Mark Aaron Polger is one of the most enthusiastic library marketers I know, so I was excited to learn he was writing a book on the topic. When he invited me to contribute the Foreword, I was honored. I wasn’t sure what I’d discover in the manuscript, and for months, I eagerly awaited my sneak peek.

Thanks to Heath Sledge for being such a supportive editor and for helping me throughout the process of this book project. Thanks to Charles Harmon and everyone at Rowman & Littlefield for believing in this project (and for your patience). Thanks to Sandy Wood for inviting me to write this book and for working with me at the beginning of this project.

Let’s face it: libraries no longer have a monopoly on providing information. According to a Pew Research study, 77 percent of Americans go online daily, and 26 percent of them are constantly online (Perrin and Jiang, 2018). Libraries now compete against Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, Facebook, and YouTube, and the Internet is winning. According to another Pew Research study, people in the...

Librarians want to spread their message, so they use a variety of communication tools to promote and highlight their library’s services and resources. They have the best of intentions, but their efforts are very often misguided, sporadic, random, uninformed, and not user-centered. Librarians think they know what is best for their users, but they are ill informed because they...

Market segmentation is the process of subdividing a market into smaller groups, or segments, that have similar demographics, interests, and needs. Segmenting enables the marketer to customize and tailor marketing messages to particular audiences (Thomas, 2016).

Many libraries develop vast book collections and extensive menus of services without ever asking what their users want. This frustrates users and wastes funds. To avoid this, libraries must study their audience and its needs before making decisions. The notion of “user centered design” has been extensively studied in the context of library websites (Comeaux, 2008; Bordac and...

Libraries and librarians cannot successfully develop collections, programs, and services on the fly. Like any organization, they need a strategic plan. A strategic plan is a document that describes the goals and objectives of the organization over a specific period. For some libraries, the strategic plan may include a marketing plan. A marketing plan can be short—a few pages—or lengthy...

A campaign is a systematic, large-scale set of marketing activities designed to achieve a specific goal over a specific period of time. Campaigns center on a consistent theme, and may express this theme though different types of media, events, and promotional material. This chapter gives an overview of the components of a campaign and offers examples of campaigns from both libraries and the...

A brand is the collection of mental images a person has in their mind when they think of a particular product or service or company; it represents the feelings and experiences that occur when they have used or interacted with this product or service. Brands are perceived and experienced and are considered a living entity (Walters and Jackson, 2013), as opposed to a static label for a company or...

More and more people are working outside of office settings. Increasingly, people work in coffee shops and other places that indirectly charge for use of the space (users must buy food and/or drink to use the wireless Internet, power outlets, and table space). Public, shared, freely accessible work and study space is increasingly rare. In this environment, libraries are now marketing...

The Internet provides access to a vast amount of information; it also offers an easy, cost-effective way for people to communicate and interact. The Internet has fundamentally changed the field of marketing, making it easier, faster, and more affordable than ever for marketers to reach more people (Sinha, 2016; Mueller, 2011). However, Internet marketing is not all good. A 2017 consumer survey by...

Social media sites, also known as social networking sites, allow companies, organizations (like libraries), celebrities, and public figures to communicate directly with their target audience. Social media is an extension of the web; it’s part of Web 2.0, a newer generation of websites that provide two-way communication. Web 2.0...

In a world where private, for-profit companies like Google, Amazon, and YouTube loom ever higher over the information landscape, funding and support for libraries cannot be neglected. According to a Pew Research survey, 77 percent of people go online to find information (Perrin and Jiang, 2018), and commercial services such as Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube offer content that libraries cannot...

Mark Aaron Polger is the First Year Outreach Librarian at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York (CUNY). He has written and presented internationally on topics such as library marketing strategies, faculty outreach, information literacy campaigns, library jargon, and library signage. Polger is very involved in integrating marketing activities into the library...