We live in a busy, noisy, unpredictable world where even our cherished beliefs and values are under review. From the big issues around how we should be governed, through social issues of support and fairness, to the less fundamental, but still disorienting, shift in the patterns of how and where we buy things, we are living through a period of seemingly accelerating change.

Libraries are inevitably caught up in this swirling change and their values are being challenged in all sectors for relevance, need and value for money. There is an imperative for librarians to engage deeply with their users, potential users and other stakeholders, encouraging them to use library services. These are exciting times for libraries with this deeper engagement revealing new opportunities and highlighting the continuing relevance of existing well-established library values and services.

Defining engagement and strategic marketing

Engagement can be defined and measured by how involved people are with the library and how sustained their connections are over time. The process of attracting users, potential users and other stakeholders involves leading them into an ongoing relationship with the library. This may begin by encouraging library use but can, as engagement deepens, develop into co-creation of services.

Sometimes this involvement and connection arises naturally due to an apparent good fit and understanding between the library ethos and what the users, potential users and other stakeholders want, and expect, from library service. At other times potential fit should be investigated, understood, developed, managed and monitored. This book suggests practical approaches to engagement through strategic marketing planning.

Although engagement is most frequently discussed in relation to public, academic and health library services it is a topic that is key to successful development and delivery of services in all library and information sectors. The following chapters outline practical tools and techniques to ensure successful, meaningful, engagement regardless of library context. Underpinning the exploration of strategic marketing for engagement will be a nod to the related concepts of outreach, advocacy, campaign marketing, customer service and external relations. All of these, if well managed, contribute to the potential for deep engagement.