of other web-based survey applications. Most offer free versions with advanced features limited to subscriptions. Often, the subscription pricing is based on volume, so smaller institutions with less data to collect will have lower priced options than larger institutions with more activity. For tips on drafting, distributing, and analyzing surveys, check out Making Surveys Work for Your Library: Guidance, Instructions, and Examples by Robin Miller and Kate Hinnant (2019). What to look for in a survey tool: 1. Question logic, the ability to have different questions show up based on the response to another question. For example, if question one is “are you a student?” and the respondent selects “yes” then the following question could be “what is your major?” whereas a “no” response would route to a different question. 2. Question randomization, to reduce bias that can occur when answering multiple choice questions (Zong, n.d.). 3. Anonymity features. 4. Automatic data collection capabilities, such as collecting the respondents IP address. 5. Responsive design to optimize the interface across a variety of devices. 6. Accessibility—surveys should meet or exceed accessibility standards (Miller & Hinnant, 2019).

REPORTING AND ACTING ON YOUR DATA Assessment is a means to an end and that end is action of some kind, whether that is reporting to a dean in order to advocate for a new position, or to improve the outcomes of an ongoing outreach event. Some assessment is required for external reporting, such as to ACRL Annual Statistics and The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the postsecondary education data collection by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). However, reporting externally doesn’t need to stop there. There is a lot of value in sharing your data and analysis more broadly to add to the growing body of evidence that libraries contribute to a number of postsecondary goals, from retention to research output. Finally, the community of libraries benefit from the external sharing of data and analysis (research) at places like ACRL Annual, the Library Marketing and Communications Conference, and the Library Assessment Conference (to name a few); and in publications such as Marketing Libraries Journal and the Journal of Library Outreach and Engagement, two open access, peer-reviewed journals with a focus on library marketing and outreach.

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Marketing teams benefit from preparing an annual report of their work internally. For one, reports demonstrate the accomplishments and impact of the team’s work. This can be a tool to advocate for additional resources, whether that is a formal marketing budget or additional personnel, such as a student worker position dedicated to social media marketing. Finally, internal reporting can become a recruiting tool for the team. By providing tangible outcomes, the work has meaning and can be much more satisfying to engage in than work without an identified (or identifiable) impact. The beauty of creating goals that are assessable is that reporting is very easy. Much of the work of a report has already been done. Summarizing the previously identified goals, activities, and relevant assessment data not only provides library administration a vivid snapshot of the team’s work, but it also allows the team a chance to reflect on their work in order to inform the goals for the subsequent year. Reporting your marketing work within the institution raises the library’s profile and can attract campus partners, who are an enormous resource in marketing and outreach efforts. In fact, sharing this work becomes an important marketing tactic in itself. Marketing reports tailored to external partners can increase collaborative relationships. The relationship between the library and its partners is symbiotic; “Understanding the mission and goals of other campus offices, and demonstrating their interrelatedness to the library’s mission and goals, can build on already established programs, thereby advancing the library’s contributions to the campus while also furthering the goals and objectives of the other offices” (Zanoni & Mandernack, 2010, p. 99). Inter-campus reports can be a one-page infographic or narrative shared via email or in person in committee meetings. The task of sharing out data can, in itself, become a marketing goal, the final activity of the committee for that given year. Finally, assessment tells us what is working as well as what isn’t. Without assessment, we wouldn’t know if our effort was worth it and if the library was providing adequate services and resources. While assessment of resources and services is beyond the work of a marketing team, there is a lot of crossover. Working with an assessment team or librarian, marketing teams can harmonize and inform the continuous improvement of the library’s work.

QUICK TIPS • Choose an assessment method that matches the outcome • Quantitative methods, such as eResource usage and circulation counts, can provide numerical data • Qualitative methods, such as surveys and focus groups, can tell a story • Mixed methods combine both—you aren’t limited to one method

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• Utilize existing data such as gate counts • Assessment can evaluate both the learning outcomes and marketing efforts • Report your findings internally to library- and campus-stakeholders • Share your findings with the library community via publications, conferences, and communities of practice (such as the Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group)

FROM THE FIELD Author: John Jackson Institution: William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University, California Description: Social Media Engagement Analytics There are a number of third-party platforms that provide custom analytics and reporting for social media. At Loyola Marymount University, the marketing team hosts a Hootsuite enterprise account, within which the William H. Hannon Library holds one license. The benefits of a system like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or SocialOomph go beyond simply analytics to a host of other features, like bulk scheduling, cross-posting, and more. However, these platforms can be prohibitively expensive. I have found the use of a simple Excel sheet to be equally beneficial in tracking my social media footprint. This isn’t to say that the analytics and reporting available through a third-party social media manager is not robust. Often, it is more robust than what is available natively through the social media platform itself. Rather, given other factors such as time and cost, a simple Excel sheet provides me with the most important information I need: relative engagement over time. Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is an R2 national university (high research activity). LMU is primarily focused on undergraduate education, with 60 majors, but also offers 51 master’s degree programs, and doctorate degrees in educational leadership for social justice and juridical science. Including Loyola Law School, there are approximately 9,600 students. The William H. Hannon Library employs 22 librarians and 20 full-time staff, with a total budget of $12.2 million. Its collections include approximately 1.2 million books, 53,000 periodical titles, and 5,600 linear feet of archival collections. We offer 45 to 50 programs per year, in addition to 15 to 20 public exhibitions. Our library is the sole library on the Westchester campus of LMU in Los Angeles.

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Setting up the spreadsheet takes some initial investment, but once established only takes one hour of maintenance per month (or, per unit of time you want to measure: e.g., weekly, biweekly, quarterly, etc.). At the Hannon Library, we measure engagement month-to-month. In order to track these statistics, we needed to first define (1) how we would define engagement and (2) what data we would use to track engagement. It was important to identify factors that would remain fairly stable over time, despite changes to each social media platform’s built-in analytics tools, and taking into account the different ways in which each platform calculates engagement. We decided to define engagement narrowly as “users taking action directly on our posted social media content.” This includes likes, shares/retweets, comments/replies, and click-throughs on specific posts. Other factors of account engagement, such as profile views, reach, impressions, and clicks on peripheral content were ignored as they tended to provide a less stable measure of whether a particular post was driving engagement. In our ideal world, every follower would engage with every post at least once. Thus, we defined 100% engagement (aka “the ideal”) as the total number of posts in a given period multiplied by the followers on that platform at the time. Actual engagement then would be equal to the total trackable engagements divided by that ideal. Obviously, this doesn’t account for all possible engagements and one could argue for including other indicators in our measurements, such as video views, but we are not interested in looking at engagement at any one time (the data for which, honestly, could be spun to tell any story we want). Instead, we want to see how engagement changes over time or relative to another period in time. What this simple metric provides is a stable, minimum level of engagement that can be seen as a function of time. In order to create our engagement metric, we needed to collect the following data monthly: • Twitter: total posts, likes, replies, retweets, and click-throughs • Instagram: total posts, likes, and comments • Facebook: total posts, reactions, comments, shares, and click-throughs

Each of these data can be exported or gathered using each social media platform’s native analytics modules. The above is simple enough, but we wanted to track one additional factor: the extent to which social media drove traffic to our website. The simplest way to do this is to use a web analytics tool, such as

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Google Analytics, or a custom URL shortener, like Bitly, to track the number of click-throughs from social media posts directly to the library’s domain. Our hope was to find whether there was any correlation between changes in social media engagement and website traffic. As an example, between June and July of 2020, engagement rates on all our social media platforms decreased, but our social media to website traffic ratio increased to almost three times our average rate. Interestingly, website traffic was relatively the same month-to-month. Normally, changes in social media engagement and social-to-web traffic track similarly: both increasing or decreasing in tandem. When we see disparities, that means either a mistake in our data or an anomaly worth investigating. So, what was happening in July 2020? That same month, we had begun a new workflow for identifying and highlighting collections relevant to current events via social media, the key factors being (1) a team-based selection process and (2) an intentional effort to centralize BIPOC authors and experiences. So, not only did we change how we selected content for social media promotion, but we also changed the subject matter. The data seem to show that while users were not liking or retweeting our content as much (typical measures of engagement), they were intrigued enough by the content to follow the links to our website. To us, this means that our content was, in the least, seemingly useful or interesting to our followers. Relying only on traditional social media engagement metrics or website analytics alone would not have told the same story. Using simple metrics to track changes in social media engagement over time provides librarians with limited time, attention, or budgets the ability to quickly assess inflection points in their social media outreach efforts. Libraries that additionally employ blogs, email newsletters, and other social media sites that offer similar metrics can add those data to the same spreadsheet to see fluctuations in engagement over time across all their digital platforms.

