The library value deficit Michael Germano John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, California State University, Los Angeles, California, USA Abstract Purpose – While the great recession may have concluded more than a year ago, the lingering effects of state and local budget contraction and austerity are having a highly negative impact on libraries and librarians. The future for publicly funded libraries as institutions that promote learning, literacy, knowledge creation and entertainment is increasingly doubtful as publicly funded libraries across the country are seeing unprecedented levels of budget cuts. While the immediate cause of such reduced funding seems rooted in budgetary pressures, the reality is that library financial support is traditionally premised upon a publicly held assumption of goodwill for libraries and the societal benefits they represent. In order for libraries to survive the economic downturn and austerity measures put in place by government budgets, they need to rethink the role, purpose and benefits of library marketing in favor of a more sophisticated approach that conveys the unique value of their library and its offering to their specific user population. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – Informed by the author’s extensive experience in marketing information services, the paper discusses the current trends in library marketing, especially those aimed at conveying the value of libraries, and ties them to relevant scholarship in the areas of services marketing and value creation. Findings – Assumed goodwill is inadequate to the task of competing for financial support in a post-recessionary environment where expenditure of public funds is highly scrutinized. In order to survive long term, libraries of all kinds must take on a more sophisticated view of library marketing that focuses on value creation. Eliminating the old model of presumptive value in favor of one that utilizes the marketing process in order to communicate the competitive viability of libraries as place and content providers to their users in the form of targeted benefits that convey value, is critical. Simply put, if libraries hope to receive continued support in today’s challenging fiscal climate they must elevate marketing to a critical operational function while focusing that marketing effort upon communicating the library’s benefits and value to the users it serves. Practical implications – As a librarian, adjunct professor of marketing and former sales and marketing manager for a large information company, the author relies on his years of experience to convey a more purposeful sense of library marketing that is directed at communicating a library’s unique value or worth to its users based upon an understanding of their needs, the benefits to them specifically as well as the competing options available to them in terms of information acquisition. Originality/value – The paper shares specific ideas regarding the purpose, role and benefits of library marketing that are connected to improving perceptions of the worth of libraries and the perception of value to a specific community as a means of engendering future support for them. Keywords Great recession, Austerity, State and local budgets, Value creation, Value propositions, Goodwill, Library marketing, Public libraries, Library users Paper type Viewpoint Libraries as institutions are increasingly under siege. While the current economic climate has resulted in an unexpected reversal of the previous decade’s declining demand for libraries and librarians, the most brutal economic downturn since the great depression is making their survival questionable (Luther, 2011; Online, 2010). Even more ironic is the idea that the conditions that led to the recent recession provide strong The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0888-045X.htm BL 24,2 100 Received 26 April 2011 Accepted 26 April 2011 The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances Vol. 24 No. 2, 2011 pp. 100-106 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0888-045X DOI 10.1108/08880451111169124
1. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0888-045X.htmBL24,2 The library
value decit Michael Germano John F. Kennedy Memorial Library,
California State University, Los Angeles, California,
USA100Received 26 April 2011 AbstractAccepted 26 April 2011 Purpose
While the great recession may have concluded more than a year ago,
the lingering effects of state and local budget contraction and
austerity are having a highly negative impact on libraries and
librarians. The future for publicly funded libraries as
institutions that promote learning, literacy, knowledge creation
and entertainment is increasingly doubtful as publicly funded
libraries across the country are seeing unprecedented levels of
budget cuts. While the immediate cause of such reduced funding
seems rooted in budgetary pressures, the reality is that library
nancial support is traditionally premised upon a publicly held
assumption of goodwill for libraries and the societal benets they
represent. In order for libraries to survive the economic downturn
and austerity measures put in place by government budgets, they
need to rethink the role, purpose and benets of library marketing
in favor of a more sophisticated approach that conveys the unique
value of their library and its offering to their specic user
population. This paper aims to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach Informed by the authors extensive
experience in marketing information services, the paper discusses
the current trends in library marketing, especially those aimed at
conveying the value of libraries, and ties them to relevant
scholarship in the areas of services marketing and value creation.
