Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 441 Globalization and Individualization, or Marketing as a Metaphor for Assuming and Outlining the Senses of Library Services – A Romanian Initiative and Experience – Raluca TRIFU Lucian Blaga Central University Library, Cluj István KIRÁLY V. Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj Keywords: library marketing; marketing for non-profit organizations, symbolic marketing; marketing as metaphor; philosophy of the marketing for library and nonprofit organizations; library publications and services; Abstract: The present research studies more thoroughly and extends from global perspectives the ideas elaborated in a former study dedicated to that which was named there – related to libraries, but not exclusively – symbolic marketing, embodied and objectified as a metaphor. "Living", active and efficient metaphor. The analyses focus, on the one hand, on the theoretical, conceptual – and even philosophical – aspects of "symbolic marketing". On the other hand, applying these theoretical considerations, we present and examine as a case study the journal entitled Philobiblon (http://www.bcucluj.ro/philo/), edited by the Lucian Blaga Central University Library (Cluj, Romania), and the marketing procedures associated with it. The periodical is a transdisciplinary scientific organ published in English, destined from its beginnings to the market of international interlibrary publication exchange, which has developed an entire network of peculiar, individual and characteristic marketing structures and initiatives: living, objectified symbolic-metaphoric structures which are evolving and getting diversified not only in the context but also with a view to globalization. E-mail: ralusoare@bcucluj.ro, philobib@bcucluj.ro * Motto: To speak and to write about marketing is in fact in itself... marketing. The present research studies more thoroughly and extends from global perspectives the ideas elaborated in a former study dedicated to symbolic marketing – related to libraries, but not exclusively –, embodied and objectified as a metaphor,1 more 1 See: Melinda Bükkei and István Király V., "Metaphors on Marketing: Symbolic and Effective Attempts in the "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library, Romania", in Marketing Library an Information Services: International Perspectives, Edited on behalf of IFLA by Dinesh K. Gupta, Christie Koontz et al., (München: K. G. Saur, 2006), 132–140. Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 442 precisely, as a "living" metaphor,1 objectified, active and even efficient.2 We would like to specify that in the present paper we are going to focus only on some particular and more recent aspects related mainly to the way in which the challenge and problem of marketing has been assumed – even in global contexts and from global perspectives – by the continuation and current renewal of a rather special construct and initiative which, in the very beginning, was born by symbolic procedures of transfer (and of marketing). These procedures have taken shape and are continuously concretized-materialized as a living, dynamic and active metaphor. Therefore the ideas and experiences presented and analyzed in the former study we have referred to must be now reconsidered from the perspective of those evolutions, provocations, chances – and also traps – which globalization, more and more imposing and pronounced with each passing day, represents today both for libraries and the marketing activities promoted by them. Due to the multiple and at the same time more institutionalized (at least from a technical point of view, but not only this) interconnections it presupposes, globalization implies, demands and imposes, without doubt, on the one hand high level and detailed standardizations and all kind of uniformizations.3 On the other hand, it also offers a huge reservoir of individualized experiences which, by its means, can be communicated, shared, assumed, validated and developed on an unprecedented level, and which can thus fertilize one another, from partner to partner and even on a "global" level. This is exactly what we consider one of the most important aspects of the challenge, chance and specificity globalization implies for library marketing as well. Moreover, in our opinion this also is most fortunately in accord with the flexibility, dynamism and energy which the conceptualization and practice specific to library marketing finds in its symbolic outlining as a living metaphor. For our view of "symbolic marketing" assumes and fixes in fact exactly the particular specificity and dynamism of that marketing which necessarily characterizes the practice of non-profit institutions and organizations – of course, with special attention to libraries in this case – in which thus, strictly speaking, marketing activities and considerations can only function in a symbolic sense, namely, as a metaphor. Of course, we use here the term "metaphor" – as well as the terms "symbol" and "symbolic" – in their basic and etymologically attested sense, namely a bridge, a construction and an effective, innovative and clarifying operation transferring and transposing senses and significations, which is initiated and built between and over different spheres, levels and areas of the real constituted and in permanent reconstitution.4 Therefore, it is a transfer and a transposition which is even a "real" 1 We use here an expression consecrated by the French philosopher Paul Ricouer in his work La métaphore vive, Études (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1975). 