REFERENCES ACRL. (2020). ACRL libraries transform toolkit: assessment. ACRL Libraries Transform Toolkit. https://acrl.libguides.com/transform/assessment Annala, A., & Shotick, K. (2020, February, 25). Methods for creating and assessing library outreach initiatives [Webinar presentation]. RAILS Member Webinar. Brown, K. (2018). Evidence of academic library impact on student learning and success: Advancing library leadership and advocacy with assessment in action. In K. E. Brown, D. L. Gilchrist, S. Goek, L. J. Hinchliffe, K. J. Malenfant, C. Ollis, & A. Payne (Eds.), Shaping the campus conversation on student learning and

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experience: Activating the results of assessment in action (pp. 9–22). Association of College & Research Libraries. CARLI. (2018, August 29). CARLI receives IMLS grant for “CARLI Counts: Analytics and advocacy for service development.” https://www.carli.illinois.edu /sites/files/files/CARLI-Counts-press-release082918.pdf Dugan, R. E., & Hernon, P. (2002). Outcomes assessment: Not synonymous with inputs and outputs. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 28(6), 376–380. Eshbach, B. E. (2020). Supporting and engaging students through academic library programming. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(3), 102129. Farrell, S. L., & Mastel, K. (2016). Considering outreach assessment: Strategies, sample scenarios, and a call to action. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. http:// www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2016/considering-outreach-assessment -strategies-sample-scenarios-and-a-call-to-action/ Hassan, S., Nadzim, S. Z. A., & Shiratuddin, N. (2015). Strategic use of social media for small business based on the AIDA model. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, 262–269. LeMire, S., Graves, S. J., Farrell, S. L., & Mastel, K. L. (2018). SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and engagement. Association of Research Libraries. Malenfant, K. (2012, October 9). Assessment in action: Academic libraries and student success. Association of College & Research Libraries. http://www.ala.org /acrl/AiA Miller, R., & Hinnant, K. (2019). Making surveys work for your library: Guidance, instructions, and examples. Libraries Unlimited. Oakleaf, M. (2010). The value of academic libraries: A comprehensive research review and report. Association of College and Research Libraries. http://www .ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/value/val_report.pdf Zanoni, J., & Mandernack, S. (2010). Library advocacy in the campus environment. In W. Welburn, J. Welburn, & B. McNeil (Eds.), Advocacy, outreach and the nation’s academic libraries: A call for action (pp. 92–110). Association of College and Research Libraries. Zong, Z. (n.d.). Eliminate order bias to improve your survey responses. https://www .surveymonkey.com/curiosity/eliminate-order-bias-to-improve-your-survey -responses/.

7 Marketing to Faculty, Staff, and Administration While an academic library’s primary stakeholders will, and should be, the students for which the institution exists, they are not the only stakeholders that librarians must consider when thinking about advertising services and bringing people to the library. If you haven’t already thought about marketing to faculty, staff, and administration, it’s time to expand your reach. The benefit is twofold: faculty, staff, and administration might begin or expand their use of your resources and they can help to advertise to your student population as well. Oftentimes, it is teaching faculty who will reach student users first to “spread the word” on what the library has to offer them. Staff members in various departments across your institution are the ones who work with students directly on the “front lines.” Administration may have the power (and the purse strings) to make campus-wide campaigns and other “big ideas” happen that your team wouldn’t be able to do alone. This chapter will first define the specific groups to market toward beyond students, talk about the importance of establishing relationships and thinking outside the classroom, and conclude by sharing ideas to try in order to market to those stakeholders outside the library.

DEFINITIONS In an academic institution, the faculty are primarily those who teach our students in the classroom. This may be an online class space or in-person classroom. Depending on the institution and their level of experience, they may hold the title of instructor, professor, or have varying ranks in between. But whether a college or university delineates between Associate Professor

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and Assistant Professor, or whether they have postdoc faculty or other statuses, the important thing to remember for our purposes as librarians is that the people in these roles will often be reaching our students before we do. If students are coming to the library in order to complete an assignment, it’s often because their professor required it, their professor recommended it, or the student has used the library before to complete assignments in previous classes. Faculty may seek out librarians for more “traditional” functions such as “information literacy instruction and shared collections” that their students may require (Munster et al., 2017, p. 3), as well as for their own research purposes. Indeed, the ACRL Libraries Transform Toolkit created to assist with library marketing strategies specifies the different needs of distinct audiences such as faculty who might need research support or teaching assistance compared to those who might need study space (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2019). Depending on the institution, faculty may further be defined by a variety of other categories as well, which could sometimes affect their interactions with students as well as their library needs. For example, a tenure-track faculty member may be working toward tenure and trying new classroom innovations and pursuing research for publication in order to help achieve the tenure goal—this may be a good opportunity to recommend library partnerships or personal research assistance services. A tenured faculty member may be established and not as experimental in their teaching practices once they have tenure already, or they may feel the freedom to try new things without the pressure of tenure looming in front of them. At a 2-year college such as the College of Southern Nevada, the college where I (Villamor) work, without the research requirements for tenure, faculty can focus more on teaching and really experiment with what works best for students. Often, that means collaborating with campus partners such as the library, Writing Center, tutors, and others who can work together as a team toward the goal of student success. In contrast, research faculty without a teaching load at an institution such as Illinois Institute of Technology can partner with the library in support of their research agendas. There’s also the category of adjunct faculty who often work part time and may not be on campus as frequently or have as much freedom within their department to choose different textbooks for class, for example. These faculty may not be present at department meetings and so may have to be reached through adjunct conferences, preferred email addresses, or directly within the learning management system if that’s the method they use most to stay connected with the institution. Adjunct faculty are often untapped resources that the library can partner with to reach students that may not have been captured before, because they often make up such a large portion of teaching faculty in large departments with multiple sections, such as English. Adjunct faculty also have their own needs—they may seek library space to complete their work when they don’t have an office on campus or

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may seek professional development that can be found in a library database designed for career advancement. However, it’s important to keep in mind that these specific audience segmentations will rarely have meaning to your students. Unless a faculty member has fully disclosed their status as part-time or tenure-track, a student just knows them as my professor. The distinction really only matters in our marketing and outreach as we keep in mind the importance of marketing to each user’s distinct needs in order to best market our resources and services to them and to help them spread the word to their students as well. It’s also important, although not crucial, to think about the librarian’s own status as a faculty member or staff member in their institution. Some colleges and universities categorize librarians as faculty members who must earn the same tenure as teaching faculty. Others have chosen to do away with this label or never had such a distinction for librarians in the first place. This distinction may impact how a librarian might approach teaching faculty in their marketing efforts. If librarians fall under the same school or department as other teaching faculty, it may be easier to get in on meetings to share library news and services. If they are considered more academic support than teachers themselves, the librarian might want to adopt similar approaches that other support services utilize when working with teaching faculty. In addition to faculty, we cannot forget to include staff members in our marketing efforts, because these campus employees may be working more closely with students than we ever see. Staff are defined by a variety of labels depending on the institution. Some wording may include classified employees, nonexempt, or even paraprofessional. These may be our circulation staff workers, employees in offices of the registrar, the Writing Center, or other student service departments. And let’s not forget the crucial role of administrative assistant, often the first point of contact when reaching a specific faculty member or administrator. There may be other staff categories to consider as well, such as student workers who play an important dual role as both employee and currently enrolled student, able to provide perspectives on what is and isn’t working with library marketing. Finally, there is the idea of marketing to administration, the higher powers that manage the organization overall. We’ll discuss the specifics of this unique group of employees at the end of the chapter.

WHY MARKET TO FACULTY AND STAFF? As discussed in Chapter 6, when you share or report out the successes and benefits of your library, it can attract vital campus partners as marketing resources and increase collaborative relationships that benefit both sides. Ultimately, faculty and staff should be marketed toward because they are another of your educational stakeholders, because they have information

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needs, because they can easily reach others who have information needs (your students), and because they might not be aware of what the library has to offer. As stakeholders at your institution, it is first crucial not to forget this particular audience segmentation because they are your users or potential users. They have distinct needs that again “cannot be satisfied by a single one-sizefits-all marketing program” (Kubacki et al., 2017, p. 2). Then there is their connection to students. Faculty in particular have two distinct marketing resources that the library usually won’t have access to: one, a captive audience in the classroom (virtual or face-to-face) on a regular basis. We may see some students when they enter the library while others we may never have the chance to interact with. Even with all our outreach efforts, libraries do not have the kind of platform that a student’s professor possesses. And, two, incentive. In addition to the position of power that comes from a captive, listening audience, faculty have the ability to issue grades—and while we hope students will engage in beneficial activities for their own personal enrichment and learning, grades still remain one of the most powerful motivators. Some faculty may offer extra credit or required credit for students who visit their campus Writing Center or meet with a librarian. Marketing to faculty and staff ultimately has mutual benefits for both the library and the stakeholders as we learn from each other and share resources. Also, as stated by authors Munster, Harrington, and Negro, it’s fun to partner! By marketing to faculty and staff and working with them to market the library to students, “challenges might not seem so daunting, and new opportunities can arise that lead to myriad benefits” (Munster et al., 2017, p. 1).

