Acceptance of Social Marketing Concepts by Selected Romanian Librarians: Culture and Context

1. Acceptance of Social Marketing Concepts by Selected Romanian Librarians: Culture and Context Hermina Anghelescu Irene Owens Bill Lukenbill James Lukenbill

2. Researchers Involved in the Study Hermina Anghelescu, Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science, Wayne State University, Irene Owens, Professor and Dean, School of Library and Information Science, North Carolina Central University, Bill Lukenbill, Professor, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin, James Lukenbill, Manager of Information Systems, Ingenix, (A health care information and research company).

3. Background: Culture and Context • Faculty members of the School of Information and Wayne State University (assisted by others) conducted a series of conferences in Romania (late 1990s to 2000s). Conferences were sponsored by various organizations, including the Romanian Ministry of Culture and Romanian libraries.

4. Social marketing • Purpose was to help Romanian libraries move forward into more modern ways of library management and services. The team, Timişoara Conference, 2000

5. Governmental Culture • Romania became a part of the Soviet style communism and sphere of influence in 1946. • All libraries became instruments of state indoctrination. • People viewed libraries as anothermeans of political control enforced through state censorship and control of collections.

6. Social marketing • In December 1989 following a revolution, Romania became independent of Soviet dominance. • The Romanian revolution was one of the bloodiest preceding the fall of the former Soviet Union in 1991. Celebrating the Revolution’s Victory, Timişoara

7. Politics and Culture • This revolution brought great expectations for a western democratic state and a free marketing system. • The quick execution of Ceausescu and his wife at the hands of a military tribunal gives evidence of the hatred for the regime and expectations for changes. “You shoot them and throw them in the basement. Not a single one should come out alive.”(Elena Ceausescu, giving orders regarding the handling of the insurgents, from a Stenogramme of the meeting of the Political Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, 17th December 1989)

8. After the revolution, the social structure, political and economic life, and all institutions in Romania faced change. • This was particularly true of libraries which were widely viewed by the population as institutions of state indoctrination and control. • Formal library education had ended in the 1970s, and no Library Association existed. They had no membership in IFLA. Romanian libraries were isolated from modern ideas of management and services. • The primary objectives of these conferences were to help acquaint Romanian libraries with new library management and service models.

9. Social marketing • This experience offered a quasi-laboratory situation for researching and studying change. A change model: 1. Library and information systems theory; 2. Deduction of needs, and current models of service; 3. Hypotheses of working service and management models; 4. Observations of models from western librarianships; 5. Analysis of needs, reinforced by conferences; 6. Generalizations based on former management and services models; 7. Inductive analysis based on present situation and western librarianship; 8. Improved Romanian-based theory and practice.

10. Library Change Research in Romania In studying professional change with a similar group of librarians in this series of conferences, Owen and Anghelescu (1999) found this: • Change was difficult for librarians to accept in terms of programming, management, and services. • The idea that libraries were cultural institutions and not active information or educational systems was well ingrained in professional ideology. Owens Anghelescu

11. Marketing as a Change Model for Romanian Librarianship Introduction of marketing concepts • Marketing as a model for librarianship was first introduced in 1993 to Romanian librarianship through a collection of essays in the professional journal Biblioteca. These were largely abstracted theoretical articles from western journals, with no practical applications to Romanian librarianship.

12. Social marketing • These compilations were followed by at least 10 other publications beginning with Anghelescu (1997) through Niţă’s piece (2005) which presented practical suggestions for marketing of libraries. • The groundbreaking statement on marketing of Romanian cultural institutions is Marketing şi Cultura (Dragoş, 2002), published in Biblioteca.

13. Social Marketing: Theoretical Concepts for this study Social marketing concepts (Kotler and Anderson [1987, 2008]; and Rogers’ diffusion and innovation theory [1983, 1995, 2005] ) were the prevailing theories that underpinned this research.

14. Theoretical Bases • Social Marketing Concepts: • Use most of the strategies of commercial marketing (e.g., planning, pricing, design and execution of strategies, promotional campaigns, etc.). • Differ from commercial marketing in that they are designed to promote social improvements and well being. • Goals: • Change for the good of society an existing behaviors or attitudes (groups and individuals). • Reinforce existing positive behaviors and attitudes. • Offer services and products that potential customers will find beneficial. • Design strategies that customers will find informative and rewarding and will take action to acquire.

15. Practical Principles of Social Marketing Understand: The customers’ perceptions of problems, issues, and products; The importance of the product and/or service to them; The actions they are willing to take to have the service/and or product. Plan Marketing Strategies that: Will encourage acceptance of the product and/or service; Promote the welfare of both individuals and society.

16. The AD Council: Social Marketing Examples

17. Governmental Social Marketing Examples

18. Library Examples: Social Marketing Social Marketing promotion services, usefulness and convenience, and contact information.

19. Rogers’ Diffusion and Innovation Theory • When new ideas or concepts are introduced into a social order, they follow a standard process of adoption or rejections. • Personal predictors of individuals who will be early adopters.

20. Rogers’ Characteristics for Innovators • Age. • Gender. • Educational levels. • Professional cosmopolitanism. • Administrative position within the hierarchy. • Decision-making authority.

21. Overview of the Research Environment • This was one in a series of conferences held around Romania. Each conference was from 3-5 days in length. Participants were selected by managers and their expenses were paid. They were also given certificates. Examples of Conference Sites Brasov (1991) Cluj Târgu Mures Timişoara*

22. The conference team met in Bucharest and departed by train to the site. In this case the location was Timişoara. • Our host library was the Biblioteca Centrală Universitară, “Eugen Todoran.” This research was unfunded expect for room and board.

