I’ve decided to leave the 2025 State of Library Marketing Survey open for a few more days. I know you are busy. It only takes about 5-7 minutes to complete. I’d be grateful if you could also share it with anyone at your library who works on promotions, regardless of their job title. The new deadline for completing the survey is Tuesday, September 23, at 11:59 a.m. ET.
I’ll publish the results on January 5, 2026. Thank you for being part of this amazing community.
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This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Super Library Marketing Reader Survey. Over the past decade, library marketing has grown and changed in exciting ways, and so have the questions in this survey. And since I can’t visit every library (as much as I’d love to!), this survey helps me understand what’s working for libraries, what’s challenging them, and what’s next.
Your responses will shape the blog posts, videos, and presentations I create over the next year. The survey takes about 5-7 minutes. I’d be so grateful if you’d also share it with anyone at your library who works on promotions, whether or not “marketing” is in their job title.
I’ll publish the results on January 5, 2026. Thank you for being part of this amazing community.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Have you ever wondered how your community discovers books? Here’s a spoiler alert…
It’s not just on your shelves! A new study explores the discovery habits for books in Canada, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. I’ll give you the highlights and three smart marketing tips for each area that you can do to promote your collection in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.
Plus, we’ll give kudos to a library for a program that promotes Freedom to Read without being partisan or political.
Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then, click the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Did you know there are seven things that you can learn by taking a marketing survey? I believe library marketers should be taking surveys from brands and companies because you can learn a lot about how to survey!
I’m going to share some tips with you and why I think it’s really important to take those surveys in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.
Plus, we’ll give kudos to a library that received press attention for a unique outreach program.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then, click the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Whenever I am handed a survey, I answer it.
As a marketer, I understand the value of surveys. For the respondent, they are a rare chance to voice their opinion about a product, service, or organization. For the organization, they are a way to gather valuable information and create a better user experience.
For the past 9 years, I’ve sent out a survey once a year filled with questions that help me better understand who you are, and how this blog and The Library Marketing Show can be as helpful to you as possible. The posts and videos directly respond to the questions and concerns you share. For example, the 2025 Social Media Guide to Libraries was planned and published based on the results of this survey.
The struggles and goals of libraries shifted in some major ways this year. As we begin 2025, here is the state of library marketing.
Basic methodology
The survey was conducted for two weeks in September 2024. The survey was a mix of multiple-choice and open-ended questions. There were 109 responses.
Type of library
Respondents to the survey consist mainly of public library workers.
84.4 percent of respondents work in a public library.
11 percent work in an academic library.
The remaining 4.5 percent of respondents work in school, special, military, or state libraries.
Size of library
Respondents to the survey come mainly from small and medium-sized libraries.
33 percent serve a population of 25,000 or less.
19.3 percent serve a population between 25,000 and 50,000.
20 percent serve a population between 50,000 and 100,000.
14.7 percent serve a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
The remaining respondents work at a large library.
Marketing experience
Most of the respondents are experienced marketers.
79 percent of respondents say they’ve managed promotions for a library for 3 years or longer.
16.5 percent have worked in library marketing for 1-2 years.
4.5 percent said they have worked for less than 12 months in library marketing.
Time spent on library marketing
Half the respondents to this year’s survey say marketing the library is their primary job function. The other half say marketing is just one of many responsibilities they must complete.
Top five most pressing questions or concerns
#1: Staff and library leadership buy-in
The survey respondents this year identified struggles with other staff members as the most common issue. Library marketers specifically report having difficulties in getting their supervisors and co-workers to understand their roles. They find it challenging to communicate the value of their work and their expertise in library promotions.
“I have to provide a lot of education/context for them to understand why they should take marketing seriously,” said one respondent. “I suspect that, because we are a small library/community, they feel it’s not necessary.
Another respondent asked, “One of the biggest challenges is staff expecting the level of marketing for something will dictate how successful it will be. Everyone (including the library board) has their opinions about how marketing should be handled and are constantly pulling us in different directions with their own priorities. We end up spending a lot of time doing things we don’t think is a good thing to focus on, leaving us little time to work on what we think or know will be better.”
And yet a third respondent told me, “Staff expect us to create posters and Social media posts for every program but they’re also creating programs that the community didn’t ask for. So, when no one registers, marketing gets blamed. You have to have some tough skin to work in library marketing because everyone thinks they’re a better marketer and everyone is a critic.”
An academic library marketer said, “The university marketing department has completely shut down the library social media accounts and we cannot send mass emails. All print materials must be approved and abide by the campus brand book. We use a university portal to post announcements of library events and highlight a library database subscription or collection. We are cultivating advocacy efforts among library student workers to use their own dept/program email groups to share library information.” Great idea!