2 Without being justified by arguments, and without being interpreted in an explicit and articulated way, the term "Marketing as Metaphor" could be found in the speciality literature already in 2002 in the study of Dinesh K. Gupta and Ashok Jambhekar, "What Is Marketing in Libraries? Concepts, Orientations, and Practices", Information Outlook, 6, no. 11 (2002): 24–29. 3 Among others see: Mu-Chen Wu, Ling-Feng Hsieh, "A Study for University Library Marketing Indicators Model in Digital Age", The Business Review, 10, no. 1 (2008): 165–170. 4 Originating from the Greek verb pherein, meta-phore means exactly transport and transposal, in this case transposal of senses. It matches happily the force and the sense of the – also Greek – word symbolon, which means a sign which harmonizes perfectly – up to recognition and Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 443 enrichment and diversification of the real. In the present case, a transposal of senses and significations on the on hand between the spheres of good producing economy and services promoted as business and realized as commodity destined and valorised on an effective and actual market – namely, in order to obtain the most consistent and permanent financial profit possible in a context of competition... – and, on the other hand, between the spheres and areas of the products and services offered by non-profit organizations and institutions. Organizations and institutions which, though are in fact dynamic to the same measure, their products and services – destined to the public sphere or to some segment of this – are not conceived, offered and distributed according to the direct economic calculation of (immediate and constant financial) profitability pursued by means of regular accounting balances of expenses and incomes... And which, therefore, do not become real commodities. Consequently, neither is the public sphere, to which these products and services are addressed and in which they are validated, in fact a real "market". Thus, neither can the effort of exploring and studying the needs and exigencies etc. of users, target persons and the search for modalities which can satisfy them etc. really named marketing or real marketing, "only" a symbolic one, realized as a metaphor outlined, objectified and articulated explicitly and effectively; therefore, as the effectiveness of the transfer realized by the effectiveness of a creation symbolic by nature and essence. Nevertheless, the conceptions, notions, methods and techniques of marketing have for a long time penetrated both the inner structure and the public configuration of these non-profit organizations and institutions1 – consequently that of libraries as well – , showing and confirming completely their operationality, mobility, efficiency and inventiveness-creativeness. Despite this fact, the use of marketing concepts, methods and techniques is – usually – limited in these cases to exploring the dynamics of the user's needs, promoting (new and already existing) services and opportunities and evaluating their impact. Marketing in the majority of Romanian libraries is in this same situation. Moreover, in these institutions, gradually, persons with "marketing" duties have been appointed, or, even better – and more rarely –, marketing and service promotion departments have been established. The "discipline" of "Library Marketing" has also entered the already common Curricula of the higher education institutions teaching Library and Information Science in this country. This had as a consequence the appearance of publications – textbooks, university "courses", chapters and articles relating to such a career and preoccupation, etc. – , which, however, in most cases are hardly more and other than the synthesising of some "rules" and the presentation of some techniques, "trends" and exigencies copied in collages without any creative and innovative autonomy. And these identification – with that which it means. But in a way that the sign offers at the same time the signified opening of horizons and a polyvalent enrichment of definitively unclosed senses. 1 Otherwise Philip Koestler argued many times since 1969 that the idea of marketing is valid not only in the business sphere, but also in the sphere of non-profit organizations and institutions, such as some colleges, hospitals, churches, etc., stating at the same time that, for a long time, there have been many misunderstandings related to marketing. One of these basic misunderstandings consists exactly of the fact that marketing was seen as referring only to selling and/or advertising; therefore, instead of being assumed as a task regarding exactly top management. See: Philip Kotler, "Strategies for Introducing Marketing into Nonprofit Organizations", Journal of Marketing, Jan. (1979): 37–44. See also the following note! Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 444 "rules", techniques, recipes and algorithms are – at best – taken over and then applied selectively and mechanically by the already mentioned departments and offices, etc. Not to mention the fact that "marketing" work – in Romania as well – has fast become "fashionable" and therefore it exercises an easy and superficial attraction poor in content and results. Such a "use" of marketing conceptions, notions and techniques in libraries, however, remains much below the essential possibilities and real horizons opened and offered by them if undertaken seriously, completely, creatively, and thoroughly. In our former study we have already demonstrated and militated for the necessity and reality of the possibility that the marketing conceptions and notions should in fact "permeate" the entire institutional structure of libraries and their contacts with every segment of the public sphere in and for which they function.1 For in its essential possibility – which, however, seems to be usually hidden, and, as such, not emphasized – , library marketing is exactly a space of freedom. It is consequently a space of highly responsible creativity and inventiveness. And the marketing understood, conceived and outlined as symbolic, symbolising marketing – that is, as a living metaphor – opens and fixes exactly this essential and fundamental aspect. Therefore, to conceive marketing as a metaphor is not in the least some purely "timely" extension imposed on libraries by the models of present days, but an entirely consistent challenge, a chance and a modality for libraries to problematize their calling, to reencounter, to outline anew and to enrich their senses. We must mention that recently marketing "as such" no longer confines itself to the exploration and identification of the users' needs and of the way these change due to the modifications in the conditions, in the social, institutional and technological environment with which the user and the organization have direct or indirect relations and affinities, and it is no longer limited to projecting-articulating and measuring their satisfaction defined by this dynamics, but it is, in fact, itself an effective and active factor in creating and outlining some new needs, focusing its efforts on the consumers, on the actual and possible users precisely with the aim of making them aware of, and inform them on the – so far hidden or even inexistent – reality of these new needs. It becomes therefore step by step clearer that symbolic marketing, understood and realized as living metaphor is – before ossifying into some set of "rules" and "techniques", etc. and becoming devoid precisely of individuality sui generis; these "rules" and "techniques" being diffused and circulated in a "standardized" way by the already globalized channels and instruments of our present – in fact: authentic hermeneutics. Namely, it is the present, dynamic and expressly and enrichingly 1 We repeat here some passages from this text, which – we are sure – have lost nothing either from their timeliness or their pertinence: "The marketing conceptions, notions and mainly practice have, however, as a first effect of their starting to function, exactly the emphasising, that is the clarification and indication of some dysfunctionalities and insufficiencies which may have remained invisible and unidentifiable until then and without them. Closely related with all this, secondly, the marketing conception offers a new and efficient possibility of dynamically rethinking and reshaping the organizations and institutions, becoming a real motor of the management of change. As such, thirdly, the marketing notions, conceptions and mentality offers the possibility of a current institutional opening, bent toward the receiving and operationalization not only of the new needs and demands coming from 'outside', but realizing even its own outlinings and value offers." Bükkei and Király V, Metaphors on Marketing..., 133. Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 445 assumed interpretation, clarification, reformulation and "embodiment" of the sense of library institutions; senses which start and come each time from the past of tradition, but which are always reshaped and enriched in the openness of assumed actual challenges, being directed exactly towards and in the direction of our possibilities outlined in the future. Naturally, each library type, each category and even each institution has its own mission and its own public and range of users – private individuals and institutions – structured specifically in each separate case. Marketing conceptions and notions serve – exactly in the condition and in the possibilities of globalization – to formulate, identify and assume these on the one hand particularly and "individually", but, on the other hand, really at the level of contacts and communication which are now – not only in principle, but also in reality – universal. This is the situation in the Lucian Blaga Central University Library in ClujNapoca, Romania, which, otherwise, is one of the biggest and most important libraries of Central European, and which has passed into and participates in the age and reality of globalization – also from the perspective of marketing – with its specificity and its individual and peculiar inventiveness and creativity. For this reason we are going to focus on the presentation and analysis of some aspects – which we consider entirely peculiar – which represent and characterize here the efforts and ideas regarding library marketing in the age of globalization. Both from a temporal and a substantial point of view the beginning of express and proper marketing activities in this institution is in fact connected to the publication and gradual development of a periodical entitled Philobiblon by the library.1 The Lucian Blaga Central University Library and the Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca decided to publish the journal Philobiblon – in English and in collaboration with the publishing house of the University, Cluj University Press – in the year 1996, in the beginning with the main aim of offering an international transdisciplinary manifestation and communication forum for the university people and researchers of Cluj, as well as others, especially persons working in the field of different social sciences and humanities. In addition its objectives were to assert and develop effectively the multicultural character