Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how Australian academic librarians marketed their services and resources, which marketing approaches were most effective, and the factors influencing the perceptions of the approaches used. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was sent to 37 academic librarians in Australia. The response rate was 54.1 percent. The information sheet and consent form for phone interview participants were e-mailed to 17 participants and ten signed consent forms were e-mailed back to the researchers. The response rate was 58.8 percent. The qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. The collected quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations) and inferential statistics (correlations). Findings – Academic librarians were involved in a variety of marketing activities and had varied perceptions of the effective approaches used to market services and resources. Correlation analysis confirms that demographics, human capital and library variables play significant roles in predicting librarians' perceptions of the effective marketing techniques used. Research limitations/implications – Because of very small sample size, the results may lack generalisability. Future research is a large-scale study. Practical implications – This paper provides a better understanding of academic librarians' attitudes, views and effective techniques with regard to marketing their services and resources. Originality/value – Librarians may use the results to reflect on the effectiveness of the marketing approaches used, to balance the weight of the factors' influences, and to better understand various effective marketing approaches to enable them to market academic library services and resources more effectively in the future.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore practical ways in which librarians may better assist, understand and manage a library user's experience. Design/methodology/approach -This paper is based on earlier work by Mills where 34 academics were interviewed on their information seeking behaviour. The concepts of affect and emotional intelligence have been introduced so information professionals can obtain a more clear understanding of the information environment. Findings -In order to connect more closely with their user populations' information professionals could consider the following: embrace the key tenets of emotional intelligence as useful assistance strategies in user-librarian interaction; understand that personal interaction is important for many users; understand that such interaction can offer valuable insights into user understandings of the role of the library; understand that there is more to a library than resource access; understand that not all users share the same perceptions as librarians of the information values of such tools as catalogues and databases; appreciate that users see many roles for a library and these are individually constructed based upon past experience and current needs; extending the physical boundaries of the library into user communities is important for role development and accept that the key marketing strategy of commercial retailers to get customers to ''buy'' and return to buy, is relevant in environments such as libraries. Originality/value -The paper builds upon research on the information seeking behaviour of academics and explores the idea that users select information sources for more than cognitive reasons, i.e. just to find out. The importance of the emotional aspect of user interaction with sources, including information professionals, in their search for information has been neglected. It is necessary to re-examine why and for what reasons users discriminate in their choice of information sources.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate which skills library managers think their staff should possess as their organisational culture alters to meet the demands of a changing internal and external TAFE environment and user needs. Design/methodology/approach -A survey is used to ascertain what library managers believe needs to be included as a recognisable competency for their staff to perform their work. The survey contains 20 broad categories of skills listed under five main areas. A total of 18 TAFF Libraries are used in the survey. Data are entered into Excel. Tabulation consolidates the list of 200 skills and/or comptencies. Comments are also collected at part of the investigation Findings -The perception that having as many competencies as possible is hightly indicative of a well rounded, service focused and broadly informed library staff member. Of the library managers, 64 per cent strongly agreed that finding and using print and online resources was an important skill to possess; 93 per cent agree that library staff should maintain a healthy work-life balance; and 79 per cent agreed that staff should understand the performance standards relating to their position. Originality/value -The paper illustrates that the team is greater than the sum of its parts.

No abstract

No abstract