HOW CAN WE MARKET TO FACULTY AND STAFF? In addition to the many traditional marketing methods that we’ve discussed throughout this book (from print, to digital, to human), marketing to faculty and staff is all about forming positive relationships and partnerships through communication. Your institution likely has fewer faculty and staff than it has students in population. That already creates the potential for more personalized marketing. But forming relationships with key faculty and staff will also have long-term benefits: you can continue to work with them year after year, as opposed to students who we hope will eventually leave us through graduation or transfer. How can we form these positive relationships? Author Nicole Eva, in writing about marketing to faculty in academic libraries, noted how relationships typically begin after the librarian has made contact with faculty members at informal events or departmental meetings (2015). Initial contact is key—often informing faculty of the library’s presence through a mass email to departments that typically teach a research assignment or a

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presentation at a department meeting orchestrated by the dean’s administrative assistant. One common trope for starting off on the right foot with colleagues is to send donuts—and while this might oversimplify the challenge of connecting with dozens to hundreds of faculty or staff members on campus, the library does have a physical space that campus partners can be invited into. An employee night of coffee and donuts inside the library the week before classes start in the fall is not outside the realm of possibility—if budgets allow. But even without food present, there’s still the possibility of hosting workshops or presentations geared just toward faculty or staff and spreading invitations wide to reach as many instructors as possible. If you email 50 professors and only two show up, you now have an opening to form a close relationship with those two faculty members in attendance. The return on investment for such events may not be readily apparent, but longterm close relationships can create advocates with significant impact on library marketing efforts over time. One of the most important things to consider with faculty, however, is to “meet them where they are.” If they don’t have time for a workshop before classes start because of a busy department meeting, ask to get even just five minutes of time at the department meeting to talk about library resources and services. At the College of Southern Nevada’s CSN Libraries, librarians divide up among the various schools within the college, reaching out to administrative assistants in order to present at regularly scheduled faculty meetings each semester. Many academic libraries divide the academic departments among the librarians based on their backgrounds to serve as departmental liaisons charged with instruction, collection development, and outreach responsibilities in support of the particular department’s research and instruction. Meeting faculty where they are also means listening to their needs and taking their schedules into account. If most faculty are away from campus during the summer, try not to send your emails or schedule events until the majority are back on campus. While conducting faculty interviews for a needs assessment of online learners at the College of Southern Nevada, I (Villamor) found that faculty overwhelmingly mentioned email as the best way to present/promote new and continuing library services to them. One faculty member specified the importance of visual communication as well: If there’s a video done, like what the Writing Center did, it demystified it. Often people can’t picture the service you’re providing. If you want to market it, a little YouTube video of what you can do would be great . . . you can capture whatever services in a very short sound bite. That would be helpful. (P. Vazquez, personal communication, February 6, 2017)

My interviews revealed similar feelings from faculty as the survey responses author Nick Faulk received from Coconino Community College:

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“Faculty are interested in developing their awareness of the information landscape but want to know a resource’s connection to their curriculum before adoption” (2018, p. 194). Faulk’s suggestions based on the faculty survey included ensuring that the resources were easy to use and that communication methods were kept simple. No faculty want to “wade through paragraphs” to learn about a resource or figure out its use (2018, p. 195). Simple word processing features built into email clients, such as bullet points and hyperlinks, can make email communication more effective. Specific faculty marketing ideas shared by Eva (2015) again include citation management software workshops at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, where faculty can sign up to learn how to use the citation program Endnote. Faculty workshops may cover anything from copyright to database use. The College of Southern Nevada’s CSN Libraries offered a training on the film database Kanopy (https://www.kanopy.com/) in 2017 after faculty from a National Endowment for the Humanities grant cohort requested information on finding content, embedding film segments in the learning management system, and public performance rights. These are all areas that academic libraries are typically experts in. Even computer training can be marketed toward faculty as a 2017 CSN Libraries’ “Computer Kickoff” workshop for students ended up with several faculty in attendance to learn more about using the school’s learning management system as they transitioned to teaching online. Eva (2015) also highlighted the work of Metro Community College in Omaha, Nebraska. They published a six-part series on information literacy in their faculty newsletter in order to make the terminology more accessible to faculty. The series helped define and explain information literacy concepts and led to even more faculty collaboration. We cannot forget about meeting staff members where they are as well. Employees who work in financial aid or advising may not think about setting foot in the library, especially if they have no current information needs that the library can fulfill. But librarians, especially those working on the same campus as other employee departments, can visit staff in person to offer resources that they can give to students such as handouts, bookmarks, flyers for their bulletin boards, or even just a 30-second elevator pitch of library resources and services that the students they see on a regular basis could potentially benefit from. Staff in these areas may also benefit from learning about how the library’s services and resources can benefit them in their jobs and personally. A personal investment in the library can transfer to advocacy by these frontline staff. Your library’s own staff members also have distinct schedules to consider when marketing. Certain times of year—such as the beginning of the semester when reserves and acquisitions may be busy with textbook processing, for example—your Circulation staff may be interacting with students far more frequently than librarians are. It’s important to conduct internal

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marketing so your Circulation staff is familiar with upcoming events and services they can share with students or know the answers to specific questions they may get about library resources. If you haven’t gotten to know your support staff already (such as by inviting members to serve on your library marketing team), now is the time to cultivate those key relationships. Donuts might not hurt, but simply talking to them, recognizing their efforts, and regularly reaching out will help form connections that are beneficial to both parties. Once relationships are formed and initial ideas are communicated, it will be easier for the library to not only share what the library has to offer, but also ask for help and input on a regular basis. One idea to get faculty more involved is to invite a known faculty library user to serve on the library’s marketing team or other advisory committee in order to capture that faculty perspective before a marketing initiative has even begun. Existing library advisory committees can give feedback on more than just collection issues; a standing item about library marketing efforts can help maximize an existing structure in support of the library’s promotion. The 2017 Academic Library Impact: Improving Practice and Essential Areas to Research report shares quotes from focus group interview participants who have communicated the library’s value through collaborative efforts. Advisory Group Member LM12 suggested the successful idea of partnering with faculty “to institute an embedded librarians program, which results in the former advocating on the latter’s behalf (Connaway et al., 2017, p. 30). An embedded librarian program—where librarians are either added into individual online classes or regularly meet with the same inperson classes—is especially dear to my (Villamor’s) heart as I moved from an Instruction and Reference Librarian to an eLearning Librarian at the College of Southern Nevada in 2015 and regularly provide research instruction directly within online classes while also marketing library resources and services directly to students within our college’s learning management system. Embedded librarian programs, becoming more common especially after the COVID-19 pandemic forced more faculty online, provide an opportunity for librarians to have a similar (though admittedly less powerful) captive audience and platform as instructors because they work directly with individual classes and students. Finally, we must remember that marketing to the whole person applies to more than just students. As mentioned in Chapter 4, marketing from the heart means sharing stories (perhaps highlighting faculty authors through library displays and on the library website), giving back (again, coffee and donuts), and caring about others’ concerns—including the issues that are important to your constituents. As Munster, Harrington, and Negro shared, a core goal of their Priddy Library at the Universities at Shady Grove in Montgomery County, Maryland, is to “build bridges with the different degree programs at USG,” which they have approached by organizing

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cultural events highlighting social issues (Munster et al., 2017, p. 1). Their public history internship program, created in partnership with history faculty, not only benefited students who gained historian career experience through exhibit development, but allowed faculty teaching about Islam to further educate others about the important topic of Bosnian Muslim genocide (Munster et al., 2017).

