Collaboration between Marketing 
Students and the Library: An 
Experiential Learning Project to 
Promote Reference Services 

Lynda M. Duke, Jean B. MacDonald, and Carrie S. 
Trimble 

As with most academic libraries, declining reference transactions has 
been a concern at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Ames Library. After 
grappling with the problem unsuccessfully, librarians sought input from 
students on how to address this issue. Collaborating with a professor in 
the Business Administration Department, a two-class series focusing 
on real-world marketing issues took on the challenge of how best to 
promote reference services to students. Student-generated surveys and 
marketing ideas proved useful for making changes to the library’s refer­
ence services and for publicizing the service, resulting in an increase in 
reference transactions between students and librarians. 

ike most libraries, The Ames 
Library has struggled in re­
cent years to maintain student 
interest in using reference 

services. At Illinois Wesleyan University 
(IWU), a private liberal arts school with 
2,100 students located in central Illinois, it 
was assumed that the new library, which 
opened in January of 2002, would help 
attract more students to the library and 
the reference desk. 

Librarians had begun planning for 
the new library six years earlier. The old 
library, Sheehan, was small, unattractive, 
and dark—with a makeshift reference 
desk and not much foot traffic. Although 
student input was solicited as part of the 

planning process for the new library, the 
majority of questions in the survey related 
to the overall atmosphere and purpose of 
the building, as well as study space needs. 
For example, questions included in the 
survey focused on whether the library 
should be a “quiet place to study and/or 
a place for interaction with other students 
and faculty,” and whether “students 
generally preferred to study alone, with 
one other person, or in groups.” The only 
reference-related question dealt with loca­
tion—with the majority of respondents 
expecting to find the reference desk on 
the first floor of the library. This lack of 
focus on reference services reflects the fact 
that, in 1996, declining reference desk use 

Lynda M. Duke is Associate Professor, Academic Outreach Librarian in the Ames Library at Illinois Wes-
leyan University; Jean B. MacDonald is Visiting Associate Professor, Public Services Librarian in the Ames 
Library at Illinois Wesleyan University; and Carrie S. Trimble is Assistant Professor, Business Administra-
tion at Illinois Wesleyan University; e-mail: lduke@iwu.edu, jmadona@iwu.edu, ctrimble@iwu.edu. 

109 

mailto:ctrimble@iwu.edu
mailto:jmadona@iwu.edu
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110 College & Research Libraries March 2009 

had not yet been identified as a concern 
at IWU.1 

However, within a few years of mov­
ing to the new library, it was clear that 
declining reference transactions were 
a problem, reflecting a national trend. 
After grappling with the problem un ­
successfully, librarians at Ames realized 
they needed input from students on this 
issue. Serendipitously, a two-class series 
focusing on real-world marketing issues 
is offered in the Business Administration 
Department. The library liaison to the 
Business Administration department 
approached the professor teaching these 
courses, and the two agreed to collaborate 
on a joint project beginning in the spring 
of 2007. The results have been beneficial 
to the library as well as to the students 
taking the marketing classes. 

Literature Review 
A review of the library and business lit­
erature suggests that there are few other 
published examples of this particular 
type of collaboration. Particularly note­
worthy are two cases: the collaboration 
between librarians and business students 
in a yearlong capstone course in busi­
ness to develop a marketing plan for the 
library at California State University at 
San Marcos (CSUSM) and the alliance 
established between the Texas A&M 
University Libraries and the American 
Advertising Federation Undergraduate 
Student Chapter to develop a marketing 
campaign promoting an electronic books 
service. 

Similar to the project between The 
Ames Library and the IWU marketing 
classes, CSUCM’s experience was de­
signed to provide business students with 
the “…opportunity to apply marketing 
principles to a real world situation…” 
Meulemans and Fiegen note that saving 
staff time is one particular benefit of using 
students for creating and implementing 
surveys to discern use and awareness 
of library services among students and 
faculty. Given the myriad responsibili­
ties of most librarians, it can be difficult 

for them to find time to design and carry 
out surveys.2 In addition, when students 
develop survey questions, they are rely­
ing on their intimate knowledge of their 
peers and their study habits. 

Unlike the project at IWU, at Texas 
A&M University Libraries the students’ 
work not only focused on the develop­
ment of a marketing campaign but also 
on the actual implementation of the 
campaign. This logical next step provides 
not only the opportunity for students to 
see the fruition of their work but also a 
needed reality check. In this case, students 
learned of the budgeting realities of an 
academic institution and the need to scale 
back their initial plans.3 

A review of the marketing literature in­
dicates that, in the last two decades, mar­
keting educators have begun to embrace 
experiential learning methods as a way 
to help students learn marketing tech­
niques.4 Marketing is such a broad topic 
that marketing educators themselves can 
rarely provide definitive examples of 
successful marketing practices. The lack 
of specific “how-tos” in marketing can be 
frustrating to marketing students. 

