Marketing the Virtual Library

Abstract

During the last decade, there have been significant changes in higher education, particularly in the emergence of distance education and the 24/7-access mantra (24 hours a day, seven days a week). This, in turn, has had a continuing impact upon efforts to reconceptualize what an academic library is and what it does. Not surprisingly, academic libraries face a number of critical issues, including increased costs of resources, expansion of traditional services, increased competition from other information vendors, and the impact of new technologies. Although these issues appear as threats, they are opportunities for libraries to design their own future (Denham, 1995). In the near future, academic libraries will remain a vital resource for faculty, students, and staff. While it is easy for academic libraries to become complacent about their status within a university since there is no competition on campus, successful marketing programs can enhance visibility, create understanding about the value of the library, and shape public perception of the scope of its resources and services (Gómez, 2001). This chapter will briefly look at marketing issues in academic libraries, how those issues were dealt with in marketing the Virtual Library, and where marketing for academic libraries may be going in the future as the physical and virtual worlds shift, meld, and merge.