Convenience Environment in Library and Archives Service: Promotion Activities Evaluation in Pekanbaru

This study aimed at explaining the implementation of promotional activities done by Library and Archives Service (BPA) of Pekanbaru City in increasing the number of visitors. This qualitative study was conducted to investigate the implementation of promotional activities, the obstacles often faced when a promotional event was implemented, and the attempts to overcome the challenges. Based on the result of the study, it was found out that BPA has conducted some library promotional activities since 2013 namely brochure distribution; online promotion in the website; handing out BPA stickers, merchandises, and tokens of appreciation; and designing Pekanbaru (digital library in hand). Some other promotional activities were a mobile library visit to elementary schools and crowded public places such as Car Free Day and the Great Mosque of An-Nur. The competition events ever conducted were elementary school level story-telling contest, kindergarten level coloring contest, and writing game via websites for elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school students throughout Pekanbaru City. The library also participated in the exhibition conducted by the Library and Archives Service of the Riau Province. Based on the interview result with authority in the service and promotion department, it was stated that the Pekanbaru society has started to get familiar to the existence of the Library and Archives Service (BPA) of Pekanbaru City. As the evidence, the number of visitors was increasing every year. On the other hand, the other obstacles faced by the institution were the limited human resources and the small supporting fund, and the policies which were slightly unsupportive to the service and promotion section.


Introduction
The library is one of the means of information. It is the discipline, the existence of which is expected to be able to assist the government in educating the nation. All activities must invariably contain educational elements and values; the development of science, technology, and culture; and research facilitation. As a base of learning, the existence of a library has been continuously expected to fulfill its users in obtaining any information or data needed. The society's needs towards fast, accurate, precise, accessible, efficient, and specific information must be fulfilled by both the librarians and the library managers. This attitude must be proven by providing the needs of the society according to their demands so that they can notice and comprehend the existence of the library further.  2 Following the issue of the Acton Library Number 43 of 2007, the existence of a library has become crucial. The act has become legal protection for all types of library performances and all of their supporting elements comprising librarians, library buildings, book collections, and library users. It is essential for the positions in charge to conduct library promotional programs for the sake of responding to the low utilization of the library by the users. The user society will come to the library when they have an interest in the venue, environment, book collection, and so forth. This interest will level up into fondness when their demand is fulfilled. Along with this satisfaction, the library users will keep coming back to the library. Based on these phenomena, library as information manager must be able to maintain its reputation by conducting events promoting the activities done in the library to attract the users' interest. However, the users' interest towards library remains low these days. Therefore, an evaluation of the implementation of promotional activities is necessary for the sake of improving the image of the library before its users. Thus, the library development will be possible in the future.
Considering the background above, the researcher aims at investigating the implementation of promotional activities conducted by Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City and the obstacles which they faced. The objective of this study is the library promotional activities. For this reason, the researcher is interested in conducting research entitled "Evaluation towards Library Promotion Conducted by Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City." Therefore, this study tries to find out "How was the implementation of library promotional activities conducted by Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City? And What were the obstacles faced by the librarians in conducting the promotional activities in the Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City?

Theory; The Review
The first study was the one conducted by Elly Sufdiar in 2012 entitled "Users' Feedback towards Library Promotion in Library, Archives, and Documentation Service of Riau Province." The result of the study stated that: 1) According to the users' point of view, the promotion of Library, Archives, and Documentation Service (BPAD) of Riau Province needs to be published in local and national newspapers. 2) The library users generally reckoned that promotional activities in the form of printouts such as magazines, brochures, posters, and newspapers had not met the users' expectation perceiving BPAD of Riau Province as the pride of Pekanbaru City. The second study was the one conducted by Dahrial Iskandar in 2013 entitled "Librarians' Roles in Promoting the Library in Library, Archives, and Documentation Service of Riau Province." The result of the study was relevant to the indicators stating that: 1) Librarians' Roles in promoting the library service were as educators (35.6%), as facilitators (34.5%), as motivators (41.4%), and as mediators (33.7%).
According to Hermawan Zen (2006: 30), the public library is a library facilitating all society layers without taking account of their background, social status, religions, tribes, and education. Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City is a public library particularly facilitating the local society of Pekanbaru. Marketing is a duty which needs to be accomplished by the library manager to assess the users' needs, survey the users' intensity level, and analyze the profitable opportunities.
Further, Means of library promotions activities can be classified into printed and electronic media. The methods of publicity in the form of printed media comprise: The brochure is a type of promotion in the way of published papers of pages containing general guidelines about the library, information of collections, list of interesting reading materials, hints on particular subjects and information regarding types of library.

2) Poster
The poster is a means of promotion commonly using huge-size paper such as A3 or A2 containing writings and images.
3) Newspaper or Magazine Newspapers can be used to display new or best-selling books available in the market which have been owned by the library. Magazines can be used to show the brief profile of the library, its peculiarity, and its strengths. Meanwhile, means of promotion classified as an electronic media are: 4) Television Television is a highly-effective media used in promoting a product or service due to its vast accessibility and its audio-visual content.