#2: Budget
I’m not surprised that this came up as a frequent problem this year. In my conversations with libraries, the budget has once again become a critical worry, as local, state, and federal lawmakers cut money from public services in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Australia. (Jerks!)
One respondent said, “It’s always a challenge to get experienced marketing/graphic design professionals to work for a library salary.”
Said another, “We’re a small library and most of our promotional efforts rely on us finding ways to do it without cost or coming up with sponsors for special promotional materials.”
#3: Time
We never have enough time to do all the things we need to do to reach our target audiences. And for those of you who work at a small library, this is especially problematic.
“I’m pretty much a one-person team, with one part-time assistant who does most of the print promotions,” said one respondent. “So, trying to do everything (website, email, social media, graphic design, etc.) solo is challenging. Really hard to do a really good job at all the things at once.”
#4: Reaching non-users
The age-old problem of how to reach people who don’t use the library continues to perplex library marketers. Said one frustrated respondent,” It’s easier for people not to attend programs, it’s easier for people to stay home instead of coming to the library. How can we motivate them to want to come?”
Another told me they struggle with… “reaching people outside of the building and convincing them that they are missing out on wonderful free programs and services, great materials, and saving money.”
#5: Social media
Respondents shared frustration with changing social media algorithms and the lack of engagement on the platforms where they post.
“Facebook is better at reaching patrons in our specific area, but fewer people are using it,” said one respondent. “Instagram isn’t working for us at all. I don’t have the bandwidth for more social media platforms at this time.”
Said another, “There are now way too many social media channels while traditional media is shrinking. We can’t be on every platform and do it well.”
A third respondent said, “I find social media to be less and less effective for promoting events and general information so I’m posting less often, although that’s not necessarily a bad thing since I can then dedicate that extra time to other, more useful tasks.”
Other concerns
AI, project management, fighting for relevancy, and keeping up with trends were also mentioned by respondents as topics of concern.
Social media use
Here is the percentage of libraries using specific social media platforms, according to the survey respondents.
Facebook: 98 percent
Instagram: 97 percent
YouTube: 67 percent
LinkedIn: 40 percent
Twitter/X: 22 percent
TikTok: 20 percent
Pinterest: 7 percent
Threads: 7 percent
Of note: The number of libraries using LinkedIn for promotion jumped 19 percent. The number of libraries posting videos to YouTube rose by 13 percent. And the number of libraries using X dropped by 15 percent this year.
Email marketing
I asked my respondents how often their library sends promotional emails.
Once a week: 35 percent
Once a month: 33 percent
Several times a week: 14 percent
14 percent of respondents said their library doesn’t send any email at all. That’s an increase of 5 percentage points from 2023. I’m curious: If you are a library that doesn’t send email, can you share a little bit about why in the comments?
The most important library marketing goals
For this year’s survey, I made a list of the marketing goals I hear most often from libraries. I asked respondents to choose the one goal they most wanted to concentrate on over the next 12 months. Here are the top four answers with their corresponding percentages.
Driving visitors to your physical location, website, or catalog: 27.5 percent.
Reaching non-patrons: 23 percent.
Getting current cardholders to use the library more often: 16.5 percent.
Driving the use of services like databases, Makerspace, Library of Things, etc.: 9 percent.
Use of AI
This year, I added a question to see how libraries are using AI for marketing, if at all. Turns out that most library marketers are NOT using AI. Those who do use AI log on about once a month and get help with developing new ideas and producing or editing text.
Effectiveness of promotions
This year, I asked respondents to gauge how effective their library promotions are. Most respondents, 72.5 percent to be exact, rate their promotions as “Somewhat effective.”
When asked to give more specific answers about why their marketing is either effective or ineffective, I got lots of insightful and interesting responses.
Here is a sampling of answers from people who ranked their marketing as “ineffective.”
“Social media marketing is pretty much the only marketing we’re doing and that doesn’t reach enough people.”
“Timing of emails–too late for patrons to register for events because marketing is sent out the day before. Inconsistency in what is being promoted and what message is being given because of too many people on the team and no direction from leadership. Insistence on only using social media to market (to save money) even though most of our patrons don’t follow us online and many don’t even have internet access at home.”
“There has never been a marketing plan before. I am trying to establish one, but it is not valued.”
