1.  Context and Motivation 

Libraries are often associated with the word ‘reading.’ They can change people, communities, and even countries by elevating individuals’ consciousness and strengthening their minds (Itedjere, Achugbue & Sokari, 2012, as cited in Itsekor & Nwokeoma, 2017). Like other libraries, Mohammed bin Rashid Library (MBRL) promotes the reading culture and the youth’s mental growth and inspires a love of learning (MBRL, 2016). Songhui (2008) mentions that a conventional library faces challenges as people’s reading habits, especially young people, and their ways of acquiring materials have turned online. Thus, a library that utilizes the latest AI technology to create a new reading culture would be viewed as more attractive to the younger population.

The young generation is not as passionate as the older generations about visiting a typical and traditional library. We believe that libraries such as MBRL must be promoted amongst young people as they adopt a new and futuristic culture of reading that is more adapted to their tech- savvy taste. As MBRL was recently opened in 2022, many people have yet to visit it, especially Emirati university students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This paper is the outcome of our senior tourism project for the course TCC-471, which leverages research and analytical skills to address a communication challenge in the context of the tourism, cultural, and heritage industries. Using a mixed-methods approach, this project aims to identify the visitation of Emirati Zayed University (ZU) students in Mohammed bin Rashid Library and create an advertising campaign based on the findings. It is, therefore, a research-based and creative project that produces digital media content.

This creative and research project aims to address this challenge. As the library is still growing its audience, we aimed to build brand awareness and encourage Emirati youth to visit it to increase MBRL’s domestic visitation. More specifically, the outline of this research paper is as follows: Section 2 presents the problem statement and the literature review; Section 3 explains the methodology; Section 4 illustrates the findings and showcases how the data was used to create an appropriate marketing campaign tailored to the target audience’s interests. Section 5 presents the discussion and conclusions, and finally, section 6 addresses the limitations and recommendations for future research. In the Annex, attached is the marketing video we produced for MBRL, which combined footage filmed by the internship from Creative Lab by Twofour54 and some raw footage given to us of the library from MBRL.

2.  Background/Literature Review/Problem Statement 

We were eager to address a real-life communication challenge in the domestic tourism industry, as per the TCC 471 syllabus, by starting with a literature review and conducting primary research to implement the solutions to the challenge and, consequently, build relations with an industry partner such as MBRL. Out of the numerous libraries in the UAE, we chose MBRL for two reasons. Firstly, it was recently opened in June 2022 and integrated an effective use of the latest technologies for education. Secondly, MBRL has partnered with Zayed University to enhance students’ passion for reading and provide them with the library’s resources (Zayed University, 2022). We wanted to follow up with this partnership. This collaboration further motivated us to encourage our peers at Zayed University to visit the library, as they will also gain the maximum benefit of the library from this partnership. We, therefore, reached out to the library, per the TCC 471 requirement for collaboration with industry. The MBRL management was glad to work with us; they allowed us to collaborate with them, contributing to this project’s requirements and success. After the interviews with the management, we identified a need for a marketing plan primarily targeted to attract Zayed University students.

We then conducted background research on MBRL through the business press and journal articles to learn more about the library and the techniques of marketing a library and its services. According to Zaywa (2022), the library has had more than 40,000 visitors since July 2022. Their ages range from 15 to 60 years old, and they spend 2 to 5 hours in the library. Additionally, MBRL is the largest library in the Arab world and the biggest electronic library globally (Rogers, 2016). Also, the business press informed us about the library’s scale and audience demographics.

The academic literature on the marketing of libraries revealed that libraries should avoid using jargon in library terminology and have their marketing team promote services successfully (Benedetti, 2017). This information told us we should use simple terms in our marketing campaign. MBRL has its marketing team, so we collaborated with them specifically to market the library successfully. Librarians should also understand the library’s values and competitors, categorize its users, and make the environment hospitable to its visitors (Adeloye, 2003). We benefited from this information by informing ourselves about the library’s brand identity to represent MBRL appropriately in our marketing campaign. Additionally, Anwar and Zhiwei (2020) stated that the marketing of libraries witnessed social media as the most significant development in the twenty-first century and that social media marketing is crucial for libraries in promoting their goods and services. This helped us conclude that our marketing campaign for MBRL should be on social media platforms to keep up with the latest trends in attracting audiences.

