There is a good post titled Who Are Your Competitors? in a series by David Lee King in which he concludes with the following:
“…OK – so libraries have competition. What can you do about that? Here are some thoughts – please add more:
- What do you do better than everyone else? Focus on that. Prioritize that.
- You’re a natural community gathering place. Focus on your community. Feed it. Grow it.
- Ask people why they don’t use your library. Use that information to improve your services.
- Find your largest population segment of ‘potential patrons’ and focus on growing patrons there.
- Don’t focus on yourself or your stuff – instead, turn your focus on your customers and their needs.
- Maybe it’s something as simple as rearranging your stuff so normal people can actually find things. We can do better than LC or Dewey call number order. Really.
- Work on improving the experience at your library – both in the library and digitally.
What are you doing to compete for your patrons’ attention? And … since it’s a competition – what can we do to win?”