MARKETING TO ADMINISTRATION The importance of reaching the collective educational stakeholders known as admin cannot be understated. While administrators can make big things happen, they also have control over what doesn’t happen. As author Arne Almquist observed of academic libraries, “a high level of usage and satisfaction with the library justifies continued and/or increased financial support from the institution’s upper administration, donors, and/or granting agencies. Anemic usage and low satisfaction can be used to justify cuts” (2014, p. 46). Marketing to administration is also a bit of a different ballgame because you may not have as much access to them when getting the word out about your library. While faculty may be easy to find in your employee directory or institution’s website, and staff may be covering the front desks at various locations across campus, administrators are often much less visible. Offices may be hidden on top floor suites behind administrative assistant desks (so it’s even more important to get to know those administrative assistants). Or they may simply be too buried in administrative tasks to be able to regularly meet with all campus partners. If you’re lucky, you may be able to form positive relationships with your administrators the same as you would faculty and staff, by reaching out early and being present in the spaces where administrators are likely to be, such as campus-wide events or—if you can get a few minutes of time—admin meetings. Because each individual institution has different levels and titles for administration, we won’t go into all the various definitions from deans and directors to provosts and presidents and every level in between. The important thing to remember is that if you do get the opportunity to market directly to a captive administrator audience, you’ll have to be quick and to the point. The three things to remember are: the numbers, the stories, and the connections you can make with them. • Numbers. Your administration team is likely going to be numbers focused because qualitative data can easily be linked to institutional strategic plan goals as well as to funding. Library directors will likely want to know how much funding you’re requesting and if you’re making the most of your marketing budget. Presidents will likely want to know that the events or services you’re promoting lead to such student success factors as retention and graduation. Assessment reports and activities as discussed in Chapter 6

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are one way that you can clearly communicate data in a way that demonstrates the library’s value. • Stories. As much as administrators care about the hard data, they equally want to know about the positive stories. Almquist wrote how effective marketing techniques build positive “perceptions of value among users and university/ college administrators” (2014, p. 44). Is what you’re doing making the library or the institution look good? Does it tell a story that not only brings people to the library but to college overall? One focus group participant in the Academic Library Impact report suggested working with your campus student government “to advocate to the administration on the library’s behalf” (Connaway et al., 2017, p. 30) as students are your primary constituent with the first-hand experience to tell the most compelling stories of success. • Connection. Administrators are human too! You can connect with them on the causes they love and bring them into the library as well. One example is my (Villamor’s) then Vice President of Academic Affairs, who the library communicated with regularly. She came to the College of Southern Nevada therapy animal library event (discussed in Chapter 4) and even took selfies with the therapy dogs. Her presence provided great promotion and recognition for the libraries, while also bringing joy to an administrator who loved dogs. Continue to invite administrators to your events and consider offering the space for other meetings and gatherings that can increase the visibility of the library’s space and services to administrators as well (Connaway et al., 2017).

As an Academic Library Impact focus group participant summed up: “we’re not islands. Not that we ever were, but I think part of our success in reaching to students and faculty is the way we collaborate with others” (Connaway et al., 2017, p. 29). The participant then suggested multilevel communication from the provost to other academic units to create relationships in order to engage in successful outreach: “all those levels reinforce each other, and any alone doesn’t quite work as well” (p. 29). We cannot consider the library a separate entity from our institutions, and we must make ourselves visible enough so that campus partners see that as well and want to work with us directly. While traditional perceptions of the library may create challenges in collaborating with all educational stakeholders (Pham & Tanner, 2014), the more we continuously form relationships and present who we really are, the more we can break past stereotypes and show what the library is truly capable of doing.

QUICK TIPS • Define and segment your faculty, staff, and administration audiences to be sure you’re not forgetting anyone’s distinct needs. • Marketing to faculty/staff has multiple benefits: • They are educational stakeholders who use or could potentially use your resources and services, each with their own information needs.

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PRACTICAL MARKETING FOR THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY • They can easily reach students through their platform in the classroom to help market your resources and services as well. • They might not be aware of what the library has to offer. • Partnering benefits both parties with shared knowledge, and it’s fun to reach and work with other people outside your own sphere!

• Marketing to faculty/staff can be done in many ways: • Forming positive relationships through communication • Meet them where they are/consider their schedule • Market to the whole person • Marketing to Administration can feel more distant, but can also reap bigger rewards: • Communicate the numbers • Communicate the stories • Consider their connection to the marketing initiative, to the library, and to the college

FROM THE FIELD Author: Mackenzie Salisbury, Information Literacy Librarian Institution: John M. Flaxman Library, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois Description: Marketing Special Collections to Faculty and Staff through Video The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) main collection is located at the John M. Flaxman Library and special collections, which houses the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection as well as a number of other unique archives. Additionally, those at SAIC have access to a number of other special collections that are scattered throughout the city of Chicago, including the Fashion Resource Center (FRC), Roger Brown Study Collection (RBSC), and the Video Data Bank (VDB). As a city campus, we are constantly working to help our community not only locate these resources but help them to connect our rich and unique collections. Additionally, as an Art + Design school, our primary mode of research is focused on creative practice, which is grounded in the idea of curiosity. Our overall goal is to inspire our community to use our libraries in both traditional and nontraditional ways and to showcase the primary source materials that are housed in our Special Collections.

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In the fall of 2019, the Library + Special Collections Faculty committee communications working group met to generate ideas on how to promote these collections to faculty and staff in addition to new and returning students. This committee included a number of faculty from a variety of departments as well as staff from the library and other special collections. During this conversation many ideas were generated, and the concept of crafting promotional videos gained interest and excitement with the faculty who were present. The hope was that these videos would be broad enough to be usable well into the future, while also inspiring viewers to think about the collections in new and surprising ways. One of the project’s goals was to market the special collections and related instructional services to teaching faculty in order to increase their usage and instruction statistics. Taking the lead on this project’s theme, tone, and script was Alex Aubrey, Director of the FRC and myself, with oversight from Melanie Emerson, Dean of Library + Special Collections. We collaborated with our in-house Academic Media Production department who was tasked with the actual filming and editing of the video. While we planned to make these videos in the spring semester of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic required us to shift not only the timeline, but also who would be able to participate in the project as a whole. Like many institutions, SAIC pivoted to a fully remote setup mid-March, 2020, and the library and special collections shifted priorities to best support this change. After the spring semester we revisited the video projects and decided to move forward with recording them, despite the challenges that would inevitably arise due to the restrictions of space and student availability. It was agreed that despite these challenges, having a video would have even more value than we had originally planned, as it had been announced that the fall semester would follow a modified in-person structure. This new model moved orientations and many classes to a purely online format, which are two spaces where the library and special collections can market themselves. Once the leaders of this project were identified and willing to continue these efforts, we met and discussed which videos to create, as well as what their goals, uses, and audiences would be. Ultimately, we decided on six promotional videos, which would include one long video that connected the library and all the special collections, and five shorter videos that highlighted each collection and their services. Working closely with each collections’ staff members, we drafted script language for each video that gave a quick glance of the materials within each, while being sure to highlight how these materials can be accessed by the SAIC community. For the longer overview video, we

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focused on curiosity and creative practice as supported by this network of resources that is curated for those in the arts. Once final approval of the scripts was given, we began to schedule filming of each video. This was particularly challenging due to the COVID-19 space restrictions for safe social distancing. Originally, we had hoped to approach this with an interview style of storytelling, but shifted to voiceover narration, which we were able to record separately for COVID-19 safety protocols and audio quality purposes. Additionally, we had hoped to include faculty, students, and volunteers in these videos to emphasize the varied use of the collections and spaces. Instead, we had a small number of volunteers and students participate in filming and utilized footage from previous events interspersed with new footage. The final look and feel of the videos were acceptable given the constraints, but ideally would have included more action and people in our spaces. In early fall 2020, the videos slowly became available and we began to strategically reach out to other campus partners to see where we could best utilize them. Our goal had always been to include these on the school’s website as a promotional tool for prospective and incoming students. Due to their late release, we are now slowly including them in faculty, staff, and student orientation modules, online Canvas courses, social media channels, and internal communications such as our internal newsletter and outreach emails to departments and instructors. Specifically, I can see them being utilized in a flipped classroom setting for some of our first-year programs, as the modified inperson model continues to be the best fit for our community. This project is still very much ongoing in terms of where we can utilize these videos, and as our campus shifts in response to the pandemic, we anticipate that there will be new ways to share this content. Overall, this project was fairly successful given the limits and constraints placed on us due to COVID-19. These videos are well produced and do give a good sense of the collections and spaces where they are housed. In the spring of 2021, we saw an increase in library instruction, as well as requests for materials and visits to the other special collections compared to spring 2019. While we cannot directly correlate this uptick to the videos themselves, the shift to an online environment has certainly given us more spaces in which to promote the Library + Special Collections. The videos provide a dynamic and engaging way to showcase our materials and services to faculty, especially during a time in which email and other text-based promotion often falls flat or is easily buried. These videos are also the closest avenue of interaction with our community, replacing our traditional

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in-person elevator pitches and word-of-mouth marketing. Beyond the external successes, this project also allowed us to reflect on how we think and be intentional about the ways in which we speak about the Library + Special Collections. Creating these videos gave us a chance to come together and speak aspirationally about not only our collections, but what is possible within them.