23. Social Marketing Research • Problem Statements • To develop and test a survey instrument for measuring the acceptance of social marketing for librarianship. • To determine on an experimental level the degree of acceptance of social marketing as applied to libraries in Romania; and through this to access librarians’ willingness for change.

24. Development of the Questionnaire • Step 1. Questions were developed in English to reflect concepts of social marketing (Kotler and Anderson) and diffusion and innovation (Rogers). (B. Lukenbill). • Step 2. Questions were reviewed by a measurement and evaluation specialists (J. Lukenbill). • Step 3. Questionnaire was rewritten based on this review (B. Lukenbill).

25. Social marketing • Step 4. Questions were reviewed by a Romanian cultural expert (Anghelescu). • Step 5. Questions were rewritten based on this review (B. Lukenbill). • Step 6. Questions were translated into Romanian and completed (Anghelescu). • No post-testing of the questionnaire was conducted due to time and language constraints.

26. Social marketing • The questionnaire contained 6 demographic questions and 10 questions based on their willingness to accept social marketing within Romanian Librarianship. • Measures were based on a Likert scale: • 5: definitely agree; 4: probably agree; 3: unsure; 2. probably do not agree; 1. absolutely do not agree.

28. The Participants • A convenience sample of 72 selected librarians and librarian assistants in attendance at the conference representing largely university and public libraries throughout Romania. • Rogers’ characteristics: • Gender: n = 69: females (93 %); males (7%). • Age: n = 68: 99% born between 1938-1979.

29. Social marketing • Positions held: n=71 • Professional (65 %) • Top Administration (1%) • Mid-level management (17%) • Clerical/support (17%) • Other (8.5%) • Education n = 67 • High-level university degrees (4.5%) (doctoral*) • Mid-level university degrees (24) % (bachelor) • Secondary (67%) • Other (4.5 %) *Commonly students move directly from bachelor studies to doctoral studies, master’s degree are just beginning to be offered.

30. Social marketing • Policy-making activities n=123 • Required to make policies (24%) • Comfortable helping to make policies (29%) • Follow policies set by others (33%) • More comfortable following policies set by others (14%) • Cosmopolitanism n= 156 • Read domestic library journals (36%) • Attend domestic library meetings (33%) • Read foreign language journals/books (20% • Travel aboard (7%) • Attend foreign library meetings (4%)

31. The Research Intervention • This 3-day conference was devoted to information services, programming, and resources necessary in the 21st century. • Nine papers were presented dealing with various aspect of reference. • The second paper in the conference was titled “Introducere ȋn Marketingul Social al Bibliotecilor” and presented concepts of social marketing within a library context. It was delivered in English with Romanian (oral) translation.

33. Findings • The Questionnaire was given on the first day of the conference at mid-day, following a lecture on social marketing in libraries. The results showed a Cornback’s α = .67 This was acceptable for reliability of data based on a base α =.60. • Personal predictors of innovators (Rogers) were not significant at the .05 level based on analysis of variance. Reason: sample was too small and lacked homogeneity to measure these attributes. • Rejection of Social Marketing based on mean scores for questions.

34. Social marketing • General attitudinal responses: mean scores • Highest: Administration and staff have appropriate knowledge. n=68, M=2.76, SD=1.01. • Lowest: Social marketing directed at changing behaviors and attitudes. n=71, M=1.40, SD=0.90 • Personally willing to help in social marketing campaign. n=67, M=1.40, SD=0.67.

35. Social marketing • Reasons given for rejection: • Librarians lacked knowledge of social marketing. • Lack of institutional resources. • Lack of support and/or problems with governmental support for social marketing. • Social marketing not acceptable within Romanian society. • Too involved on a personal level. • Romanian society understands the role of libraries well enough. • Library social marketing would not increase Romanian economic competitiveness. • Signification correlations (Person’s r) • Appropriate knowledge and administrative well (r= .53, p = <0001).

36. Social marketing • Central Finding: • Participants strongly indicated that they did not have the knowledge to undertake social marketing nor the administrative support for social marketing.

37. Reflections • Lack of perception concerning redefining the role of libraries and librarians. • Lack of understanding the role of the library in a democratic society. • Lack of understanding that libraries are in competition with other agencies for resources and support. • Need to identify and foster the development of innovators who understand the need for change. • Need for better library education and opportunities for the development of a more cosmopolitan librarianship.

38. Social marketing • Cultural history’s influence on willingness to respond to questions about the workplace. • Protection of identity is suspect. • Old institutional concepts are difficulty to change. • Few participants held advanced degrees. • Little knowledge of standard management practices.

39. Social marketing • Decline of Romanian libraries since 1990 (Anghelescu, 2003, 2005), (Regneală, 2004), (Vasilescu, 2005). Change is the law of life and those who look only to the pastor preent certain to miss the future."—John F. Kenned

40. Signs of Progress • Gates Foundation’s involvement in bringing computers to Romanian libraries. • Anghelescu is currently involved with the implementation of the Global Libraries project in Romania, a $1.4 million pilot project in Romania sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to be followed by a $25 million rollover project at the national scale.

41. Websiteand orientation film for Bibliotecă Centrala Univeritară, Timişoara, Romania.

42. “Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."—John F. Kennedy Questions and Comments?