Libraries and information centers of all types and sizes are faced with the need to market. Librarians and information professionals must learn to effectively market and advertise their services. Similarly, in University of Malaya Library, we are very concerned about customer satisfaction pertaining to the services and facilities offered by the library. Promotion is essential to ensure customer awareness about the services and facilities offered by the library. Thinking of the importance of this marketing activity, Client Services Division, Central Library organized “A Day With Our Clients” on 29 and 30 September 2015 in conjunction with the start of the new semester 2015/2016 and the ongoing efforts to promote library services to students and staff of UM.

Among the objectives and activities organized:

• E-resources Clinic to provide guidance and information related to Endnote, Online Databases, Turnitin and Pendeta WebPAC.

• Institutional Repositories Clinic to explain more closely on repositories which is relevant to University of Malaya.

• Encouraging users to update account information in the Library.

• Giving discounts up to 20% for overdue fines to encourage users to pay the fines.

• E-services Clinic to explain the services available in the Library Interactive Portal especially Document Delivery services and Inter-Library loan.

• Demo on EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to introduce and promote the latest database subscribed by library.

• Readers Voluntary Registration segment in colloboration with the Counseling, Career and Disability Section of UM to inform users about the existence of services to assist students with disabilities (PWDs) in the library and encourage people to sign up to become volunteer readers for this group.

• Conducting guided tours in the Central Library for new students.

• Book giveaway activities

• Testing users’ shelving skill activity

• Mobile Application Clinic to promote new services offered to users such as Kindles for loan, as part of its initiative to promote ebooks as well as motivate and encourage the culture of reading among its community.

• Movie screenings to promote Media Collections

Due to the overwhelming response received from users and to give the opportunity to students and staff of the University who were not able to join in, “A Day with Our Clients” which was initially planned for one day had been extended to two days. Based on the amount of interest shown and user participation, it was clear that the activities carried out managed to bring the users and library closer together. Assistance and co-operation given by the library staff and librarians involved were also very helpful in the smooth running of the programmes. A big thank you to those who was involved and made our event a huge success. It was a watermark moment, one that would not have happened without the support of all parties. Thank you again for going the many extra miles for University of Malaya Library.

Siti Juryiah Mohd Khalid
Librarian
Client Services Division, Central Library