"nP" IN THE MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF PUBLIC LIBRARY Journal of Cultural Studies, 2011-ISSN 0886-7667 Hanoi University of Culture NGUYEN HUU NGHIA Summary: Marketing 4P is based on these factors: Product; Price; Place; Promotion That is the basic lesson for the students specialized in marketing To date, many areas, industries have flexible used marketing activities in operation including field of information library That some public libraries around the world have applied marketing shows the flexible application of marketing will bring success for serving the diverse readers From marketing 4P we can use skillfully one or more other "P" to bring success for the operation of the public library Within the scope of the article, the author introduces and shares some personal comments in the expanding "P" in marketing public library Data from "the Conference proceedings of the 5-year operation of the public library system (2006-2010)" in Phu Yen shows that: "Our public library net has grown quite widely, from the central to the provincial, city, district, township, ward, including: 63 provincial libraries, 626 district-level libraries, more than 2000 communal libraries up to standard, near 10,000 bookcases/reading rooms in the base (not to mention the pattern of library, book having the nature of public monitored by agencies, organizations)" (1, p 163167) These figures show that public library system has spread across the country and is becoming the fastest and the most timely focal point of cultural and information transmission to all classes of people The functions and duties of the public library as business units are storing and rotating books, magazines serving readers, as well as giving professional guidance for library facilities and sharing experience with other libraries in the same system These activities are geared to serve the readers for the benefit of each individual, the benefits of the collective and national in order to actively support for education and training, selftraining, improving intellectual level of people and leisure To promote the inherent strengths and create the appeal to readers, many public libraries have actively implemented numerous activities in order to attract readers to exploit and use products and services; at the same time, actively learn information needs to have plans adding reasonable document to meet the diverse information needs of the readers However, according to the ASSOC DR Tran Thi Minh Nguyet " Many recent researches relating to information needs at the public library show the percentage of workers, farmers, technicians in library is quite modest, while children, pupils, students and pensioners account for a very high rate This phenomenon can be seen in two aspects: libraries not have enough attraction, appealing the people directly involved in the work, or their information needs is still too low " (1, p 163-167) To overcome this limitation, in addition to the current efforts, Vietnam public library needs much more attention to the reference of marketing application process of a number of public libraries in the region and over the world to soon formed and built their own marketing strategies The English-Vietnamese explanation dictionary for school libraries and informatics has given the understanding "Marketing: A group of activities that aim to promote the exchange of a building between the service provider of library and communication with people who are using or will be able to use these services These activities concern to products, prices, delivery methods, and product promoting methods “(2) We cannot deny the role and the positive influence on the use of flexible marketing in all areas, industries Since before the 1975 application, the businesses in Southern of Vietnam had sought marketing application in their activities When there is a transition of economy to market mechanism, in Vietnam, marketing is further researched and taught at the universities of economics, commercial (3) To date, a number of "non-profit" organizations research, approach and try to apply the reasonable marketing methods and strategies in their operations to enhance service quality, contributing to promote the common development for social progress According to Philip Kotler, "Marketing is a process of social management, whereby collectives and individuals get what they need and desire through creation, sale and exchange of valuable products with others" (4) This concept is based on factors: Product; Price; Place; Promotion That is the basic lesson: Marketing 4P is for students majoring in marketing Within the scope of this article, the author does not reintroduce the basic detail 4P of marketing but only introduces some extra "P" with the very own definition can be referred to use flexibly in action programs marketing information library Packaging In addition to creating products and perfect services, the public libraries need to create the good initial impression to readers by the art of introducing their own products Many libraries have skillfully implemented to replace the soft cover of the rare books by the hardcover, which remains the original book's cover page This work creates initial impression to the user when accessing the document; at the same time ensure the book to have a long-time use, stores rare documents as the cultural heritage of the nation and mankind In addition, libraries may have more attention to creating the slogan, printing logo on their products, even as the "slogans" containing the search results, providing information upon request, printing on envelope gift boxes, bags, Conference folders It was short but very effective messages to users (http://www.gslhcm.org.vn//reference_library/rl_function) By the welcome to users before they select the information reference-lookup service, Ho Chi Minh City Library has made "quiet, boring" lookup page become livelier: Ho Chi Minh City Library welcomes you to Reference Services The cover of Library Magazine before The cover of Vietnam Library Journal after With the upgrade to Journal from the cover, Vietnam Library Journal has intrigued readers from appearance (the cover) and lured readers with rich and diverse contents assessed by the editorial