Most experiential learning projects 
involve a “real world” client who expects 
the marketing students to figure out 
their own “how-tos” and then to make 
recommendations to the client. Requir­
ing students to gain practical marketing 
experience within the framework of a 
marketing course may not totally allevi­
ate students’ frustration regarding the 
lack of “how-tos,” but it can at least help 
illustrate why definitive examples are 
lacking. Ideally, working with the client 
takes marketing concepts far beyond the 
boundaries of a textbook and provides 
students a realistic context5 and can help 
them develop problem-solving and team­
work skills that they will continue to use 
after graduation.6 

While valuing the benefits of experi­
ential learning, educators also recognize 
the difficulty of engaging students en ­
rolled in lower-level marketing courses 
in a practical marketing experience when 



    

    

    

        

    
       

     

    
      

     
     
     

    
     

    

     

     
     

     
     

     
     

    
     

      

    

    

      

      

      
   

 
    

     
 

      

     
       

      

     
     

     
    

      

   

      

 

Collaboration between Marketing Students and the Library 111 

those students typically lack a firm grasp 
of marketing concepts.7 One common 
way to overcome this obstacle is to find a 
client accustomed to volunteers without 
formal training, such as not-for-profit 
organizations (NPOs). When an experi­
ential learning project involves an NPO, 
the project is typically deemed a service 
learning project. However, even when 
assigned a service learning project with 
an amenable NPO for a client, marketing 
educators recognize that it is important 
to limit the scope of the project for the 
benefit of the client as well as the market­
ing students.8 

Declining Reference Services 
Statistics 
Academic libraries throughout the United 
States have noted a decline in traffic at 
the reference desk, and Ames Library 
was no different. One study noted a 37 
percent decrease in reference transactions 
at private academic libraries in the United 
States between 1995 and 2004.9 Before 
moving into the new library, reference 
statistics revealed a desk moderately busy, 
with close to 2,000 reference transactions 
for the year 2000. After moving into the 
new, classically appointed, yet techno­
logically modern library in January of 
2002, the reference numbers continued 
to decline. By 2005, the total number of 
reference questions at Ames was closer 
to 800. 

This drop in reference interactions was 
disturbing to the librarians at Ames—par­
ticularly given their belief that offering 
reference services is a significant com ­
ponent of their work with students and 
faculty. The librarians at Ames operate 
on the assumption that most students 
entering college need assistance under­
standing the scope of sources available 
to them through the library and how 
best to access, evaluate, and incorporate 
these resources into their research. With 
the reference service statistics in serious 
decline, the librarians were concerned 
that students were not using the library 
and its resources to its full potential. 

The new L-shaped, bilevel information 
desk was designed so that student assis­
tants would be the first points of contact 
for individuals approaching the desk for 
assistance. The desk was designed so that 
they would sit at the higher level, at the 
intersecting corner of the “L,” and the 
librarians would sit at the lower level, at 
the top end of the “L.” This design deci­
sion was intended to make approaching 
the desk for help less intimidating for 
students—following the theory that 
students are more comfortable talking to 
their peers rather than to a librarian.10 In 
addition, library literature reveals that 
students find a counter-height reference 
desk more approachable than a table-
height desk.11 However, this design cre­
ated a situation where librarians did not 
have a lot of opportunity to interact with 
students unless they chose to approach 
the librarian directly or the student as­
sistant referred the inquiring student to a 
librarian. Librarians at Ames felt the loss 
of reference interaction sorely. 

Due to various staffing changes, in 
2007 a visiting librarian (that is, a librarian 
serving as a replacement during the leave 
of a tenured librarian) was charged with 
overseeing reference services and inves­
tigating potential changes to the service. 
Specifically, this librarian was asked to 
lead discussions with the other library 
faculty to discover the implications of 
possible changes to reference services. 
Modifications were to be done in keeping 
with the recently adopted strategic plan 
initiative. The desire of the library was to 
seek high-impact, low-cost, short-term 
changes to reference services. 

The overhaul of reference service de­
livery at Ames had been attempted once 
before, in 2005, with less than satisfactory 
results. The team consisted of four librar­
ians and a staff member and was charged 
with developing a plan for revising refer­
ence services. The team spent significant 
time reviewing the issues involved and 
the relevant literature to learn what other 
libraries were doing to address low us­
age of reference services. A report with 

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112 College & Research Libraries March 2009 

various proposals was put forth in the 
summer of 2005. However, due to various 
sabbatical leaves, staffing changes, and 
internal politics, the library was never 
able to move beyond the discussion stage 
and the proposals were never endorsed 
or adopted by the librarians. In short, 
no changes to the information desk or 
the delivery of reference services were 
implemented. 

With the history of past attempts at ad­
dressing the reference initiative explained 
to—but not experienced by—the visiting 
librarian, she began to address the issue. 
Her first planned step was to survey IWU 
students concerning their perceptions 
of reference services, then to use those 
results to formulate a plan for further ac­
tion with respect to the desk, its staffing, 
and services. 

It was at this juncture that the convener 
of the Library Marketing Team (LMT) 
began discussions with a professor in 
Business Administration regarding the 
possibility of working with marketing 
students to find a way to increase refer­
ence interactions at IWU. The previous 
year, the LMT had begun to seek student 
input on their marketing activities and 
promotional items. This informal effort 
proved useful, and the LMT felt that a 
more formalized collaboration would 
help the library to better understand what 
students thought of reference services and 
how best to market the service. 

