Library economics. Part 3. Are library services marketable commodities? The tools of services marketing from the library's point of view

Abstract

Library services as the product of the library have characteristics identical to those of other services: they are substitutable, inseparable, fluctuating, non-durable and non-differentiable. Library marketing should be directed toward personnel training, and toward reducing the gap between the services product and user exoectations. Methods of Public Relations have to be applied equally on the library fields to promote the organization's communication with the external world. The author overviews these PR methods. The market potential of library products is influenced stronghy by the fact that both the customer and the supporter of the library is the government, including local governments. The true players of the market, the citizens, have inadequate resources to buy library products.