board who are prestige experts Form of magazine is designed with modern style but retains its own identity Text form and page layout are flexible with professional style and the price is very suitable Positioning Positioning the design of products, services of the library agency is done for the user to understand and appreciate highly the efforts of the information library agency when creating these products and services At the same time, good positioning is based on the results of the serious investigation about the needs of the target clients as well as the choice of the individual, groups of officers introducing products, services and image of library With the results of this investigation, library officials need to discover the diverse needs of every reader in order to design and create products and services suitable for each reading object At the same time the product design team needs to set out the minimum standards for each product and service with each reader group After that, there will be plan of tracking and reviewing the use of the products and services of the library from readers The reviews from readers will help library officers to positioning the level of their products and services and flexibly change the level of standards for products and services of the library In particular, the library must have the positive promotion of information resources, products and information services for users of the library to be "encircled" among the best and the most friendly product and service having competitive capacity with other sources of information out of the library Even, the librarians have to seen and review themselves, their work which shown in eyes and thoughts of readers How readers review about products and services of the library, how they describe the library? Even which words, attitude, and action they use for the staff and library Product positioning plan will help library to implement the next step in building a marketing strategy People "The Conference proceedings of the 5-year operation of the public library system (2006-2010)" in Phu Yen shows that: "Provincial library: in the past years, provincial library network has 177 officers employed with long-term contract, making the total number of officers increase from 1,394 up to 1,604; District level library: district-level library network has been added 1775 officers, making the total number of officers increase from 694 up 869 " (5) in which the number of officers with over university-level and the university level have increased to 3.3 % and 68%, respectively It can be said that the number of library officers is more and more, professional level of librarians is more raised, which is a good signal when information needs of readers is more diversified, requiring high-quality search results However, creating the differences about the images the hardworking librarian should be added other elements to create a distinct impression on the librarians of the 21th century That is making differences about personnel - Competency: Librarians should have the necessary knowledge and skills of profession; update new information about the profession through conferences and workshops and share knowledge in the profession through the forums in and out of the library - Courtesy: Librarians need to have warm, affable, thoughtful attitude according to the motto: "Let the customer enjoy from the begin to the end." Need to clear the image "the fastidious librarian" which is not friendly to readers Replaced by the image of the professional librarians, with knowledge and enthusiasm to the job who are always ready to help readers to thoroughly exploit information resources of the library in any aspect readers have not yet been equipped with the knowledge, skills of searching information - Trust: A library works well when there are good leaders A good library leader needs to have staffs equipped with good knowledge, sense of responsibility to the work A library officer is good only when he or she is received good comments from readers This represents the stable and sustainable development of the library - Reliability: Librarians need to ensure quality of products and services evenly and precisely With their own mission, the librarians are the bridge between the readers with the information they need Specifically, after analyzing the information requirements and finding out readers needs, the professional library staff will capture the quality information matching readers’ needs Then, readers can absolutely feel assured that the received information is accurate, updated and guaranteed - Enthusiasm: Librarians need to quickly resolve the issue and request of readers, the library's customers - Communication skill: Librarians need to have skills to ask questions, clarify issues and grasp the needs of readers in order to provide clear and accurate information At the same time, friendly communication skill will make readers feel more comfortable when using the services and products in the library Process System factor expresses the basic spirit of modern public library administrators Many organizations have invested effort, time and money to build a systematic operating process in order to standard activities as well as enhance the capacity of officers and the rhythmic coordination of the unit members To operate public libraries really effectively, application of ISO in comprehensive management system must be considered However, the implementation of ISO in management system needs convergence of full elements which are creation, principles, flexibility and good personal role promotion Public Readers of public library are very diverse including workers, farmers, technicians, students, children, retirees with different needs, requirements, habits and behaviors Therefore, the classification of readers in different criteria to help libraries control, manage and serve readers better Based on the reader database, the public library can divide groups of readers - the library public as follows: Personal Details: o Age, sex, qualifications, profession, income, address Psychology: o preferences, personalities, current and future needs Behaviors o frequency of library use, purposes of searching for the information - Geographic factors: o