Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Thesis Statement
As the role of school libraries has shifted the marketing practices must take into account
all stakeholder availability, needs, and perception of the media center; a well marketed library
builds advocacy for school libraries among stakeholders.
In this paper I will discuss effective marketing strategies for school libraries, and the
reasons for their effectiveness. First we will explore what marketing is and how customer service
impacts marketing. Also, we will examine how branding the media center as a solution center
and a pivotal part of the school impacts marketing. Meeting all stakeholders: students, teachers,
and administrators where they are to deliver marketing messages is an important part of every
school library marketing plan.
Marketing
To properly market a media center one first must understand what marketing entails. To
design marketing strategies that will effectively market you must consider the journey on must
take to utilize the services available. Breigeen Houghton, Library Coordinator for Freson County
Office of Education, says this journey begins with the customer realizing they have a need,
finding the services, using the services, and reflecting on the process (2016). She suggests that
media centers who base their reputation solely on the quality of books on their shelves may find
themselves in the shadows of more forward thinking technologies. She parallels school libraries
to the once immensely popular one-stop technology hub Radio Shack and its current place in the
shadows of companies like Apple who are cutting edge and innovative. In order to brand or
market our school media centers as relevant we must draw attention to the new innovative
services available in media centers. We must find ways to attach our services to technologies that
are driving the digital citizens we serve.
library aides to help you locate those print materials. Realistically many would agree this list is
the extent of what a library has to offer. However that is in large part because many of the
services offered or available havent been marketed widely enough.
In addition to print materials libraries are gaining expansive digital libraries, and can be
accessed even when the library is closed. Digital reference materials are available to school
library customers, which can also be accessed from home or other classrooms. Reading programs
are a fundamental staple of school libraries; these programs reward students for reading to
reinforce reading for pleasure. Many media centers offer technology assistance, to help students
better manipulate computers, tablets, and smart devices. Most media centers are staffed
adequately enough for librarians to visit their classrooms to teach lessons on research. Teachers
and students can now check out technology from most school libraries, and a growing number of
media centers offer Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) centers and clubs.
been provided. Do what you can to make sure customers are comfortable talking to you (Young,
2010).
The job of a media coordinator and the support staff is to provide customers with
knowledge, skills, and materials to progress their literacy development and overall knowledge. In
one way or another we are there to put the information into the hands of the customer. We have
to ask the right questions and appear to be genuinely interested in their information need no
matter the topic. Positive customer experiences are conveyed to others and services begin to
market thanks to word of mouth.
Marketing Targets
By most definitions a school media center serves students, teachers, administrators, and
parents. Houghton has said that in order to best match our services to our customers needs we
should start by examining who benefits from the services offered. Are all customers, including
those who rarely have physical access to the media center able to access services or information
about services? Often the people with decision making power spend the least amount of time in
the media center, and are in many cases those least aware of the services offered. It is time to
make your services portable along with the marketing that raises awareness of their existence
(Houghton, 2016, p. 22-23).
fill, ask to take part or join the leadership committee for the school. Staying informed about
current issues facing the school is a great place to survey the needs of the administrators and
classroom teachers. Having been on the leadership committee for a few years, I have found
multiple opportunities to market the services offered in our media center. Marketing takes place
when a need arises, and often times the need for services arises outside of the media center. For
example, at a leadership meeting the discuss turns to the professional learning goals for the
following year. A topic is selected based on common goals with a school, and a discussion of the
best materials ensues. The media coordinator has an opportunity to market resources and offer to
coordinate with the media coordinators at other schools to select common resources for
professional teacher training. This service wouldnt be found on a flyer, but simply being in the
right place to offer the services is a marketing strategy. Although the task seems small it saves
the administrator and staff developer time and hassle of finding and ordering the materials that
will later be housed in the school library.