Findings Assumed goodwill is inadequate to the task of competing
for nancial support in a post-recessionary environment where
expenditure of public funds is highly scrutinized. In order to
survive long term, libraries of all kinds must take on a more
sophisticated view of library marketing that focuses on value
creation. Eliminating the old model of presumptive value in favor
of one that utilizes the marketing process in order to communicate
the competitive viability of libraries as place and content
providers to their users in the form of targeted benets that convey
value, is critical. Simply put, if libraries hope to receive
continued support in todays challenging scal climate they must
elevate marketing to a critical operational function while focusing
that marketing effort upon communicating the librarys benets and
value to the users it serves. Practical implications As a
librarian, adjunct professor of marketing and former sales and
marketing manager for a large information company, the author
relies on his years of experience to convey a more purposeful sense
of library marketing that is directed at communicating a librarys
unique value or worth to its users based upon an understanding of
their needs, the benets to them specically as well as the competing
options available to them in terms of information acquisition.
Originality/value The paper shares specic ideas regarding the
purpose, role and benets of library marketing that are connected to
improving perceptions of the worth of libraries and the perception
of value to a specic community as a means of engendering future
support for them. Keywords Great recession, Austerity, State and
local budgets, Value creation, Value propositions, Goodwill,
Library marketing, Public libraries, Library users Paper type
ViewpointThe Bottom Line: Managing Library Libraries as
institutions are increasingly under siege. While the current
economicFinances climate has resulted in an unexpected reversal of
the previous decades decliningVol. 24 No. 2, 2011pp. 100-106 demand
for libraries and librarians, the most brutal economic downturn
since the greatq Emerald Group Publishing Limited0888-045X
depression is making their survival questionable (Luther, 2011;
Online, 2010). EvenDOI 10.1108/08880451111169124 more ironic is the
idea that the conditions that led to the recent recession provide
strong
2. justications for the critical necessity of libraries. Such
events provide ample evidence The library valueof the need for a
knowledgeable and literate populace in order to lessen the chances
of a decitsimilar economic catastrophe (Britt, 2010). The root
causes of the current one, includingthe cumulative effect of
several decades worth of bank deregulation with minimalpublic
reaction from a nancially illiterate populace, poor understanding
of credit andcredit markets as well as the complexity of mortgage
lending agreements that led topoor decision making by homeowners,
are all literacy related issues that strong 101libraries are
institutionally capable of mitigating. The inference follows that
libraries ofall types, it can be argued, are inherently important
and necessary since they arecapable of playing a vital role in
lifelong learning that can improve peoples lives in aninnite number
of ways. Despite the seemingly obvious need for libraries and the
role they play in informinga literate populace by supporting
education and knowledge creation, libraries continueto receive the
budget axe. The current state of public nances in the US
particularlyhas revealed that municipal, state and federal
government decits are unkind tolibraries to say the least (Kaser,
2010). Shortfalls in available funds have resulted indecreased
hours, interrupted collection development, librarian layoffs, and
in somecases, outright closures. Highly regarded institutions like
the Los Angeles and NewYork public libraries are responding to this
new scal reality in ways that are guttingtheir entire systems (De
Avila and Catton, 2010; Library Journal, 2011). Publicuniversities,
similarly challenged, are reacting in the same way by severely
reducingtheir commitment to academic libraries by shortening hours
and reducing resources forcollections, materials and infrastructure
(Henderson and Bosch, 2010). The typicalreaction seems to waiver
between frustration and begrudged acceptance as librariansand
patrons alike attribute the cutbacks to extraordinary economic
developmentsbeyond their control that no amount of public support
and goodwill could possiblycounter. While the above conclusion may
be warranted as a coping mechanism, it is worthconsidering whether
or not it is indeed a fair assessment of the situation.
Morespecically, is it possible that the current economic crisis is
merely accelerating aprocess that had already begun? One that
leaves libraries severely disadvantaged inany budgeting discussion
regardless of the overall resources available for allocationdue to
an imprecise and unclear understanding of their worth or value?
