[Web4lib] Link to Library site on College website

Thu Jan 28 16:31:24 EST 2010

Yes, Bill, it is marketing.  If there had been active marketing going on,
libraries would dominate the web today and securing budgets and funding
would be much, much easier.

When I interned in reference at Brown University back in 1993-1994 at their
brand new '21st Center Reference Desk'  search results would most likely
come from an academic institution in lovingly handcrafted hypertext.   With
the heavyweights of the Web represented by the academic offshoots of
ARPANET, the edu sites dominated. Commercial was very limited. Mozilla and
the Yahoo! index rocked. And, we had PCs, Macs, and Unix on the same desk.

But, e-commerce stepped in and changed the mechanics of the web.  The search
algorithms were tested and retested with the goal of getting product links
in front of people.  The academics had better information, but relied
on reputation and quality rather than marketing through language
configuration and linking strategy or even basic avertising.  So now, all
the general population sees in the broadest sense is the relevance of
commercial as it has been marketed to them as information consumers.
Selling library services as a valuable product has become much more
difficult.

In Rhode Island, the various public libraries have individually and
collectively subscribed to some of the heavyweight databases.  The costs are
relatively low per capita, but use per capita is extremely low so they are
really not a bargain.  And, people would use them if they knew they were
there.   Instead, the subscriptions get cut, so no one benefits.  The
products were never effectively marketed.

Brian, I  do not expect *your* library results to come to the top of every
search that I do, but library sites in general should.  They don't.  They
have not been marketed. They have not been structured to get the product in
front of the consumer.

R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com

On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 2:59 PM, Wilfred Drew <DrewW at tc3.edu> wrote:

> That's not marketing, that's discoverability! That is a much different type
> of creature.
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Wilfred (Bill) Drew, M.S., B.S., A.S.
> Assistant Professor
> Librarian, Systems and Tech Services
> Strengths: Ideation, Input, Learner, Command, Analytical
> E-mail: dreww at tc3.edu
> Follow the library: http://twitter.com/TC3Library
> Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail or document.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:
> web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Robert L. Balliot
> Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 6:43 PM
> To: 'Brian Gray'
> Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Link to Library site on College website
>
>
> Here is an example -
>
> Although I am aware of Case Western Reserve, but in over 20 years of
> conducting searches I have never seen a search that resulted in any library
> collection or even a web page from Case Western featured in the results.
> Not Google, Not Yahoo, Not Bing.  And, although you may have a wonderful
> library system - there is relatively no knowledge of it outside of your
> walls and alumni.
>
> There are a few libraries organizing information and collections that do
> become search results - Cornell and their law collections are a great
> example of that.
>
> There are a few libraries systems that are expected to yield results since
> they have branded themselves as such. So, people will search their
> collections with the expectation of finding results - such as the Baker
> Library at Harvard.  But, my point remains Libraries have not marketed
> themselves - although they start with a huge advantage over non-commercial
> entities with legitimate content and expert information.
>
> *************************************************
> Robert L. Balliot
> Skype: RBalliot
> Bristol, Rhode Island
> http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
> *************************************************
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Brian Gray
> Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:55 PM
> To: Robert Balliot
> Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Link to Library site on College website
>
> It seems to me libraries are marketed a lot - at least every institution oo
> organization I have been involved. Are you considering a specific kind of
> marketing when you say "Libraries are rarely, if ever, marketed"?
>
> Brian Gray
> mindspiral at gmail.com
> bcg8 at case.edu
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 9:42 AM, Robert Balliot <rballiot at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Libraries are rarely, if ever, marketed. Yet, with an on-line catalog /
> > databases, Library web content represents nearly 100% of the potential
> web
> > pages representing a college or University. So, they can have a huge
> > influence on potential buyers of college and University services.
> >
> > I have had commercial clients who spend in excess of $300,000 per month
> in
> > Google Ad Words alone. My task is to get them to the top five in
> organics.
> > Applying the some of same principles, it is relatively easy to place in
> the
> > top five for any college or University library because libraries are
> simply
> > not marketed. They are not being competitive. Here is an example using
> the
> > phrase -  Providence College Library
> >
> > http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/libraries/providence_college.htm
> >
> > Libraries are relatively untapped marketing resources for colleges and
> > Universities.  The idea of hiding nearly 100% of potential content by not
> > linking directly from the home page is really, really bad marketing.
> >
> > R. Balliot
> > http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 8:17 PM, Alan Cockerill
> > <alan.cockerill at jcu.edu.au>wrote:
> >
> > > On a practical note - what percentage of your institution's total page
> > hits
> > > are library hits?  It makes design sense to have commonly visited pages
> > > quickly accessible.
> > >
> > > Our marketing people use Google Analytics to track usage and the
> Library
> > > Home page is consistently one of the top 3 pages for the entire
> > > institution.
> > >
> > > Alan Cockerill
> > > Library Technologies Coordinator
> > > James Cook University
> > >
> > > PO Box 6811
> > > CAIRNS QLD 4870
> > > Phone:+61 7 4042 1737
> > > Fax: +61 7 4042 1516
> > > Email: Alan.Cockerill at jcu.edu.au
> > > Skype: alan.cockerill.jcu
> > > Web: http://cms.jcu.edu.au/libcomp/assist/contacts/JCUPRD_017401
> > > Blog: http://jculibrarytechnology.blogspot.com/
> > >
> > >
> > > CRICOS Provider Code: 00117J (QLD)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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