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

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.