Moreover, arethe traditional reliance upon library patron goodwill
and the attenuated support thatcomes from that goodwill simply
inadequate to the task of nancing libraries in an eraof heightened
austerity? Considering the current decreased willingness to
publiclyunderwrite libraries, the answers to these questions are
all too clear. As a result,libraries of all types need to rethink
the ways in which they generate support frompatrons and potential
users by engaging in a concerted effort to establish value(Tenopir,
2009). Additionally, like most non-prots, they need to
professionalize theirmarketing effort so that critical customer
communication and value creation are notleft to mere accidental
marketers based upon self-selected interest, but in their steadare
executed by professionals along with an organizational commitment
to marketdriven value creation (Akchin, 2001). Value creation is an
exercise in which most business engage, especially when theyoperate
in highly competitive industries (Zhang and Chen, 2008). The
purpose is toprovide customers with a dened notion of value as well
as specic reasons to choose
3. BL their offering over competitors (Blocker et al., 2011).
Ones that are aligned with needs24,2 and benets that provide
customers a solid justication for support of a business that will
ensure long-term competitiveness and survival. So where does this
currently leave libraries as institutions and librarians as
professionals? Currently they both face a value decit in terms of
the perception and acknowledgment of their intrinsic worth compared
to other sources of information as well as gathering places where
that102 information is used. In other words, libraries as content
providers and places are not terribly competitive these days, nor
have they been for the last decade or so, thereby contributing to
their declining use, popularity and most importantly, perception of
value. The lack of competitiveness underlying the library value
decit is not so much a problem with the product or service
involved, but instead a reection of the deciency in terms of
marketing the worth, usefulness and competitiveness of libraries.
Additionally, and worth noting, is that the library value decit has
produced very real collateral damage in the form of perceptions of
librarians worth. Thus, by implication, this library value decit
leaves the value of librarians questionable as well. While the
outcome of these combined value decits are clear, reduced public
support and curtailed funding, the solutions to remedying them are
not so linear. And while libraries, and librarians as previously
suggested, may have historically received an enormous amount of
goodwill from those they support, goodwill is not value nor does it
translate into meaningful benets when it exists as a mere
abstraction. Libraries and librarians must seek to actively convert
goodwill to stated value for users that can be established, conrmed
and by extension, self-replicating. Achieving this end requires
some fundamental professional and cultural changes that might be
difcult to execute but nonetheless worth pursuing if libraries and
librarians are to re-emerge from the current economic downturn as
more viable information providers and centers of entertainment,
literacy and learning. More specically, libraries need to adopt an
ideological shift that moves away from suppositions regarding
libraries as inherently valuable. Such assumptions about users
conceptions of value may not be grounded in fact, and instead
support more romanticized notions of the societal, cultural or
educational benets of libraries that may or may not be aligned with
patrons, or potential patrons, perceptions of actual worth. The
resulting disconnect between library and patron could easily,
manifest itself in decreased support due to the fact that the user
or customer perception of worth is not met. Establishing and
conrming value that is reective of user needs, benets and
priorities is key. In short, librarians need to discontinue the
assumptions of worth that entail user perceptions of almost
hyperbolic, abstacted importance in favor of a more sophisticated
marketing, customer communication and service delivery process that
conveys unique value to users based upon their needs, not the
librarys or librarians (Stephens, 2011). Interestingly, libraries
have begun to take tentative steps in terms of value creation by
attempting to convey quantitative measures of worth in order to
prompt patrons towards a conclusion of the value of libraries and
their services through the use of value calculators (American
Library Association, 2011; Maine State Library, 2011). Such a
strategy, however, seems risky considering the ndings of one study
that indicate that the average household in the US spends
approximately $118 a year on materials that could be borrowed from
a library (The Daily Green, 2011). The use of calculators to
benchmark value is additionally ill advised since studies indicate
that one of the rst rules of gaining customer commitment and the
benets of long-term
4. relationships with them is to withhold a price until value
has been created, established The library valueand conrmed from the
customer (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001). decit The obvious problem with
library value calculators is that value creation is acustomer
driven exercise and not a business centered one like pricing. In
the case oflibraries, it is a patron-driven one. Businesses,
especially those that offer services orintangibles, typically
organize their efforts to drive value through their
marketingefforts in the form of a value proposition, a concrete
promise regarding the customer 103experience they will provide as
well as the unique benets that will ow from thatexperience that is
delivered during all customer interaction (Frow and Payne, 2011).
