Marketing information resources and services on the web. Existing status of university libraries in Bangladesh
| Published date | 30 September 2014 |
| Date | 30 September 2014 |
| Pages | 742-759 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-08-2012-0098 |
| Author | Md. Anwarul Islam,Muhammad Jaber Hossain |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology |
Marketing information resources
and services on the web
Existing status of university libraries
in Bangladesh
Md. Anwarul Islam and Muhammad Jaber Hossain
Department of Information Science and Library Management,
University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to address and analyse the current status of university library
websites in Bangladesh. Particularly, it is focused on all universities accredited by the University
Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh. The purpose of this paper is to describe the marketing
initiatives taken by university libraries to promote collection and services to their clientele.
Design/methodology/approach – For this study, university library websites were examined using
a checklist of criteria developed from earlier studies and present websites. A total of 57 university
library websites were examined and most of the websites were visited at least two times during the
assessment, which started by checking the availability of direct and non-direct links from the home
page of the parent institution followed by website assessment against the checklist. The paper also
draws upon the authors’ personal experiences and observations.
Findings – The study identied that the websites are not fully utilized for marketing library resources
and services, and that university libraries are not maximizing their promotional activities. A majority of
libraries did not make any effort to provide online literacy courses, live support, copyright documents,
online user surveys, networking, and so on.
Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to Bangladeshi university libraries and
generalization to others is to be cautioned, but there are important lessons to be learned.
Practical implications – This paper will be helpful to libraries planning to implement a marketing
strategic plan to improve outreach to users and enhance the image of the library.
Originality/value – The present study is new in Bangladesh and reveals several marketing strategies
that may be useful to other academic libraries.
Keywords Information services, World Wide Web, Marketing, Bangladesh, Information resources,
University library
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Marketing of library services is an effective execution of all the activities involved in
increasing satisfaction of users by providing maximum value to them. At present,
libraries and other information institutions are operating in an era of increasing
competitiveness, and a technologically astute and demanding user population that
challenges libraries. As a consequence of radical changes in the past decade in the
information revolution, globalization, marketization, privatization and using
information for development, the clientele interested in information services and
products has been on the increase (Rao, 1999). Library users are now transforming into
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
EL
32,5
742
Received 10 August 2012
Revised 16 January 2013
Accepted 1 February 2013
The Electronic Library
Vol. 32 No. 5, 2014
pp. 742-759
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-08-2012-0098
customers with rising expectations, diverse needs, wants and choices. The real
challenges for library and information professionals are not to manage the collection,
staff and technology, but to turn these resources into services (Gupta, 2003). As a result,
marketing concepts are increasingly adapted within the library environment. Libraries
are discovering that, by using marketing principles and techniques, they can better
understand their users’ needs, justify funding, communicate more effectively with a
variety of external audiences and achieve greater efciency and optimal results in
delivering products and services that meet the identied needs of their clients (Spalding
and Wang, 2006a,2006b). The present study is a step towards assessing the efforts
made by Bangladeshi university libraries to promote and publicize resources and
services using their websites. This paper explores how marketing concepts are applied
in practice to university library services. The ndings are discussed and
recommendations for university libraries are put forth.
Background
Marketing efforts have had a long history, extending back to Green’s (1876) speech at
the American Library Association Convention, calling for “improved personal relations
between librarians and readers” (Green, 1876). Marketing library services has always
been a major interest of libraries. Gupta (2006) points out that public libraries were the
rst to embrace the concept of marketing, with the main thrust in the 1980s aiming at the
four Ps – product, price, place and promotion – and academic libraries were the leaders
in marketing their services. For centuries, librarians have been using strategies to
satisfy users. One of those strategies is marketing. The concept originated from the
business and prot sectors (Block and Edzan, 2002;Koontz et al., 2006;Kaur and Rani,
2008). Over the years, many marketing policies have been developed and a variety of
activities have been carried out, ranging from creating attractive posters to display
upcoming library events to investing in newspaper advertisements, and even to making
personal solicitations. On one hand, popular Internet search engines such as Google and
Yahoo have altered the role of libraries by offering students easier ways to discover
research materials online and cutting the necessity of physically visiting a library.
Additionally, librarians, concerned with library use rates, now have more exible
marketing efforts through the use of the Internet, thus expanding the horizon of nding
new ways of advertising library services. Increasing the visibility of their library
through new technologies has become a top priority for librarians (Xia, 2009).
Many studies on library marketing have been conducted in developed countries. Only a
limited number of studies have been undertaken in developing countries, specically the
South Asian countries. Bangladesh is one of the least developed and more highly populated
nations in South Asia. The literacy rate is 47.9 per cent and it is mainly an agro-based
country where 80 per cent of the people live in rural areas (CIA, 2011). The information and
communication technologies (ICT) status of Bangladesh is not remarkable, other than some
initiatives of the government and private institutions. The universities in Bangladesh are
categorized into public and private. There are now 34 public and 57 private university
libraries, including three international university libraries, in Bangladesh (UGC, 2012). Very
few studies have been conducted on marketing plans, strategies and issues. Those that have
(Munshi, 2002,2006;Hossain, 2010) discussed the theoretical concept of marketing and did
not focus on the application of marketing strategy in university libraries of Bangladesh. To
keep these universities in the race of higher education and scholarly communication, the
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Marketing
information
resources on the
web
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