Academic library marketing in the post-COVID world

Abstract

The COVID pandemic forced academic libraries to quickly and dramatically adjust their operations. This article explores how marketing in academic libraries was represented in the research and practitioner literature during the pandemic through an examination of articles published between March 2020 and March 2023 as compared to LIS marketing articles published in the three previous years (between March 2017 and February 2020). Marketing was selected as the lens through which to examine library and information science (LIS) articles because marketing strategies and techniques offer powerful insights into how libraries perceive themselves and the communities they serve. The 2017–2020A set included 165 articles, while the 2020B–2023 set contained 93 articles. These articles were inductively coded to identify marketing-related concepts and themes. The most common marketing themes from the per-pandemic article set were marketing strategies and planning, marketing methods, social media, outreach, and engagement. The most common marketing themes from the pandemic article set were social media, marketing strategies and planning, library instruction and orientations, marketing methods, and perceptions of libraries. The categories that experienced the largest levels of change between the two periods were engagement (a reduction of 12.67 % during the pandemic), marketing methods (a reduction of 11.75 % during the pandemic), marketing strategies and planning (a reduction of 10.75 % during the pandemic), outreach (a reduction of 9.11 % during the pandemic), and library instruction and orientations (an increase of 8.44 % during the pandemic). Recommendations for library marketing practice are provided based on this literature analysis including the use of multiple physical and digital communication channels when developing marketing strategies; the importance of continuing to market core operational services, especially during challenging times; the need for libraries to regularly review their engagement methods as the needs and behaviours of users shift; and that there are many ways in which the voice of the user and the effectiveness of library marketing activities may be captured.