Atthe heart of the value proposition is a proof driven,
customizable articulation of theorganizations offering or offerings
along with their intrinsic worth to its customers.Price is only one
small aspect of value creation and oftentimes, not a very
compellingone. If libraries wish to truly establish value that
produces long term patron supportand not just goodwill, they need
to take the rst step: create a customer centered valueproposition
and use it whenever they communicate with patrons. As previously
stated, value propositions are a critical rst step in establishing
valuethat provokes the emergence of long-term customer
relationships that create loyaltyand advocacy. Additionally, as
introduced above, libraries have begun to explore theconcept of
value creation and benchmarking, most notably in the form of
libraryservice value calculators and return on investment analysis.
Unfortunately theseefforts are incomplete and arguably, premature
in their focus on pricing. Valuecalculators are particularly
worrisome since they attempt to associate library serviceswith
costs or more accurately potential prices. Such value is based
primarily upon costavoidance by creating a generic list of prices
in order to show how much money apatron has saved by using the
library as opposed to paying for the materials borrowedor questions
asked. There are multiple problems with this approach, most notably
noone has clearly established that the services listed and the
prices quoted are what theinformation market will bear. Moreover,
the approach of assigning prices to libraryservices without
establishing their value or intrinsic worth to customers represents
avery real risk of creating negative reactions regarding the
required investment to keeplibraries aoat. In a word, they could
appear too expensive or simply cost-inefcient.Also, in light of the
relatively modest average annual savings resulting from using
thelibrary for US households mentioned above, not terribly
compelling. Libraries shouldreassess this approach and attempt to
convey the social value of libraries to all patronsbased upon their
needs and the benets that are important to them. To do this
theyneed to understand the customer and the context in which the
customer makes choicesabout why to use the library or not. In
short, libraries need to understand the needs andbenets that
patrons derive from library use while at the same time
understanding theindustry in which they operate since it arguably
offers more attractive options forpotential patrons who choose
other information sources or gathering places. When businesses seek
to establish value in order to ensure competitiveness,increase
market-share and grow the bottom line, the most crucial step is
undertakingthe environmental scan (Banham, 2010). An environmental
scan serves multiplepurposes in terms of assessing the businesss
place in a broader, industry-wide context.Additionally,
environmental scans are undertaken in order to formulate strategy
byuncovering customer needs, wants, dislikes and behaviors
(Chrusciel, 2011). The mostbenecial environmental scanning
exercises tackle the process with no assumptions or
5. BL expectations in terms of outcomes. For example, the most
successful businesses rarely24,2 dismiss new innovations offered by
competitors as fads or inconsequential results of passing fancy.
The exercise is truly one of research and discovery with absolutely
no agenda other than gaining insight into competitive choices faced
by customers as well as behaviors related to the industry.
Libraries face some signicant competition from more user-mediated
information sources that provide uninterrupted access104
non-dependent upon place. Libraries additionally confront users
with increasingly divergent views regarding information, formats,
and needs compared to a decade ago. Not appreciating these types of
realities can severely hinder a libraries ability to create value
in a way that resonates with patrons. Taking the time to fully
understand a librarys user population as well as the alternatives
that are available to them in terms of information access is a rst
step to creating value. Deepening the inquiry into motivations and
needs is the next and vital step towards connecting existing
offerings to need and therefore benet. Value creation is, after
all, the combining of a product or service with a targeted need
that produces a unique benet. Uncovering and exploiting user benets
in order to establish conrmed value, it should be noted, is a
highly personalized exercise that is dependent upon uncovering
needs and priorities of a unique user or set of users. Without
establishing such a concrete connection between what is being
offered to the customer, a business runs the risk of failing to
establish relevancy in terms of the customer perception of its
offering. Libraries, it can be argued, have not truly established
that connection between what they offer and what their users need.
