Marketing of Academic Library Products and Services in the Digital Era
Keywords:
Academic Library, Digital Era, Disruptive Technology, Information and Communication Technology, Library Professionals, Marketing Skills, Marketing Strategies, Social Media ToolsAbstract
Marketing the products and services in academic libraries is essential for the academicians amidst lockdown. Different marketing techniques increase the usages in libraries. In this pandemic situation marketing online will enable the users to get in touch with the library services. The main objectives of the study are analyzing the role of Social Media (SM), promoting the library services, knowing the effectiveness of the marketing strategies, evaluating the perception on marketing the library resources and defining the challenges faced by the librarians in promoting the library services. An online questionnaire was prepared in Google Form, the questionnaire was sent to 124 librarians of the Arts and Science Colleges of Kerala and colleges affiliated with Manonmaniam Sundaranar University. Out of 124 respondents, 96 of them filled the questionnaire legibly and were taken as samples. The results highlight that majority of the
librarians use library websites as the most important platform to showcase their library services, 14% agree that SM helps the library professionals to create, converse, connect, to contribute and share information to other libraries, marketing strategies like OPAC, library orientation, and user education were the most effective techniques to promote the library services. The librarians faced various challenges in marketing the library products and services such as lack of technical skill in operating the various SM tools, library budget, and raising the cost of the printed and E- documents. The study recommended that the library professionals need to
update their digital skills and the libraries need to adopt more digital marketing strategies to provide immediate service to their users globally.