5) Internet
The use of appealing internet websites for the related library will attract the users to visit the library.
The exhibition is a type of promotion and publication event needed for the overall improvement of the library. Symposium can be conducted by inviting some book writers or influential figures wellknown in society. Conducting competitions embedding library-related themes is a potential activity to promote the library. The film screening is an effective means of conveying library-related messages and promotion. Some layers of the society have not been well-informed about the roles of the library. Therefore, library socialization is essential to educate the community about the functions of the library.

Method
To obtain a valid result of the study, the researcher formerly conducted data collection regarding the promotion implementation and its obstacles. The data collection was done by identifying the library's and librarians' procedures in implementing the promotional activities towards the general public. Secondly, the researcher also identified the obstacles met in implementing and putting the promotional strategies into actions. Afterward, some solutions were taken to objectify the Public Library that the Pekanbaru society can be proud. This study was conducted in the Library and Archives of Pekanbaru City. This location was selected since the researcher intended to investigate and observe the activities of Pekanbaru City Library directly. The observed variables in this study were the Library Promotional Activities. This study was qualitative research.

Results
Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City is currently led by Ir. Hj. Nelfiyonna, M.Si (Employee ID Number: 196511051997032003). The employee assigned for promotion section is Reni Prasetyawati (Employee ID Number: 197102271997032002) who serves as Library Service and Automation Section in the organization chart. The organization chart is attached in the appendix. Promotional activities in Library and Archives Service had been conducted since 2013 (after the library moved to Sutomo 1 St. Pekanbaru City). The types of promotional activities conducted are:  Brochure (leaflet), Profile Book, Flyer  Website since 2015 (online promotion) address: bpa.pekanbaru.go.id  Sticker and merchandise such as handing pens which read Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City  Pekanbaru (digital library in hand), which can be downloaded and read for free in @ipekanbaru_lib.   Based on the interview result above, the researcher concluded that introducing and promoting the library through the mobile library is an effective way of presenting the existence of the Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City to the society. According to the researcher, the monthly visit of the mobile library bus is not quite adequate. However, the limitation of Human Resources and the limited number of cars in the library only makes it possible for the library to conduct the school visit once a month. The existence of information booth in public places is one of their promotional activities to familiarize the society to the library. This activity is well-received by the Pekanbaru society for they can increase their knowledge through the book collection provided by the mobile library bus while enjoying their holiday.

Discussion
The competition events conducted by the Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City in 2016 took place only in particular occasions, for example, in commemorating the Indonesian independence. Giving the library regular visitors a token of gratitude and appreciation or merchandise is an appropriate decision for the sake of introducing the library to the society in general and the library users in particular. Based on the result of the interview with Reni Prasetyawati, S.Pi., M.Si., the Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City is going to conduct some follow-up plans in the future, such as: 1) Performing a regular socialization and promotion activity in schools and public places in the upcoming years 2) Initiating Information Literacy 3) Evaluating the library by conducting renewal and reshuffle of the organization chart 4) To maximize the socialization and promotion activities, the library director is going to hold some training to the employees before assigning them with the socialization responsibilities on the field. 5) Conducting a poetry reading contest for elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school students throughout Pekanbaru City The obstacles faced by the Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City: 1) Limited human resources: the promotion section is lack of workforce. As the evidence, Reni Prasetyawati emphasized during the interview that the promotional activities must involve all parts in the service. 2) Limited fund support: the promotional activities require an excessive budget. Also, no fund was given to the promotional activities in 2017. 3) Some policies did not support competition events.

Conclusion
Based on the elaboration above, it can be concluded that the implementation of promotional activities conducted by the Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City involved all the sections in the institution such as four units of mobile library buses used during the monthly visit to elementary schools in Pekanbaru. Besides, the mobile library bus provides information booth during the holiday in Car Free Day and crowded public places running some activities such as Annur Mosque. For particular events, the staffs of Library and Archives Service of Pekanbaru City distributed brochures and gave prizes to the winners of writing and photography competitions in elementary school, junior high school, or senior high school levels throughout Pekanbaru City. For special events, they presented merchandises and tokens of appreciation such as pens branded as BPA (Library and Archives Service) of Pekanbaru City to the visitors coming from other regions. The obstacles faced by the librarians in conducting the promotional activities were limited human resources, insufficient fund support, and unsupportive policies.

Recommendation
The promotional activities through competitions in schools and public places should be conducted regularly. In the future, the Library and Archives Service (BPA) of Pekanbaru City should attend the competition events which had been done before more frequently. Poetry reading contest among elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school students throughout Municipality of Pekanbaru, which has not taken place before, should be conducted to familiarize the local society to the existence of the Library and Archives Service (BPA) of Pekanbaru City.