K.I.S.S.

But is simplicity what librarianship is all about? Is our job to present the complex world of information searching as something so simple a baby can do it? And, is doing so ultimately a good marketing strategy? I don’t think so.In fact, marketing in this way could harm the profession. After all, if we strive to make our services appear Google-esque, we could be obfuscating a big chunk of our competitive advantage – our collections’ depth and sophisticated organization. The complexities of our databases and services are what give users control over their searching. I’m not saying that we need to make our offerings overly-complicated and intimidating, but that we need to let patrons’ needs guide what shape our marketing takes and they don’t all want simple. (It’s true!)