Page 84 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Unit 4: Information Services and Products

Notes
Promotion of Products and Services
GUL users can be divided into three segments: individuals, including post-graduate
students, research scholars, faculty members, research associates and assistants, project
assistants, and non-teaching staff; corporate and institutional members; and other libraries.
Each segment has different needs. The services that the library offers must be made known
to as many users as possible, so that they think of the library when they need information.
The promotion plans used by GUL are discussed below:
Publicity
Wide publicity is given to GUL products and services by various advertising methods. For
example, local newspapers and magazines are used for dissemination of information
related to the various programmes and activities being performed by the library including
the specific ventures such as conducting of the workshops/seminars/refresher courses.
The GUL conducts extension activities on various occasions such as National Library
Week, Year of Books Programme, Goa Liberation Day, etc. in order to improve upon the
image of the library and invite the attention of the large community of the users of the
library. Wider publicity is given for all the training programmes being conducted by the
library in the field of information technology, library automation and networking, which
is the most crucial and challenging job before the libraries in the modern world. The GUL
has prepared very attractive information brochures with CD-ROM, and leaflets are
distributed widely in order to catch the eye of the user community. The same are
incorporated in its homepage for on-line users. GUL is one of the active partners of
Million books on the web project located in Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.
Being the partner in this project, the GUL is considered favourably and its attention is
being invited by the foreign universities to get the benefit of this project. GUL is also a
host library of GOALNET (Goa Academic Libraries Network) and is monitoring searchable
Union Public Access Catalogue of the member libraries in Goa and invite s attention from
the Indian universities and institutions.

Public Relations
Wide publicity is given to GUL products and services by various advertising methods. For
example, local newspapers and magazines are used for dissemination of information
related to programmes and activities in the library, including the specific ventures such as
workshops, seminars, and refresher courses. The GUL conducts extension activities on
occasions such as National Library Week, Year of Books Programme, Goa Liberation Day,
etc., in order to improve the image of the library and invite the attention of a large
community of users. Wider publicity is given for information technology training
programmes, and on library automation and networking. The GUL has prepared attractive
brochures with CD-ROM, and leaflets are distributed widely in order to catch the eye of
the user community. These are incorporated in its homepage for online users. GUL is one
of the active partners of the Million books on the web project located at Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. GUL is also a host library of GOALNET (Goa Academic
Libraries Network) and is monitoring a searchable union catalogue of the member libraries
in Goa.

Price
Price is important in marketing in the world of information as it is elsewhere. Kotler
(1983) describes the 4 Ps of marketing: product, place, pricing, and promotion. He argued
that the 4 Ps are a seller’s paradigm and should be replaced with the 4 Cs of the buyer:
customer value, user convenience, user cost, and user communication. Price can be expressed
in currency; however, it can use goods or services. In the library, price can be used to
Contd....

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