Marketing in Library and Information Science

SUMMARY

Marketing is defined by Philip A. Kotler (1975, 5) as the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of carefully formulated programs designed to bring about voluntary exchanges of values with target markets for the purpose of achieving organizational goals. He expands on his definition to include what had commonly come to be known as the marketing mix-price, product, place and promotion. This “mix” has been both adapted and expanded for Library and Information Science (LIS). Marketing in LIS should be accepted as one of the functions of a manager included in POSCORB (Planning combined with marketing, Organizing, Staffing, Coordinating/Controlling, Reporting and Budgeting) and as a management philosophy. This review explores the gradual development of its changing applications usually including only parts of the marketing mix (promotion and public relations) in the 1980s, then moving to a more expanded use of marketing in the latter portion of the 1990s and into the 21st Century. Relationship marketing and usability studies from the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) side of information technology are discussed for incorporation as well as the literature that supports the fact that marketing and planning (usually strategic planning) come with many benefits but not without cost; that cost is change.

Key Words:

• Marketing
• strategic planning
• POSCORB
• change management