Education and research for marketing and quality management in libraries/La formation et la recherche sur le marketing et la gestion de la qualite en bibliotheque: Satellite meeting/Colloque Satellite, Quebec, August 14‐16 Auot

Recognising that marketing and quality management are crucial for good management and the development of libraries and other information services, and believing that the subjects tend to be neglected in schools of library and information science, the Management and Marketing Section and Education and Training Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions combined to organise a scientific colloquium on the subjects with the collaboration of a number of other organisations. This volume contains the 24 papers presented at the colloquium, which was attended by more than 100 researchers, educators and practitioners from more than 25 countries.

The papers are presented in nine sections: introduction papers; the teaching of marketing in schools of library and information science; research and evaluation in marketing and quality management; education for marketing and quality management in LIS; marketing and quality management: applications, case studies and research; marketing and new approaches (marketing and management of electronic journals in academic libraries and publication of Week of Quebec’s Public Libraries); relationships between marketing and quality management; barriers to marketing in LIS; and modelisation and theory in marketing. Of the contributions, 16 are in English and eight are in French. A total of 22 of the contributions include an abstract in the other language but two do not. The book concludes with two reflections on the colloquium in French and one in English

The link between marketing and quality management is brought out very clearly in the paper by Dinesh K. Gupta and Ashok Jambhekar. Quality is customer‐defined and customer‐focused and developments in the field of quality management and service marketing have led to the original four Ps of marketing (product, price, place, promotion) being challenged by three more Ps (people, process, physical evidence). Quality must become the integrator of customer‐oriented processes in marketing‐oriented libraries. Gupta and Jambhekar point out that the customer is everyone’s responsibility, and perhaps some libraries need to take this to heart. Possible neglect of the customer is hinted at by Darlene Weingand, who refers to the emerging paradigm of the library as an organisation that focuses on customer needs and convenience. Darlene Weingand also states that the library must become an active, proactive organisation. Surely customer‐oriented libraries should already have recognised this fact and put it into practice.

I was surprised to learn from France Bouthillier’s paper that fewer than half of LIS schools in the USA were offering courses in marketing and only 18 per cent were offering courses in quality management, thus suggesting that the organisers of the colloquium were correct in their assumption that marketing and quality management are ignored by LIS schools. The fact that only seven of the 17 UK LIS schools responded to Sheila Webber’s survey of the teaching of marketing and quality management in LIS schools in the UK also suggests lack of attention to the subjects.

Sheila Webber refers to two LIS associations in the UK. The merger of the Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists had not taken place when she gave her paper but it was imminent and there is now, of course, one association – the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

Linda Ashcroft has carried out a fair amount of research into electronic journal publication. Her suggestion that there should be further collaboration between libraries and suppliers is a good one and this theme of co‐operation could perhaps have been developed in other papers.

This is a very useful collection and the book could be a good reference work for practitioners, educators and students – could be if only the publishers had thought of providing an index. Why do they have such little confidence in the value of the book they have produced?