of the region and of the university by the fact that in the pages of the journal the research results of academics, who teach and conduct research activities in Romanian, Hungarian and German, are mainly published in a language of international circulation. Lastly it was to confirm and strengthen the status of the university library as a space and forum which disseminates – but also condensates – the research and creative capacities of an important academic, scientific and cultural centre such as Cluj, which is in the full process of opening and international conformation. Being diffused by the already traditional and extended International Interlibrary Exchange network of the Library, the periodical's objective had been from the very beginning to diversify, individualize, and make more efficient the offers and acquisition modalities of different publications (books, periodicals, databases, etc.) which, had it not been for this network, our academic community could not have obtained. It thus proved to be both advantageous exchange material for the library, and a consistent modality to make known the research and creative capacities and results of the university community, and, at the same time, a way to outline an extremely favourable image both 1 http://www.bcucluj.ro/philo/ Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 446 of Romanian research, and of the University and University Library of Cluj. For this reason, in a short while – and despite the financial difficulties the publication was faced with, and which caused permanent modifications in the declared periodicity and regularity of its appearance – the journal succeeded – and succeeds even now – in attracting renowned foreign collaborators. For all these reasons the periodical was divided in four main permanent sections meant to operationalize the editorial conception and intent. The first one is entitled: CULTURE, BOOK, SOCIETY, and it is always a thematic section which contains mainly studies from the different domains of history, philosophy, sociology, political science, psychology, literary theory, linguistics, and journalism, etc. Moreover, the texts are included in each issue depending on the "disciplinary" and speciality demands and exigencies of the transdisciplinary outlining of the volumes' each time particular theme. The second section, which was initially named A Profession in Change, a Society in Transition – but it has been recently renamed HERMENEUTICA BILBIOTHECARIA1 – , contains analyzes of and meditations on library institutions and the librarian profession, all kinds of traditions, mentalities, "legacy", perspectives, difficulties and uncertainties, the analytical, critical, investigative and "discussional" character of the contributions being emphasized. It is a section "offered" first of all to librarians, nevertheless, having the particularity – natural in a journal which is a scientific, transdisciplinary, and, as such, a CULTURAL one, in the original sense – that the papers encouraged here have a dimension which is aimed exactly at the science, comprehension and mentality – that is the culture and not the dynamic, nevertheless narrow "manuality" or "craft" – of the librarian's profession and of library institutions. The presence of this section in a publication of a university library constitutes at the same time one of the particularities the journal Philobiblon has within this "category". It was introduced in the periodical first of all – but not only – because the Romanian bibliological literature is most deficient exactly in such analyzes. Due to this reason, we decided that the articles published in the journal should also be then collected into anthologies as regularly as possible, the volumes being published this time in Romanian language and diffused mainly in Romania. The first anthology volume already appeared in the year 1998 (entitled Hermeneutica Bibliotecaria), and it was the received with exceptional interest by libraries and specialists. The second volume was published in 2004, and the third in 2007. The latest volume (the fourth) appeared in 2007, and these have been published and sold also in ebook format on CDs. The third permanent section of the periodical is dedicated to the SPECIAL COLLECTIONS first of all of the Lucian Blaga Central University Library. It presents, analyzes and valorises from a documentary, scientific, and cultural point of view, on a national and international level the historical collections of a library, which, as we have said before – due to its past, to the number and value of its collections of approximately 4 million volumes – , is one of the most important in Central European libraries. 1 The anthology volumes of the journal Philobiblon have also been entitled Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria from the beginning. Of course, this title is also related to an essential marketing motivation, namely its understanding, interpretation and symbolic realization as a living metaphor. Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 447 Ana-Maria Călinescu, Temperature Rising Tempera-gouache on paper (297 × 420 mm.) Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 448 The last section – entitled MISCELLANEA – offers varied information on different scientific, cultural and professional events, regional, national and international publications, etc. By means of its sections, the Philobiblon consequently commits itself to the natural and lively field of consistent and major scientific, cultural, institutional and professional communication, ordered by the idea of European and international integration and by that of the scientific, transdisciplinary, complex and comparative dialogue; intending therefore to constitute a particular and individual forum, a way and a chance for "encounters" in the authentic and transdisciplinary communion of globalization. From the beginning and in accord with its initial Programme, the journal Philobiblon asserted itself therefore by a unique profile both in the category of periodicals published by the big (university and national) libraries of the world, and in that of scientific journals. The periodical's uniqueness is due first of all to the organic way in which it conceives the decided scientific and transdisciplinary combination of major existential, historical, scientific and cultural themes with the reflexivity of responsible bibliological and informational problematizations. Together, of course, with the presentation and documentary and scientific valorisation of the collections preserved in the Lucian Blaga Central University Library and other such institutions... Naturally, all these were realized by the programmatic conception of the periodical sections, which have been "alimented" consequently according to both historical and actual, as well as, scientific, professional and cultural-mental exigencies and situations. Thus, volume by volume, the periodical raised in all its main sections major, central and extremely actual themes for our history and present existence which it treated and then "surrounded" by/with as serious, substantial, wide, multi-angle and organic studies and discussions as possible.1 It is therefore surely one of the valuable 1 We list here briefly the themes – which can be consulted in more detail on the website of the periodical – Previous Volumes of PHILOBIBLON: Volume I. Number 1–2 / 1996, 134. pp. (Culture, Books, Society: Europeanism and Europeanization; Librarianship: A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; The Special Collections of the Library); Volume II. Number 1 / 1997, 136. pp. (Culture, Books, Society: Axiological Openings and Closures; A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea); Volume II. Number 2 / 1997, 237. pp. (Culture, Books, Society: Existential Dispositions; A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea); Volume III. Number 1–2 / 1998, 319. pp. (Culture, Books, Society: Dictionaries – Backgrounds and Horizons; A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea); Volume IV–V–VI–VII. 1999–2002, 538. pp. (Culture, Books, Society: History and Memory; A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea); Volume VIII–IX. 2003–2004, 573. pp. (Culture, Books, Society: Censorship and the Barriers of Freedom, A Changing Profession in a Transitional Society: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; Varia: The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea); Volume X–XI. 2005–2006, 603. pp. (Culture, Books, Society: Music and Existence; Librarianship: Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria: Data Conditions – Possibilities; The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea); Volume XII. 2007, 457. pp. (Culture, Books, Society: Adrian Marino and His Horizons; Librarianship: Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria: Data – Conditions – Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 449 particularities of the journal that it encourages, related to its themes, precisely the longer studies of 15–30–35 and sometime even more pages... The Philobiblon was and evolved thus – with its characteristic of having been and remaining special – as a publication which in the "actual" and technical terminology we can therefore name: transdisciplinary. To launch and to maintain consequently a transdisciplinary publication in a world dominated by disciplinarizations and "interdisciplinarizations" (which also tend towards ever new specializations one narrower than the other) has not been and is not an easy task! It happened, however, on the one hand, through the accreditation of the publication by the National Council of Scientific Research in Higher Education in Romania in 2006 in B category, then B Plus – which is the highest Romanian scientific accreditation category after the ISI accreditation – , and, on the other hand, mainly when and by the fact that – beginning with the year 2007 – the periodical was included full text into the prestigious database produced and diffused practically on a global scale by EBSCO Publishing Co. exactly in the division Academic Search Complete. Also in accord with its programmatic conception, in the course of time, an entire semi-institutional horizon has been outlined and structured around the journal. Therefore, in the present moment by the expression "the journal Philobiblon" in fact a series of activities and directions are understood, which, moreover, are becoming more diversified permanently. These are not at all limited simply to the activities and procedures of conceiving, translating, editing and diffusing the journal as a publication and volume by volume, but gradually a series of possibilities, directions and activities have been outlined which function to this very moment and are permanently analysed and restructured. Thus, since April 1999, we have started and developed the "institution" of the Philobiblon Workshops, which have been functioning systematically and almost regularly since then. The Philobiblon Workshops proved their "usefulness" mainly by the fact that with their aid the journal obtained texts of remarkable qualities for its sections dedicated to bibliology and libraries. Of course, first of all related to the epistemological and spiritual level of this