3.  Research Approach/Methodology 

In this research, we used a mixed-methods approach gathering qualitative data from interviews with the Marketing and Communication department at MBRL to learn about the library and its features and quantitative data from a survey distributed to the targeted ZU students. We had several meetings with the marketing team in the library, including the Marketing and Communications Manager and a Marketing and Communication Senior Officer. We also communicated with them for additional questions through email and WhatsApp. We asked the marketing team about the most appropriate way to market the library during the meetings. We were also given information on the library’s resources, services, and features. The marketing team also informed us that fewer university students visit the library than expected, as the library heavily caters to the young population of the UAE. Therefore, we aimed to create a survey for our peers at Zayed University to define our target audience and understand their perceptions and level of awareness towards MBRL.

The target audience for this marketing video is Zayed University female and male students from both Dubai and Abu Dhabi campuses whose ages range from 18 to 25 years old. They are students who are active on social media and looking for a quiet and aesthetically pleasing place to study. The survey gathered quantitative data from 119 Zayed University students from Dubai and Abu Dhabi Campuses. It included 13 questions with several answer options on demographics, level of awareness of MBRL, visitation and experience, marketing reach of MBRL, and interest in visitation.

As the students showed interest in visiting the library, we aimed that this marketing campaign would encourage them to plan a visit. Based on the survey findings and the interviews with the marketing department, we produced a marketing video that combined some raw footage of the library given to us by MBRL and other raw footage filmed by the internship students Khalid Alhosani and Mohammed Mahmoud from Creative Lab by Twofour54. Creative Lab by Twofour54, a media and entertainment production company, is a community of passionate people who want to expand their creative opportunities in the media and entertainment industry. Due to this initiative, we came up with the idea of collaborating with them and granting some of their talented interns the opportunity to work on a real-life project and make our idea come to life. We contacted the Senior Production Manager, Salwa Alhadhrami, at Twofour54 and discussed our collaboration. Upon approval from the top managers at Twofour54 to create the marketing campaign, the plan was finalized and shared with MBRL. We also developed a script for the marketing campaign that was narrated in Arabic by Fatma Alhadhrami in the video.

Moreover, the video was edited by one of the authors of this paper, including English subtitles for the Zayed University students who do not understand Arabic. We used Movavi Software to edit the video and assemble the raw footage from MBRL and the internship students. The marketing video and the script are provided in the Annex below. Furthermore, the cast in the marketing video was the senior project group members, including one of the member’s nephews (see Annex for the marketing campaign).

4.  Results 

This research project aimed to raise awareness among Zayed University students about MBRL by producing a marketing video based on the survey’s findings distributed to Zayed University students in Dubai and Abu Dhabi campuses. We addressed the active challenge of Zayed University students’ lack of visitation to Mohammed Bin Rashid Library in Dubai. The marketing video highlighted the library’s most important aspects and features and, therefore, would attract students to the library.

Starting with the demographics shown in Figure 1, the survey findings revealed that 94.1%

(112) of the participants were 18-25 years old, 3.4% (4) were 26-30, and 2.5% (3) were above 30 years old. In addition, 97.5% of the participants (116) were female, and 2.5% (3) were male (Figure 2). Regarding the Emirates, 61.3% (73) were from Dubai, 18.5% (22) were from Abu Dhabi, and a total of 20.1% (24) were from the rest of the Emirates Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain (Figure 3).

The survey findings also showed that 81.5% of the participants (97) were from the Dubai campus, and the rest were from the Abu Dhabi campus (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Campuses of ZU students

Regarding the participants’ majors, 22.7% of the participants are CCMS (College of Communication and Media Sciences) students, 21% are NHS (College of Natural and Health Sciences), 16% are CACE (College of Arts and Creative Enterprises), 15.1% are from HSS (College of Humanities and Social Sciences), 12.6% are CTI (College of Technological Innovation), 10.9% are BUS (College of Business), and only 1.7% are CIS (College of Interdisciplinary Studies) students (Figure 5). Understanding these variations helped us target the right demographic segment and produce appropriate digital content based on these findings.

