ABSTRACT
Libraries exist to serve their users. Libraries and librarians connect people with sources of information and entertainment in order to enrich their lives. In today’s electronic environment, librarians must promote and market both library resources and themselves to the people they intend to serve. This chapter describes marketing and public relations in health sciences libraries both in the academic and clinical settings. Marketing concepts are not difficult to understand, and most marketing techniques are easy to implement. For some librarians, the very notion of marketing is difficult to accept. Why should something so obviously good as libraries have to be promoted? Sometimes librarians are their own worst enemies, because they refuse to promote themselves and libraries as fundamental parts of their communities. However, it is because libraries and librarians are such an integral part of the American tapestry that marketing them can be so easy and fun. People cannot use or support what they do not know about, understand, or value. In marketing librarians and libraries, users must be made to realize that they need and want these services and resources, thereby generating extra value. So, it is up to librarians to awaken that need and want within their potential users.
