The present paper reflects the gradual change in the need and use of the marketing concepts in libraries and information centres (LICs) and its fruitful effects in the service to the library users, and studies marketing of information products/services in LICs of R&D institutions of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) of India. The paper discusses the role of these LICs including marketing approach, need and application of a marketing program with the help of a survey. For the survey, data were collected through a detailed mailed questionnaire along with interviews. The findings reveal that librarians have a positive attitude towards the different aspects of marketing of a library's information products/services. The study recommends that currently efforts for increasing user-awareness and separate financial support are requisite for efficient marketing. Instead of scattered approaches and different styles, a coherent view must be taken.
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Introduction
The library is traditionally a non-profit organisation, and only recently did such organisations become aware of the need to market their products and services. Library and information products/services are now being recognised as saleable and there is a constant market for these. The rationale behind this shift-over is due to the fact that librarians are not only facing the challenges of the information explosion, but also the influx of automated systems, rising costs of materials and services such as CD-ROM, Internet and online services, demand for better services, staff shortage and harsh budget cutbacks compounded by soaring operating costs.
As such, they are facing an acute sense of accountability to market and sustain their useful products/services without jeopardising the interest of potential clients. The present study aims to investigate the attitude of CSIR librarians towards different aspects of marketing practices of these libraries and information centres (LICs). The following objectives have been pursued:
* to understand the attitude of CSIR librarians towards different aspects of marketing;
* to assess the nature of the relationship between these attitudes and certain personal, professional and institutional characteristics;
* to examine the resources and facilities of these libraries in relation to marketing;
* to gather information about the products/ services with charging patterns; and
* to determine the extent to which the principles of marketing are put into actual practice in these libraries.
The present study is concerned with the LICs belonging to CSIR institutions. A detailed critical examination has been done as regards the following: need of marketing, marketing application in the context of LICs, market planning, product, price, place and promotion. Professional literature shows much advice on how to develop marketing practice in LICs, little attention has been paid to the extent to which marketing is being put into actual practice, and the constraints and opportunities experienced by librarians in applying theoretical principles. Very few investigations of such types have been taken in India. The purpose of this paper is to study the marketing activities conducted by S&T LICs of India, as CSIR laboratories are institutions representing S&T community and activities.
Review of literature
Present status of marketing concepts in Indian R&D library and information centres
Over a period of time, due to change in the nature of demands by the clients, Indian research and development (R&D) libraries have expanded their functions to include documentation and document delivery systems. Only limited members of the staff interact with customers and that, too, mostly at the initiative of the customers themselves. In India, there are very few libraries where there is a function/section called marketing.
The closer examination of the Five Laws by Ranganathan (1957) reveals that the focus is on a customer who came to the library, rather than the library reaching out to the customer. Marketing concepts described by Kotler and Bloom (1984) have hardly been used in libraries/information centres in developing countries. Strategic intervention is needed to adopt the marketing approach, for improvement in providing services to customers. Information has been considered not only as a hot commodity (Eagleton, 1992), but also as a marketable commodity. Information products/services, like any other commodity, are demanded in the market and the demand is affected by factors like price, preference, income, expectations, populations, seasons, technology and price of other goods.
Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the research, the role of the library in an R&D organisation is all the more important. The R&D library acts both as a library and second laboratory for the researchers. The libraries attached to CSIR, being one of the premier R&D organizations of India, with their ever-dwindling financial resources and facilities, are trying their best to satisfy the information needs of their respective clientele. In addition to the routine information services, current awareness services and selective dissemination of information are provided. Efforts of libraries to generate revenue from various information services and products (Patil and Dalibhate, 1998) and providing the photocopy services of journal articles, which are not available in the National Chemical Laboratory (Chirmule et al., 1998) are taking place. This notwithstanding, the R&D libraries will have to continue to provide information support to their parent institution for their R&D programmes. The Centre for Food Science and Technology is making efforts in popularisation of information products and services (Ramanna and Ranganath, 1988). Little has been done regarding marketing applications training. Training programmes related to the marketing orientation conducted by Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and Documentation Research and Training Centre, Banglore are the few examples working in this direction (Inder, 1996). Strategic plans for financial resources management in a wide range of issues is also important. It is seen that sometimes the change from free service to charged service can bring change in the outlook, attitude and structure of the organisation to achieve a marketing orientation (Beaulieu, 1999). Due to fee-based information services, the revenue of British Council Libraries in India is able to recoup about 25 per cent of its annual expenditure (Jayarajan, 1998).
Four Ps of marketing
(1) Products and services. Libraries periodically review the products and services they will be offering. Excellent customer relations by delivering quality services are a must. Reddy and Varalakshmi (1988) find the explicit goal of marketing, the need of satisfaction to consumers in health science libraries of India.
(2) Place. This is the extent of area to which the library services are made available; methods of delivery of services; and communication methods.
(3) Pricing. This involves decisions regarding pricing for various library services. This is done on the basis of inflation and revenue pressure on the one hand and customer acceptance criteria on the other. Marginal cost pricing model (Olaisen, 1992) and other models discussed by Zias and Olaisen have provided ideas, which may be appropriate to information services and products (Patnaik, 1998). Pricing depends on costs, is an important factor to affect motivation to purchase and use secondary information products and services. SNDT Women's University Library has set objectives in pricing information packages for meeting day-to-day living information needs of women (Parekh, 1998). Different standards or norms are needed for pricing policy for different libraries.
(4) Promotion. Promotion involves publicity and reaching out. Libraries do regularly participate in fairs and advertising in newspapers. Senior library staff visit institutions and give presentations. Occasional discount in membership fee is also not uncommon. The publicity and promotional activities of National Information Centre on Textile & Allied Subjects (NICTAS) (Shah, 1998), and Neurosciences Information Centre, Banglore can be taken as examples, in the concerned context (Siddamalaiah, 1998).