Library Newsletter, THINK... Winter 2015 Issue

Newsletter cover.

The library's free, 12-page winter edition of THINK... newsletter arrived in January. The issue covers quarterly news and over 800 scheduled events from January through March. A printed edition of 2,750 copies is delivered not only to all twelve library branch locations but also to select non-library businesses to extend its reach further into the community. Online copies are also available on the library's website at, http://aclib.us/news.  

Development of the newsletter begins with library staff entering their planned quarterly events into the library's electronic calendar system during a 30-day period prior to beginning the editorial production process, which in turn takes an additional 30 days of production prior to delivery of the publication to the public. Printing services are outsourced to a local printer, taking five to seven days before receipt of the printed product back to the design department for separating and shipping different quantities to the 12 district libraries and local businesses.

Library website blog icon.

Events published in the newsletter are the same as seen on the library's website calendar of events. Due to limited space in the newsletter, complete descriptive information about the events are not published, however, those details remain available on the online branch calendars.

TV broadcast public service announcement (PSA).

2013 American Library Association PR Xchange Award Winning Marketing Design

Front and back views of winning entry for Materials Promoting Collections.

In June my work for the Alachua County Library District was named as a recipient of one of the American Library Association's PR Xchange Best of Show awards in the category of Bibliographies / Booklists / Materials Promoting Collections $6M - $19,999,999.  

Formerly called the “Swap & Shop," the PR Xchange Best of Show competition is specifically for public relations/marketing materials designed to promote libraries. Chaired by the Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA), a division of the ALA, entries are evaluated based on content, originality, and design by a team of experts in public relations, graphic design, communications, and marketing who then select the winner(s) in each category. This year, nearly 250 entries in print and electronic formats were submitted from over 90 institutions including public, academic, school, state, and special libraries. All winning entries were on display at the ALA conference in Chicago from 23-27 June. 

Surprisingly, I never even knew this event was part of the annual American Library Association (ALA) conference until January of this year when I happened across news of it while searching for something else online. The deadline for entering was only a few weeks away, so I hurried to gather up a selection of materials then narrow them down to submit them one-entry-to-a-category as required by the rules. 

While I'm pleased to receive a Best of Show acknowledgment for my library marketing design work, I have to say that I would have much rather been recognized for any of the other entries I considered far more important and vital to my library's effort to promote itself. Projects such as the new welcome brochure which went through a tremendous amount of concept rethinking, rewriting, branding design integration, paper selection, and printing process coordination; or, the "I Am The Library" employee recruitment campaign which was developed and distributed in multiple formats, including print, online, and even television broadcast commercials; or THINK... the quarterly newsletter that transformed from an unsophisticated and poorly uncoordinated jumble of cheezy dated clip art and uninspiring photography with unappealing colour text boxes that contained every typeface known to man set in mis-matched sizes from story-to-story…to become a well thought-out and focused publication executed with some sense of design integrity and sophistication. 

In comparison, my bookmark that won in its category was the least important item I entered. In fact, it was the very last item I selected from among a collection of other bookmarks in the same Book Talk: Book Discussion series. The strength of the bookmark design I entered was carried forward by a prominently placed book cover with a powerful illustration on the front panel, then on the flip side was sprinkled with a few smaller book covers and their associated single-sentence book descriptions. Compared to my other more labor intensive entries, there was barely any design effort placed on my pre-formatted brochure that won in its category

All that being said, there were definitely many fine examples of marketing design in the PR Xchange Best of Show, clearly deserving accolades of their own. When the award recipients were announced, I was happy read which libraries won in their respective categories. I was even more happy to see what the winning entries looked like after organizers posted images of them into photo albums onFlickr.com at www.flickr.com/photos/97060948@N06/sets/. Being able to see what won in previous years will help practitioners of marketing design to appreciate what had been submitted in the past and also to see where the bar of visual standards are when considering to submit future entries.

I hope that the Florida Library Association (FLA) where my library is located will take careful note of the diverse range of visual marketing tools used to promote libraries and move to add these categories into their own annual awards competition. At the moment the FLA only recognizes website design as the sole manner for promoting libraries. So if you're a web designer, good for you! You have a chance to be recognized. But if you promote your library through any manner of print, you'd out of luck because, after all, who would put an ad in the paper or magazine, or design a brochure, or a flyer, or a poster, or a banner, or a handbill, or an event invitation, or a program, or a newsletter, or a logo, or a display, or a building signage system, or a vehicle wrap, or an integrated branding campaign?

Read about the Best of Show at PR Xchange and link to the entry form where categories are listed:

http://www.ala.org/llama/awards/prxchange_bestofshow

See links for complete list of 2013 PR Xchange Best of Show Winners as well as a link showing the winning entries on Flickr:

http://www.llama.ala.org/llamaleads/?p=1713

Library Book Talk: Book Discussion Series: Steampunk Marketing Designs

The event poster.

Bookcard front and back.

As part of the library Book Talk: Book Discussion series, July will feature books from the Steampunk genre. For it, I created a single design for posters sized 11x17 and 20x30 inches, as well as an 3.5x8.5 inch bookcard. The posters are simply an enlargement/reduction of the same design. 

The bookcard uses the same elements, only scaled down and arranged differently. As you'll note on the back of the book card, related books include descriptive text to name the author, reference call information, and a single sentence teaser to describe each book's main theme.

Library Book Talk Event Signs & Bookmark Marketing Designs

Two posters from the library "Book Talk" series.

The adult services department at our Headquarters Library recently developed the idea to hold a public book talk event each month. Each event would focus on a specific topic and/or book and would be presented by one of the staff librarians.

Since there would be one event each month, I proposed we consider the events be promoted as an identifiable "series" rather than a bunch of random, unrelated ad hoc events. This way, I could develop a basic, yet consistently applied visual identity and reusable loosely structured template for each of the promotional elements that each event would use. The idea was approved, and I developed a set of promotional marketing templates based on the very first event: Love A Mystery.

The librarian giving the talk had already picked out the artwork she wanted to use and written the text to accompany it. She wanted to offer large bookmarks to attendees, which I thought was a fine idea. I suggested that the same bookmarks be created and offered in advance, however, to be used to promote the event ahead of the event date, which she also thought was a good suggestion.

So with her nicely prepared text and visuals, I developed a bookmark design and applied the styling to an 11x17 inch poster. She liked them, so those designs became our standard template to apply to the remaining events that would follow later in the series, such as the March Book Talk: Book Discussion event about Electromagnetic Pulse Terrorism.

The artwork I selected for the EMP book discussion wasn't as simple and clean as the Mystery event style. But as intended, the design solution would maintain standard design elements for consistency, while other elements particular to each unique event would be allowed to change. For the EMP event, I included semi-translucent darkened bands to help separate—yet continue to integrate—the text with the art. Another semi-translucent box—only this time in white—would be inset into the artwork to contain the descriptive text.

Front and back of two "Book Talk" bookmarks.

Total collaterals, per event:

2x 11x17 inch posters

50 bookmarks

1 web banner