xii Preface that our event calendar had to be removed from our website because there were no events happening in the immediate future. Fall 2020 was different because we had more time to plan virtual events, social media videos, and even set up in-person displays as many of us returned to campus with our library buildings now open under limited hours. But our marketing still didn’t look anything like it did when Kim- berly and I first started writing this book. And yet . . . it did. Despite the upheaval, the basics of marketing do not change even if you’re 100% online—even if you’re in times of crisis. You still have to work with a team, determine your roles and the types of marketing that can take place, think about the diverse populations you need to reach and how you can serve them best, and assess whether or not what you’re doing is working. It might be done more formally when you’re not in crisis mode, but even during a pandemic, each element of marketing is still there. Once we settled into our “new normal,” our library’s marketing team had to ensure we were sending out unified messages across all platforms about what services were available and what services had changed. Students needed to know they could get research assistance online even when our library buildings were closed. They needed to know that our BookDrops were locked but their due dates had been extended. New services emerged to get technology and textbook information to students with the help of library software and personnel—so we had to constantly communicate, reach out, and market to our stakeholders, even if it wasn’t through big events and giveaway items. Ultimately, our students were grateful for the information and grateful to have a point of contact. We didn’t know all the answers—no one did—but as librarians, it was our job to find information and share it with those in need. And if I had to boil down the multifaceted world of marketing into just a single word, “sharing” would be it. We share what we do and how we can help. That’s essentially the business of aca- demic libraries. This is not a handbook for marketing during a pandemic, but it should be a great starting point for marketing an academic library during any time period. We’ve tried to keep it general enough to apply to almost any type of higher education institution, any type of staff, and any type of population you serve. If you’ve already been involved in your library’s marketing, you may be familiar with much of the information discussed in these chapters. But if you’re new to this area of the library world, or want to refresh your team’s structure and approach to marketing, we hope this book can help give you ideas. In addition to including what we’ve learned from working at our own institutions and on the Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group, Kimberly and I have collected case study examples from libraries across the country so you can be exposed to a variety of diverse ideas that might spark something you never thought about before. There are always new ways to
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