The Lehman eLibrary was launched in the Fall 2010 semester. It was first started as just an e-reader project the previous semester, Spring 2010, when the Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College was only lending out its 10 Sony Readers. There was no content then, just the e-readers. However, the library has since signed a contract with OverDrive, a provider of digital content, and its eLibrary service has transformed in a very good way to meet the demands of the college’s students.

Most people on campus, however, don’t know that the Lehman eLibrary exists. Some steps have been taken in trying to market this new service, such as including a banner into the library website’s rotating header image and making eLibrary bookmarks available at all service desks & near the elevators. This semester, with the Lehman eLibrary project newly placed in my hands, I’m hoping to launch a more aggressive marketing plan:

• Create a promotional video, made in the stop-motion style, to be displayed on the library’s and college’s websites
• Install a stand-up demo terminal (a la Best Buy or any major electronics retailer, really) just inside the library to give students hands-on experience with an e-reader
• Collaborate with the English department to create a pilot project in which every student in a class gets an e-reader instead of having to purchase/borrow each book individually
• Discuss the possibility of letting e-readers go outside the library with Head of Access Services (currently, e-readers are an in-house loan only)
• Mention the eLibrary during the library’s regularly scheduled information literacy classes
• Set up a booth at the New Student Orientation Resource Fair to hand out information & flyers/bookmarks, as well as demo an e-reader

Some of these goals were proposed by the project’s previous leader (@shavelka) and may be too ambitious to be carried out during a single semester but I’ll do my best.

Do you find that your campus is aware of your library’s e-book/e-reader project? How do you [plan to] market your library’s e-reader/e-book service?