AUTHOR: Suzanne Walters
STARTED: January 12, 2010
FINISHED: January 24, 2010
PAGES: 257
GENRE: Library Science
FIRST SENTENCE: Library Marketing that Works! is not just another book for library professionals.
SUMMARY: [From Amazon.com] Marketing expert Suzanne Walters helps you develop a winning plan for marketing library programs and services to your community. Her easy-to-complete brainstorming sheets and questionnaires help your library: Create a solid mission statement; Conduct a SWOT analysis; Perform market research, and Draft plans and campaigns. This book de-mystifies marketing and helps you utilize listservs and Web sites, contact databases, stakeholders and donors, and community partners to get your mission accomplished. Loaded with success stories, this book combines practical guidance with ready-to-use ideas. The companion CD-ROM contains all the forms and tools your team will need to create a complete marketing plan for your library.
THOUGHTS: Walters' book is more fill-in-the-blank workbook than actual textbook, but this structure does a rather good job of giving the reader a strong, beginning basis in library marketing. The text is geared toward a reader/library that has absolutely no marketing background. The structure is easy to follow and walks the reader through a step-by-step plan. This allows them to create a marketing plan (that works!) for their organization.
The text is easy to follow and does a fine job of laying out all the basic activities and library should follow when they seek to market their services. The book, however, is slightly outdated. Released in 2004, Walter's text lacks information about recent developments in social marketing and web 2.0 free media. While most of the text is still applicable to today, certain chapters need to be rewritten incorporating all the new developments in the marketing and mobile technology world.
While I would not consider this text a groundbreaking or crucial work, it does give a nice platform for organizations that need an idea of where to start.
RATING: 6/10 [Good]
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