“Our Marketing Coordinator does not have a coordinated plan, use social media calendars, or know how to write for today’s audiences. We aren’t connecting with new or old patrons because there is no defined target audience for any promotions. They throw money at Facebook ads if things aren’t going well. We’re not sure how to teach that skill and keep them up to speed with the rest of the team, who come across as more experienced because they use social media daily.”
Here is a sampling of answers from people who ranked their marketing as “very effective.”
“Persistence, having time, knowing which audience is where (email vs. Facebook).”
“I think we are very intentional about our goals and how we are using our tactics to achieve those goals.”
“Academic library: Our promotional is a mix of information and fun things. Students, faculty, and staff seem very engaged with our content.”
“A highly skilled marketing professional leading all levels of communication is imperative to our success. We have a cash budget to purchase paid media and marketing placement.”
“We have consistent messaging and branding and a very supportive community.”
“We’ve been using special events to reach non-patrons. It’s been largely effective to just get them in the door, offering an experience, courtesy of the library.”
What to expect from Super Library Marketing this year
Readers asked for more examples of libraries doing effective marketing. I have a whole series of library profiles lined up for this year… so stay tuned!
Readers also asked for more profiles of libraries outside the United States. I will be looking to find those libraries. A reminder you can message me anytime with suggestions if you see a library outside the United States that would make a good profile.
One reader commented, “I’d love to see more ideas on how to translate general marketing strategies to fit library structures.” I will continue to try to do this during Library Marketing Show episodes this year.
A reader said, “I’d love for you to discuss WCAG 2.1 Level AA and the new ADA law that was passed. Like– how do we implement (beyond just alt text)?” I will be sharing information on that in the coming months.
And finally, someone said, “I always feel like I need to up my lip color game when I watch an episode of The Library Marketing Show. It’s inspiring!” Thank you! I wear Divine Wine #695 by Maybelline.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
You asked for it and this week, I’m sharing the results of the latest Super Library Marketing Survey.
Surveys are an effective form of market research. They illuminate the services that are needed to help a target audience. And you, my dear readers, are my target audience.
For the past 8 years, I’ve asked questions that help me get a better sense of who you are, and how this blog and The Library Marketing Show can be as helpful to you as possible. The Monday posts and Wednesday videos are direct responses to the questions and concerns you share in the survey.
The struggles and goals of libraries shifted in some major ways. As we begin 2024, here is the state of library marketing.
Basic methodology
The survey was conducted for two weeks in early September 2023. The survey response rate rose this year by a whopping 32 percent. The survey was a mix of multiple-choice and open-ended questions.
Type of library
Respondents to the survey consist mainly of public library workers.
86.6 percent of respondents work in a public library.
7.1 percent work in an academic library.
The remaining 6.3 percent of respondents work in school, special, or state libraries.
Marketing experience
Most of the respondents are experienced marketers.
69.3 percent of respondents say they’ve been managing promotions for 3 years or longer.
19.7 percent have been doing marketing for 1-2 years.
The remaining 11 percent said they have been in promotions for less than 12 months.
Time spent on library marketing
The average respondent estimated they spent about 60 percent of their daily work time on marketing and promotions. This means that many of you are also managing other job duties, such as programming and collection development.
Marketing as a priority
Every year, I ask respondents to tell me if their library has a dedicated marketing department. A marketing department can consist of one or more people, whose sole job role is marketing. The presence of a marketing department is a clear indication of whether marketing is a priority for senior leaders.
This year, the results were:
50.4 percent said no.
49.6 percent said yes.
The number of libraries with a dedicated marketing department fell two percentage points this year. That’s not enough to call it a trend but I will keep an eye on this.
The most pressing question or concern
Last year, the top concerns of my readers were how to reach new users, storytelling for marketing, email marketing best practices, and budgeting.
This year, the answers can be broken down by five categories.
How to reach new users
Respondents said they struggled to promote to community members through traditional means, like newspapers, as well as on social media. Several named specific target audiences they hope to reach, including young adults, parents and caregivers of young children, and non-English speaking communities.
One respondent said, “How do we make sure we are effectively reaching patrons and members of the community without overdoing it or over-communicating? I am a one-person marketing team for my library.”
Time
Respondents shared frustration over a lack of time to adequately plan, create, and analyze their marketing. They struggle with the coordination of tasks, especially when working with other library staff. Balancing priorities and goals is difficult.
Said one respondent, “We’re a progressive system that’s constantly adding new things (which is great) but it seems like there’s never enough time or space to share it all and get real awareness out there.”
Buy-in and strategy
Many of the respondents said they are struggling to get supervisors and co-workers to understand their jobs: the difficult parts of marketing, the time this work takes, and the value of doing it right.