Province, city, population density Classify library users with the support of the reader management software, the public library will get the information, biographies and history of information mining activity and readers' need for information Based on the gathered information, the library staff easily make a marketing plan, reach and meet the need for information every reader Besides marketing aimed at serving the public outside the library, the managers of public library also have to study appropriate internal marketing activities, providing information, knowledge, marketing skills for library staff, who directly participated in, supported or conducted marketing activities in public libraries If the agencies of the public library have to held collective meetings, work groups regularly, the leaders will soon capture the staff's psychology, share, encourage and reward timely from individuals to the work teams This is not only measures to promote, retain dedicated, talented people but also evokes working excitement for each library staff, enables them to maximize their capabilities Partnership The library take responsibilities for preserving national heritages; collecting, storing, organizing the exploitation and use of common materials in society to spread knowledge, to provide information to serve the needs of learning, research, and entertainment of all classes of people; improve people's knowledge, personnel training, talent cultivation, development of science, technology, economy, culture, serve the industrialization and modernization of the country (6) However, during operation, the public library will certainly faces complex social problems and require a lot of organizations to join, support and raise funding With their a huge number of readers, public libraries have attempted to propagate, educate, mobilize people in using, accessing useful and valuable resources for daily life and enhancing people's knowledge In fact, the public library launches a lot of reading movements, organizes many exhibitions of books, a reading contests and show the typical examples of good people but these movements not often spread largely and the action programs are unsustainable (7) Therefore, public libraries have to associate with many different organizations to make high working performance, particularly with the media A typical example of social marketing activities with the participation of the media has created the success for your events "100 years of the New York public library" as follows: The New York public library's existence is due to the contributions of individuals, corporations and funds, as well as of the Federal Government, local governments and the State In 1995, the library started to implement 1-year large scale projects to the 100 th anniversary of its foundation With the planning including the strategic objectives and the activities in the press; the other special promoting activities the marketing campaign to the 100th anniversary of the New York public library has achieved the outstanding results with 1,700 articles, at least in languages (a 50% increase in comparison with 1994); in August had 38 articles about the library on the New York Times; more than hours of television, which has a 11minute reportage on CBS, NBC's Today ; 20,000 guests participants in the 100 th anniversary of the foundation of the library on May 20; more than 200,000 people from all over the world visited the exhibitions in the library in 1995; the number of people coming to the library increased by 40%; more than million people visited the library's website within months; the donated money also reached $10 millions and an anonymous donation of 15 million for restoration of old buildings' large reading room " (8, pp 525542) Therefore, the initiative to find and establish relationships with partners inside and outside the public library system, domestic and foreign partners, the NGOs organizations, etc will help public libraries more convenient deployment of their activities, and progress to the socialization of activities in public libraries as a job so soon Policy Social marketing programmes can promote the individuals, collective groups in the community to change their attitudes, behaviors, but it is difficult to maintain those attitudes if their habitat changes Therefore, the change of policy is needed to adapt to the exterior change For the public library system, which is paid directly by the State budget, the State policy affected a lot on the operation of the library (9) Therefore, the public library marketing, lobbying making a positive influence on the appropriate policy changes to library's activities are important for public libraries in particular or the Vietnam library system in general In this time, there should be many activities related to the library marketing to change policy bringing many advantages and benefits for the library in general and the public library in particular prior to the Law on library issued On January 5, 2011, the library with the Northern University Library Association organized the Conference for Comments of the library bill in the Library Information Center of Hanoi National University of Education The compilation, comments of the library bill to replace the previous library Ordinance shows the real situation that requires urgently to enact laws with a higher legality in order to adjust the relationships related to the library agencies in a systematic and synchronous way With clear, detailed contents and general expression, the library bill contributes to demonstrate policies, the views of the State clear for the public benefit; compulsory systematic execution; expresses the content of the collective decisions; heredity; decisions by majority Article of the library bill has shown the State's progressive policy for the library Purse Most social marketing programs are often sponsored from corporations, Government assistance or charities This is also a noticeable problem that the public library has enough money for the program To cite to raise money from individuals, organizations for the operation of the public library, I would take the example of the activity tittled "Renovation of the library in Portland" as follows: "Library of Multnomah county, the