After some discussion, the LMT chair, 
the librarian charged with investigating 
possible solutions to reference services, 
and the professor of marketing gladly 
agreed to work collaboratively. Together, 
they designed a marketing class assign­
ment that required marketing students 
to measure student awareness of the 
library’s reference services and to develop 
suggestions to increase students’ use of 
these services. 

Spring 2007 Business Marketing 
Class: Survey Assignment 
The students from two sections of an 
introductory marketing class were tasked 

with creating a survey that would provide 
information about IWU student opinions 
of the Ames Library and its reference ser­
vices, a process referred to as a “current 
situation analysis” in marketing circles. 
After considering the survey results, 
the marketing students were asked to 
provide recommendations for increasing 
the interaction between IWU students and 
reference services. This service learning 
opportunity presented by the library 
fulfilled the team project requirement for 
the course. 

As previous research on service learn­
ing suggests, one of the difficulties of 
allowing students from an introductory 
marketing course to develop an experi­
ential learning project is lack of the very 
experience the project would provide.12 
Therefore, the scope of this project was 
intentionally limited to creating and 
administering an online survey meant 
to gauge IWU student awareness of the 
library and its services and to delineate 
their study habits—an ideal service-
learning project for students new to 
marketing concepts. 

The LMT presented the students with a 
few requirements for the survey; but, rec­
ognizing that IWU students would best 
understand the survey participants (their 
peers), the LMT allowed the students in 
the marketing course to generate the bulk 
of the survey questions. In addition to the 
basic demographic questions establish­
ing each respondent’s year in school and 
declared major, the survey participants 
were asked to identify when they were 
last in the library and the reason for that 
visit. In addressing the reference services 
concerns directly, the LMT requested 
that the survey include items that asked 
participants if they had ever consulted a 
librarian for research assistance and their 
reasons for choosing to engage in or avoid 
such a consultation. 

The use of two sections of the mar­
keting course increased the sample size 
and allowed for the development of two 
versions of the survey. All participants 
in the survey answered the previously 

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Collaboration between Marketing Students and the Library 113 

mentioned items. While one survey ver­
sion focused on students’ knowledge 
and use of reference services, the other 
version focused on students’ habits for 
completing assignments. As a conve­
nience survey, participants were not 
randomly selected. Students recruited 
their classmates, roommates, and other 
acquaintances to participate; thus, the 
results do not necessarily reflect a rep­
resentative sample. The total number of 
participants was 91 for the first class and 
42 for the second. 

In the second version of the survey, 
participants were asked to rank the order 
of sources they used to answer a specific 
question, to begin a research project, to 
troubleshoot computer problems in the 
library and to use a style guide. The list 
of possible sources included a friend 
or classmate, the Internet (primarily a 
Google® search), a librarian, the library 
Web site, and a professor. In addition 
to identifying the order in which they 
would consult these sources, participants 
were asked to identify how much time 
they would spend with a particular 
source before moving on to the next 
source. 

The survey results confirmed the 
Ames librarians’ beliefs that IWU stu­
dents are fond of the Ames Library and 
its librarians, but IWU students fail to 
use the library’s resources to their fullest. 
Specifically, 75 percent of the 224 partici ­
pants had visited the library in the last 
week and the librarians were described 
as “helpful” and “smart,” but less than 
half of the participants had ever con­
sulted an Ames librarian. Primarily, the 
survey results were consistent with the 
Millennial Generation’s identified traits 
of self-assuredness, technological savvy, 
and impatience.13 The most frequently 
cited reason for not consulting a librarian 
was the belief that the participants did not 
need the assistance of reference services. 
Additionally, when asked to indicate the 
frequency of use of the Ames reference 
services, the participants displayed an 
unwillingness to ask for help. Specifi-

TABLE 1 
Descriptive Information 

about the Sample 
Major % of 

Respondents* 
Biology 6.7 
Business Administration 10.7 
Chemistry 1.8 
Computer Science 1.8 
Economics 4.0 
Education 6.9 
English 6.3 
Environmental Studies 1.3 
German 0.4 
Greek and Roman Studies 0.4 
Hispanic Studies 1.8 
History 2.2 
International Studies 2.7 
Mathematics 1.3 
Music Theatre 0.4 
Musical Performance 1.2 
Nursing 5.3 
Philosophy 0.8 
Physics 1.8 
Political Science 4.9 
Psychology 8.9 
Sociology 0.8 
Women’s Studies 0.4 
*Freshman: 13.4%, Sophomore: 24.6%, 
Junior: 38.5%, Senior: 24.1% 

cally, when asked how often they used 
the available reference services, over 85 
percent of the participants indicated that 
they simply do not usually ask for help. 
(See table 2 for more detail.) 