REFERENCES Almquist, A. J. (2014). The innovative academic library: Implementing a marketing orientation to better address user needs and improve communication. Journal of Library Innovation, 5(1), 43–54. Association of College and Research Libraries. (2019, July 3). ACRL Libraries Transform Toolkit. American Library Association. https://acrl.libguides.com /transform Connaway, L. S., Harvey, W., Kitzie, V., & Mikitish, S. (2017). Academic library impact: Improving practice and essential areas to research (pp. 1–124). Association of College & Research Libraries. Eva, N. (2015). Marketing to faculty in an academic library. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 54(4), 26–28. Faulk, N. (2018). What faculty have to say about library outreach: A rural community college survey. College & Research Libraries News, 79(4), 193. Kubacki, K., Dietrich, T., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2017). Segmentation in social marketing: Why we should do it more often that we currently do. In T. Dietrich, S. Rundle-Thiele, & K. Kubacki (Eds.), Segmentation in social marketing (pp. 1–6). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1835-0 Munster, I., Harrington, E., & Negro, T. (2017). It’s fun to partner: Expanding library collaborations. Library Leadership & Management, 31, 1–18. Pham, H. T., & Tanner, K. (2014). Collaboration between academics and librarians: A literature review and framework for analysis. Library Review, 63(1/2), 15–45. https://doi.org/10.1108/LR-06-2013-0064

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Conclusion In the summer of 2017, with only 5 years of academic library experience under my belt, I was lucky enough to have the chance to present at the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference with “Your Library Loves You: Marketing from the Heart,” as part of a panel presentation, “Transforming Our Academic Outreach Practices: Reaching Our Students, Faculty and Staff, & Administrators.” My brief talk led to a book idea shared with ALA’s Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group, which brought Kimberly Shotick on board in fall of 2018. Although the world has changed much since the idea for this book got off the ground, the need for a practical guide to marketing has remained the same. I was thrown into the world of library marketing in 2009 at the age of 22 when first starting my career at my local public library. I found I enjoyed nearly every aspect of communication, outreach, and marketing to my community, but was doing my advertisements for the library children’s department on the fly with limited budgets and resources. The situation was similar when I was first hired at the College of Southern Nevada in 2012. We had a marketing team I could join to participate in marketing efforts, but there was no marketing librarian to teach me the detailed ins and outs of how to approach this important area of communicating our value. It was hard to find recent books that walked me through the entire marketing process for an academic library, as much of what I found was public library focused. It was even harder to find something that took into account the challenges and differences that a community college faced. Thus, I wanted to provide that kind of easy handbook for all academic libraries, with ideas designed to help us think outside our own experiences. Our individual institutions, libraries, and lives are each so unique. And as a library community, we can take advantage of the ideas and work that’s shared by those who have tried new concepts we haven’t thought of yet.

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I could not have done this work alone. On the personal side, I have to thank my entire supportive family, including my parents, brothers, in-laws, and husband who not only support my writing career but have helped immensely with childcare and just being there during an otherwise isolating experience (both a global pandemic and the isolation of writing an entire manuscript). And thank you to my beautiful firstborn son for bringing joy and keeping me sane through it all. On the professional side, this book exists thanks to our editor, Jessica Gribble, who has been with us through the entire process, and our whole editorial and publishing team. But also, this book would not have come into being if not for my amazing colleagues at the Henderson District Public Libraries who first sparked my interest in marketing, or my incredible colleagues at the College of Southern Nevada who continue to work on academic library marketing initiatives every day. I have learned so much from the members of ALA’s Library Marketing Outreach and Interest Group, who share ideas and resources from across the country and help keep the group alive over Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/acrl.lmao/). I am grateful to every single author of our case studies for participating in this endeavor and sharing their real-world stories. And I am completely indebted to my coauthor, Kimberly Shotick, for taking on this journey with me, writing fabulous chapters that address crucial issues, and providing her perspectives and experiences that I would never have been able to convey. We sought to share approachable methods for marketing in a variety of settings to a variety of stakeholders, incorporating the importance of our stakeholders’ diversity and humanity. With limited resources, you can still market your library effectively and exceptionally. We continue to learn and grow ourselves within the academic library world, but hope we have inspired you to begin your marketing journey, to consider new ways of approaching this craft, or to expand your efforts with ideas and data that you’ve always wanted to implement. Just as the ALA presentation 5 years ago was a first step toward a much bigger project, this book can be a first step toward bigger things for your library. —Stephanie What is on the horizon for academic library marketing? As I reflect on the past year (I’m writing this at the 1-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic) there are more questions about the future of higher education than answers. One thing is certain: the virtual will continue to play an important role in library marketing, as more and more classes, events, services, and resources move online. I believe that the momentum of the importance of the library’s physical space will pick back up as we move back to physically being together, but it might look a little different.

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Another trend I’m seeing is an increased focus on the library’s role in student wellness. Our chapter “Marketing from the Heart” should serve as inspiration for library workers engaging with this growing trend. Although other community spaces on campus provide competition for providing services and resources in support of student wellness, the library is uniquely situated as a space that is widely accessible in terms of having widely open building hours and accommodating spaces for a wide variety of activities. Library missions and strategic plans will, in my estimation, increasingly reflect the desire to foster the whole of the student and how that correlates to student success. When I meet with new librarians, or those still in school, a common anxiety is not knowing where to start, especially for folks without a background in marketing. If this is you, I want to tell you that it’s going to be fine, you are doing (or will do) great. In reality, no library does it all perfectly, and what works well for one library might not work for another. Thoughtful experimentation, intentional planning and assessment, utilizing a community of peers—these are all ingredients for success. Another reality is that we are constrained by the resources and culture of our institutions, and some of what we recommend might not be possible at your institution. Know what is in your control and for the elements that aren’t (maybe the budget or team structure) determine the costs of advocating for change and weigh them against the benefits. For instance, if your thoughtful, well-researched budget proposal is repeatedly rejected by administration and the result is in less successful events and marketing initiatives, decide if the distress of being under resourced is worth pursuing the budget further, and consider downsizing the initiatives to meet the reality of the resources available. Look into the work on librarian/library worker mental health, self-care, and self-preservation by Fobazi M. Ettarh, Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, Meredith Farkas, and a growing list of others. Constantly trying to convince campus constituents that the library provides value can be emotionally exhausting, especially when these efforts are demanded, but not supported, by the library’s administration. While I don’t want to paint a dim picture of library marketing, I also want to recognize that it is often emotional labor and can be draining without the proper resources and supports. You can still do amazing things under these constraints, and can even do so while maintaining your own mental health. I am grateful to my many colleagues who have supported me along the way of becoming a person who specializes in library marketing. Stephanie and I were guest speakers in a library marketing class and a student asked why we got into library marketing. While I described it as somewhat accidental, after some reflection I’ve come to realize that it is the result of opportunities and support that I’ve received. Thank you to my first mentors Mary Thill and the late David Green, to Joan Petit and Sabine Dantus who came before us in ACRL’s Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group, to all of the contributors of this book, and to the community of library marketers,

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both in public and academic libraries. It has been a challenging year+ for us all. Join us in conversation, reach out to us with questions or ideas—we are a community and do better together. Thank you to my communities: my friends and family (especially to my partner, Matt, who kept our kids out of my home “office” as I wrote during lockdown), mentors past and present, and to the students who both remind me of myself and inspire me by being different. Thanks, finally, to Stephanie for inviting me on this book journey and to our publisher for giving us this platform. This book is from the community, to the community. I hope that you find something that inspires you the way that we’ve been inspired by all who came before us. Thanks. —Kimberly

