Polger (College of Staten Island, CUNY) provides a comprehensive overview of library marketing. He walks librarians through the process of identifying a target audience, conducting market research, creating a marketing plan, and undertaking a whole suite of activities to carry out that plan. Examples pulled from successful library marketing practices illustrate how Polger’s advice looks when applied to real-life situations. Polger follows his own advice regarding information organization: he divides chapters into short sections with clear headings, a format that makes navigating the information on a specific task or campaign easy. The effort to include all library types. . . draws attention to the transferability of approaches across academic, public, and special-library marketing. This practical book is also a reminder that anything from a retweet to library furniture plays a role in marketing the library. This volume will be valuable for professionals taking on the task of marketing for the first time and for students in library and information science marketing courses. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.
— Choice Reviews
Librarians often shy away from marketing because it sounds like corporate salesmanship, and the idea of a library as something to be commodified and sold makes many uncomfortable. If they do manage to overcome their anxiety and brave the marketing world, their lack of training means their efforts are often misguided and ineffective, even uninformed, sporadic, and not centered on the user. This thoughtfully written guide is designed "to reduce your fear and resistance to library marketing." In contrast to the idea of selling a product or service, Polger posits that marketing a library is all about building relationships and making sure that specific audience needs are met. In clear language and with step-by-step instructions, he guides the reader through audience segmentation, market research, marketing plans, branding, web and social media marketing, and library advocacy. Numerous examples, drawn from university, public, and special libraries, illustrate the key elements of successful marketing plans, like survey questions, timelines, target audience matrices, and promotional materials. Readers are introduced to concepts like brand statements, taglines, positioning, budget, and return on investment. A well-conceived, highly practical, and highly recommended reference guidebook.
— Booklist
This book, Library Marketing Basics, is one of the tools you can study to help you achieve marketing greatness . . . Studying [this book] will enable readers to understand the what, why, and how of the craft.
— Marketing Library Services
Library Marketing Basics is extremely accessible and methodical introduction to library marketing, and one that is written with a great deal of enthusiasm. 315 pages of pure gold that should be required foundation reading for everyone in the profession.
— Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association
This is an excellent overview of the marketing of a library with promotional concepts, terms, and strategies for librarians working in any field. . . . [readers] will find the author's experience, enthusiasm, and clear writing incredibly valuable to their understanding of marketing in libraries.— Doody's Review Service
The information presented in Library Marketing Basics gives a good introduction to marketing in general, but the greatest value to librarians lies in its specific applications to and examples from a variety of different libraries. The explanations are thorough and present sometimes complex marketing concepts in an easy-to-read and understandable manner. The examples are very valuable in that readers can see how other libraries have applied the concepts detailed in the book to develop real-world analyses and implemented marketing plans and campaigns. I plan to keep this book on my reference shelf to consult before developing marketing strategies in the future.— Public Services Quarterly
The best thing about this book is how well thought-out it is. The chapters begin with defining marketing and selecting targeted audiences and progress through step-by-step basics of marketing tools from signs to social media presences. In the forward to the book, Kathy Dempsey, founding chair of Library Marketing Conference and author of The Accidental Library Marketer, notes that this book is unique among library marketing books in the attention that is given to process and why things can work rather than relying on anecdotal examples alone.
— Against the Grain
Library Marketing Basics is a good approach to step-by-step, true marketing, offering example marketing plans and insight into newer media tools. Polger’s enthusiasm for marketing is catching! — Christie Koontz, School of Information, Florida State University
Polger has written a must-read primer for anyone who is new to library marketing. This will be your go-to guide to get you thinking like a professional marketer!— Laura Solomon, author of The Librarian's Nitty-Gritty Guide to Content Marketing
This is a comprehensive introduction to library marketing, full of useful examples and great ideas. It guides you through the whole process and gives you tools you can use right away.— Ned Potter, author of the Library Marketing Toolkit