Survey items designed to measure stu­
dents’ habits in completing assignments 
highlighted the participants’ comfort with 
technology. To answer a specific question, 
67 percent of the participants turned to 
Google® and the Internet as their primary 
or secondary source. (See table 3.) Not 

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114 College & Research Libraries March 2009 

TABLE 2 
Awareness and Frequency of Use of the Ames Library Reference Services 

Awareness Frequency 
(n = 133) Yes No Don’t ask 

for help 
Maybe 
once 

1-5 
times 

Reference desk 86.5% 11.3% 85.0% 11.3% 0.8% 
“Ask a Librarian” Web page 39.1% 58.6% 95.5% 1.5% 0.0% 
Appointment with an Ames librarian 50.4% 47.4% 94.0% 2.3% 0.0% 

surprisingly, when beginning a research 
project, 59 percent of those surveyed 
chose Google® and the Internet as their 
first or second source while an over­
whelming 74 percent looked for citation 
information through style guides online. 
(See tables 4 and 5 for more detail.) 

Additionally, when completing these 
tasks, the survey respondents demon­
strated a tendency to engage the Ames 
Library Web site instead of the Ames 
librarians. To answer a specific question, 
the Ames Web site (28%) was more popu­
lar than the librarians (3.3%) as the first or 
second source. For beginning a research 
project, the difference was even greater, 
as 51 percent of participants claimed the 

Ames Web site as a first or second choice 
to the four percent who claimed a librar­
ian. Alarmingly, no participants reported 
that they would begin a research project 
by consulting a librarian. 

Only in troubleshooting a library com­
puter problem were the librarians (66%) a 
preferred source to the technological op­
tions of Google® (25%) and the library Web 
site (25%). However, even in completing 
that task, survey participants preferred to 
engage their friends (72%). (See table 6.) 

When asked how long they worked 
with a source before moving on to an­
other, survey participants indicated that 
they would move on after fifteen to thirty 
minutes. While this finding, like those 

TABLE 3 
Ranking of Sources Used for Answering a Specific Question 

(n = 91) 1st choice 2nd choice 3rd choice 4th choice 5th choice 
Google/Internet 49.5% 17.6 14.3% 11% 4.4% 
Professor 24.2% 23.1% 30.8% 14.3% 5.5% 
Friend 17.6% 34.1% 23.1% 7.7% 15.4% 
Ames Web site 5.5% 22.0% 16.5% 70.5% 13.2% 
Ames librarian 2.2% 1.1% 13.2% 23.1% 59.3% 

TABLE 4 
Ranking of Sources Used for Beginning a Research Project 

(n = 91) 1st choice 2nd choice 3rd choice 4th choice 5th choice 
Professor 41.8% 18.7% 19.8% 12.1% 5.5% 
Google/Internet 27.5% 31.9% 26.4% 7.7% 4.4% 
Ames Web site 20.9% 29.7% 12.1% 26.4% 8.8% 
Friend 7.7% 14.3% 25.3% 17.6% 34.1% 
Ames librarian 0.0% 4.4% 14.3% 34.1% 45.1% 



    

    

     

      

      

       

 

 
    

       

    

      
    

     

    

     
     

     
    

    

     
    

     

   
     

    
     

      
 

 

Collaboration between Marketing Students and the Library 115 

TABLE 5 
Ranking of Sources Used for Using a Style Guide for Class 

(n = 91) 1st choice 2nd choice 3rd choice 4th choice 5th choice 
Google/Internet 49.5% 24.2% 16.5% 5.5% 2.2% 
Friend 19.8% 29.7% 19.8% 9.9% 18.7% 
Professor 18.7% 19.8% 19.8% 18.7% 20.9% 
Ames librarian 5.5% 7.7% 13.2% 18.6% 38.5% 
Ames Web site 4.4% 15.4% 28.6% 34.1% 14.3% 

TABLE 6 
Ranking of Sources Used for Troubleshooting a Computer Problem at the 

Ames Library 
(n = 91) 1st choice 2nd choice 3rd choice 4th choice 5th choice 

Friend 47.3% 24.2% 12.1% 12.1% 1.1% 
Google/Internet 11.0% 14.3% 23.1% 24.2% 9.8% 
Ames librarian 33.0% 33.0% 19.8% 5.5% 2.2% 
Ames web site 5.5% 19.8% 28.6% 31.9% 6.6% 
Professor 0.0% 5.5% 8.8% 16.5% 62.6% 

previously mentioned, dovetails with the 
identified traits of the Millennials (short 
attention spans), the survey’s results 
suggested that overcoming generational 
tendencies was not the only difficulty 
facing the Ames Library. Importantly, a 
general lack of knowledge of the available 
references services was reported. While 
survey participants were well aware of the 
reference desk (87%), a number of them 
reported that they did not know IWU stu­
dents could make an appointment to talk 
with a librarian (47%) or use the “Ask A 
Librarian” Web page (57%) to ask a ques­
tion. The latter statistic is perhaps most 
troubling given the survey participants’ 
comfort with online resources. Increas­
ing students’ awareness of the “Ask A 
Librarian” Web page could conceivably 
help increase interaction between IWU 
students and the Ames librarians. 

Based on the survey results and their 
own beliefs about their peers, the students 
from the marketing course recommended 
that the LMT embrace the nature of the 
Millennial students and the general na­
ture of college students. As self-assured 
Internet users, the marketing students felt 

that an instant messaging service would 
increase traffic to reference services. 
Instant messaging, in particular, was rec­
ommended because it combined students’ 
reticence to engage the librarians face­
to-face with the students’ comfort with 
technology, their short attention spans, 
and a desire for immediate results. 