Index Academic libraries: as community hubs, 53; connection of students with, 55; funding for, xv, xvi, 32, 116; needs-based focus of, 52–54; return of investment for, 32, 93–94; space design for, 34–38; staff of, 114–115; as third places, 37–38; tour of, 38; value of, xv, xvi, 32, 116 Academic Library Impact: Improving Practice and Essential Areas to Research (ACRL), 115, 117 Academic success, 41–42, 94 Accomplishment, feeling of, 53 ACRL. See Association of College & Research Libraries Ad hoc groups. See Informal marketing teams Adjunct faculty, 110–111 Administration: as audience, 23; marketing input from, 2; marketing to, 116–117; and value of libraries, xvi, 32, 116 Administrative assistants, 111, 113 Adobe Illustrator, 35 Adult coloring pages, 61 Advisory groups, 7 Advocacy, data-informed, 94 Affirmation, creating culture of, 9

Age, of students, 24 AIDA model, 97 ALA Connect, 3 Alameda County Library, California, 84–86 Almquist, A., 116, 117 Alumni, 25 American Library Association (ALA): commitment to DEI priorities, 72; diversity defined by, 72; equity defined by, 73; inclusion defined by, 74; Library Value Calculator, 32, 94; Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services, 72 Animal therapy events, 56, 57, 61, 100, 117 Annual reports, 104 Annual Statistics (ACRL), 103 Anxiety, library-use, 53 April Fool’s Day, 65 April Poetry Month, 59 Archives, digital, 43 ARL. See Association of Research Libraries Art contests, 59 Article databases, 39 Assessment. See Marketing assessment Assessment in Action (ACRL), 94

128INDEX Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL): Annual Statistics, 103; Assessment in Action, 94; Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, 60; job listings on website of, 4; Libraries Transform Toolkit, 110; The Value of Academic Libraries Report, 32, 93 Association of Research Libraries (ARL): on assessment methods, 97; on diversity of librarians, 74, 75–76; on marketing teams, 7, 11; on scholarly publishing, 42 Atilano, M., 66–68 Attention, interest, desire and action (AIDA) model, 97 Aubrey, A., 119 Audience (in marketing): and book displays, 35; diversity of, 76, 78; of electronic resources, 39; identifying, 33–34, 39; segmentation of, 23–25 Banned Books Week, 27 Banners, 18 Barnes, J., 26–29 Bellardo, T., 32 Belonging: fostering sense of, 80; importance of, 55; in minority students, 56–58; as student need, 53 Bensimon, E. M., 73 Biden administration, 75 BIPOC librarians, 71, 75, 76–78 BIPOC students, 76 Black Lives Matter (BLM), 58, 85, 86 Blankets, 52 “Blind Date with a Book” (program), 27–28 Blogs: on displays, 45; marketing through, 19, 84–86 Book(s), marketing, 34–36 Book covers, 35, 46–47

Book displays, 35–36; attractive, 35; benefits of, 35; calendar ideas for, 36; DEI priorities applied to, 86–89; example of, 27; sharing stories via, 59; students curating, 45; used in marketing, 35–36 Bookstagram accounts, 46–48 “The Book That Made Me” (blog), 85 Borden, N., 22 Brag boards, 59–60 Brainstorming, 101 Brand, maintaining, 18, 19 Brennan, A., 26–29 Brennan, M., 26–29 Brochures, 18 Bulletin boards, 18, 59 Bullying, 53 Business marketing. See Marketing Calendar ideas for book displays, 36 California Community College Equity Leadership Alliance, 72 Campus counseling services, 53 Campus employees. See Staff/faculty Campus security, 52–53 Canva, 35, 46 Carpenter Library, 60, 66–68 Censorship, highlighting victories over, 27 Center for Universal Design, 82 Center for Urban Education (CUE), 73 Childcare needs, of students, 25 Christopher Center Library, 64–65 Chun, E., 78 Circulation counts, 99 Circulation staff, 114–115 Citation management software workshops, 114 Coconino Community College, 113–114 Collaboration, in marketing from the heart, 80 College of Southern Nevada: libraries of (see CSN Libraries); tenured faculty at, 110

INDEX Coloring pages, 61 Comments (feedback), 59, 97 Committees, 2 Communication: with administration, 117; of benefits of libraries, 32; definition of, 17; with faculty, 41, 112, 113, 114; types of, 17–20 Communication of value, in marketing, xvi, 32 Community events, 20, 28 Community groups, relationship with, 25 Complaints, 59 “Computer Kickoff” workshop, 114 Computer trainings, 114 COM Team (CSN Libraries), 21, 23 Consistency, and brand, 19 Consortium of Academic Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), 94 “Contactless pickup” service, 42 Contest(s), 59 Contest prizes, 59, 60 Conversations, 20 Copyright workshops, 114 Counseling services: on campus, 53; libraries offering, 55 COVID-19 pandemic: and information access, 42; and online faculty, 115; video project during, 119, 120 Create Your Own ROI Calculator (Private Academic Library Network of Indiana), 32 Creation, in marketing, xv Cruz, N., 80, 84–86 CSN Libraries: blog of, 84–86; computer workshops in, 114; COM Team of, 21, 23; marketing goals of, 16; marketing teams of, 11; marketing to faculty/staff, 113; outreach of, 21; segmentation of audiences of, 23; therapy dog events in, 61, 117; Women’s History Month, 62

129 CUE. See Center for Urban Education Cultural differences, 25 Databases: marketing, 39, 40; workshops on, 114 Data-informed advocacy, 94 Deficit thinking, 73 DEI. See Diversity, equity, and inclusion Delivery, in marketing, xv Demco, Inc., 61 Demographics, of students, 23–25, 75 Department meetings, 113 Department of Education, 75 Department of Higher Education, 93 Design, universal, 81–82 Designing Libraries (conferences), 34–38 Diaz, S., xv “Different types of readers” (Instagram post), 47–48 Digital archives, 43 Digital communication, 18–19 Digital flyers, 19, 41 Digital pathfinders, 40 Digital resources, 39–40 DiMenna-Nyselius Library, 44–45 Disabilities, students with, 24, 75, 76 Discriminatory practices, 53 Displays, 35–37, 44–45 Diversity, 72–73 Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), 71–89; and assessments, 80–81; and audience, 33; in blogs, 84–86; and book displays, 86–89; commitment to, 72; definitions, 72–74; immediate action for libraries, 82–83; in marketing, 33, 74, 75–83; and marketing from the heart, 56–58, 80; in marketing teams, 6, 76–78, 81; promoting e-books about, 39; in student recruitment, 75, 81 Diversity audit, 78

130INDEX Diversity events, 62 Diversity plans, 81 Dohe, Kate, 9 Door hangers, 38 Dorm door hangers, 38 Dowd, N., 16 Dust jackets, 35 DVD displays, 45 E-books, 39 Education, Department of, 75 Edwards, J., 81 Electronic communication, 18–19 Electronic journal subscriptions, 39 Electronic resources, 39–40 Elevator pitch, 20, 114 Elmborg, J. K., 37 Email(s): to faculty, 41, 113, 114; for marketing initiatives, 21; for promoting events and programs, 27, 28 Email blasts, 19 Emerson, M., 119 Emotional safety, as student need, 53 Empathetic marketing. See Marketing from the heart Endnote, 114 Engagement (student): assessment of, 105–107; definition of, 106; increasing, 54 Equity, 73. See also Diversity, equity, and inclusion eResource usage, 99 Escape rooms, 38 Esteem, as student need, 53 Ethnicity, of students, 25 Eva, N., 112, 114 Evangeliste, M., 16 Evans, A., 78 Eventbrite, 102 Events, 20 Excel, 105 Exchange relationships, 17

Executive Order no. 13950, 75 External outreach, 21 Facebook, 64, 66, 98, 106 Faculty. See Staff/faculty Fairfield University, 44–45 Farrell, S. L., 94, 100 Fashion Resource Center (FRC), 118 Faulk, N., 113–114 Feedback: as assessment method, 97, 99, 100; from library advisory committees, 115; sharing stories via, 59 Filler posts (Instagram), 48 Film Club (Fairfield University), 45 Finals Week: giveaways during, 61; snack events during, 55, 67, 68; stress-relieving activities during, 48, 56, 61, 101–102; therapy dog events during, 56, 61, 100 Financial security, as student need, 53 First-generation students, 76 First-year students, 32, 33–34 Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, 118 Flaxman Library, 118–121 Flyers: digital, 19, 41; disadvantages of, 20; examples of, 21, 27, 28; print, 18 Focus groups, 97, 100 Food: as physiological need, 52; for staff/faculty, 113, 115. See also Snack events Food drive, 52 Food insecurity, 52 Formal marketing teams, 1, 2–4; communication strategy of, 3; job descriptions in, 3–4; meeting schedule of, 3; name of, 2–3; scope of work of, 2–3; structure of, 2; tools used by, 3; types of, 2 Four Ps, 22, 32, 78 Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (ACRL), 60 Francis, M., 54, 58