literature in general, but at the same time also aimed at the outlining of what we call the "civil society" of the profession and the exercising of its mental autonomy. Evidently, the elaboration of the conception and organization, as well as holding the Workshops require work and involvement, and the fact that they are aimed exactly at the texts which are going to be included then in the journal and in the anthology volumes connects these activities organically with everything which is otherwise related to the journal and its production. And not only this. Practically, the marketing activities were also outlined in this library related to the journal Philobiblon and its publication. They had already been proposed to the top management of the institution in the year 2000 on the basis of some success related first of all to the conception, producing and selling of an analytical bibliometric and levelled database containing the Romanian bibliological literature of the speciality periodicals of national circulation. The database was conceived on the basis of some documentary, Possibilities; The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea); Volume XIII. 2008, 672 pp. (Culture, Book, Society: Living and Dying Life; Librarianship: Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria: Data – Conditions – Possibilities; The Special Collections of the Library; Miscellanea). Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 450 scientometrical and research considerations.1 The promotion mode and the success on the market of this service and product confirmed the existence of some incontestable possibilities and resources in the institution, and imposed the conviction that on their basis marketing conceptions and practices can then be gradually extended to other aspects of the library services and library functioning in general. These have gradually evolved – mainly in their aspects associated later with the development of the journal Philobiblon and the activities connected with it – to a structure, conception and practice which also proved to be entirely innovative and particular even on an international level with regard to "library marketing". Starting with this fact, these activities were acknowledged in the library and extended then in other directions as well. Thus it was decided by the top management of the institution to establish – in the year 2004 – in the library a Department for Marketing, Projects and the Promotion of Services.2 This – besides doing and developing marketing activities and diffusing, selling the journal Philobiblon and its associated products – also assumed the marketing tasks associated with the rest of the publications, products and services conceived and realized in the library. It also effectuated some professional sociological measurements and research not only regarding the satisfaction of library users and their permanently modifying needs, but also aimed at the sociological research of the library as an institution. Thus for example a research project of the library's organizational culture has recently been adopted, which – in its first stage – focused on the investigation of the organizational communication in the institution.3 The organizational culture, to which what has recently been called marketing culture is more deeply and evidently connected day by day, is an essential element in the functioning of the institution and the outlining of its brand.4 The fact that to create and outline this (organizational and marketing) culture is first of all the task of library administrators becomes more and more evident. All the more so, as there is and persists – not only in our geographical regions – , this time mainly among librarians and not in library administration a high degree of misunderstanding and even hostility towards the problems and tasks of library marketing.5 Conceived therefore initially by the decision of the top management in order to meet some needs imposed and outlined from the direction of the journal Philobiblon, the activities and dynamics of the Department for Marketing, Projects and the Promotion of Services were permanently diversified in order to meet as efficiently as possible the library users' requests, and also as a reaction to encroachments of a "library and 1 See: István Király V. and Florentina Pop-Moldovan, "PROIECT pentru implementarea viziunii şi a practicilor de marketing în bibliotecă", in Hermenetica Bibliothecaria – Antologie Philobiblon (II), (Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2004), 269–283. 2 As far as we know such a department of so explicit and diversified marketing activities does not function in any other library in Romania. 3 See: Valeria Salánki, "Cultura organizaţională. Propunere de studiu asupra culturii organizaţionale – octombrie, 2008", in Hermenetica Bibliothecaria – Antologie Philobiblon (IV), (Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2009), 136–142. 4 See: Rajesh Singh, "Branding in Library an Information Context: the Role of Marketing Culture", Information Services & Use, 24 (2004): 93–98. 5 Richard Parker, Carol Kaufman-Scarborough and Jon K. Parker, "Libraries in Transition to a Marketing Orientation: Are Librarians' Attitudes a Barrier?", International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 12 (2007): 320–337. Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 451 information science market". Thus, in the present the activity of this Department follows three main directions. On the one hand it aims at the promotion and the impact of the products realized by the library either as an autonomous institution, or in collaboration with other higher education forums (e.g. the Babeş–Bolyai University of Cluj), and, on the other hand, it focuses on the analysis, promotion and impact of the services offered and projected by the library; together, of course, with the following, investigation and analysis of feedbacks and the organizational and institutional consequences. The promotion of library products is realized by already classic marketing mechanisms such as the sending of offers to the speciality discussion lists, to the beneficiaries who have accepted to receive such offers or to the addresses of Romanian and foreign libraries. The offers being conceived as promotional packages, they are sent either in electronic format or by mail depending on the budget allocated by the institution for such activities for all the editorial products of the library as they are published. Similarly, promoting also implies that the descriptions and offers are uploaded to the webpage of the library, being possible to order the products online (Internet marketing). In certain cases certain partners are sent offers which also contain effective products free with a promotional purpose. In order to increase the visibility of the library's editorial products, the Lucian Blaga Central University Library also tried to participate in a series of national book fairs, its presence resulting in a positive feedback, marked by an increase in the selling of the publications. Evidently, the encouragement and publication of some reviews both in publications of different speciality and in major cultural periodicals belongs to this conception and preoccupation too. This Department also processes the orders which come to the address of the institution for the products published by this, and it distributes them to the beneficiaries. Regarding the activities of library service promotion, the Department for Marketing acts by posters, advertisements, reviews published in the professional and cultural press, media campaigns such as the Days of Indulgence for those who were late in returning the borrowed publications, thematic exhibitions made from the collections of the library or of some partners, portfolios for the presentation of the library, the creation of flyers and regular informative bulletins, etc. Coming back to the journal, it is clear that the new horizons and tasks which open now for the Philobiblon will require the re-emphasising and re-shaping of marketing efforts first of all in the direction of the science of commodities – namely, of the knowledge of the "commodity" – by the direct involvement of marketers in as many phases and stages of the "production" of the journal and of the other related products as possible. (The anthology volumes in printed and electronic form, rethinking and actualizing the site of the periodical, testing the demand for the products, continuous advertising, the effective sales, analysing the phenomena-experiences, the tendencies of the market and their modifications, etc.) For it is natural and necessary (even with the aim of increasing the impact) to initiate and develop sustained and frequent actions – this time expressly international – in order to promote, sell, etc. the journal! * From the beginning the journal Philobiblon has been produced by the library for the international interlibrary exchange of publications, being thus by this way offered and diffused constantly to approximately 100 big libraries from all over the world with Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 452 which the Lucian Blaga Central University Library of Cluj established partnership to this effect. In other words, the publication has been produced from the beginning for direct exchange, namely for barter. It is well known that direct exchange has been from ancient times – and it is still – an effective and real market relation. Consequently, the journal Philobiblon has been since its beginnings an effective service and "commodity", which had to be and must be validated – and which is validated – exactly on the market of international interlibrary publication exchange. In and by which therefore the marketing efforts, constructs and symbolic motives have been condensed, precipitated and outlined – in an otherwise non-profit institution – in a real metaphor and in a (new and individual) metaphoric reality, effective (even "objectual") and efficient. By this therefore the library and its users also obtained – among other things – informational resources to which otherwise they would not have had access. Around the journal initiatives and realizations were later outlined – at the beginning a bibliographical database and then the anthology volumes in Romanian – , which after a testing beginning (the first volume) were afterwards ab initio conceived and realized with the aim of being sold effectively on the Romanian internal – first of all professional-biblilogical – market. Later on, and beginning with the full text inclusion of the periodical's studies into the database produced by EBSCO Publishing Co. the journal appeared on the contra-cost market of digitalized products as well. Therefore here also not in the form of direct exchange, but effective contra-cost. And since the contract with the EBSCO company refers only to their diffusing and valorising the electronic versions of the studies, we have recently started a new marketing campaign (offers-tests) for the – this time international – selling of the journal's printed volumes, this campaign beginning to show its results by the arrival of the first international orders. Thus the intention has also occurred to ISI accredit the periodical, a possibility which emerges