The marketing students also reminded 
the LMT of another aspect of Millennials 
that could be used to help promote the 
use of the library reference services: typi­
cal Millennials generally follow the rules 
and willingly accept authority figures.14 In 
other words, incorporating learning expe­
riences about Ames reference services into 
course requirements would not seem out 
of the ordinary to IWU students. Finally, 
the marketing students recommended 
the creation of walk-in workshops to 
demonstrate how specific assignments or 
research projects could be completed with 
the assistance of reference librarians. 

The Library’s Response to the 
Marketing Survey 
The marketing professor sent copies of the 
students’ final reports to the library (with 

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116 College & Research Libraries March 2009 

identifying information removed), and 
they were circulated among the librarians. 
The final reports addressed the visibility 
and functionality of reference services. 
The visiting librarian led a discussion de­
tailing the student findings and outlining 
possible changes to reference services. 

One item that became obvious after 
perusing the surveys was that the words 
“reference” and “information” had little 
to no meaning to students. To many li­
brarians, this finding was surprising, 
whereas other librarians expected this re­
sult. In any case, it served as a reminder to 
the librarians that the sign advertising our 
services (a sign that reads “Information 
Desk”) and the terminology librarians 
often use to promote working with a li­
brarian (reference) may not be as effective 
as we think or would like them to be. 

After much discussion, it was deter­
mined that additional signage would 
be appropriate at the information desk. 
Drafts were circulated among the library 
faculty and student assistants, and a 
picture of a red button with a question 
mark was adopted as the secondary sign 
to highlight reference services. This “help 
button” sign hangs immediately below 
the more formal sign that still reads “In­
formation Desk.” 

As noted above, the marketing stu­
dents strongly advocated adding an 
Instant Messaging (IM) reference service. 
After the library faculty endorsed such a 
venture, the visiting librarian reviewed 
various software packages used for IM 
reference, ultimately choosing Meebo 
because of its ability to work with AIM, 
Yahoo, Google® Talk, and MSN chat 
software. The fact that the Meebo widget 
could be embedded into library Web 
pages made the decision exceptionally 
simple. Its high visibility promised a great 
opportunity to promote reference interac­
tions with anyone visiting the library via 
its Web pages. 

To complement the launch of the new 
IM reference service, the visiting librarian 
worked closely with the LMT to develop 
a strategy for marketing the new service. 

In addition to announcements posted on 
the campus Web portal and an article in 
the weekly student newspaper, The Ar-
gus, the LMT ordered 2,000 whiteboards 
designed to look like the Meebo widget 
with the hours of IM availability. These 
whiteboards were distributed to every 
student living on campus, both in the 
residence halls and the Greek houses. 
Additionally, a supply was left on a table 
in the library in the hope that students 
living off-campus would also pick up a 
whiteboard and take one home to post 
in a noticeable place. 

Strengthening awareness of the e-mail 
reference service was another issue that 
came to light in survey results, and this 
was also addressed. The LMT ordered 
small key chains with pen lights to give 
to each incoming first-year and transfer 
student (approximately 600 students). 
Printed on the key chains was the Web 
address of a page highlighting the vari­
ous ways in which a student can contact a 
librarian: IM, e-mail, phone, office hours, 
by appointment, and desk hours. Librar­
ians gave these popular items to students 
during their registration orientation 
sessions, where information is provided 
by campus technology staff on the reg­
istration process and librarians provide 
an overview of ways to get help with 
assignments, research papers, and final 
projects. It proved to be an effective way 
to talk about the new IM service as well 
as all the other ways in which students 
can work with librarians. 

The marketing students also suggested 
that the library offer walk-in workshops 
to students on specific topics of interest. 
After some discussion, the library faculty 
decided that they did not believe that 
offering these types of classes would be 
as valuable a use of staff time as more 
directed offerings (such as instruction 
sessions directly linked to class assign­
ments). However, taking into consider­
ation this suggestion by the students, 
librarians sought to cultivate relationships 
with Greek societies, sports teams, and 
residence halls in an effort to provide 



    
      

      

     
     

     
      

    
       

       
  

       

 

      

     
      

     
    
     

     

     

     

      

      
     

      

      

   

    

      

      

    

     
     

     
     

       

     
       

    

    

      
     
     
     

     
       
     

Collaboration between Marketing Students and the Library 117 

information directly applicable to stu­
dent needs. A handful of these groups 
scheduled time with a librarian to learn 
how to improve their grades or bolster 
research skills. 

The final proposal proffered by the 
spring marketing class was direct market­
ing to students about services the library 
offers with respect to specific assign­
ments. Unsure how to progress in this 
arena, the business liaison librarian and 
the visiting librarian again approached 
the marketing professor to see if she might 
be interested in having the students in her 
integrated marketing communications 
class adopt this particular aspect as a final 
project. Once again, all parties involved 
embraced this notion; the library’s need 
to promote reference services coalesced 
with the marketing professor’s desire to 
use real-world examples. 

