There’s been a discussion happening over on the academicpr listserv about good (library) marketing books, so I thought I’d gather the collected wisdom here as a sort of to-read list for myself and others who are interested in keeping up with this field. I’ve read some but not all of these. I highly recommend Marketing Today’s Academic Library to anyone who does outreach for an academic library and The Accidental Library Marketer if you’re in charge of marketing at an academic, special, or public library. I teach heavily from both of these texts in my online course, “Marketing Your Library.” Steve Krug’s books are essential for anyone getting started in web usability. I read them back when I was in grad school and interning at Credo Reference (then called Xrefer), and I was asked to work with the founder on the first usability test of the site. I also referred back to Krug when spearheading a redesign of the library site at Lafayette College (that was a few years ago, and now we’re once again in the thick of a redesign). No one mentioned Seth Godin’s books, but they always come highly recommended and are definitely on my to-read list.
Marketing Today’s Academic Library: A Bold New Approach to Communicating with Students by Brian Mathews
The Accidental Library Marketer by Kathy Dempsey
Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems by Steve Krug
Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
Creating Your Library Brand by Elisabeth Dovcett
Creating the Customer-Drive Academic Library by Jeannette Woodward
Marketing and Public Relations Practices in College Libraries by Anita Lindsay
Bite-sized Marketing : Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian by Nancy Dowd, Mary Evangeliste, and Jonathan Silberman
The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy by Judith Siess
Listening to the Customer by Peter Hernon and Joseph Matthews
I would also add:
Building a Buzz: Libraries and Word-of-Mouth Marketing by Peggy Barber and Linda Wallace
Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear by Frank Luntz
Once I figure out how to do it, I want to display these visually (help, anyone?).
What are your favorite (library) marketing books?
One more title came through on the list and I just ordered a copy via Interlibrary Loan: “Marketing Libraries in a Web 2.0 World” by Dinesh Gupta and Réjean Savard (Eds.). It’s an IFLA publication.