Strategy, intentionality, and impact: A purchasing plan for library promotional swag

Abstract

The labor and expense involved in developing a comprehensive outreach program can be overwhelming. There are often additional expenditures for marketing and promotional items to support the outreach events that go beyond costs of planning and staffing outreach activities. The Texas A&M University Libraries boast a robust outreach program—library employees participate in more than 100 outreach activities each calendar year. We developed programmatic strategies for improving the cost and labor efficiency of both purchasing and managing the distribution of library-branded promotional items as a part of these outreach efforts. Colloquially, these items are known as swag. This chapter will provide insight into why and how we created a swag inventory system to support our outreach program.