Poster presented at the conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries, Philadelphia PA, 2011.

1. Collabora've Marke'ng for Electronic Resources
Marie R. Kennedy
William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University h[p://benchmarke'ng.wetpaint.com
This poster proposes a REQUIREMENTS
model for a na'onal • Be a librarian in a college or
distributed project to university seFng
develop marke'ng plans • Have permission to market
for electronic resources electronic resources
while collabora'vely • Have access to usage
building benchmarks for sta's'cs for electronic
resources
the marke'ng of electronic
resources in college and • Be willing to share what you
learn in this project
university seFngs.
TIMELINE
• 3 months (Oct‐Dec 2011) –
The project is capped at Prepara'on: steps 1‐10 of the
By par'cipa'ng in this collabora've
100 par'cipants. marke'ng cycle
working group you can expect to: Sign up at this poster
• 1 month (Jan 2012) –
1. Learn how to employ a typical marke'ng plan at your library. session or email
Marie.Kennedy@lmu.edu Marke'ng campaign
2. Complete one marke'ng campaign from start to finish.
• 1 month (Feb 2012) –
3. Contribute to a na'onal project that will determine if Assessment and evalua'on:
collabora've benchmarking for marke'ng electronic resources
is feasible. Project begins October 3, 2011 steps 11‐12 of the marke'ng
cycle

2. ACRL 2011 poster session: Collaborative marketing for electronic resources
This project is capped at 100 participants. Sign up at the poster session to guarantee your spot!
Introduction: Connecting patrons to appropriate resources is a concern for libraries as more collections are
removed from traditional shelves and placed in virtual spaces. The traditional marketing techniques of placing a new-
books shelf near the front door or the positioning of ready reference volumes in a study area of a library does not
apply to the electronic resource world because there are no physical volumes to view. It is vital to understand library
efficacy in marketing electronic resources in order to connect a patron with the appropriate resource. Based on two
recent analyses of articles published by libraries about their marketing plans for electronic resources, it is clear that
libraries do not successfully plan for marketing so that the process gains them actionable knowledge for further
marketing efforts. The analyses find that libraries do not choose appropriate strategies for their stated marketing goals
and do not correctly measure the strategies, which leaves them unable to assess their efforts; without a clear
understanding if their marketing campaigns have been successes or failures libraries are not positioned to move
forward in new marketing cycles. Libraries understand the need to market yet fail to develop a plan to do so. The
literature suggests that this is due to marketing not being a priority and librarians not knowing how to design a
marketing plan. This poster proposes a model for a national distributed project to develop marketing plans for
electronic resources while collaboratively building benchmarks for the marketing of electronic resources in college
and university settings.
Proposed Methodology: Using a benchmarking framework and the traditional cycle of marketing, the following
steps are proposed to test a collaborative approach to identifying best practices in marketing an electronic resource.
1. Decide what to benchmark (for this project, this step has already been completed)
2. Plan the benchmark project (for this project, this step has already been completed)
3. Understand your own performance (from Step 3 through 6 your involvement is integral!)
4. Study others
5. Learn from the data
6. Use the findings 1
Communication Mechanism: We will use the Wetpaint wiki (http://benchmarketing.wetpaint.com) as our
primary communication tool, supplemented with personal emails.
Your Learning Outcomes: By participating in this proposed collaborative working group you can expect to:
1. Learn how to employ a typical marketing plan at your library.
2. Complete one marketing campaign from start to finish.
3. Contribute to a national project that will help determine if collaborative benchmarking for marketing
electronic resources is feasible.
Requirements: To participate in this project you must have the following qualifications:
• Be a librarian in a college or university setting
• Have permission to market electronic resources
• Have access to usage statistics for electronic resources
• Be willing to share what you learn in this project
Timeline: This project will run for five months, with sensitivity to seasonal holiday scheduling
3 months (October-December 2011) – Preparation (steps 1-10 of the marketing cycle)
1 month (January 2012) – Campaign
1 month (February 2012) – Assessment and evaluation (steps 11-12 of the marketing cycle)
This project will be led by Marie R. Kennedy (marie.kennedy@lmu.edu). Marie is a librarian at Loyola Marymount
University, where she coordinates serials and electronic resources. She has written and presented widely on the
development and use of electronic resource management systems. In her spare time she makes photographs and
creates taste experiments in her kitchen. Marie writes the Organization Monkey blog <http://orgmonkey.net> about
organization and librarianship.
1 Robert J. Boxwell, Jr., Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), 22.