The librarian helps the organization & it’s employees to grow rich through books. Corporate libraries apply various strategies to increase readership in the library. The following views are based on the strategy applied in one of the corporate libraries in Mumbai. It is observed that the total number of footfall increases in the library on the day of delivering any of these services. Emails are used as the main channel of communications. As a part of strategy following is the list of marketing services implemented by the library:
- iRecommend System
- Theme Based Reader Advisory Services
- Bundle Library
.
1) iRecommend System
You might be wondering why “i” is small here; let me tell you the concept behind it that even though I am small but my recommendations are big. iRecommend System is an Intelligent Recommender who suggests or recommends books to read. It is the system where content is aligned to people’s individual preferences. iRecommend is one layered model that suggests books through personal history. To initiate this service take one subject for example entrepreneurship. Create a list of all books on entrepreneurship available in the library. Check issue return history of each & every book on this subject (You can use library software like Libsys or any other software which provides this feature to check the issue return history of books). You will get the list of users who in the past issued any of the books on entrepreneurship. It helps us in the following way, suppose a user already read one book from the list, he/she will come to know the remaining titles on this subject. Finally, you can draft the mail followed by the list of books on entrepreneurship. Following is the example of drafting.
“Dear Sir,
In the past, you have read “The Dream: How I Learned The Risks And Rewards Of Entrepreneurship And Made Millions by Gurbaksh Chahal”. We are happy to share similar books below which you may like to read “
Subject heading for this service can be given as Recommendation.
Chances are high to get the book issued by the user when implemented the above-mentioned strategy as it is very much personalized.
To Sum up the above following are the steps of iRecommend System
1) Select the weekly Subject.
2) Create the list of books on given subject.
3) List the users who had earlier used or issued the books on a given subject.
4) Send the list of books on a given subject to all listed users through emails.
iRecommend System Framework
| Analysis types | Analyze the reading habits of library users by selecting a subject. |
| Layers for iRecommend System | Personal History. |
| Output | Selection of Weekly subject & customized recommendations. |
| Channels | Emails. |
| Objective | Get more & more and more people to read! |
2) Theme based reader advisory services
In theme-based reader advisory services, a common reading list can be shared or sent to all library users irrespective of reading habits. It involves the extraction of the list of books on a particular subject or theme (for example health books) from the given databases (or library software) and finally preparing the list with following detail like Title Heading, Author, Acc. No. etc. along with abstracts. This list is now ready to send to end-users. It helps the users to know the collection on a particular subject and tempt him/her to read the title in full after reading the abstracts of books. The subject heading for this service can be assigned as per the theme.
While preparing the email contents of this service, you can add a motivational write up on a chosen subject to inspire the users to read the books. Following is the example of the write up which was sent to employees of the company.
“Dear Sir,
We can achieve optimum health by applying the principles written in the following books which offer great insight about anti-aging & diseases free life with alternative healing techniques/therapy.
Arun Jogdeo author of the title Cure without medicine says that refined Sugar contains chemicals like Formaldehyde & Phosphoric acid. When you consume 100gm of sugar, you also consume 1.5mg of phosphoric acid & 0.50mg of formaldehyde along with it. Sugar robs calcium from your body & weaken the bones, teeth & interfere with your immune system. Just avoid sugar for one month & see the difference. Yes, you will feel better.
The other title such as The Journey by Brandon Bays is one of the best books on healing because it’s amazing that the author herself has healed her Football sized tumor within six weeks with her Journeywork & helped others to apply the same. She has the unique process to heal the diseases on a cellular level where modern medicine fails to act.
There are many such good reads from the Health section below (Give the book list in this email) that will help you to take care of your health. Be an informed reader and take charge of your health.”
Happy Reading!
Above mentioned email inspire the user to issue & read the books.
3) Bundle Library
Bundle librarymeans sending a list of best books on particular subject in one bundle through emails. You can also select particular author instead of subject. For example select the author like Deepak Chopra. Suppose library has 13 books written by Deepak Chopra, you can choose best of books from this list as per the review received from library users or you can check Amazon.in for the review. You might find four to five best of books written by Deepak Chopra in this list. Same is applied for other author or subject. It is like selecting the best of leaf from the leaflets. You can also assign the heading as per the collection. For example many of the books written by Deepak Chopra are on spiritual line. Therefore heading for this email would be Spiritual Bundle. Emails write up should be in following way followed by the list of best books.
“Dear Sir,
We library team has compiled a list of five Must Read Books by Deepak Chopra below. It was sheer observation and interviews with the library users which led to prepare this list which is mostly approved & appreciated by other employees. Hope you will enjoy this experience too.”
It is the system which helps Librarian to deliver best of books to those who are interested in it.
Conclusion:
It is evident from the above that end-users need to know the collection and the above-mentioned marketing strategy is best suited for any library that wants to increase the number of users. Given strategy not only helps to suggest the best books but also helps to personalize the library services. With such an initiative library becomes the main contact of points in an organization. Remember, the organization grows faster if the library becomes its access point as compared to any other services.
