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organisational culture". How true! The disaster at the Morgan Library had a very positive result in that it changed the
culture of the organisation of the library and empowered staff to become more adaptable and willing to change.
As all academic and research libraries now 'hold' information resources in electronic format, the need to maintain the
integrity of electronic resources is of paramount importance as, in many cases, hardcopy has been replaced, not
duplicated by an electronic resource. The book also addressessome of the issuesassociatedwith digitisation as part of a
preservation strategy, and the implications of this on traditional library and conservation practice is daunting relying, as it
does, on a reliable networked information system, migration, emulation, analysis on acquisition, together with
complicated legal issues.The discussion about the decision-making process regarding which items to retain in original
form is reminiscent of the age-old dilemmas of de-accessioningversus the Compactus. How can we be sure what will be
needed by researchers in the future?
As so often happens, factors affecting one aspect of life are also manifest elsewhere. Abby Smith in her chapter
entitled "What can we afford to lose?" indicates that the problem with securing adequate funding for preservation lies
within "powerful social forces" in the American psyche. "We are not a culture of ancestor worshippers here in America.
On the contrary, our culture places high value on things having immediate reward, however small, over those having
delayed benefits, no matter how great". This must ring a bell for library professionals the world over as we struggle for
funding for 'traditional' items againstthe high tech and sexy stuff. The folly of this instant gratification culture is captured in
a quotation from Cicero, which is inscribed over the entrance of the library of the University of Colorado at Boulder,
"Who knows only his own generation remains always a child". Perhaps we should consider such an inscription at the
entrance to state-of-the-art computer labs and the like?
As with so many management issuesthere are many self evident truths in this book, not least the recurrent theme of
effective communication and consultation with all stakeholders. Part of the Maryland/ARL programme was developing a
Richter scale to facilitate staff perceptions of specific situations or environments. This is another useful management tool
with wider applications than preservation and security. Some of the chapters in this book were from museum
professionals, and I particularly liked the title of an earlier paper by one of them entitled. "If you don't feed the staff,
they'll eat the visitor".
My main criticism of this book is that the blurb rather belies the arrangement of the content and inadequate indexing
compounds this. For instance, the book "focuses on four keys that are central to safeguardingyour collection:
• physicalsecurity
• preservation
• bibliographic control
• inventory control".
However, apart from sundry entries under 'preservation' none of the other 'keys' are contained in the index.
While this is a book aimed primarily at large academic and research libraries in America, it will be a valuable asset for
those libraries elsewhere which have yet to embrace, or are having difficulty in gaining support for, preservation and
security of their library and other valuable collections.

Reviewed by: Jennie Underwood, Visual image co-ordinator, Dept of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town.
Email:jennieunderwood@wo/.co.za