Central Library, and its fourteen affiliates represent a wide spectrum of services for 635,000 residents of the County, i.e accounting for more than 1/5 of the population of the entire state of Oregon The Central Library located in the business center of Portland, has become an integral parts of the city since the completion of construction of the building in 1913 and it was put in the registration category of the national historic sites In 1993, the increasingly strong seismic activities showed that historic building of the Central Library was in a risk of collapsing The Central Library was closed in 2.5 years The analysis of the number of books for loan and the number of readers showed that the number of library users decreased by 30% in that time In order to revive the positive and powerful cohesion that the central library created for the local community for many years, the library has decided to conduct a marketing campaign to appeal to local people for "Coming back home" ,the place where they know and love " With the planning to identify the difficulties; the primary missions; the goals; the public objects; the cost of the media campaign " Coming back home" attracted more than 40,000 people participating in the activities related to the opening of the library More than 10,000 people per day came to the Central Library in the first week after the reopening of the library In the next three months, the number of readers to the library is an average of 4,750 per day The number of readers to its branches increased to 3%; Donations from businesses and partners are more than $ 113,000 152 news articles were posted in the national and regional level (an increase of 243% compared to the previous year) The program is the participations of the representatives of the Executive power and public opinion More than 75 commercial and service businesses offered a discount for people who have a library card in the week "Coming back home" The library fund has donated an amount of money of more than 4.5 million USD, which is $ millions greater than the initial target Place Place is a very important factor for the library agencies, particularly public libraries The public libraries in Vietnam are built in the Center where is densely populated but coolest and quietest place This ideal condition helps the library to become a knowledge Park which attracts readers to use the product and library service and even participate in activities organized by the library Experience has shown that in recent times, because of some reason, a few public libraries are currently relocated to new headquarters, which is more spacious but far away from residential area, the main road and even at the hidden corner And obviously, the number of readers decrease significantly Therefore, the marketing persuasion to attain the suitable position for public library is indispensable that the public library leaders should deploy to local leaders In addition, in the era of communication technology as convenient as today, the public library should develop further an ideal place, it is web portal-the website of public library With the development of its website, the public library will be actually closer to all classes of people and remove geographical distance The latest services, utilities, features of "online address" will futher support for public library staff to transport products, information services to readers, extend an access, approach to the information of the public Physical evidence Persuasion nP In summary, the marketing application in operation will certainly benefit and success for each library, especially public library system with the diversity of reader classes, needs, information requirements And also, exploiting certain aspects of those P next, we will find out and introduce many new ideas for the marketing activity The nP creative application in the field of public library will contribute to detect and meet the need for information, to ensure provides sufficient and useful information for every user The cited documents Tran Thi Minh Nguyet, (2010) "Meet and develop the needs of all classes of people the primary Missions of the public library//the Proceedings of the Review Conference of the 5-year operation of the public library system (2006-2010) ", Phu Yen, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, p 163-167 Pham Thi Le Huong, (1996) "The English - Vietnamese interpreting dictionary of library science and computer ", Tucson, Ariz., Galen Press, 279 p Nguyen Thi Lan Thanh, (2009) "The culture and art marketing textbook" , Hanoi, Hanoi National University Publisher, 170 p Philip Kotler, (2003) "Marketing administration", Hanoi, the Statistics Publisher, 287 p Library Department, (2010) "The summary report of the 5-year operation of the public library system 2006-2010 //Proceedings of conference for the 5-year operation of the public library system (2006-2010) ", Phu Yen, the Ministry of Culure, Sports and Tourism, 176 p Socialist Republic of Vietnam, (2001) "The library Ordinance ", Hanoi, national political Publisher, 25 p Nguyen Khac Vien, (1994) "Social Marketing or media of communication", Ha Noi, the World Publisher, 151 p Tran Anh, (2008) "62 outstanding PR campaigns", Hanoi, the Labor Publisher, p 525542 Au Thi Cam Linh (2009) "Organize and manage the work of the library", Hanoi, the Educational Publisher, 180 p 10 Nguyen Tien Hien - Nguyen Thi Lan Thanh, (2002) "Library management and information Center ", Hanoi, Hanoi University of Culture, 237 p References 11 Scott G Dacko (2008) "The advanced dictionary of marketing: putting theory to use ", New York, Oxford University Press, 601 p ... projects to the 100 th anniversary of its foundation With the planning including the strategic objectives and the activities in the press; the other special promoting activities the marketing campaign... came to the Central Library in the first week after the reopening of the library In the next three months, the number of readers to the library is an average of 4,750 per day The number of readers... of people the primary Missions of the public library/ /the Proceedings of the Review Conference of the 5-year operation of the public library system (2006-2010) ", Phu Yen, the Ministry of Culture,