Fall 2007 Marketing Class: 
Promotional Campaigns 
Following the success of replacing a re­
search-based team project with a service 
learning project in the introductory mar­
keting course, IWU marketing students 
in an integrated marketing communica­
tions course (IMC) were asked to create 
a promotional campaign for the library’s 
reference services as part of a team-based 
service learning opportunity. The intro­
ductory marketing course is a prerequisite 
for enrollment in the IMC seminar, so 
students engaged in this project have 
some experience with marketing con­
cepts. Therefore, it was appropriate for 
this project to have a greater scope than 
the project assigned to the students in the 
introductory marketing course that was 
taught in the spring. 

Three teams (The Office Team, Ames 
Saves Time Team, and The Not Cheating 
Team) of marketing students were as­
signed the task of evaluating the survey 
data and recommendations compiled by 
the introductory course students, in order 
to write a creative brief for a promotional 
campaign for the LMT. A creative brief 
typically outlines the specific situation or 

problem at hand and the strategy neces­
sary to meet the set objectives. 

In this case, the IMC students felt 
that IWU students’ lack of awareness 
of the reference services was the initial 
obstacle. However, the higher hurdle to 
cross was IWU students’ reluctance to ask 
for assistance. Based on the objectives of 
increasing awareness and creating more 
positive attitudes toward interacting 
with various reference services, each of 
the three teams created a campaign that 
included an electronic component (either 
a video or a podcast), a print ad, a direct 
marketing element, and an interpersonal 
promotional piece. For the interpersonal 
element, the teams could create a cus­
tomer service module, a public relations 
event, or a viral marketing item. (Viral 
marketing is an umbrella term for most 
nontraditional and grassroots forms of 
promotion meant to encourage word of 
mouth communication.) 

All three teams considered the Mil­
lennial Generation’s desire to be enter­
tained,15 setting a lighthearted tone for 
their campaigns. The Office Team focused 
primarily on increasing awareness of the 
available reference services and created a 
short video parody of the popular televi­
sion show The Office to introduce a symbol 
that could be placed wherever references 
services were offered. The Ames Saves 
Team also set a lighthearted tone in a 
video demonstrating that students could 
spend more time playing “Guitar Hero” 
when they used the Ames Library refer­
ence services to complete assignments 
and projects in an efficient manner. The 
Not Cheating Team focused on creating 
more positive attitudes toward interacting 
with reference services. They created the 
slogan “Just ask! Just because they have 
the answers doesn’t make it cheating!” 

Just as the students from the intro­
ductory marketing course did, the IMC 
students understood the need to dem­
onstrate how using the Ames Library 
reference services can meet a specific 
need for a student. All three teams cre­
ated strong direct marketing pieces that 



 

    
     

     
     

    
     

    
       

     
 

    
     

      
    

     
      

    
    

    
      

    
     

    
    

     
    

     

    

     
       

     
      

     
      

     

      
      

      

     
      

     
      

       
      

      

      

     

     

    

     
      

      
    

     
      

     
         

   
     

       
     

     
    

     
  

118 College & Research Libraries March 2009 

would showcase how IWU students 
could use the Ames reference services 
to complete a specific assignment or 
research project. The Not Cheating Team 
created the direct marketing element 
with the most practical and beneficial 
application. That team’s concept was 
to create a divider for the IWU student 
planner that included major specific uses 
of Ames’ reference services. For example, 
a senior Business Administration major 
would receive a planner divider that 
listed the research project from the senior 
capstone strategy course. The removable 
divider would benefit the students by 
acting as a constant reminder of refer­
ence services information (hours, subject 
specialist information, and contact data) 
conveniently placed where a student 
would be likely to record course assign­
ment details and deadlines. Therefore, 
when students check their calendars, the 
reference information is available when 
students are thinking about completing 
assignments. 

Another strong theme throughout the 
campaigns was the necessity of getting 
students involved with librarians and 
not simply into the library building. The 
Not Cheating Team used chalking the 
campus sidewalks as their viral market­
ing element, inviting students to talk to 
librarians outside the library building. 
The Ames Saves Team went even further 
by recommending that Ames Library host 
a carnival within the building. To play the 
carnival games and win prizes, students 
would first be obligated to interact with 
the different facets of the Ames reference 
services. 

The Library’s Planned Response to 
the Promotional Campaigns 
The Not Cheating Team’s use of the slo­
gan “Just ask! Just because they have the 
answers doesn’t make it cheating!” to 
instill the habit of asking librarians for 
help among first-year students intrigued 
the librarians. Of perhaps the greatest 
interest was the revelation that asking for 
help from a librarian might somehow be 

construed as cheating in students’ minds. 
The group’s suggestion of creating ways 
to meet with students outside the library 
so that the students could interact with 
librarians in more neutral territory and 
to set up personalized appointments for 
“homework help” is appealing to many of 
the librarians and presents the first option 
for consideration. 