Strategic marketing in library and information science

This is a compilation of papers originally published as Issuenumber 28 in 2002 of The acquisitions librarian. Collectively, it
is a valuable contribution to the literature on service delivery and collection management and should certainly be
considered for purchase if the original journal issue is not available.A full index is included.
Marketing is a poorly-understood concept in many - perhaps most - libraries and information services. It is often
confused with one of its components, advertising, has tended to adopt "business-speak", and is not well-represented in
the professional curriculum. This is unfortunate because every professional, whether responsible for a network of
services or a single service-point, ought to know the principles whereby the needs of the communities of users can be
identified and translated into products and services that will be valued. Knowledge of the "marketing mix" encourages
every professional to think about information products and services, costs of supply,the channel by which the user can be
served and the means by which the characteristics of the products and services can be conveyed to existing and potential
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users. At some point, most professional education includes each of these components, but what is often lacking is their
presentation as a unity: this is where the strategic focus becomes important. The encouragement of strategic
understanding is important for library and information service managers, but what is vital is the ability to develop and
implement strategy. A reading of this collection of papers will help considerably.
There are two main sections to the collection. In the first, "The basis and context of marketing", the introductory
chapter by Irene Owens provides a selective survey of the literature on marketing within the library and information
science discipline. This is valuable as an introductory guide to concepts, because the context for the review is the
"marketing mix", to which is added a study of the literature on relationship marketing and change management. Although
not specifically discussing Southern Africa, the sources are broad in scope and sound in coverage. The remainder of this
section focuses on the role of marketing and the development of an approach that will be both effective and acceptable
within the professional domain.
Roberta Shaffer tackles what is perhaps the most misunderstood aspect within library and information science:
branding. In the popular mind, branding is bound up with logos and advertising jingles and has "hucksterish" associations.
As Shaffer explains, this is erroneous: "branding" is about the associations people have with a particular idea or product.
When we complain that the image people have of libraries is old-fashioned and unattractive, it is our failure to "brand
manage" that is the root of the complaint. Essentially, the profession has a strong set of attributes associated with caring
and competence about which many users, and those who manage our parent organisations, remain in ignorance. Do we
care enough as a profession to undertake the work necessary to understand the relevance for the user of what we do and
to manage our "brandwidth" so that real brand awareness is developed?
Perhaps we should start by considering recruitment to the profession. Ronald Pollock notes the growing shortage of
professional librarians in the United States of America and then documents a survey of library and information science
students, conducted at the University of Texas, aimed at discovering what they value when applying for a job. Only 15%
regard salary as the principal factor; "work environment" is the leader! It would be interesting to conduct a similar survey
in South Africa - and perhaps this is something that L1ASAshould consider, because the future of the profession depends
on public awareness and appropriate recruitment. Christine Stilwell's recent article (South African Journal of Libraries and
Information Science, 10[ I]:20-29) provides an insight into the range of student views on the content of the curriculum in
professional education, and clearly indicates the need for further research into perceptions of the "site of practice".
Cesar Caballero discusses strategic planning as a prerequisite to preparing a marketing plan. The steps in planning are
briefly, but carefully, explained, with several checklists as guides to practical development and pointers to further reading.
Glynn Harmon addresses the inclusion of marketing in the professional education curriculum. He provides a fascinating
perspective on the effect that the tension between system-centred and user-centred approaches has created, including
the vexed question of nomenclature, and warns of the need to understand market perceptions before making changes.
The second section of this collection explores marketing in specific circumstances. Of these, two articles have a broad
appeal. Dennis Dillon considers the marketing of electronic resources, making the important point that their value is
often poorly understood by potential users because of confusion and competition with publicly-available Web resources.
He also warns of the danger of creating false expectations and over-confidence in the ability of electronic resources to
deliver salient information, and suggests the need to adopt "relationship marketing", which concentrates on building a
long-term perception of value. This is an important point, and one which is especially suitable for the concept of service
that libraries and information services of all kinds should be seeking to embrace and develop.
Loriene Roy has produced a thought-provoking study of marketing in public libraries. The examples are drawn from
North American sources but the organisation is thematic, so the reader can appreciate how marketing can be of
significance to specific functions, such as collection management, cataloguing and classification. Roy is adamant that a
planned approach to marketing is essential and that advocacy is what will count in the campaign to develop better
services, equity of employment and improved salaries. The public library is a fundamental component of the "Information
Society", being a channel through which people can gain access to the information necessary for a citizen of a democracy.
The crisis of public libraries in many areas of South Africa is fast becoming apparent and the importance of advocacy
needs to be understood by all professionals - not just those working in public libraries.
At first sight, the application of marketing to theological libraries and to archives might seem rather out-of-place in this
collection. However, the essays provide complementary views which are also of general interest. Timothy Lincoln looks
at strategic marketing in theological libraries, and makes the case that in this highly specialised environment there is a case
to be made: a useful corrective to those who might think their service too rarefied to need marketing.
Two essays explore marketing in archive management. W. Bernard Lukenbill discusses social marketing, with especial
emphasis on reaching minority populations. There are useful practical points about adjusting services to suit a diversity of
needs: "social marketing" is clearly of potential value in the diverse cultures of South Africa. Mimi Donne provides an

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account of the Task Force on Archives and Society, set up by the Society of American Archivists. As an example of
"reinvention" of a profession, it has considerable value: again, it is the kind of task that should be undertaken in South
Africa as we enter a period when access to indigenous sources of information is being recognised as of equal, if not
greater significance, than conventional sources.
The compilation also includes a second essay by W. Bernard Lukenbill, on the film adaptation and marketing of
Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the wind, surely the most unlikely source of knowledge about marketing? Not so! The
discussion of stereotypes and cultural perceptions, together with the development of critique around this, is viewed from
the perspective of information literacy and shows how powerful this can be as a framing concept for the business South
African libraries should be in.

Reviewed by: Peter G Underwood, Professor of Librarianship, University of Cape Town

SAjnl Libs & Info Sci 2005, 71 ( I )