“There are not enough marketers for everything Admin wants us to do,” said one respondent. “Others don’t understand how many priorities we’re trying to balance or how time-consuming our work is. I feel like some coworkers think we’re doing our jobs badly, but they don’t understand our jobs.”
Another respondent asked, “How can I best unify staff? My biggest challenge is encouraging everyone to follow our style guide or at least inform themselves about marketing best practices.”
Social media
Respondents shared frustration with changing social media algorithms and the burnout that can happen. “They’re showing more Reels, then they are showing still pictures, then they aren’t showing unless there are comments…you know what I mean?” asked one respondent.
Other concerns
Content creation, audience segmentation, reaching volunteers, burnout, budgeting, metrics, competing with nearby libraries for attention, and AI all round out the list of concerns this year for library marketers.
These topics will all be addressed this year.
Social media use
Here is the percentage of libraries using specific social media platforms, according to the survey respondents. Of note was the jump in Facebook and Instagram use this year, as many libraries moved away from Twitter/X.
Facebook: 97 percent
Instagram: 92 percent
YouTube: 54 percent
Twitter/X: 38 percent
LinkedIn: 21 percent
TikTok: 16 percent
Pinterest: 9 percent
Threads: 6 percent
In the open-ended questions, many of you said you rely on this blog for social media news and analysis. And I will continue to provide that this year.
However, I have made the decision not to promote the blog on Twitter/X anymore and will not cover any best practices for that platform this year, unless something drastic changes.
Email marketing
I asked my respondents how often their library sends promotional emails.
The big takeaway: more of you are sending emails. Only 9 percent of respondents said their library doesn’t send any email at all. That’s down ten percentage points from 2022!
Here is how the rest of the sending breaks down:
Once a month: 38 percent
Once a week: 36 percent
Several times a week: 12 percent
The most important library goals
Last year, I asked respondents if they set goals. This year, I got more specific. I asked respondents to check all that applied. Here is how the results break down.
Driving visitors to your physical location, website, or catalog: 76 percent.
Increasing program attendance: 67 percent.
Reaching non-patrons: 63 percent.
Getting current cardholders to use the library more often: 60 percent.
Driving the use of services like databases, Makerspace, Library of Things, etc.: 57 percent.
Advocating for the freedom to read: 18 percent.
Facing book challenges
This year, I added a question asking respondents if they’d faced a book challenge in the past 12 months.
55 percent said no.
30 percent said yes.
15 percent were not certain.
And though most readers said they hadn’t been targeted; this issue does loom large over the work you are doing for promotions.
“Our library is choosing to keep our head down on the book-banning issue, hoping no one will notice or bring it up,” reports one respondent.
Says another, “We’ve had to be careful about how we promote everything. For example, we used to hand out these fun rainbow-colored pens to kids but stopped because we were called groomers during the book challenges. We have also been having a rash of bomb threats to the libraries in our area which has also affected the feeling of security with our staff. I feel like my job is less about promoting programs and services and more about crisis management these days and how to communicate feelings of safety etc. This is not something I was really trained to do so it can feel overwhelming.”
More changes for Super Library Marketing this year
Readers asked for posts about how to create interactive and impactful community presentations to outside groups and tips for print promotions. I’ll cover these in the next year.
Some want the videos to be released as podcasts on Spotify. I will consider that if time and money allow.
Many of you requested more advanced subject matter in the blog posts and videos. I will try to do more of that this year.
I’m also hoping to more profile school libraries and special libraries this year. Do you work at a school or special library and have a library marketing success story to share? Contact me here.
I always try to share tips and strategies for library marketers who wear multiple hats, and that will continue in 2024.
Finally, someone asked for subtitles for the videos. This year, I started providing captions for all my videos on YouTube and LinkedIn. Click the “CC” icon on the screen to see the captions.
The CC button circled in white is where you click for captions on YouTube.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Jenie Lahmann’s parents were DIYers before it was in style.
Growing up in Richmond, Indiana—”a fun midwestern town with rich history and endless green spaces to explore”, her family made weekly visits to Morrisson-Reeves Library (MRL) to indulge their need to craft and create.
“Dad would go to the Do-It-Yourself section and Mom would get cookbooks and the latest Erma Bombeck writings,” recalls Jenie. “My brother Pat and I were off to explore the shelves in the Children’s Department. We always left the library with an armful of books.”
“My father was a self-taught craftsman and could build anything. He drew plans for making a sailboat from library books and reference librarian’s tips. From concept to completion, he used the library every step of the way. He even sewed the sails with help from Mom’s sewing talents. It’s incredible what you can learn from the library!”