Figure 5: Majors of the ZU students

The survey results also revealed that most participants (86.6%) have heard about the library, while only 13.4% have not, as illustrated in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Illustration of the students who know of MBRL

When asked how they heard about the library, more than half of the respondents (58.8%) said social media, and nearly half (46.2%) noted it through word of mouth (see Figure 7).

Figure 7: The channels that informed ZU students of MBRL

Regarding visitation and experience, the survey findings demonstrated that most participants (81.5%) did not visit the library; meanwhile, only 18.5% visited (Figure 8).

Most participants who visited the library stated that they visited months ago (10.9%), and only a few students (5.9%) visited days ago. We did not focus on this finding as this information is more critical for the MBRL Marketing Team to have a background on ZU students’ activity in the library.

Figure 9: How long ago ZU students visited MBRL 

Moreover, the most common library features enjoyed by the students who visited are the seating and atmosphere of the library (18.8%), the study rooms (16.2%), and the aesthetics (14.5%). This finding is another crucial piece of information for us. By knowing what features attracted the students who visited the library, we utilized this finding by including these features in the video to attract our peers.

Figure 10: The features of MBRL enjoyed by ZU students who visited

Regarding the marketing reach of MBRL, more than half of the participants (58.8%) have seen advertisements of MBRL on social media, and these advertisements were mainly on Instagram (36.3%), then TikTok (19.9%) and other platforms such as Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter (Figure 11).

Figure 11: The advertising reach of MBRL through social media platforms

Lastly, most of the participants who visited the library (14.3%) would like to visit again, and those who have not visited MBRL (70.6%) wish to visit (Figure 12). This shows that there is a positive interest in visiting the library for those who have visited and who are yet to visit.

Figure 12: Interest in visiting

5.  Discussion/Conclusions 

Libraries play a crucial role in developing and educating students and youth by providing access to information, encouraging imagination and creativity, supporting learning and education, fostering digital literacy, and providing safe and inclusive spaces to learn, explore, and grow. To encourage youth to adopt a new and futuristic reading culture that suits their tech-savvy tastes, we think libraries like MBRL must be promoted amongst them. It is one of the libraries that can complement formal education and contribute to students’ and youth’s emotional, social, and intellectual development. Many individuals have yet to visit the MBRL, particularly Emirati university students in the UAE, as the library was recently opened in 2022. The lack of Zayed University Emirati students visiting Mohammed bin Rashid Library was the main challenge we sought to address in this paper.

The findings of this research project showed that most participants heard about MBRL, mainly through social media and word of mouth, but have not visited MBRL yet. In the video, we aimed to focus on the features that attracted university students to the library based on the findings of the survey (see Annex for the marketing campaign). It was shown in the survey that the majority of students who visited MBRL enjoyed the atmosphere and seating, the study rooms, and the aesthetics. Therefore, we made sure to show the various reading areas and the calm atmosphere of the library. In the video, we also showed a spacious study room with a projector suitable for university students looking for a place to practice for their upcoming presentations. As for the aesthetics, the video showed how nicely organised the library is, and the bright colours introduce a sense of creativity and productivity. Since our target audience enjoys working in an aesthetically pleasing environment, we made sure to showcase the beauty of the library in the video. We also shared the survey findings with MBRL’s marketing team for future reference regarding ZU students’ demographics and perception of the library.

To create further awareness about the library among ZU students and share our message with the target audience, we reached out to the university social media managers who shared our advertising campaign on their platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and Twitter.

Moreover, we also shared our research findings and campaign with the marketing department at MBRL to utilize them further and use them as a strategy to attract more female ZU students to the library.

This study has a few limitations that could be addressed in future research. One of them is the issue of the sample size. For this research project, we aimed to gather more than 200 responses from Zayed University Dubai and Abu Dhabi students. However, because of time constraints and the duration of our survey, which was limited to 2 weeks, we only gathered 119 responses. This sample size is insufficient because, as known, there are more than 6000 students at Zayed University, and with our small sample size, our results may not accurately represent the larger population of Zayed University students.

