Marketing of library and information services in global era: A current approach

This paper deals with the marketing of library and information services in the global era. It discusses about the marketing concept of today's library and information centers covering various topics such as management of libraries and commitment to customer's satisfaction. It also defines the marketing and its current approach to library and information services at the global level. It also describes customer/user's topic such as customers' priorities, customers' expectations, individuality responsiveness, relationships, quality of services, professional skills and competencies and value added services. The 5 Ps of marketing mix, i.e. product, pricing, place, promotion and person (staff) have been discussed. The marketing should aim at effective library and information services. The "service trinity", i.e. users (customers), the staff (service provider) and information resources and system should be taken care of from the view of these services. In the modern age, the library and information services (LIS) are customer (user) oriented. Therefore, users' priorities, expectations and needs should be taken into account. The services should be value added according to the current requirement of the users. It is concluded that the modern libraries are information markets and the library users are consumers of information. The ultimate objective of the marketing of library and information services should be the dissemination of the right information to the right customer (user) at the right time.