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Libraries are facing serious competition from the ‘profit’ information industry which has seen the potential of an ever‐increasing information service sector. Sophisticated information retrieval systems, and management information systems are finding their way into research organisations and business corporations, areas traditionally served by libraries. Until recently the concept of marketing non‐profit organisations has been considered inappropriate, centred around the underlying theory that such organisations are not involved in an exchange process. With the extension of the exchange concept, marketing as a tool has been applied in the non‐profit sector with a degree of success. Marketing requires analysis and planning and the view that promotion is marketing is misleading. The components of a good marketing strategy include not only a promotional campaign but also product analysis, the development of appropriate outlets for the products, and an effective pricing structure. These mix components are reviewed with an emphasis on the most neglected area, product analysis. Libraries' core products are examined and the appropriateness of the product life‐cycle concept is discussed. In conclusion, the article suggests that a change in attitude to marketing may help libraries to improve their image and to attract users. Through careful analysis, planning and implementation of marketing the survival of libraries may be less doubtful in a rapidly changing technological world.

Highlights some of the common problems of library planning in the Caribbean and elaborates on the steps involved in the marketing planning process. Responds to the desire for further enlightenment on the subject of marketing planning expressed by some of the participants who attended a workshop on marketing planning for information professionals, which was organised by the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. Discusses the various aspects of marketing planning which are of general interest and of interest to information professionals generally.

Dissatisfaction with the online public access catalog (in particular) and the integrated library system (in general) have prompted a variety of responses from libraries and library automation vendors. The purpose of this paper is to summarize and examine these responses to get some sense of the library automation market's “trajectory.”

The approach is to write a discursive essay on: the “broken” online public access catalogs; a review of the literature about online catalog features, limitations and remedies; customer (library) responses; (library automation) vendor responses, including a review of recent market surveys, and an attempted meta‐analysis of some of those surveys; and an attempt to redefine the ILS.

The findings suggest the market “trajectory” is towards products other than the “traditional” ILS. Literature describing ILS faults and remedies may be productively applied to these other products.

The attempted meta‐analysis is not statistically valid, so it can only be used as “loosely” descriptive of the library automation market. The impact and potential utility of social computing tools is not addressed.

A redefined ILS includes the wide range of services libraries provide or attempt to provide, rather than operating within the narrow definition of the traditional ILS. The essay provides a wider range of products for inclusion in requests for proposals for new library systems, and suggests new criteria to evaluate library systems as a whole, and the constituent parts of such systems.

The findings, if applied to the creation of new requests for proposals for new library automation products, may make it easier for libraries to state their needs, and for vendors to create new systems to meet those needs.

It has been argued that product data libraries have the potential to improve global real-estate development and increase productivity. Product data libraries provide the basis to support diverse national classification systems and different languages. The aim of this paper is to identify product data management (PDM) systematics and recommend future development needs to building product libraries, focusing on the functional shortcomings and data processing deficiencies found in the current libraries.

A literature review of state-of-the-art practices of BIM within the construction industry was conducted including product libraries, supply chains, guidelines, industry tools and practices, and general use of BIM. Findings from the literature review were complemented with insights from the academia and industry by obtaining data through focused interviews with experts who were chosen based on their prestige and reference.

As a result of the studies performed for this article, roadmaps are proposed for product library implementation globally. The role of standardization in implementing BIM-compatible product libraries is highlighted.

This article covers the state-of-the-art practices of PDM in BIM libraries, which is useful for the development of coherent BIM libraries for the AEC industry worldwide.

Librarians have been concerned about the long‐term success of library automation vendors, and their concerns have been confirmed by the decline and fall of a number of library system vendors, or, at least, by the demise of their products. This paper is an attempt to document the history of events in the library automation marketplace, and to put these events into meaningful business perspective. Among the issues examined here are: a) Who are the players? b) How can vendors be characterized? c) How do these characteristics reflect present and future success in the marketplace? d) How can the marketplace be characterized? e) How do these characteristics influence the success or failure of vendors? f) Is current success of a vendor indicative of a good product, of sound management, of customer satisfaction, and of future success? g) How, in fact, is success measured? h) Are there quantitative measures that can be applied to estimate the likely future success of a vendor?

A common user interface replaces the multiple interfaces found among individual electronic library resources, reducing the time and effort spent by the user in both searching and learning to use a range of databases. Although the primary function of a common user interface is to simplify the search process, such products can be holistic solutions designed to address requirements other than searching, such as user authentication and site branding. This review provides a detailed summary of software currently on the market. The products reviewed were EnCompass, MetaLib, Find‐It‐All OneSearch, ZPORTAL, CPORTAL, InfoTrac Total Access, MetaFind, MuseSearch, SiteSearch, Single Search, Chameleon Gateway, and WebFeat.

Library services face many problems at the present time: problems to do with funding and priorities which lead to questions about how we can change and where our future lies. These questions concern the library's relationship with its external environment — its strategy. Such a strategic focus is one which all library managers would do well to develop.

The chapter focused on quality assurance and marketing of library services and products at the Midlands State University (MSU). The chapter's main objective was to identify the quality assurance mechanisms at the MSU Library. The major findings of the research were; the MSU library was practising quality assurance, staff was trained on the latest trends in the profession, the collection was multidisciplinary and in different forms, and that there were Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) used in enhancing service provision. The researcher recommended that the library needed to continuously train librarians on issues to do with quality, improve the infrastructure, introduce Research Data Management to enhance the Research Support Services and improve on the Information Literacy Skills training programmes. The author identified some areas for further research and the major one was that there is need for clarification on the concept of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Marketing concept is being widely used in all disciplines including library and Information Science domain for disseminating the services, resources and products to the target audiences. Thus, this study aims to define the marketing concept and how libraries can do marketing of their services, resources and products using marketing techniques and tools, such as 7Ps of the marketing mix. This study further pointed out the important internet resources available freely on the marketing of library services on the Internet which can be used by library and Information Science professionals with regard to getting the ideas how to market the library services and resources to the targeted users.

This article summarises a 1989 survey on the use of optical products in libraries and information centres in Western Europe. Out of a total of over 13,500 questionnaires distributed to eighteen countries, some 23% were returned and of these just under 10% said they were using optical products (primarily CD‐ROMs) in their libraries or information centres. Nearly half of the respondents who were using CD‐ROMs had acquired only one product, which, in the main, was used by library staff as opposed to end users. This accounts for the high popularity of products such as Books in Print, BL/BN Pilot disk, BookBank, Ulrich Plus and Verzeichnis lieferbarer Bücher—though Medline was the single most used disc. Many respondents had not yet had their CD‐ROM products long enough to be able to give much information on their experience with them or the impact on users. Where details were provided, it was plain that the optical products seemed to be appreciated by users, contributed to greater information awareness and permitted the library to offer a better and faster service. It is interesting to note that these are exactly the kinds of things that libraries not yet using optical products expected to achieve if and when they did use them. While CD‐ROMs had reduced online searching to some extent, feelings were mixed regarding the pros and cons of various optical products. Searching may have been speeded up, but too infrequent updating of the information was seen as a negative factor together with the price. The price or cost of optical products as well as lack of a suitable budget was also cited by many as the reason for not getting such products in the foreseeable future. In fact, nearly 60% of those replying they were not using optical products in their libraries said they would not be getting them. It is clear that it is the bigger academic libraries with a large collection, a lot of staff and a large user community which are presently using CD‐ROMs and other optical technologies.