D_Evidence_4

Townsend-Crow_Article review_2

Melissa Townsend-Crow

LIBR 230

March 4, 2014

Sarjeant-Jenkins, R. (2012). Why market? reflections of an academic library administrator. Library Leadership & Management (Online), 26, 8-1D,2D,3D,4D,5D,6D,7D,8D. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1030423080?accountid=10043

Summary:  In this age of instant information gratification via a legion of internet search engines such as Google, Sarjeant-Jenkins states, "academic libraries need to market in order to justify the financial and capital resources necessary to support library personnel, collections and spaces" (Sarjeant-Jenkins 4). Sarjeant-Jenkins quotes Jeannette Woodward in Creating the Customer-driven Academic Library, "There is really no way for a library to separate marketing from customer service. We can't attract more

customers unless we meet their needs. We can't meet their needs unless they tell us what they are. It is only when we are actually publicizing needed resources and services that we will attract customers" (4). Sarjeant-Jenkins states that faculty at the institution at which she works appreciate "the value of extensive research collections," these collections are being made accessible from faculty offices and off-site, so they faculty do not see the value in the physical plant of the actual library (5). Because of increased electronic accessibility to research materials and other information sources, the library has to justify its usefulness to administrators. Sarjeant-Jenkins quotes Stephanie Braunstein in her article "Partner with Outreach as if Your Library's Life Depends on It": "Monetary support is given to things that are considered useful and/or pleasurable. Libraries need money to exist, therefore, libraries should make every effort to promote their useful and pleasurable qualities" (5).  The answer, according to Sarjeant-Jenkins, is to focus on the institution's mission and support that by offering what university administrators value most:  student success. Remembering that the value of the academic library is in supporting the curriculum in such a way that students demonstrate success, librarians can then "structure funding requests around services, programs and partnerships that reflect that value" (5). Sarjeant-Jenkins then discusses "relationship marketing" which she defines as, "act of establishing, maintaining, and enhancing contacts with clients" (5) or, in other words, creating a relationship or partnership, presumably with the constituency to which one is marketing the goods (in this case, library services). Sarjeant-Jenkins states, " While many of the authors focused on building these relationships with students, there was also a realization that faculty are critical to a library's marketing success" (6). Sarjeant-Jenkins goes on to suggest that communication with students must include an assessment and understanding of what information services they need and want from their library. Another suggestion in the article is that librarians and library staff must be "visible and engaged, both inside

the library and across campus" (6). Not only must they assist students with information needs, but also "for academic, cultural, creative, and social causes" (6). Technology and advances in technology is also discussed in context with the question of whether physical space for the library is still necessary in relation to its role on campus as information provider. The question is raised, with so much material available digitally, are physical books and the building to house them and the staff to classify, catalogue, shelve, preserve/conserve them still necessary? Ideally, the article states Brian Matthews' concept would come into being:  "The future of libraries… is about providing, encouraging, and staging new types of learning encounters. Instead

of using marketing to try to persuade students to use our services, the library becomes the natural setting for academic activities - an environment where scholarship happens" (7). Sarjeant-Jenkins then summarizes by stating that conversations between library staff, faculty, and students help to build relationships which create the sort of organic environment conducive to scholarship described by Matthews and thus, student success – which is the administration's usual "bottom line"  -- happens and that is a form of marketing for academic libraries.

Analysis:  Since customer service is the primary goal of libraries, it stands to reason that marketing would be a part of that service, as Jeannette Woodward is essentially quoted. I think that Sarjeant-Jenkins very succinctly described the problem that many academic libraries face with the glut of electronically accessible digital research material available to both students and faculty. My own research on one academic library conducted for another class shows what Sarjeant-Jenkins states in her article:  that information needs on college campuses are becoming primarily – and inadequately, according to East Los Angeles College librarian/instructor, Erika Montenegro in an e-mail to this writer – self-service.  As Montenegro wrote in the e-mail, "students will take their cues from faculty." So I would offer that faculty must be courted perhaps even more than students to avail themselves of the library services. I concur that library staff must be visible and that relationships must be established. If the academic library's primary purpose is to serve as support for curriculum with the long term ultimate goal of assisting students to be successful, then they must first be aware of what the library has to offer. Sarjeant-Jenkins' notion of relationship marketing is an attractive one, particularly because it supports the ideal of Matthews' description of a naturally occurring environment conducive to academic success as a result. It seems to me that this type of marketing would make the library and constituents, specifically students, partners in success.