Marketing Project Partnership

A unique partnership was formed between Fairfield University and the OCLC, Inc. an organization that provides services to libraries around the world. The hypothesis to test in the project is whether a library can increase usage of electronic resources through the use of marketing materials in the library and around campus.

We decided to select an academic discipline (business) and 10 business related resources were chosen. Five faculty members from the School of Business were interviewed by OCLC marketing professionals for the pre-marketing survey. OCLC staff is developing the marketing materials and strategies in consultation with DiMenna-Nyselius librarians and the project will go live in the spring semester. The same faculty will again be surveyed post-project. Additional assessment will be measured from database usage statistics compared to prior years. The project will be reported on at the May meeting of the OCLC Members Council and at which James Estrada serves on the Executive Committee.

This is an exciting opportunity for librarians to interact with marketing professionals, test the effectiveness of various types of marketing strategies, and then use the most successful methods by applying similar strategies to electronic resources in other disciplines. Faculty and students may benefit by increased awareness of the rich resources available at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library and apply them to their research. By increasing awareness and usage of premier resources, the library hopes to increase the cost effectiveness of these subscription databases and promote critical thinking skills and information literacy across campus.

"Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 53,548 libraries in 96 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials."

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