The infamous sailboat
Jenie’s dad making sails
Jenie started working at the library in high school, following in her big brother’s footsteps. She spent a year as a shelver. Then a manager started to mentor her on print promotion. “We created bookmarks, booklets, and other helpful printed tools for patrons before the age of library digitization,” explains Jenie.
“The first day, I was so nervous I fainted in her office, and we formed a strong friendship after that. She trained me in using all the printing machines and developed a trained eye for layout and design.”
Jenie now works as Marketing and Communications Manager for the library. This year, she co-led a team of five people during a major project: a survey of their community.
MRL was looking for data to help the library create a five-year strategic plan. They included lots of questions that are standard for libraries. But Jenie says they really wanted to get to the root of what motives their community members.
“We dug deeper and asked what services they enjoyed, and how their experience was when they walked through the door,” elaborates Jenie. “We want to see how we can improve our services to best meet our changing community’s needs and to help enrich their lives.”
“We asked them to prioritize a list of eight services we are thinking of adding or expanding upon. We asked them to rate what type of programs they wanted to see, what made them happy to use the library, and what didn’t work for them.”
MRL partnered with a local business consulting company to help them formulate the survey. Library staff met over the course of 6 weeks and looked at previous library surveys to determine which questions to ask. They added specific questions based on how often the community members used the library.
“It was difficult to formulate the questions while keeping in mind the end goal of having data we could use to formulate the BIG Strategic Plan,” confesses Jenie.
Jenie was kind enough to share the final survey with us.
The library released the survey into the world for a three-week stretch, accompanied by a carefully orchestrated plan to ensure they got the survey in front of as many community members as possible.
“First, we created a landing page on the library’s website,” explains Jenie. “It was the hub for all the content and links. Consistent graphics and wording were used.”
“We talked on radio programs, developed videos, e-newsletters, postcards with QR codes, and social media campaigns. We had staffers reach out to their contacts to ask them to fill out the survey personally.”
“The survey was also offered in Spanish. We canvased apartments, churches, and social groups too.”
MRL had a goal of 500 responses. But get this: they more than doubled their response rate goal, gathering 1,104 survey responses! About 11 percent of responses came from paper copies. The rest were filed online through a Survey Monkey page.
However, the survey wasn’t the only tactic MRL used to make decisions for their strategic plan. Along with their business consulting firm partner, MRL conducted focus groups. They gathered teens, parents of teens, preschooler parents, senior citizens, community influencers, community partners, and potential community partners.
These small groups gave robust input that was combined with the survey data to give the library an overarching sense of what their community wants and needs from the library.
“It was enlightening news that our regular library users love us,” exclaims Jenie. “We heard from many people who said they don’t know about library services beyond books and storytimes.”
“We heard that many people get their library info from e-mailed newsletters. Many people suggested that we needed to improve our message through marketing. Tough news to hear for me, but we see it as an opportunity to grow and reach people in new ways.”
“The main interests in the library were gathering spaces, a small business resource center, performing arts, and DIY maker spaces. People may not have access to these free services elsewhere and seek the library for these things.”
“A big surprise was about weeding. Many patrons don’t know how or why we weed books from the library. We use library standards for weeding, but we’ll need to do a better job of explaining that to our patrons.”
Jenie says if she could do anything differently, it would be to make the survey shorter. MRL’s questions took 15 minutes to complete.
Her advice for any library looking to conduct a community-wide survey such as this is to define your end goal. “Spend time formulating your questions for the outcome data you are seeking,” advises Jenie.
“Having a few narrative data entry questions and the rest with a rating scale can prove to make the data processing task easily graphed or charted to show trends and outcomes. Test the digital survey on mobile, desktop, and other digital devices.”
Jenie and the folks at MRL are now discussing a campaign idea they got from the survey, as well as an origin story campaign, asking library users to explain why they use the library, with a superhero theme.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
I admit it… sometimes, when I hear a marketer use the word “engagement,” I sigh. We throw that term around quite a bit.
Community engagement. Patron engagement. Email engagement. And lately, I’ve been thinking what does that actually mean?
Then, as if she was reading my mind, one of my favorite marketing experts sent out a newsletter with some details on how to really talk about and think about engagement. We’ll unpack that advice in this episode.
Plus we give away kudos! Watch the video to find out which library is being recognized.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enteryour email addressand click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
The Library Marketing Show, Episode 172: In this episode, I’m going to share the results of the 7th Annual Super Library Marketing survey and talk about the value of surveying your community.
How does your library compare to others around the world in terms of library promotion? Watch the video to find out!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 