To minimize the impact of this limitation in future research, the online survey could be sent out to students ahead of time, and the survey deadline could be extended to get more respondents. The online survey could also be conducted in person on campus to gather more responses, providing further data on Zayed University students’ perceptions and level of awareness towards Mohammed bin Rashid Library. The lack of prior research on the topic of marketing for libraries and strategies to draw in youth and students can be further addressed. Moreover, future research could build on the findings of our paper and dig deeper into the subject to explore domestic visitation in other universities in the UAE, besides ZU.

Acknowledgments 

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to MBRL, Marketing and Communication Manager Amal Alblooshi, Marketing and Communication Officer Maryam Alfalasi, and other MBRL employees, including the receptionists and the security guards, who gladly cooperated with us and made this senior project successfully address a real-time challenge happening currently in the domestic tourism industry in the UAE.

We are also extremely grateful to Twofour54 Senior Production Manager Salwa Alhadhrami and the creative team who allowed us to work with their students. The manager informed us that our marketing video would be published on their Creative Lab Instagram (@creativelabme), which we are highly looking forward to.

We would also like to thank the Twofour54 Internship students Khalid Alhosani and Mohammed Mahmoud, who filmed many clips of the marketing video. It was a pleasure working with them, and we wish them the best in their future endeavours.

We are also grateful to Dr. Filareti Kotsi, who supported us throughout our senior tourism project and offered us valuable advice that helped shape our senior project and this research paper.

References 

Adeloye, A. (2003). How to market yourself and your library organization: a solo librarian’s guide. The Bottom Line, 16(1), 15-18. https://doi org.zulib.idm.oclc.org/10.1108/08880450310464018

Anwar, M. and Zhiwei, T. (2020). What is the relationship between marketing of library sources and services and social media? A literature review paper. Library Hi Tech News, 37(3), 1-5. https://doi-org.zulib.idm.oclc.org/10.1108/LHTN-10-2019-0071

Benedetti, A. R. (2017). Promoting library services with user-centered language. Portal: Libraries & the Academy, 17(2), 217–234. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2017.0013

Itedjere, Andrew O., Achugbue, Edwin I., Sokari Uwuma (2012). The significance of the library in technology education institutions in sustainable youth empowerment: An overview.

International Journal of Library Science, 1(2), 19-22. http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.library.20120102.01.html

Itsekor, V. O., & Nwokeoma, N. M. (2017). The importance of the use of libraries and the need for a reading culture. Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Librorum, 1(24), 97-110. https://doi.org/10.18778/0860-7435.24.07

MBRL. (2016). About Mohammed Bin Rashid Library. https://www.mbrl.ae/about-the-library

Songhui, Z. (2008). The influence of traditional reading habits on the construction of digital libraries in developing countries. The Electronic Library, 26(4), 520-529. https://doi- org.zulib.idm.oclc.org/10.1108/02640470810893765

Zayed University. (2022). Partnership with Mohammed Bin Rashid Library will “Stimulate a Passion for Knowledge” in Zayed University students. https://www.zu.ac.ae/main/en/news/2022/November/mbr-lib

Annexes

The link to the marketing video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FYpeTiexAOun63Rc4sC_cw4lLX3GpHWf/view?usp=sharing

The script of the marketing video in Arabic and English: 

النص :1 القراءة هي غذاء للروح وللعقل، القرآن بدأ بـاقرأ – صاحب السمو الشيخ محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم Holy the in revealed word first the mind; and soul the for nourishment is “Reading 1: Subtitle Maktoum Al Rashid Bin Mohammed HH – “Read” was Quran

النص :2 “اقرأ”، أو ُل وصي ٍة سماوية، ومنارتُنا الثقافية سعت لتنفيذها. مكتبة محمد بن راشد اكثر من مجرد مكتبة، مكتبة محمد

.اشراقًا ُر أكث مستقبل الى يحملكم ٌم عال واحد، ٍن مكا في والمعرفة والعلم الثقافة حيث بأكمله عالم الى الوجهة راشد بن Subtitle 2: “Read,” the first revealed verse in the Quran, and our beacon of knowledge strived to fulfill the first Quranic verse. Mohammed Bin Rashid Library is more than just a library; Mohammed Bin Rashid Library is your destination to a whole world where knowledge, culture, and education meet in one place, a world that takes you to a brighter future.

