Marketing Of Library And Information Services In A Digital Age: Application Of The Marketing Mix: A Case Study Of Two Private Universities In Ogun and Osun State

The objective of this paper is to conceptualize the subject area of marketing and promotion of library and information products and services in this present digital age. The paper discussed marketing as a core aspect of the activities carried out in any institution especially libraries and information centres. The paper also expounded strategies applied in the process of marketing library and information products and services and possible challenges that may be encountered in the process of marketing these products in private university libraries in Nigeria. Some of the strategies include advertising of library services on the institution’s (university) website, regular organisation of current awareness services, user orientation programmes, etc. The paper highlighted the importance of marketing as a core tool for achieving the overall objective/purpose of establishment of libraries which is to satisfy the varying information needs of its clienteles. The total enumeration sampling technique was adopted while collecting data from the two private university libraries (Covenant University Library and Redeemers’ University Library) used for the study and the study revealed that a large population (78.2%) of librarians and library personnel carry out marketing of library services very often while the major strategies used for marketing these unique services are user orientation and display of new resources (61.8%) while the least used marketing strategy was the use of liaison librarians to the various departments and colleges. The study however showed that the major challenges experienced during marketing of library services are lack of adequate funding and time constraint