World Library and Information Congress: 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council

"Libraries for the future: Progress, Development and Partnerships"

19-23 August 2007, Durban, South Africa

Call for Papers

Management & Marketing Section and Academic and Research Libraries Section

Theme: Libraries in the spotlight: Effective marketing and promotional strategies

Aims and scope

Excellent libraries not only provide outstanding services to their target groups, but also succeed in "anchoring" their relevance and indispensability in the minds of interest groups, stakeholders, supporting institutions and also the general public - even if these groups never use any of the library services. By applying different strategies these libraries successfully manage to stay visible as an active and essential part of cultural life, as an asset which has to be taken into account in all relevant decision making processes as - for instance - budget planning for the cultural sector of a city, strategic planning for the future role of life-long-learning in political programmes etc. To achieve this, the library also needs internal reallocation of resources and the reframing of organizational thinking and organizational structures to meet the challenge of getting the library "on the agenda". The joint sessions programme will give a theoretical outline as well as some paradigmatic examples of successful marketing and promotional strategies.

Relevant topics for the Program:

Adjustment of general marketing issues to the library context
Developing strategies for an effective promotion of the library's mission
Providing an organizational framework for library marketing and promotion
Case studies for successful library marketing and promotion

Language of Joint Session

Preferably English. Availability of simultaneous interpretation into other IFLA languages to be confirmed and communicated to authors.

Important Dates and Informations

Abstract submission - English please, maximum 250 words, due February 15, 2007.
Please send abstracts to Klaus Ceynowa
E-mail: ceynowa@bsbmuenchen.de or
Steffen Wawra
E-mail: steffen.wawra@uni-passau.de
Notification of acceptance - March 15, 2007.
Papers due - Final versions of the full papers must be submitted to the abovementioned address by May 15, 2007.
Please note: quality papers will be recommended to be submitted to IFLA Journal.

Four papers will be selected for this two hours programme.

The proposals should include the name, contact information and institutional affiliation of the author; and the abstract.

All proposals will be evaluated by a committee representing the two sections:

Management & Marketing Section:
Ms Angels Massísimo i Sanchez de Boado, Chair of the Section
E-mail: amassisimo@ub.edu
Steffen Wawra
E-mail: steffen.wawra@uni-passau.de

Academic and Research Libraries Section
Ms Susan McKnight, Chair of the Section
E-mail: sue.mcknight@ntu.ac.uk
Klaus Ceynowa
E-mail: ceynowa@bsb-muenchen.de