Promotional Strategy in Library of Widya Mandala Catholic

University Surabaya

Yustria Olivia Arifin

, Dhini Dwi Kartikawati

, Endang Fitriyah Mannan

and Muhammad Rifky Nurpratama

Library Studies, Faculty of Vocational Education, Airlangga University, Indonesia

Faculty of Vocational Education, Airlangga University, Indonesia

Keywords: Promotion, Library Promotion, College Library, Unika Widya Mandala Surabaya.

Abstract: The library is not only silent, but it tries to pick up users to have the services they have provided, creating a

good impression of the library. One of them through library promotion. This article discusses the promotion

strategy used by the Widya Mandala Catholic University Library Surabaya. Explain the methods, as well as

the tools used in the promotion process. The research method is a qualitative method with a descriptive

approach. For the process of data analysis, derived from data interviews using literature from books and

journals. The results found were promoted as visits to other libraries, and used as a means of promotion, and

developing repositories and promoting them as superior services. Where the results of the library were

visited increased, especially the visits to the web library owned by the Surabaya Widya Mandala Library.

1 INTRODUCTION

The process of education in universities that

prioritizes innovation, the development of scientific

and technological research, makes university

libraries the heart of the university (Hernoko et al.,

2022). Based on Indonesian Law Number 43 of

2007concerning the library, the library is defined as

the institution that manages collections of written

works, printed works and/or record works in a

professional manner with a standard system to meet

the needs of education, research, preservation, and

recreation for visitors (Romadhona, 2020). Along

with the development of information technology,

librarians are required to be more creative and

innovative to provide various services and facilities

for visitors with the aim of improving the quality

and reputation of the library itself (Harisanty,

Shafira and Isbandy, 2020). Libraries can be made

successful and useful in supporting facilities, and the

services are widely used by students, and library

materials are widely used as reference sources and

references in making scientific works. Therefore, a

special strategy is needed to promote library services

and services (Sunyowati et al., 2022). Libraries

Fulfilling Library Needs According to Gitosudarmo

(2008) promotion is a way to increase consumers so

that they know the products offered by the company

then consumers are interested in buying these

products (Subagyono, Chumaida and Romadhona,

2022). According to Gitosudarmo (2008) promotion

strategy is an activity aimed at consumers so that

they can find out the products offered by the

company then consumers become happy to buy the

product (Romadhona, Subagyono and Agustin,

2022). Some ways that can be used as advertising

promotion tools, sales promotions (sales

promotions), direct contact (personal sales),

publicity (publication).

Mustafa (1996) states that the purpose of library

promotion is to introduce information and services

provided while introducing to the information centre

community and persuading potential users that

information services can be enjoyed by users

(Romadhona, 2020). According to Qalyubi (2003)

explains that the purpose of promotion is to

influence knowledge, influence attitudes and

behaviour, persuade to accept concepts, service and

introduce ideas or goods promoted.

Preferably, libraries have specific policies related

to library promotion and develop specific plans and

strategies along with the heads and other library

staff. Library promotion advertisements according to

Ariﬁn, Y., Kartikawati, D., Mannan, E. and Nurpratama, M.

Promotional Strategy in Library of Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya.

DOI: 10.5220/0008669400002300

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Record and Library: Local Knowledge, Past, Present, and Future (ICRL 2018), pages 143-148

ISBN: 978-989-758-712-2

143

Sulistyo (1993) as follows: (1) Promotional media

outdoors. Outdoor media is advertising media that

are usually large in size, installed in open places

such as on the roadside, in the centre of the crowd,

or in other special places such as on buses, in

buildings, on walls and so on. Outdoor promotional

types include billboards, billboards, and banners. (2)

Indoor promotional media (indoor media). Indoor

media that is advertising media that are usually

small or medium sized that can be installed in the

room. The types of media in the room (indoor)

include posters, floor stands, storefronts, and

leaflets/brochures (Romadhona, 2022).

The library promotion facilities consist of printed

promotional facilities, promotional tools in the form

of electronics, and promotional facilities in the form

of library activities. (1) Printable promotional

facilities (Mustafa, 1996) among others are

brochures, posters, library-specific folders,

bookmarks, library-specific publications, library

logos and symbols, newsletters, and library signs.

(2) Electronic-shaped promotional facilities

(Supriyanto, 2008), among others, television, which

is one of the electronic media that is very widely

used by the public in seeking information. Besides

being an entertainment media, television is also

often used for media promotions. Others are the

internet which are in the form of "networks", by

creating the possibility of communication between

networks throughout the world. The development of

technology makes the internet as one of the most

popular promotional media tools for consumers

(Romadhona et al., 2022). With the internet, an

institution can promote its products quickly and

precisely. The next promotion in electronic form is

radio, which is the most common thing done by an

institution or organization. Radio has millions of

listeners who will listen to broadcast information.

The more often it is heard to the public, then

indirectly the community will know and recognize a

product that is promoted through the media. (3)

Promotions in the form of library activities

(Mustafa, 1996) include library exhibitions, lectures

and seminars, bazaars, competitions and quizzes,

library tours, film screenings, socialization, and

procurement of mobile libraries.

To achieve a good promotion strategy, it is also

necessary to create a promotional program first, the

promotion program means to set goals or priorities

first after that, the next step is to determine the

action and develop the right work plan. To achieve a

promotion strategy can also be done by collaborating

with third parties because in all libraries it cannot be

done if the library is independent. Therefore, it is

important to collaborate, especially on promotions.

The cooperation can be carried out with agencies

such as: national libraries, educational institutions,

provincial libraries, city libraries, publishers, and

bookstores.

2 RESEARCH METHOD

The method used in this research is my qualitative

method. The data collection technique is the study of

accounting and comes from interviews. The location

of this study was at the Widya Mandala Catholic

University Library in Surabaya. To find out the

results of his research, the authors analysed the data

from the interviews, the literature study that came

from books and journals. This research is intended to

find out the promotion strategy in Widya Mandala

Catholic University Library Surabaya.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Widya Mandala Catholic University Library

Surabaya implemented a promotion strategy since

the establishment of the library. Strategies carried

out in several ways including brochures, websites,

library classes, conduct activities such as book

reviews. Usually the activities carried out, come

from invitations given by the faculty, for example

the faculty asks resource persons and library

materials for making proposals. Libraries carry out

promotional strategies by adjusting what is needed

by the academic community and more scientific

communication. An example is that now the library

is more focused on processing repositories and OJS

(Open Journal System). The Unika Widya Mandala

Library promotes gradually from year to year due to

several factors such as human resources, facilities,

and infrastructure, etc.

The purpose of the promotion strategy carried

out by the Surabaya Widya Mandala Library is to

increase visits both to the library to utilize existing

collections and collection of repositories and library

websites by academics or other universities which

will later share knowledge. The core of the purpose

of library promotion, according to Gupta et al.

(2006) is to focus on services to users or people who

visit the library. The benefits after implementing the

strategy include visits that are more increaseed than

before, both from students and from other

universities/institutions, for now more visits online

at the repository.

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As for the plan or development of the library for

the future, the focus now is on the development of

an independent book lending service and the

independent loan lending service. In the future,

efforts will be made to develop social media

libraries so that they can be optimized. The steps to

be taken by the Unika Widya Mandala Surabaya

library are in line with the concept expressed by

Schmidt (2007) that traditional library services must

change to accommodate new types of users and new

types of use. Schmidt (2007) also revealed that

promoting services is an important component of

service delivery. Many libraries have exceptional

services and products, but users don't know their

availability. Branding and badging are terms used

by libraries to ensure that services are marketed

effectively.

Promotional steps in terms of branding so far

that has been used, among others, in print through

brochures, while in electronic form through library

websites. The Unika Widya Mandala Surabaya

library has social media (Facebook) but for now it is

not too optimal because the lack of human resources

in the library is a major factor. Constraints when

carrying out promotional strategies, namely HR. HR

constraints have indeed become an obstacle for

many libraries, especially in Indonesia, East Java,

especially Surabaya, but with many similarities the

constraints have finally led to knowledge sharing. It

was revealed from the informant's statement,

namely:

In where at first, we have constraints and the

constraints that we seek a solution after getting a

solution as well as a university library other

university and with prose s there appeared the

sharing of knowledge. (HR)

Sharing knowledge about promotional processes

and strategies, not only through face-to-face.

However, it was revealed that sharing knowledge

about promotions had been carried out by visiting or

benchmarking other libraries in Indonesia, and even

foreign libraries were visiting the library of Unika

Widya Mandala Surabaya to share and gain

knowledge. Revealed from the statement of the

following informants:

For more cooperation, starting from Local,

Provincial and National level cooperation. For

international cooperation, we usually visit the

library there to make a visit, and on the contrary

foreign universities also visit our library. (HR)

The purpose of the visit which had been carried

out by librarians of the Unika Widya Mandala

Surabaya Library was to explore various aspects of

the library. Besides being a visit to explore

promotional strategies, behind that is the process and

documentation of the visit that can be used as a

means of promotion as. Implicitly, the documented

visit will be uploaded to the library's website and is

expected to give the brand in the form of an

impression that the Unika Widya Mandala library is

promoting itself to other libraries and giving the

impression that the library is not passive, or not

moving but to pick up knowledge. This was revealed

by the following statement from the informant:

The purpose of the visit is usually to see what

facilities are in the library. As seen on the website, if

there is a visit from any university, it will enter the

library website. (HR)

Widya Mandala Catholic University Library did

a gradual promotion strategy in accordance with

what was needed by students / visitors to the library

at that time. After focusing on the development of

the repository and socialization to promote that the

Unika Widya Mandala library has a good repository.

However, once again human resources are the main

obstacle in implementing the promotion strategy

carried out by the library both in terms of number

and ability.

The Head of Widya Mandala Catholic University

Surabaya Library has plans to better manage the

library's social media as a means and place to

promote the library to be more optimal. Because

now the library still relies on the website as a digital

promotional tool that can be accessed by anyone.

Social media is considered a means of promotion

that is quite influential to increase visits, therefore it

will soon be followed up to be used as a means of

library promotion.

In addition, the library also strives to provide

services and facilities tailored to the environment

and desires of visitors with the aim of improving the

quality and quality of the library. As is already the

case now, namely independent lending services and

lending and returning lockers independently. The

Widya Mandala Catholic University Library will

gradually expand the collaboration network which

will indirectly affect library promotion. If there is

more cooperation, the implementation of promotion

strategies outside the library at the regional,

provincial and national levels will be easier.

The promotion strategy carried out by the current

Widya Mandala Catholic University Library for the

development of the repository is pay off. Not only

accessed by visitors in Indonesia, but also widely

accessed by visitors from abroad. Making this

repository gets a positive response from the users, as

evidenced by the participants of the socialization in

each campus exceeding the quota provided. The

socialization was first conducted in 2015 with

Promotional Strategy in Library of Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya

145

lecturers and employees, and then continued in 2016

to socialize to students throughout the Unika Widya

Mandala Surabaya environment.

Source: Featured Achievement Work Attachment 4 (Nugraari,

2016)

Figure 1: Repository Visitor Statistics.

From the graph of the visitor repository statistics,

during January to July there has been an increase

and a decrease. On average, the repository is

accessed by more than 50.000 users. Unfortunately,

in April there was a significant decline with only

around 20,000 users accessed. In May and June data

and server transfers were made which resulted in the

repository being inaccessible for 2 months. The

Unika Widya Mandala Surabaya Library Repositor

reaches the 30

rank of the best repository in

Indonesia by Webometrics. Development continues

to be made so that the UKWMS library repository

ranking can increase in the next few years.

Promotion will continue to be carried out so that

many users use the repository.

Based on all the data and facts that have been

discussed, the steps of branding that have been

carried out by the Unika Widya Mandala library

show that still relying on promotions for the purpose

gives a good impression. This step is not wrong

because it is indeed one of the goals of library

promotion, as written by Triningsih (2016) that the

promotion according to the Indonesian Librarians

Dictionary is the exchange of information between

organizations / institutions and consumers with the

main purpose of providing information about

products or services available in the organization

and persuading prospective customers to react to the

product or service. Promotion aims to: 1) attract

attention; 2) creating an impression; 3) arouse

interest; 4) get a response; 5) influence to accept

ideas, concepts, or goods that are promoted.

The promotion that has been carried out by the

Unika Widya Mandala library, if it is adjusted to the

concept of promotion goals according to the

dictionary of Indonesian librarianship, it is still

limited to the first and second points, namely

attracting attention and creating an impression. This

can be seen from the steps of their promotion by

benchmarking or visiting other libraries, then the

results are uploaded through their official website.

Other steps such as developing their repository

service and promoting it that libraries already have

digital services that can include the desire of young

people for digital collections.