Teachers are busy, overwhelmed, and absorbed. A teachers perception of the media
center can be greatly affected by outreach marketing. Like administrators there are many
classroom teachers that dont ever find time to visit the school media center or even notice
traditional marketing flyers posted around the building. Some teachers perception of librarians
sitting behind the circulation desk all day checking out books is based on the fact that, that may
be the only place they actually see the media staff. To deliver you marketing message to the
teachers who dont visit the library you will have to find a place to interact with them.
Many libraries have a hidden marketing hot spot. Often times the school Xerox machine
is located in the media center, and many copy centers in Washington County School District are
maintained by the media coordinator. High traffic areas such as these provide marketing
opportunities. Having access to what teachers are copying, is a quick way to gage what
curriculum is being taught at any given time. Also, it allows a conversation about resources
related to materials being printed. Eventually teachers foreign to the school library will begin to
seek out opportunities to collaborate and find resources for themselves and their students.
Participation in department meetings is a requirement to all teachers, and a sales
opportunity for media coordinators. Volunteering to attend these meetings can foster a
collaborative partnership. Taking part voluntarily in these mandatory meetings sends a message
to teachers that you are invested in their success and want to help. The image of the media
coordinator is a pivotal part of the branding of the library. A media coordinator who is available
and present enhances the view of the school library. Services may be suggested or developed to
support the goals of individual departments. This idea goes along with Houghtons suggestion to
be seen as part of the solution (Houghton, 2016, p.23). Once the media center establishes a
reputation as a solution center the energy surrounding the perception of the media center will
become more positive and draw in more customers to take part in the services that others have
found beneficial. We begin to shift the view of what the school library has to offer from physical
materials to services and solutions.
collect and share ideas about common topics. She talked about the opportunities for marketing
and connecting students to resources and marketing materials through Pinterest. Pinterest is used
by many different age groups, but does require a social media account to sign up. One item
featured on Kates Pinterest page was printable bookmarks with QR codes, a square barcode that
can be scanned and links the scanner to material. On her bookmarks she features book covers
and a QR link to book trailers. I can see students loving these interactive bookmarks. If used to
promote books and programs in the library Pinterest could be a great outreach for parents and
students (Messner, 2012).
Social media is scary, but a gathering place for all age ranges. Recently I surveyed a
group of 100 middle school students and approximately 86 percent of the students had a social
media account. With the increasing use of Facebook by older generations Snapchat seems to be
taking the lead for middle school students. Paige Alfonzo, a PhD student at the University of
Denver shared her book marketing ideas using Snapchat to highlight new materials, programs,
and increase student involvement. Taking live video of the media center staff can highlight the
fun loving, silly personalities behind the counter. Once students follow the library page videos
you post will show up on their news feed and checking out media services and events become
part of their daily routine. Alfonzo, reported that after students began to see the media center
staff on videos they also became more likely to approach staff in the media center because they
were more familiar (Alfonzo, 2016, 22-23). Paige also envisioned students taking over the
library Snapchat account once a week to market their books or services they are using. Social
media and peer marketing have the potential to reach a wider range of students.
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inside of bathroom stalls offers a captive audience. In the lunch lines flyers may be more likely
to be read as students are waiting for lunch. QR codes printed and pasted around without any
words would be a great way to engage curious students. Reaching out to students who wont see
all of your wonderful marketing tools and displays in the library is a great way to build a larger
customer base.
Along with displays and proper signage the most crucial aspect of retail is customer
services. If a customer cant find the item they are looking for it is the best marketing possible to
help them find another acceptable substitute or order the item they are requesting. Providing
quality customer service promotes positive relationships and repeat customers (Pentland, 2014).
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Conclusion
In all things consider your customers. In the case of school libraries the customer base
and their needs vary greatly. It is more important than ever for media centers to brand themselves
as a place where everyone from students to administrators can find solutions. Providing quality
services and building positive relationships does as much for the marketing of the media center
as any advertisement campaign. Reaching the entire customer base of a school library will
require media coordinators to step out of the library and making themselves and the resources
and services they provide available outside of the library. Satisfied customers become advocates
for school libraries, and with budgets tight and increasing costs of education it will be very
important to have evidence and advocates to attest to the value of the school media center.
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References