A Case Study of Narrative Marketing and Appreciative Inquiry in a Special Library

Abstract

While libraries employ marketing in various forms, the challenge is keeping up with the rapidly changing discourse concerning marketing that exists outside of the library and information science (LIS) field. This research examines an innovative approach to marketing undertaken by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center Library. The case study specifically investigates the implementation of narrative marketing and appreciative inquiry within the framework of previously established best practices for library marketing. This research demonstrates how implementing narrative marketing enables libraries to conduct evidence based librarianship, and documents the entire process used by the North Carolina Biotech Library to create a narrative marketing plan, from its initial development to its implementation. This process included an internal assessment of the library's service offerings, as well as a survey of the library's users. The data gathered enabled the library staff to justify which services to emphasize in the library's narrative campaign.