Again, this step is not wrong, but if it is adapted

to the needs of today's users, then this step cannot

fully cover the wishes of library users. Current

library users according to Schmidt (2007) continue

to want basic services - competence, reliability,

responsiveness, timeliness, honesty, and caring

approaches. Where they want help with access to

information. A brand wants to read material both in

print and online. They want everything to function

effectively and they want help to make sure they use

resources effectively.

Schmidt (2007) added that the social experience

of visitors is very important. Here it can be assumed

that by serving the repository, the user can search

the digital collection in its place. But not only that,

the social experience they are actually looking for,

such as convenience, speed of accessing the

repository, completeness and variety of collections,

the ease of sending responses and expecting quick

reciprocity is more value, which can build the social

experience of the user.

In addition to branding, badging is also an

important point in the promotion of libraries that can

add more value and build the social experience of

library users. Unika Widya Mandala can implement

badging in a way that is already commonly done by

organizations or companies such as cafes or

restaurants by building logos, symbols, and slogans.

Where in the end the logo, symbols and slogans can

be remembered by the users to create new and even

unique social experiences. It can also be expected to

reach a wider promotional market, namely people

outside the campus. Because if the promotion is

analyzed by the Widya Mandala Unika Library all

this time, it still mostly includes internal markets

such as library activists, students as visitors and

other internal environments. Although the data from

the repository visit stated that there were visitors

who were not from internal students, but the impact

could not be felt directly in terms of branding the

library's name image and direct visits to the library.

As for what has been mentioned also, the means

of promotion are carried out through the website and

there is a desire to develop social media libraries to

better reach a wider audience. The thing that is done

is already good, but evaluation is still needed,

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especially evaluation of the website used. This will

affect people's interest in accessing and reading

websites and their content. So far, the website that is

used, it is considered not enough to represent a good

promotional container, because in terms of design

and content it has not been neatly arranged etc.

Therefore, while using social media, a website can

be developed to become a better and better forum for

promotion.

Rahardjo (1997) further details the abilities that

librarians have in helping library promotion, namely

special expertise such as (1) journalism, which in

this case includes knowledge and skills in arranging

brochures / bulletins, editing, writing in mass media,

magazines, printing, publishing or compile video

scripts etc.; (2) hearing technology, which includes

photography knowledge, film / video production

including acting and directing; (3) design, to be able

to make posters, arrange "layout" brochures, make

souvenirs etc.; (4) exhibition techniques, including

arranging space, use of furniture, irradiation and

others; (5) spatial planning, which is needed to

provide a comfortable and safe space, including a

library signaling system. The last and very important

is (6) communication, which is needed by each

librarian to be able to communicate the library to the

user, whether through individual dialogue,

discussion, or public speaking.

In other words, as librarians, what can be done to

support promotion is to market and promote their

services, so that new skills and knowledge are

needed. For example, such as librarians must be

good at listening and responding. The smallest and

lightest thing is to give a response and a friendly

impression such as saying, "Have a nice day". Such

light things are needed and at the same time the

availability of mobile and friendly librarians is

expected to always be there by the users. As

Schmidt (2007) stated that library users still need

and appreciate real help from real people (librarians)

and they expect to find those (librarians) easily

4 CONCLUSIONS

Promotion strategies can indeed be done in many

ways and methods. Promotional facilities can also be

done with various media including print media,

electronic media, and even through useful activities.

Promotions carried out by the Unika Widya Mandala

Library include brochures, activities such as book

reviews, and through library websites. Henceforth,

the library will focus more on the management of

library social media. Other promotions carried out

by the Unika Widya Mandala Library are visits or

benchmarking to other libraries then the results are

uploaded through the website as a further promotion.

Then the next promotion is the development of the

repository, which is proven by the achievement of

the performance results of the Widya Mandala

Catholic University Library in Surabaya, among

others: (1) Visitors increase each year to utilize

collections of both physical collections and digital

collections. (2) Increased visitors to the repository of

more than 50,000 visitors both from domestic and

abroad and ranked 30 in the Webometrics version.

(3) The existence of the latest services, namely

independent lending services and independent locker

lending.

The advice that can be given is that this

promotion step by the Unika Widya Mandala

Surabaya library is still at the stage of attracting

attention and creating an impression. Not at the stage

of arousing interest, getting responses, and

influencing to accept ideas, concepts, or goods that

are promoted.

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