Book Review: “Marketing Today’s Academic Library,” by Brian Matthews

Published in March 2009, Brian Matthew’s book Marketing Today’s Academic Library: a bold new approach to communicating with students has informed my thinking about marketing and how librarians think about their services and users of those services. As I was eager to read it, I had the order the book directly from the publisher which doesn’t make international orders easy (i.e. I had to send a fax using Skype – if Amazon can easily ship to Canada, I don’t see why the ALA can’t). With the main text of the book coming to 162 pages, the book is a fast read with an emphasis on the practical details of marketing the academic library to students. The focus of the book is very much on undergraduate students and grapples with that challenge well. If you are mainly looking for a work about marketing the library to faculty or administrators, then you should look elsewhere. That said, assisting students to excell in their studies can’t make you look bad no matter what. The “big picture” aspect of the book that struck me as particularly insightful was the idea that ‘marketing’ in this context is really about satisfying users and making the environment, products and services of the Library meet those needs. I also very much appreciated the research-driven bent to the book: no campaign should be launched without some research to support it. The book’s prologue and the biographical element of the first chapter also proved an engaging opening to the world of marketing and what it means for academic librarians – the publisher (or author? I’m unsure how the rights would work for this) would do well to offer the prologue and first chapter for free.

There were a few sections of the book that were particularly strong.  The chapter on “Conducting Marketing Research” reviewed all the major tools (e.g. data from internal administration, surveys, personal interviews, ’secret shoppers’, follow-up inquiries, comment cards, polling, focus groups, ethnographic techniques and LibQUAL), in addition to referencing a few important studies (e.g. this one at Rochester looks particularly promising: Nancy Foster and Sudan Gibbons, eds., Surveying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester [Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2008]). The ethnographic approach also struck me as a great idea; this can be done in several ways (e.g. ask students to plot how they spend their day on campus or design workshops where one asks users to talk about what their ideal library would be like). I’ve never conducted that sort of research, but I can see its merit. Namely, it would assist a great deal in getting librarians and researchers to understand how their services are used and perceived by their audience, or to look at the library as an anthropologist. I was also inspired by the reference to internal data, which I suspect is under-utilized. It stikes me that it would be valuable to have time use data (e.g. when does the Library website have the most intense load? Which types of students are checking out books? Collecting such general data – while respecting privacy – could be a great resource).

Another general idea often raised in the book is the importance of understanding the campus context, of understanding what is happening beyond the Library’s walls. Does the Library know the presidents of all the course unions (e.g. Economics Students, English Students, History Students etc)? What is the social life of campus like? Are there campus leaders – award winners, student politicians etc – that would be interested to serve as ambassadors? One insight from the Rochester study referred to above was the finding that many students discussed homework and assignments with their parents on a regular basis; the Library responding by organizing a breakfast event for parents during orientation week. That may sound like a small thing, but I think it go a long way. These same kinds of questions could also be applied to the faculty side of things.

Some of the later chapters were so full of ideas that I was a bit overwhelmed. My inner academic/social scientist often wondered if there was evidence or studies to suggest how different strategies can be best used. For example, Matthews suggests having the Library run a contest where entrants design videos or other media with Library equipment and software and then recognize the winners. While I like the sheer creativity of this idea, it might work better at institutions where students already have a high level of expertise in media production (e.g. a college of art and design). There are several other interesting cases here of specific marketing tools – both free and paid. Part of the challenge will be determining which tools to use in which circumstance, but that is likely something that will vary based on each institution’s circumstance.

In summary, I would certainly recommend this book to academic librarians and any other librarian working in an educational context. It will likely take a few years to work through all the strategies and ideas suggested here, but I have little doubt that there will be a substantial benefit. For librarians, this book offers the promise of even more creative, socially engaged work that speaks to the needs of users. For users, there is increased potential of better services. Alas, the price is rather high ($48 US dollars – on the ALA Store) for a softcover book of less than 200 pages; many non-fiction hardcover books commonly sell for about half that much. I elected to purchase it anyhow, seeing it as investment in my career. I would especially recommend the book for inclusion in LIS/iSchool libraries.

Related posts:

1. Book Review: The Accidental Library Marketer by Kathy Dempsey
2. Book Review: The Library PR Handbook: high-impact communications edited by Mark R. Gould
3. An Introduction to Marketing
4. Book Review: Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres