Marketing Public Library Services – Opportunities For Change

Abstract

Analyses marketing strategies relevant to public library managers at a time of change in the reviewing of public library services with reference to a material questionnaire and case‐study investigation of public library and leisure services marketing. Targeting and the role of marketing in library services were of particular concern.

Marketing information services in Botswana: an exploratory study of selected information providing institutions in Gaborone

“…Yates-Mercer and Steward (1991) also found that the implementation of marketing was generally on a personal and informal basis in the UK. Kinnell and MacDougall (1992) found that less evidence was available for planned, and therefore formal, marketing strategies among libraries in the UK. Booth (1993), Amaral (1992) and Collins and Glyptis (1992) obtained similar results in Brazil and the UK respectively.…”

“…However, perhaps the most significant reason in all the 27 cases in Botswana is that no one person has overall responsibility for the marketing of the service, and for this reason, no formal marketing policy has been established. There have been arguments established in favour of a separate marketing function within special libraries and information services and there are also those who consider that the marketing function should permeate all management functions (Kinnell and MacDougall, 1992). The separation of marketing from the day-to-day activities of the library has advantage in that marketing then assumes a clear importance within the organisation.…”

“…In another UK study, Kinnell and MacDougall (1992) found less evidence of a planned strategy for activities such as marketing research. Library services undertook a range of promotional activities, but to many of their respondents marketing was synonymous with promotion.…”

“…Moreover, the findings can be used to make generalisations from a smaller group of respondents to a larger population. Previous marketing studies, such as those carried out by Yates-Mercer and Steward (1991), Amaral (1992), Evan-Wong (1996), Collins and Glyptis (1992), and Kinnell and MacDougall (1992) used this method, finding it to be adequate to gather similar information and data.…”

Applying the Möbius Strip Model to Corporate Social Responsibility: Survey-Based Findings from Italian Social Enterprises

“…Although several empirical papers assume that CSR improves performance, 10,21,28,43,48 other empirical analyses¯nd that socially friendly activities are not able to improve organizational performance. 1,33 Taking into account the con-°i cting results reached by previous studies, we propose the following¯rst working hypothesis:…”