Responsive Librarians Uncovered

Abstract

How many times have you heard librarians say: “We don’t have resources for a new website -- no money, no IT staff, so we have to put up with this ugly and old one designed in 2003!”. Yet, a number of audacious librarians in Serbia can now proudly say: “Well, not anymore!”.

University Library in Belgrade, Serbia, came up with a training course accredited by the National Library of Serbia in 2015 called “Culture of Digital Marketing”. Throughout the year academic librarians thought fellow librarians from school, public, academic and national libraries how to become fluent, engaging and charming in a digital marketing world. What have we done so far?

Our course delivered a multitude of librarians skilled to create a digital marketing plan, make a website in WordPress and use Trello for teamwork and project management. Marketing libraries is not easy in a whirlwind of a diverse cultural, educational and leisure content, but today almost a hundred librarians in Serbia have new knowledge and skills to turn the digital marketing upside down and make libraries more visible, more attractive and most importantly -- responsive to today’s customers’ ever changing needs.

Next up? Social media and Digital Storytelling course in 2016.