Comments on: The Truth Is Out There–We Are Not Alone! http://librarygarden.net/2008/08/28/the-truth-is-out-there-we-are-not-alone/ An ongoing conversation among librarians with differing perspectives (public, academic, school, consortial, youth) but one shared goal: ensuring the health and relevance of libraries. [insert your own gardening metaphor here] Fri, 17 May 2013 18:44:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Mobisop http://librarygarden.net/2008/08/28/the-truth-is-out-there-we-are-not-alone/#comment-2550 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:16:00 +0000 http://librarygarden.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/the-truth-is-out-there-we-are-not-alone/#comment-2550 yeah! we are not alone. And whenever you feel alone, just remember that God is always there for you.

]]> By: Cynthia http://librarygarden.net/2008/08/28/the-truth-is-out-there-we-are-not-alone/#comment-2549 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:33:00 +0000 http://librarygarden.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/the-truth-is-out-there-we-are-not-alone/#comment-2549 I agree–we need to market ourselves better to the people we want to attrack. I feel that by educating the media about what we do is one step in that process.

]]> By: Seth Stephens http://librarygarden.net/2008/08/28/the-truth-is-out-there-we-are-not-alone/#comment-2548 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:18:00 +0000 http://librarygarden.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/the-truth-is-out-there-we-are-not-alone/#comment-2548 I frequently hear colleagues say “why don’t people use our services” when I attend library conferences. Typically, this is said in response to reports of declining use of library services.

Many years ago I attended a seminar on marketing. The presenter said something to me that I often recall. She said if a program or a service is not attracting the audience you expect it is because you do not know enough about your audience. It’s kind of like trying to sell refrigerators to Eskimos (sorry about the cliché). This was very hard to hear, but I think there is a great deal of truth in it.

When planning programs and services I often spend many mind-numbing hours, doing as Peter Drucker suggested, asking myself why we are doing this, what do we do and who is our audience. Too often it is easy to give vague answers to these questions and just dive right in to planning the program or service, but unless we can state very specifically what we do, why we do it and for whom, the rest of the plans are flawed.

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