Marketing comes to reference & user services

Abstract

The ‘M’ Word… the dreaded Marketing, Promotion, or Communications piece that can come with many of our jobs. Why is it that we loathe it so much? Is it because we feel that as librarians, we should be above this sort of ‘selling’ tactic? Is it because we think libraries are so inherently wonderful that they need no promotion? Is it because we got into librarianship specifically to avoid having to do this sort of thing? For some of us, it’s all of the above. But the fact remains – people don’t know what you have unless you tell them. And telling them – communicating your benefits to them – is, in fact, marketing.