ٌح معرفي وفكري يحتضن تسع مكتبات عامرة

ٌح ثقافي تتداخل فيه الحركة التعليمية والثقافية والسياحية، صر

النص :3 صر

.لإلمارات الثقافية النهضة وجوه من ًها وج ويعكس المعرفية والكنوز والرسائل الكتب بماليين Subtitle 3: A cultural edifice in which education, culture, and tourism intertwine. An intellectual and cultural edifice that is home to nine libraries with millions of books, manuscripts, and treasures. It reflects one of the aspects of the cultural renaissance of the UAE.

النص :4 من هنا يُسافر اطفالُنا عبر الكتب الى عالم مميز خا ٍص بهم، عال ٌم يجمع التعلم والمتعة في آن واحد، عال ٌم خيالي يمنح

.األحالم وتتحقق الطموحات فيه وتُبنى وأنفسهم، طاقاتهم عن للتعبير واسعة مساحة اطفالنا Subtitle 4: Our children travel through books to a distinctive world of their own, a world that combines both learning and entertainment simultaneously, a magical world that gives our children ample space to express themselves, a world where ambitions are created, and dreams come true.

ٌف ومساحات مهيأة الستقبالكم لتحف َز روح اإلبداع والخيال لديكم لتنطلقوا بأفكاركم وتنفتح امامكم آفاقًا جديدة

النص :5 غر

لمستقبل باهر.

Subtitle 5: Rooms and spaces ready to welcome you, ones that inspire you to unleash your creativity and imagination to create a brighter future ahead of you.

النص :6 عند عتبات الطابق السابع تُبحر بكم مكتبة محمد بن راشد في رحلة تُثري معارفكم وتعود بكم حتى القرن الثالث عشر

.الذخائر معرض في والقيمة النادرة والمخطوطات والكتب األطالس من مجموعة عبر Subtitle 6: When stepping on the 7th floor, Mohammed Bin Rashid Library takes you on a journey that enriches your knowledge and takes you back to the thirteenth century through a unique collection of rare books, atlases, and manuscripts in the Treasures of the Library Exhibition.

النص :7 التكنولوجيا الحديثة لم ت ِغب عن هذا الصرح الثقافي، كتبكم بين ايديكم بضغطة زر، وتجربتكم مميزة في مكتبة محمد

ِلتُطلقوا خيالكم وتصنعوا المستقبل.

بن راشد باستخدام احدث تكنولوجيا المكتبات العالمية والذكاء االصطناعي، والذي يحفزكم

Subtitle 7: Advanced technology has not been missed in this cultural edifice. With one click, your books get between your hands, and your experience at Mohammed bin Rashid Library is extraordinary using the latest global technology and artificial intelligence, which will motivate you to unleash your imagination and help shape the future.

النص :8 ملتقى حضاريًا للطلبة، الشباب، االطفال، المبدعين، الباحثين، المفكرين، والفنانين وكل من يهوى القراءة والعلو ِم

.المتنوعة Subtitle 8: A cultural meeting point for students, youth, children, creators, researchers, thinkers, artists, and anyone who is an enthusiastic reader and a diverse knowledge seeker.

النص :9 هنا يعيش الحلم ويزدهر حام ًال االجيال الى مستقبل أكثر ازدها ًرا، هنا حيث يمتزج االبتكار مع عبق الماضي وحداثة

الحاضر وألق المستقبل، هنا حيث ال سقف للطموحِ وال حدود لألحالم. عال ٌم مختلف واستثنائي بانتظاركم في مكتبة محمد بن

راشد.

Subtitle 9: Here is where the dream lives and flourishes, taking generations to a prosperous future. Here is where innovation blends with the past, the modernity of the present, and the

brightness of the future. Here where there are no limits to your dreams and ambitions. A different, exceptional world awaits you at Mohammed Bin Rashid Library.