The Office Team’s plan to adopt the 
“help button” image as a brand symbol 
for identifying reference services is an­
other avenue the LMT and library faculty 
are exploring. The LMT is considering 
creating mailers (both print and e-mail fli­
ers) to IWU faculty with the “help button” 
image, asking them to integrate the image 
into their syllabus, and to tell their stu­
dents to look for the symbol as a place to 
find research help. Further incorporating 
the use of the “help button” as an identi­
fier of reference services on the library 
Web page alongside the Meebo widget, 
and in any and all other reference-related 
services, is also appealing. 

The slogan “Ames Saves Time,” de­
veloped by the Ames Saves Team, is also 
attractive as it works to improve student 
awareness of reference services and its 
benefits. While the library faculty is less 
enthusiastic about the notion of hosting 
a carnival (the mess! the noise! the setup 
and takedown!), the notion of adopting 
a more student-oriented experience is 
noteworthy. 

Each of the three plans developed 
by the students has aspects the library 
hopes to use—either directly or in a 
modified form. Using information from 
the student surveys conducted in the 
spring of 2007 and the direct marketing 
plans developed by the marketing classes 
in the fall of 2007 will help to ensure a 
student-centered approach to marketing 
reference services in the future. While 
it is too soon to know exactly what 
programs or initiatives the library will 
adopt, having a better understanding of 
students’ perceptions and having input 
from students on possible avenues to 
explore is useful. 



 
   

     

     

   

       
    

      
     

     

 
      

     
      

     
      

      
    

    
     

      

 

   

      

      
    

   
      

    
      

    
     

     
   

    
     

     
       

     

 
     

     

     
     

     
      

     
     

    
      

     
    

      

    

Collaboration between Marketing Students and the Library 119 

Collaborative Project’s Impact on 
Reference Services Statistics 
As a direct outgrowth of the collabora­
tion between librarians and the market­
ing professor (and the students in her 
two courses), librarians addressed the 
student/librarian configuration at the 
information desk. In the fall of 2007, 
librarians assumed the former student 
assistant position at the desk (at the 
higher, more approachable section of the 
“L”) and student assistants started using 
the space immediately adjacent—yet at 
a right angle from—the new librarian 
station. This change was consistent with 
the findings in the literature regarding 
student preference for counter-height 
reference desks and also substantially 
increased the visibility of the librarian 
(previously she/he was seated not only 
at a lower level, but tucked behind the 
higher-level portion of the reference desk, 
making it very easy to miss the presence 
of the librarian altogether). A computer 
is still available at the ADA-compliant 
lower station of the information desk 
should a patron with special needs seek 
reference service. 

The impact of the working relationship 
between the library and the marketing 
classes in conjunction with the rearrange­
ment of the desk has been noteworthy, 
especially in light of past experiences. 
Transactions as noted on weekly tally 
sheets kept at the desk and documented 
by librarians revealed 311 questions 
for the month of November 2004. By 
November 2005, that number fell to 125, 
and exactly one year later it reached its 
nadir with 115. In November 2007, with 
librarians assuming the more front-and­
center desk location and adopting IM 
software for increased availability for 
interactions, librarians put 187 marks on 
the tally sheets, with 65 questions coming 
via the Meebo widget and the remaining 
122 coming to us predominantly through 
conventional visits to the information 
desk. Overall, the statistics reveal an up­
ward bounce in the number of librarian 
interactions from 2006 to 2008 during the 

first quarter of those years. A decrease in 
student-to-student contact during this 
time frame is also demonstrated. Interest­
ingly, aggregate numbers are still trend­
ing downward, though in a decidedly 
less dramatic form. Clearly, students are 
approaching librarians more frequently— 
both physically and electronically—and 
librarians could not be happier with the 
increased business. 

Conclusion 
From the standpoint of the library, the col­
laboration between the marketing classes 
and the library has been rewarding and 
productive. After many years of frustra­
tion, we were able to move beyond our 
inertia and begin to implement changes 
to our reference services. This experience 
has proved to be highly instructive for 
learning what students think about the 
library and reference services, what types 
of sources they use to complete their as­
signments, and what they believe would 
be most effective in marketing reference 
services to their peers. 

A major outcome of this project is the 
realization that, to be effective in our 
continued desire to increase interactions 
between students and librarians, we must 
continue to seek ways to include students 
in the conversation about how to design 
and promote our services. Because the 
needs of our students, technology, and the 
world of information constantly change, 
we need to view this process as ongoing. 
Future plans include seeking student in­
put on content for instruction programs in 
the classroom (currently, when designing 
instruction sessions, librarians work only 
with the faculty member teaching the 
course). In addition, we will seek student 
involvement to help us understand how 
we can increase faculty’s efforts to encour­
age students to use library resources. 

From the students’ prospective, work­
ing with the library was an eye-opening 
experience. Initially, many marketing 
students make an “if you build it, they 
will come” assumption about marketing 
practices. They seem to believe that at­



 

       

      
      

    
    

     
     
     

     

    

      
       

     

       

 
      

      
    

      
      

      
   

     
       

       
      
     
      
   

      
     

      
       

     
    

 

           
              

 

           
           

 
 

 
 

             

               

             

 

120 College & Research Libraries March 2009 

tracting and retaining a customer base is 
as simple as creating a quality product. 
From the early stages of the Ames Library 
project, it was clear that this belief would 
not hold true. Anecdotal evidence and the 
survey results both suggest that IWU stu­
dents found the Ames Library librarians 
to be well-trained, pleasant experts; yet, 
when IWU students came to the library, 
they did not utilize the quality research 
assistance available to them. 

