Marketing: A Planned Approach To The Public Library

For traditional librarians, this will be, quite frankly, a depressing video. To hear the age-old ideal of meeting the needs of patrons reduced to popular business jingoism is hard on the heart. This half-hour program takes patrons and turns them into customers, libraries into commercial outlets, and librarians into PR people, in order to "sell" library services. The core of the marketing approach is summed up in the four "Ps" (product, price, place, and promotion). Various library directors are interviewed to give their views on how they determine "market segments," develop "market strategy," and make their libraries into "competitive" institutions. While there is no question that libraries need to adapt to meet the changing times, it is questionable whether a general tape which simply transfers the terminology of business over to the library world will aid librarians in better meeting the needs of their patrons (not "customers," not "clients," lest we also forget that we are not "for profit" organizations--which most libraries still aren't.) To be fair, production and pacing are up to the consistently top-notch standards of the Library Video Network production team, but the content simply doesn't pass muster. Library directors who don't have the faintest idea of what libraries are all about might find some illusory comfort in this program, but others need not purchase. (Available from: ALA Video, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.)