1. Department of public Library City Central Library, Mysore,
MARKETING OF LIBRARY PROGRAMS AND INFORMATION SERVICES OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN KARNATAKA
Paper Presented by
Mr. Manjunath B
Deputy Director
Department of public Library
City Central Library, Mysore,
Karnataka
NACLIN-2016

2. 1. Introduction
The “Public Library is the local centre of information making all kinds of knowledge and information readily available to its users.’
The services of the public library are provided on the basis of equality of access for all, regardless of age, race, sex, religion, nationality, language or social status”4.
The UNESCO Public Library Manifesto, (1994)6 state that “the primary purposes of the public library are to provide resources and services in a variety of media to meet the needs of individuals and groups for education, information and personal development including recreation and leisure”.

3. Contd.
The successful public library is to use marketing and promotional techniques to enable them to understand the needs of their users and to plan effectively to meet those needs.
The library should also promote its services to the public to ensure that they are kept informed of the services provided to meet their library and information requirements.
In this paper the authors discussed about the users opinion about the marketing of programs and information services of public libraries in Karnataka.

4. 2. Objectives: The main objectives of the study are:
To know the demographic characteristics of public library users, like- age; gender, educational qualification etc.
To study the users perception about the marketing and promotional plans of public libraries in Karnataka.
To know the users opinion towards strategies used by the libraries to attract public library users.

5. 3. Methodology:
The survey method was used to collect the data from the users’ between 15 to 40 years of age’ by using a structured questionnaire. To collect primary data from the users’, the researcher used random sampling method.
There are 27 City Central Libraries in Karnataka, out of those 14 City Central Libraries covering 12 districts were selected for the purpose of data collection. They are Mysore, Mandya,Hassan, Tumkur, Bangalore, Mangalore and Shimoga from Southern Karnataka. Bidar, Gulbarga,Bijapur, Bellary and Dharwad from North Karnataka.. For the purposes of the present study Likert’s method of scale construction is adopted.
The format of a typical five-level Likert’s item is: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Agree and Strongly Agree. After data collection the data entry was done in excel and then it is transferred to SPSS statistical software and necessary Mean and Standard Deviation values were derived.

6. 4. Analysis of Data Table -1: Gender of Respondents
S/N
Gender
No. of Responses
Percentage 1
Male
775
75.9 2
Female
246
24.1
Total
1021
100.0

7. Table -2: Age of Respondents
S/N
Range of Age
No. of Responses
Percentage 1
15-20
127
12.4 2
21-25
420
41.1 3
26-30
303
29.7 4
31-35 97
9.5 5
36-40 74
7.3
Total
1021
100.0

8. Table- 3: Marital Status of Respondents
S/N
Marital Status
No. of Responses
Percentage 1
Unmarried
852
83.4 2
Married
169
16.6
Total
1021
100.0

9. Table-4: Educational Qualifications of Respondents
S/N
Educational Qualification
No. of Responses
Percentage 1
S.S.L.C 78
7.6 2
P.U.C
127
12.4 3
UG Degree
457
44.8 4
PG Degree
293
28.7 5
PhD 19
1.9 6
Any Other 47
4.6
Total
1021
100

10. Responses in Percentage (N=1021)
Table-5: Opinion of users’ towards Strategies Used by the Library to Attract Users  
S/N
Parameters
Responses in Percentage (N=1021)
Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5
‘Thought for the day’ is displayed at the entrance
157
(15.4)
155
(15.2)
203
(19.9)
340
(33.3)
166
(16.3)
3.20
1.30
Library users are encouraged to contribute ‘Thought for the day’
185
(18.1)
186
(18.2)
151
(14.8)
344
(33.7)
3.10
Attractive proverbs and slogans are displayed
133
(13.0)
117
(11.5)
190
(18.6)
392
(38.4)
189
(18.5)
3.38
1.27
Daily important news headings are displayed
132
(12.9) 95
(9.3)
209
(20.5)
357
(35.0)
228
(22.3)
3.44
1.28
Display of new arrivals
128
(12.5)
107
(10.5)
172
(16.8)
390
(38.2)
224
(21.9)
3.47 6
Display of latest library activities and programs
153
(15.0)
129
(12.6)
242
(23.7)
327
(32.0)
170
(16.7)
3.23 7
Art works and paintings are displayed
154
(15.1)
206
(20.2)
305
(29.9)
3.12
1.35
Chi- Square and P Value
2 = 5.113; df=28; P < 0.001

11. Responses in Percentage (N=1021)
Table-6: Users’ Opinion about the Marketing and Promotional Plans for Marketing Library Programs and Services
S/N
Parameters
Responses in Percentage (N=1021)
Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5
Creating awareness through Radio/Television/ News Paper about the library, its resources, services and programs
201
(19.7)
177
(17.3)
274
(26.8)
208
(20.4)
161
(15.8)
2.95
1.34
User orientation programmes are organized regularly
209
(20.5)
190
(18.6)
246
(24.1)
253
(24.8)
123
(12.0)
2.89
1.31
Offer contests and promotions that offer an opportunity to show off their knowledge and abilities.
233
(22.8)
199
(19.5)
268
(26.2)
120
(11.6)
2.84
Make publicity available through community partners such as schools/colleges and other
organizations
189
(18.5)
204
(20.0)
250
(24.5)
234
(22.9)
144
(14.1)
2.94

12. Contd.. 5 Meet the users and librarian programmes are often organized
239
(23.4)
213
(20.9)
232
(22.7)
207
(20.3)
130
(12.7)
2.78
1.34 6
They design promotional materials that show an understanding the users culture and interests, such as sports, celebrities, love, fantasies, new trends, and music etc
229
(22.4)
233
(22.8)
204
(20.0)
237
(23.2)
118
(11.6)
2.79
1.33 7
Library promote services for users on a library webpage
236
(23.1)
243
(23.8)
211
(20.7)
102
(10.0)
2.72
1.28 8
Make publicity available in places where users congregate, such as cinemas,
cafes, popular stores
285
(27.9)
270
(26.4)
165
(16.2) 97
(9.5)
2.52
1.30
Chi- Square and P Value
2 = 6.272; df=35; P < 0.001

13. 5. Findings of the Study: The major findings of the study are:
Majority of the respondents numbering 775 (75.9 %) are male
More number 420(41.1%) of respondents are in the age group of ‘21 – 25 years’
Out of 1021 responses majority scoring 852 (83.4 %) of users were unmarried and remaining 169 (16.6 %) respondents were married.
Regarding education qualification, nearly 457 (44.8%) users are UG degree holders. Where 293 respondents are PG degree holders representing 28.7%.
Majority of respondents are satisfied with ‘Display of new arrivals’ (mean=3.47)
Users have good opinion about the marketing strategy of ‘Creating awareness through Radio/ News Paper about the library, its resources, services and programs’ with mean value of 2.95

14. 6. Suggestions and conclusion:
Marketing is all about to support the library in its efforts to meet its goal by way of strategies which focus on users rather than the library and it is a continuous process and activity for a successful library and information center5.
In this study users are less satisfied with the strategy ‘users are encouraged to contribute ‘Thought for the day’.
Make publicity available in places where users congregate, such as cinemas, cafes, popular stores and Library promote services for users on a library webpage.
It is suggested that the public libraries need to encourage users to contribute thought for the day displayed at the entrance of the library. We are in digital era so public library can make use library webpage and social media sites to promote library programs and services to attract more number of users.

15. Thank You…