[Web4lib] Link to Library site on College website

Robert L. Balliot rballiot at oceanstatelibrarian.com
Wed Jan 27 18:43:09 EST 2010


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)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Web4lib mailing list
> > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> >
> >
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