LIS 559: Marketing of Library and Information Services to Communities

Since the 1990s, the concept of marketing as applied to library environments has been misunderstood. Instead of just public relations or advertising, marketing is the process of communicating with customers and potential customers to determine needs, to design services to meet them, to inform the community about services, and to evaluate them so that they can be improved. This course will look at the marketing cycle as it may be applied to a variety of library environments. It will look at the relationship of marketing to program planning, branding, focusing on customers and customer relations, promoting services, and evaluating them. It will look at both physical space and virtual space as they promote the image of libraries and provide places for service delivery.