organically from the evolution of this publication from its beginnings to this moment, and which is perfectly consistent with the conditions and realties of our globalization.1 It must be mentioned that, despite appearances, the marketing related to the journal Philobiblon and the products connected with it – and by these the marketing associated and practiced in and by the Lucian Blaga Central University Library of Cluj, considered as a whole, therefore as a library institution with a certain specificity and status – has lost nothing from its character, initial specificity of being essentially a symbolic marketing realized and embodied as a living metaphor. For neither here, nor in other directions do we refer to a disguised transformation of some non-profit activities and services into the production of goods which would be valorised (sold) then in order to obtain profit (calculated directly related to costs); on the contrary, this is the superior valorisation, and even attested by the market, of some resources which are and remain essentially budgetary, that is public. Superior valorisation means – beyond the autonomous objectives and intentions of the journal itself as such – not only prestigious possibilities of promotion, but also an exigent forum for the analysis and projecting of services; which means for the institution and for the profession a benefit of image both 1 See: István Király V., "Proiect în vederea Acreditării ISI al revistei PHILOBIBLON", in Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria – Antologie Philobiblon (IV) (Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2009), 120–135. Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 453 on a national and an international-global level, together, of course, with the advantages of incomes which, evidently, permit and contribute then not only to maintain the functioning of the journal, the symbolic marketing services and structures, but only their continuous, competent, innovative and responsible development and diversification. Since, in reality any income realized by a non-profit public institution by its own activities and realization destined to the market and confirmed by the market and the appreciations of beneficiaries – materialised therefore in their financial effort to buy them – is on the one hand an evident completing of its budgetary-public resources, and, on the other hand, an occasion of effective decantation, diversification and hierarchization of the values and senses within it.1 In other words, the participation in the ensuring and development of the institution's and its journal's creative identity and individuality in the conditions of globalization and benefitting from the advantages of these conditions and opportunities. Avoiding – or trying to avoid – consequently their traps and automatisms, which tend precisely towards excessive and in the end bureaucratic uniformization and "standardization". For in their totality the senses – and not only "functions" – of library, and mainly of a university and therefore encyclopaedic, scientific and historic library, are continuously redefined, but they are never reduced to a simple gateway of information, something which is no longer defined in terms of space and collections, but only mediates between the readers and information. Similarly, they are not reduced to transform the library completely in some informational fast food, a computation point of instant access to certain information..., but the library was, is, and will be a special medium, a core which focalizes and also emanates the scientific, technical, artistic and even institutional creation, which helps the birth of, feeds, shapes, looks after and enlarges not only ideas, but also mentalities, and together with them and after all the horizons of the responsibilities of articulated human freedom. And exactly in this sense and in this direction the journal Philobiblon reencounters the deep senses of the library, always reformulated and always reanalyzed even on its pages. Therefore the slogan of the periodical has been for some years: CHALLENGES OF CULTURE – Past for the Future!!! And the marketing of the journal and of the library as a living metaphor and symbolic transfer symbolising always 1 Recently the outlining of libraries as non-profit organizations has been nuanced both conceptually and in practice, in the sense that the library and information services offered by them are gradually recognized also as "sellable products". Products for the use of which the libraries demand for example fees – differentiated for the specific and non-specific users –, fees related to the access to online services or interlibrary loan. In our opinion however, these fees cannot be named the real prices of the respective products and services (fixed therefore according to production, maintenance, distribution, etc. costs and the profit anticipated on a determined competitive market), as their receiving in fact cannot be name selling. It is rather a conditioned monetary contribution, which ensures the access to the respective services, completing the financial resources of libraries. See: Antony Jose and Ishwara Bhat, "Marketing of Library and Information Services: a strategic perspective", VISION – The Journal of Business Perspective, 11 no. 2 (2007). Philobiblon Vol. XV (2010) 454 enriched senses and signification aims precisely at this aspect, exactly in the age and exactly with the aim of responsible globalization and the responsibility of globalization. Translated by Ágnes Korondi Copyright of Philobiblon is the property of "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.