INDEX Freedom to Read party, 27 Friendships, as student need, 53 #FunFriday (social media posts), 64 Galvin Library, 10, 11. See also Illinois Institute of Technology Gamification, 38 Gathering places, 38 Giveaways, 18, 60–61 Google Analytics, 98–99, 107 Google Forms, 102, 103 Google Sheets, 102 “Grab and go” service, 42 Granger, A., 46–48 Graphic design tools, 35 Gratitude, expressing, 9–10 Haldeman, L., 26–29 Handouts, 18 Hannon Library, 105–107 Harassment, 53 Harrington, E., 112, 115 Hate speech, 53 Headcounts, 97, 98, 100–102 Hemingway, E., 59 Henderson, G. R., 74 Hierarchy of needs, 52–54 Higher Education, Department of, 93 Higher education, reports on, 93 Hinnant, K., 103 Hiring process, 77 Hootsuite, 105 Hoover Library, 86–89 Human communication: benefits of, 20; types of, 20 Human Library Activity, 101 Humor, 47–48, 63–66 Illinois Institute of Technology: library tour at, 38; marketing team at, 11; research faculty at, 110; stressrelieving activities at, 56; video series by, 43

131 Improv techniques, 9 Inclusion, 74. See also Diversity, equity, and inclusion Infographics, 41 Informal marketing teams, 1, 4–6; meeting schedule of, 5; recruiting for, 5; scope of work of, 5 Information access, facilitating, 42 Information literacy, 114 Ingwer, M., 51 Initial contact, with faculty, 112–113 Instagram: analytics, 98, 106; bookstagram, 46–48; humorous posts on, 64, 65, 66 Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), 94 Institutional repository (IR), 43 Intangible communication, 18–19 The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 103 Interactive whiteboards, 59 Inter-campus reports, 104 Internal outreach, 21 International students, 76 Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (ALA), 74 Interviews, 97, 99, 113–114 Intimidation, 53 ITHAKA S+R, 40, 42 Jackson, J., 105–107 Jamboard, 59 Jantz, R. C., 43 Jira, 3 Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, 118 John M. Flaxman Library, 118–121 Journal of Library Outreach and Engagement, 103 Journal subscriptions, 39 Jung, C., 22

132INDEX Kanopy Videos, 85, 114 Keiser, B., 22 Kotler, P., xv, 15, 17 Lafayette College Library, 82–83 LaMoreaux, Nicole, 6, 10–13 Languages, in marketing, 25, 58, 79–80 Law enforcement, presence of, on campus, 52–53 Leadership, for marketing teams, 9–10 Learning Management System (LMS), 19, 40 Leisure reading, 27–28, 45 “Let’s Talk About Race: Let’s Talk About Black Lives” (blog), 86 Leung, S. Y., 72 Lewey, T., 86–89 Lewis College of Human Sciences, 56 LGBTQIA+ students: as audience, 76; marketing from the heart to, 56–58 LibAnalytics, 102 LibGuide, 39–40, 98, 99 LibInsight, 102 Librarian(s): on benefits of libraries, 32; BIPOC, 71, 75, 76–78; communication by, 20, 32; as faculty members, 111; information provided by, 31; job descriptions of, 3–4; one-on-one interactions with, 53; on tenure-track, 6; White, 74, 75, 76, 88; workload of, 4 Librarian Rex, 65–66 Libraries. See Academic libraries Libraries Transform Toolkit (ACRL), 110 Library advisory committee, 115 Library anxiety, 53 Library Assessment Conference, 103 Library events, 20 Library funding, xv, xvi, 32, 116

Library Marketing and Outreach Interest group, 3–4 Library Marketing Student Assistant (LMSA), 64, 65 The Library Marketing Toolkit (Potter), 58 Library outreach. See Outreach Library pathfinders, 40 Library tours, 38 Library-use security, 53 Library Value Calculator, 32, 94 Likert scale, 101 Links, 40 Listservs, 3–4 Lizzo, 86, 87 LMS. See Learning Management System López-McKnight, J. R., 72 “Louder Than a Bomb: University (LTAB:U)” (event), 28–29 Love, as student need, 53 Loyola Marymount University, 105–107 Making Surveys Work for Your Library: Guidance, Instructions, and Examples (Miller and Hinnant), 103 Manke, N., 26–29 Marketing: adapted for library marketing, 21–22; communication for, 17; definition of, xv, 17; DEI priorities applied to, 78–81; vs. marketing for academic libraries, 15; parts of, xv Marketing assessment, 93–107; AIDA model for, 97; benefits of, 103–104; best practices of, 100–103; definition of, 93; DEI priorities applied to, 80–81; functions of, 93; of marketing efforts, 96–103; methods of, 97–100; outcomesbased, 95–96, 100–103; projects on, 94–95; reporting and acting on, 103–104; tools for, 102–103

INDEX Marketing efforts, assessment of, 96–103 Marketing for academic libraries: AIDA model for, 97; assessment of (see Assessment); audiences of, 23–25; vs. business marketing, 15; business marketing elements adapted for, 21–22; communication for, 17–20; diversity and, 33, 74–83; goals of, 16–17; and improved services and resources, 32; internal, 114–115; main concepts in, 15; marketing mix for, 22; parts of, xv; segmentation in, 23–25, 33–34; teams for (see Marketing teams). See also Marketing for the mind; Marketing from the heart Marketing for the mind, 31–48; definition of, 31; identifying audience for, 33–34, 39; vs. marketing from the heart, 31–32; marketing resources, 31, 32–33, 34–40; marketing services, 31, 32–33, 38, 40–43 Marketing from the heart, 51–68; benefits of, 54–58; caring about students and, 62–63; giveaways and, 60–61; vs. marketing for the mind, 31–32; sharing stories and, 58–60, 80; staff/faculty involved in, 115–116; student needs and, 52–54 Marketing Libraries Journal, 103 Marketing materials: accessibility of, 79; DEI priorities applied to, 78–80 Marketing mix, 22, 32 Marketing plans, 7–8, 16 Marketing teams, 1–13; affective leadership for, 9–10; annual report by, 104; benefits of, 12–13; building, 6–10; campus-wide, 7; challenges of, 13; charge of, 2,

133 7–8, 11, 12; diversity of members, 6, 76–78, 81; examples of, 10–11; goals of, 16–17; meeting schedule of, 3, 5, 12; recruiting for, 5, 6–7; scope of work of, 2–3, 5, 7–8, 11; segmenting, 23; structure of, 1, 10–13, 15 (see also Formal marketing teams; Informal marketing teams); student involvement in, 7; team members from outside library, 7 Markets and publics, 17 Market segmentation, 23–25 Maslow, A., 52, 58 Mastel, K., 94, 100 Mathews, B., 51 McCarthy, E. J., 22, 32 McDaniel College, 86–89 Meetings: human communication in, 20; marketing initiatives mentioned in, 21; schedule of, for teams, 3, 5, 12 Mellon, C., 53 Memes, 46, 47 Messages (feedback), 59 Metro Community College, 114 Microsoft Teams, 3 Miller, R., 103 Minority students, marketing from the heart to, 56–58 Minute papers, 100 Mission statements, 16, 27 MIT Libraries, 80–81 Mobile displays, 37 Motivations, marketing services based on, 41 Multicultural communities, marketing to, 58 Munster, I., 112, 115 Muszkiewicz, R., 63–66 Mystery shoppers, 100 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 75, 103

134INDEX National Coming Out Day, 56 National Endowment for the Humanities, 114 National Poetry Month, 28 Needs, hierarchy of, 52–54 Needs-based focus, of libraries, 52–54 Negro, T., 112, 115 The New School Libraries and Archives, 10, 11–13 Newsletters, 114 Nielsen, J., 40 Nonbinary clients, 79–80 Norman, A., 26–29 Nyack Library, 86 Oakleaf, M., 32, 93 Obama administration, 75 Oberlin Group, 42 Observation, 97, 100 OCLC, 40, 42 Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services (ALA), 72 Ohio State University, 55 Online calendars, 19 Open access (OA) publishing services, 43 Open educational resources (OER), 40, 43 Orientation for library, 38 Outcomes-based assessment, 95–96, 100–103 Outreach: caring about student concerns and, 62; definition of, xv, 21; and diversity, 75–76, 77; external, 21; internal, 21; types of, 20–23 Pappas, Erin, 9 Pathfinders, 40 Paul V. Galvin Library, 10, 11. See also Illinois Institute of Technology Personas, identifying audience via creation of, 33–34 Pet Partners, 61

