[WEB4LIB] Re: Google Answers questions

[Karen G. Schneider]

:Perhaps libraries, or whatever you want to call them, need to evaluate
or
:reevaluate how they market and promote services, skills, and abilities.
Not
:only has Google created a great product and reputations but they also
:really
:demo that viral marketing works.
:
:Another problem that I've seen how some libraries label databases on
web
:pages
:and handouts. Ebscohost, Expanded Academic ASAP. etc.  doesn't mean a
great
:deal to most people. Couple this with so many databases (including
Google,

*Perhaps indeed*  ;)  I agree, a lot of it boils down to marketing.

I am on a small discussion list for journalists and I do my duty to my
profession by periodically touting library services, particularly what
we often call "remote databases."  They never fail to be amazed, but I
have to coach them that these resources exist, and I warn them that the
resources are often presented laden with jargon and in some
incomprehensible organization known only to its designer.  

Journalists.  News. Get it?  To quote (after I did some hand-holding
with several list members): "I live in [COULD BE YOUR CITY], have a
card, and decided to check this out. I don't even have to go to the
library! Everything (and I mean everything) is available online through
the [COULD BE YOUR SERVICES]." The journalist then went on to extol all
the great things she found.

A great ad for [COULD BE YOUR SERVICES], and also a big clue: if your
local journalists have no idea you offer these services--people who make
it their business to find free info sources--then you have a marketing
problem.

I do not pretend to have solved this problem.  I know we need to market;
most people don't know we exist.  Which is too bad, because people who
find us often really like us. 

The collective advice I received: "You're right, Karen, the library
needs to hire some marketing professionals to get the word out."  We
don't publish our books--maybe we shouldn't try to do our own PR?

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Karen G. Schneider kgs at lii.org  http://lii.org 
Coordinator, Librarians' Index to the Internet
lii.org  New This Week:     http://lii.org/ntw 
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