ProQuest Introduces Marketing Toolkit for Academic Libraries

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 19  /PRNewswire/ -- College and university librarians play a key role in academic success.  Part of that mission is educating students on when to use the free Web for homework and research assignments, and when using the free web is a serious mistake.  Juggling many priorities in addition to this crucial goal, staff members are hard pressed to create awareness of the library's online resources and encourage time-challenged students to give them a try. To address this, ProQuest today launches a free Library Marketing Toolkit designed for academic librarians.

"The Toolkit idea is an outgrowth of work we have  done with a number of libraries and consortia to develop marketing strategies that build awareness and desire for the library's online collections," said Lynda James-Gilboe, senior vice president of marketing and customer care for ProQuest. "The warm reception for last year's marketing kit for public libraries led us to tackle one for academic libraries. Based on real issues our customers face, this kit focuses on positioning library resources versus the open Web."

The Library Marketing Toolkit combines a wealth of "how-to" advice from Beth Dempsey, library marketing expert, speaker, and author, with library best practices and print and digital marketing collateral that are easy to customize for individual libraries.  Among the program's components are:

  -- How-to guide on Marketing Your Library's Online Resources

  -- Menu of database descriptions that speak "patron" rather than library
     language

  -- Customizable promotional flier, advertisement, and poster

  -- Customizable press release and radio script

  -- A digital "commercial" that can be downloaded to the library's homepage



"Academic libraries are serving digital natives -- a sophisticated and demanding market, but one that's also discerning about information quality ... and that's where libraries have an edge," said Dempsey.  "This kit is designed to help libraries leverage their competitive strengths two ways.  First, we want to help libraries identify and break down the barriers between them and students.  And, second, we want to make it easier to get the word out to students on how they can save time and earn better grades by using the library."

The Library Marketing Toolkit was recently mailed to academic libraries across the United States and is available free to any interested library.  To download the materials visit the ProQuest website at http://www.il.proquest.com/division/libraryadvocacy.shtml.

About ProQuest

ProQuest provides seamless access to and navigation of more than 125 billion digital pages of the world's scholarship, delivering it to the desktop and into the workflow of serious researchers in multiple fields, from arts, literature, and social science to science, technology, and medicine. ProQuest has long been an advocate for libraries and librarianship.  Just a few examples are its longstanding sponsorship of the ALA/ProQuest Scholarship fund-raising event for Spectrum Scholars, the Library Journal/ProQuest Teaching Award to recognize excellence in educating the next generation of librarians, and the ProQuest Library Education Program.  More information on these programs can be found on http://www.proquest.com/. ProQuest is part of Cambridge Information Group (http://www.cambridgeinformationgroup.com/). 

ProQuest