In defense of libraries and librarians, a signicant part of the
problem is the high level of change information industry. Change
that constantly alters user perceptions and expectations of what
libraries offer in terms of a place, a collection or both. Prior to
the widespread digitization of information, libraries as place were
intuitive and clearly understood. As information became
increasingly digitized and user orientations accepted the signicant
benets of that digitized information, the role of libraries as
place or gathering sites for sharing and learning, became less
clear. The benets of the library as a collection or content
provider became similarly, but altogether unfairly, compromised by
that lack of the decreased importance of libraries as places.
Differentiating user perceptions of these two very different needs
during the environmental scan that supports the value creation
process is critical. Equally important is that users do not
necessarily understand or subscribe to this crucial differentiation
in terms of what libraries potentially represent. They may very
well have internalized one view or the other. In order to create
value and receive conrmation of value from users there is a
requisite need to explicitly learn what those users value. Most
importantly, it is critical to learn precisely which services or
offerings users value, why they value them and how to differentiate
them from competing forms of content acquisition and information
use in gathering spaces. Library patrons, as well as potential
ones, are presently afforded a wide variety of competing
replacements for libraries as place. With unbound information
access, outdoor spaces, cafes, online social networks or home, can
viably compete with a library as a place to gather and discuss
information. Libraries have spent an enormous amount of time,
effort and energy focused on competing with locales that have
recently sprung up as de facto information commons like cafes and
bookstores. The over emphasis on library as place in order to
convey a compelling competitive case for
6. libraries is somewhat misdirected. The true potential value
for libraries is not The library valueexclusively found in the
notion of their space, but rather in the commingling of content
decitand the knowledgeable service offered to make the most of that
content. In that valueequation space may play a role, but it is a
decidedly supporting one. The true value isthe accessibility of
content along with knowledgeable guides in the form of
librariansthat can facilitate the best use of that content. In
short, the main competitivedifferentiator for libraries and the one
that has very little opportunity for which 105competitors can offer
a viable replacement, is the librarian. Libraries need to
conveythat value with concreteness and specicity based upon patron
held perceptions ofneeds met and the benets that follow in order to
establish true value. Morespecically, value that is uniquely
provided by the library and librarian in questionand that is
competitive with other information gathering forms, tools and
institutions. Relying upon an established sense of goodwill towards
libraries is no longersufcient to the task of garnering public
nancial support in an increasinglycompetitive information industry.
The current economic downturn merely highlightedthe intense
competition with which libraries as places and content providers
mustcontend. As a result, libraries must forge a new path that
includes a commitment tovalue creation that is co-created and
conrmed by users. In fact, this activity should bean embedded in
future iterations of librarian professionalism for the good of
andlong-term survival of that profession. Simply put, it is no
longer sufcient to simply bevaluable or to even know of ones own
value without marketing that value.Unfortunately this has been the
way in which librarians have established their worthfor most of
their existence. Requiring patrons to discern value in an
increasinglycompetitive marketplace is highly risky while leaving
one vulnerable to competitors.Especially those who have a clearer
message or one that is more readily delivered atcritical moments of
need. Staying in the forefront of user consciousness via
anarticulated statement of value in a dened promise of benets that
matter to that useris a rst step in creating customer relationships
that can turn into advocacy andultimately represent a hedge against
future budget cuts. In the nal analysis, librarians have
potentially wonderful stories to share abouttheir libraries as well
as their own role in making those libraries competitive
whencompared to other forms of information access and gathering
places for sharing thatinformation. They simply need to hone in on
the most relevant ones in order tocommunicate them to patrons in
the form of a stated value proposition that reectscustomer needs
along with the potential benets compared to other forms
ofinformation retrieval. They additionally need to adopt a sense of
urgency in terms ofhow critical and necessary it is to constantly
sell the idea of value to patrons and makeit a professional
obligation similar to their commitment to service. Such a move
willdemonstrably improve libraries chances of continued relevance
and viability whileconverting the current value decit to a value
surplus.ReferencesAkchin, D. (2001), Nonprot marketing: just how
far has it come?, Nonprot World, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 33-5.American
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Corresponding author Michael Germano can be contacted at:
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