Marketing of libraries and information services in selected government ministries in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Libraries in government ministries offer specialized information services and products which need to be marketed in order to enhance perception of their value which is likely to enhance the support they get from the government. Before introducing new information services and products, the library staff can better understand the information needs of their users thanks to marketing. This enhances both the library's reputation and patrons' use of its resources. However, it has been established that, libraries in government ministries, do very little to market their information services. In order to suggest effective strategies to boost their effectiveness, the study's goal was to look into the marketing of information services and products made available in government ministry libraries in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: establish the information services provided by libraries in government ministries; determine the level of awareness and use of libraries in government ministries; ascertain the strategies employed by libraries in government ministries to market their information services; establish the challenges experienced by libraries in government ministries in marketing their information services; propose appropriate marketing strategies to improve their service delivery. The study was underpinned by the gap model of service marketing and adopted mixed methods research approach and concurrent triangulation design. The population of study consisted of staff from the National Treasury and Planning, Ministry of Lands, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A sample of 99 employees from the Ministries was used to gather quantitative data, while 16 policymakers were purposively selected from the Ministries to provide qualitative data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data while qualitative data was grouped into themes and analyzed thematically. The study revealed that government libraries do not use websites to market their libraries and only (3.8%) used e-mails to market their libraries. The study further revealed that libraries in government ministries are not adequately marketed (85%) and have not yet embraced modern information and communication technology to communicate with their clients. The findings also revealed that the willingness to use the libraries was very high (97.5%) but the actual use of the libraries was very low (30%). The low use was attributed to lack of content in certain fields (15%), outdated information (30%) and poor services offered by the libraries (55%).The study further revealed that the strategies used by libraries in government ministries to market their information products and services included promotion (68) and reference services (68.7). Policy makers felt that libraries in government ministries are not being supported by top level management. The study concluded that libraries in government ministries lacked marketing framework that could be used to create awareness to ensure that information materials in the library were effectively utilized and that they were not leveraging on modern information and communication technology such as e-mails and websites to market their information product and services. The study recommends that libraries in government ministries should develop marketing plans, leverage on ICTs to market their products and services, provide adequate budgets for the library, develop institutional repositories and improve library facilities and infrastructure.