In order to provide the most appropriate library resources to our patrons we need to actively connect with them as people first to learn what their information needs and barriers may be. Developing a systematic approach to seeking out and responding to feedback can provide us with the information we need to acquire eventually well-used resources. A library in which this kind of intentional communication style is prevalent can be called a “marketing-aware” organization. In this presentation we will discuss all the components of a marketing cycle for electronic resources, with a special focus on the patron. We’ll discuss how to build a marketing team, ways of knowing your patrons, and hear real-world examples of recent projects that were designed to learn about a user group.

1. Marie R. Kennedy
@orgmonkey
Loyola Marymount University
California
Academic
&
Research
Libraries
Conference 2014
An
inten'onal
conversa'on:
Electronic
resources
and
your
library
patrons

3. Spoiler alert:
It’s what you’re already doing, just done in a systematic way

7. agenda
a typical marketing cycle +
learning about your patron +
two case reports =
inspiration!

8. What’s
marketing?

9. inigo

10. underpants gnomes

11. Kyle: “What are you going to do with
all these underpants that you steal?”
Gnome: “Collecting underpants is just
Phase 1. Phase 1: Collect underpants.”
Kyle: “So what’s Phase 2?”
Gnome: “Well, Phase 3 is Profit. Get
it?”

16. undies run

17. Know your patron
Informal methods
Case study
Survey
Participant observation
Cohort study
Focus group

22. Know your patron
Case study
Survey
Participant observation
Cohort study
Focus group

23. Know your patron
Case study
Survey
Participant observation
Cohort study
Focus group

24. Know your patron
Case study
Survey
Participant observation
Cohort study
Focus group

25. Know your patron
Case study
Survey
Participant observation
Cohort study
Focus group

26. Know your patron
Case study
Survey
Participant observation
Cohort study
Focus group

27. research question
methods
findings
Case Report 1: Collaborative
Marketing Project

28. Is a collaborative model of benchmarking the
marketing of electronic resources feasible?

30. METHODS

31. Strategy

33. FINDINGS

34. 48%
87%
3.3
Of those who had used
the resource before, 82%
learned something new

35. SEND ME

36. Case Report 2: Student
Employee Project
research question
methods
findings
This project was completed in collaboration with
David P. Kennedy (RAND Corporation)

37. Evaluating a Cultural Domain
Goal: Efficiently and effectively determine items
in a domain and understand how they are
related to each other.
Step 1: Free Lists

38. Free Listing: Cultural Domain of
• Systematic: Everyone was given the same
question: “Think about all of the things that
people on LMU campus do when they use
library services. Off the top of your head, list
all of the ways that people on LMU campus
use the library.”
•Exploratory: How they answer is up to them

41. Evaluating a Cultural Domain
Goal: Efficiently and effectively determine items
in a domain and understand how they are
related to each other.
Step 2: Pile sorting items identified in free lists

42. Free ListText to Cards
Apple
Pear
1
3Corn
Banana
2
4

43. Cards to Piles
Apple
Banana
Breadfruit
Kumquat
Currant
Pile 1: “Fruit I eat
at lunch”
Pile 2: “Fruit I
don’t like”
Pile 3: “Fruit I’m not sure
what they are”

46. Marie R. Kennedy
Loyola Marymount University
marie.kennedy@lmu.edu
http://orgmonkey.net
@orgmonkey

47. Image attributions:
Slide 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7883660@N05/466221141
Slide 14: http://www.flickr.com/photos/
12023477@N05/3531718174
Slide 15: http://www.isilm.com/development.html
Slide 18, 19: Jamie Hazlitt (jamie.hazlitt@lmu.edu)