Exploring Strategies for Marketing Library Products and Services in University Libraries in Ghana

Abstract

This paper sought to understand the strategies for marketing library offerings in selected academic libraries in Ghana. Through a qualitative research approach, this study used a purposive sampling technique to conduct face-to-face interviews among 15 librarians (Departmental Heads) from four academic libraries in Ghana. The collected data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically with the help of QSR NVivo qualitative analysis software. It came to light that none of the libraries concerned had designated departments solely responsible for marketing library services, nor did they have dedicated budgets to drive their marketing plans. Consistently, all the libraries had adopted some form of informal marketing strategies. The study recommends establishing and subsequent resourcing of marketing units in libraries to help manage relationships and further create and deliver values for patrons. The findings of this paper would be relevant, especially for librarians, as they strive to manage their relationships with their users to deliver value to them.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic libraries
• branding
• customer satisfaction
• Ghana
• marketing
• place
• product
• promotion
• price
• service quality
• switching cost

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical issues

This study was conducted with ethical approval from the Department of Information Science Ethics Review Committee of the University of South Africa (Reference no.: 2020-DIS-0012). Equally, the study adhered to all the National COVID-19 protocols.