Photo(s), 48 Photo contests, 59 Physical marketing materials, 18 Physical resources, marketing, 34–38 Physiological needs, 52 Place: DEI priorities and, 78; in marketing mix, 22 Place-based marketing, 34–38 Poetry slam events, 28–29 Police, presence of, on campus, 52–53 Pop-up book displays, 35 Posters, 18, 38 Potter, N., 58 Presentations, 20 Price: DEI priorities and, 78; in marketing mix, 22, 32 Priddy Library, 115 Pride Day, 56 Pride pins, 58 Print communication, 18 Print resources, marketing, 34–38 Private Academic Library Network of Indiana, 32 Products: diversity of, 74, 78; in marketing mix, 22, 32 Promotion: diversity in, 74, 78; in marketing mix, 22 Pronouns, 79–80 Public libraries, value calculator for, 94 QR codes, 35–36 Qualitative assessment methods, 97, 99–100, 116–117 Qualtrics, 102–103 Quantitative assessment methods, 97, 98–99 Quotes, 46, 47 Race, conversations about, 86 Racism: and stereotypes, 74; Trump administration and, 71 Random Acts of Snacks, 60, 66–68 Reading for pleasure, 27–28, 45

INDEX Reading Rainbow, 87 Recreational reading, 27–28, 45 Religion, and marketing considerations, 25 Research contests, 60 Research faculty, 110 Research papers, 60 Research Party events, 67–68 Resources: electronic, 39–40; marketing, 31, 32–33, 34–40; print, 34–38 Return of investment (ROI), 32, 93–94, 95, 113 Roger Brown Study Collection (RBSC), 118 Rogers, J., 40 Safety: emotional, 53; as student need, 52–53 “Safe zone” stickers, 58 Salisbury, M., 118–121 San Antonio Public Library, 10–11 Scavenger hunts, 38 Scholarly publishing, transforming, 42–43 School events, 20 School of Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, 118–121 Scope creep, 5, 8 Security: financial, 53; in library, 52–53 Self-actualization: sharing stories and, 58; as student need, 53 Services: framework for, 40–41; types of, 40 Services, marketing, 31, 40–43; to enable academic success, 41–42, 94; to facilitate information access, 42; library spaces and, 38; reasons for, 32–33; to transform scholarly publishing, 42–43 Sharing stories, 58–60, 80, 117 Shelter, as physiological need, 52

135 Shiller, A., 63–66 Shotick, K., 10–13 Signs: attractive, 35; in book displays, 45; for library spaces, 38; uses of, 18, 21 Silberman, J., 16 “6-word story contest,” 59 Slack, 3 Slam poetry events, 28–29 Smith, D. A., 7 Snack events, 52, 55, 60, 66–68 Social media: analytics, 98, 105–107; bookstagram accounts, 46–48; disadvantages of posts on, 20; diversity posts on, 87–88; humorous posts on, 64–66; library marketing on, 19; marketing initiatives on, 21, 27, 28 SocialOomph, 105 Social services, libraries offering, 55–56 Social workers, 55 Socioeconomic status (SES), of students, 24 Space design, 34–38 Spalding, H. H., 41 Spanish language, 25 Special collections, marketing, 118–121 Spreadsheets, 105, 106 Springshare, 102 Sprout Social, 105 Staff/faculty: asking for help from, 115; categories of, 110–111; collaborative relationship with, 111–112, 115–116; communication with, 41, 112, 113, 114; diversity of, 77; initial contact with, 112–113; of libraries, 114–115; library recommended by, 110, 112; needs of, 112, 113; online, 115; titles of, 109–110; workshops for, 114

136INDEX Staff/faculty, marketing to, 109–121; audience, 23, 25, 41; benefits of, 109; electronic resources, 40; methods of, 112–116; reasons for, 111–112; services, 41–42; special collections, 118–121; and value of libraries, xvi Stalking, 53 Stereotypes, 74 Stories, sharing, 58–60, 80, 117 Strategic plans: and assessment, 95–96, 101; DEI priorities in, 39; and establishing scope, 7–8; in marketing, 16, 33 Streaming media, 39 Stress balls, 56, 60–61 Stress-relieving activities, 48, 56, 57, 60–61, 101–102 Student(s): academic success of, 41–42, 94; age of, 24; as audience, 23–25, 35; books published by, 60; caring about concerns of, 62–63; with children, 25; connection between library and, 55; demographics of, 23–25, 75; with disabilities, 24, 75, 76; displays curated by, 44–45; diversity of, 75, 81; faculty reaching, 110, 112; first-year, 32, 33–34; identity of, 51; increasing engagement of, 54; involved in marketing, 33; language of, 25; as library workers, 35; marketing electronic resources to, 40; on marketing teams, 7; needs of, 52–54; obligations of, 51; segments of, 23, 33–34; socioeconomic status of, 24; stress-relieving activities for, 56; and value of libraries, xvi, 32 Student Library Advisory Board (Fairfield University), 45 Survey(s): for assessment, 102–103; for segmentation, 23

SurveyMonkey, 103 Swag, 18 Table tents, 18, 38 Tangible communication, 18 Target audience. See Audience (in marketing) Task forces, 2 Teams. See Marketing teams Teamwork, 1 Tenured faculty, 110 Tenure-track faculty, 110 Tenure-track librarians, 6 Testimonies, 20 Text-a-librarian service, 21 Textbook assistance programs, 53 Therapy dog events, 56, 57, 61, 100, 117 Third places, 37–38 Thomas G. Carpenter Library, 60, 66–68 Thompson, S., 33 Thornell, Lisa, 44–45 Tienda, M., 73 Tokenism, 76–77 Tours (library), 38 Transfer students, 24 Transgender clients, 79–80 T-Rex costume, 65 Trump administration, 71, 75 “Truth Hurts” (Lizzo), 86, 87 Tulsa Community College, 16, 26–29 Tulsa Community College Foundation, 28, 29 Tutoring, 55 Twitter, 64, 65, 66, 98, 106 Universal design, 81–82 Universal Design for Education, 81 Universal Design for Instruction (UDI), 81 Universal Design for Learning (UDL), 81 Universities at Shady Grove, 115

INDEX University of Lethbridge, 114 University of Missouri Columbia, 46–48 University of North Florida, 60–61, 66–68 Unwelcome physical contact, 53 URL, shortened, 36 Valentine’s Day event, 28 Valparaiso University, Indiana, 63–66 The Value of Academic Libraries Report (Oakleaf), 32, 93 Value statements, 16, 27 Veterans, 76 Video(s): as electronic resources, 39; to faculty, 41; humorous, 65–66; marketing special collections via, 118–121; in native languages, 58; on scholarly services, 43; uses of, 19, 113 Video Data Bank (VDB), 118 Villamor, S. E., 10–13 Visual marketing materials, 18 Visual stories, 59 Volunteers: diversity of, 77; in informal marketing teams, 5; sample call for, 6 Vox pops, 100

137 Wagner, S., 26–29 Waldhart, T., 32 Wang, J., 41 Website analytics, 98–99 Websites, 18–19; accessibility of, 79; marketing initiatives on, 21, 27; shortened URL for, 36 Weingand, D., 22 Wellness services, 55 Whiteboards, 59 White supremacy: awareness of existence of, 73; deficit thinking in, 73; in libraries, 75, 76; Trump administration and, 71; understanding, 72 William H. Hannon Library, 105–107 Williams, J. D., 74 Wilson, M. C., 43 Women’s History Month, 62 “Women’s History Month: Free Library Films!” (blog), 85 “Women’s March Nevada” (blog), 85–86 Word of mouth marketing, 20, 27, 28, 55 Workshops, 114 Writing contests, 59

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About the Authors STEPHANIE ESPINOZA VILLAMOR (she/her) is an eLearning Librarian at the College of Southern Nevada. She leads library marketing initiatives and coordinated communication and outreach among all three campus libraries. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and has worked in positions ranging from magazine editor and public library assistant to instruction librarian. Villamor is the author of several articles and stories published online, in local magazines, and in creative writing anthologies. She wrote a chapter for the library text Young Adult Literature and Multimedia: A Quick Guide. KIMBERLY SHOTICK (she/they) is the Student Success Librarian and an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University. She has published on universal design for learning and has presented nationally on a number of academic library topics from accessibility to Wikipedia. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign and an MA from Northeastern Illinois University.

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