Facing a second, related common 
marketing mistake helped the students 
understand why creation of a quality 
product does not ensure business success. 
Through the creation of the marketing 
communication campaigns for the Ames 
Library, the students began to understand 
that telling customers, in this case their 
own classmates and roommates, about 
the fine attributes of Ames Library was 
not enough to prevent their friends from 
relying solely on Google®. Many market­
ers make the mistake of believing that 
outlining what a product can do is all 
that is necessary to attract customers. 
However, in reality, what consumers and 

library patrons need to hear is what the 
product can do for them. For the marketing 
communication campaigns, the students 
needed to articulate what Ames Library 
could do for their friends by explain­
ing the benefits of stepping away from 
Google® and consulting librarians. The 
campaigns, then, become not about the 
library and its fine qualities but about the 
students and their needs. 

All told, the use of experiential learn­
ing projects in the marketing courses was 
of great benefit to the students. Practical 
experience overcoming common market­
ing mistakes provided the IWU students 
a chance to see marketing in action, as 
opposed to hearing about it in lectures and 
reading about it in print. Additionally, the 
students learned more about the resources 
available to them at the Ames Library. 
Therefore, students gained discipline-spe­
cific experience, as well as learning more 
about resources available to them through 
libraries. At a liberal arts institution, teach­
ing moments that incorporate the best of a 
discipline while building a student’s world 
view are the ultimate goal. 

Notes 

1. “The Ames Library Building Survey” (conducted by Sheehan Library, Illinois Wesleyan 
University, 1996). 

2. Yvonne Nalani and Ann Manning Fiegen Meulemans, “Using Business Student Consultants 
to Benchmark and Develop a Library Marketing Plan,” Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship 
11, no. 3 (2006): 19–31. 

3. Robert B. McGeachin and Diana Ramirez, “Collaborating with Students to Develop an 
Advertising Campaign,” College and Undergraduate Libraries 12, no. 1/2 (2005): 139–52. 

4. Timothy R. Graeff, “Bringing Reflective Learning to the Marketing Research Course: 
A Cooperative Learning Project Using Intergoup Critique,” Journal of Marketing Education 19 
(Spring 1997): 53–64; Philip A. Titus and Susan M. Petroshius, “Bringing Consumer Behavior 
to the Workbench: An Experiential Approach,” Journal of Marketing Education 15 (Spring 1993): 
20–30; David L. Williams, John D. Beard, and Jone Rymer, “Team Projects: Achieving Their Full 
Potential,” Journal of Marketing Education 11 (Summer 1991): 64–71. 

5. Nabil Y. Razzouk, Victoria Seitz, and Elias Rizkallah, “Learning by Doing: Using Experi­
ential Projects in the Undergraduate Marketing Strategy Course,” Marketing Education Review 13, 
no. 2 (2003): 35–41. 

6. Terri Feldman Barr and Kevin M. McNeilly, “The Value of Students’ Classroom Experiences 
From the Eyes of the Recruiter: Information, Implications, and Recommendations for Marketing 
Educators,” Journal o f Marketing Education 24, no. 2 (2002): 168–73; Ellen J. Kennedy, Leigh Lawton, 
and Erika Walker, “The Project Approach to Teaching the Capstone Marketing Course,” Journal 
of Marketing Education 12, no. 2 (2001): 37–48. 

7. Richard R. Klink and Gerard A. Athaide, “Implementing Service Learning in the Principles 
of Marketing Course,” Journal of Marketing Education 26, no. 2 (2004): 145–53. 

8. Klink and Athaide, “Implementing Service Learning”; Tara Burnthorne Lopez and Renee 
Gravois Lee, “Five Principles for Workable Client-Based Projects: Lessons from the Trenches,” 

http:libraries.At


 

            
  

            
 

 
 

 

 
 

Collaboration between Marketing Students and the Library 121 

Journal of Marketing Education 27, no. 2 (2005): 172–88. 
9. Charles Martell, “The Elusive User: Changing Use Patterns in Academic Libraries 1995 to 

2004,” College and Research Libraries 68, no. 5 (2007): 435–44. 
10. Susan Gardner, “Tiered Reference: The New Landscape of the Frontlines,” Electronic Journal 

of Academic and Special Librarianship 7, no. 3 (2006). Available online at, http://southernlibrarian ­
ship.icaap.org/content/v07n03/gardner_s01.htm. Accessed March 17, 2008. 

11. Mary Warnement, “Size Matters: The Debate over Reference Desk Height,” Portal: Libraries 
and the Academy 3, no. 1 (2003): 79–87. 

12. Klink and Athaide, “Implementing Service Learning,” 145–53. 
13. Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Go to College: Strategies for a New Generation 

on Campus: Recruiting and Admissions, Campus Life, and the Classroom (Washington, DC: American 
Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers American and LifeCourse Associ­
ates, 2003). 

14. Ibid. 
15. Ibid. 

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