The Evolution of a Library Welcome Brochure

Three generations of welcome brochures for the Alachua County Library District.

Oldest Welcome Brochure version.

In mid-2011 our library district began running low on of our long-used Welcome Brochure. Since we had used it for so long, we wanted to take the opportunity to update some of the language regarding basic services and information. But before that happened, content writers (administration, public services, and public relations/marketing) wanted to get a sense of what kind of space there would be for the text. 

Before I could begin designing it, however, I needed to know what their presentation and content expectations were for it, so I asked for a design brief to detail what should be removed and included. This way I would be working with at least some idea of what they wanted, rather than working in a total fantasy world and producing a solution that would have to be completely revamped later. The essentials they wanted included: redesign of a two-colour, 14x8.5 inch, quad-paneled brochure with no bleeds and a new selection of existing photos, preferably with unrecognizable people; inclusion of the library logo prominently displayed; use of the brand slogan ...thinking outside of the book; the website address; a listing of all the branch libraries, their locations, phone numbers and hours; text large enough for easy reading. And oh, by the way, they were in a big hurry for it too. 

Duotone 2011 redesign of original Welcome Brochure.

I referred to the current brochure (cover seen at top left image) and used the information it had in it to create a new design mock-up for their reference and use in determining the amount of space remaining for language content. The design utilized new selections of black/white photography on the inside and duotones I created from a set of familiar full colour watercolour renderings of each branch building on the cover. It was ugly, but it answered their brief the way they wanted it to.

After some weeks, new language was vetted, approved, and submitted for placing into the brochure. After design tweaks were applied, it was submitted for approval and accepted. Once the final English language version was approved, a second Spanish language version was to be created by having a staff member translate all the language into Spanish. Another month or so went by before we received the Spanish translation, after which I used a copy of the English language brochure to flow in the Spanish language. Spanish language typically reads longer than English, so adjustments were made to the layout to accommodate the text, then it too was submitted for approval.

New Welcome Brochure 2012 exterior design.
Bottom panel folds upward, away from viewer.

About that time, there was some discussion about how a change in the language regarding a safety procedure might be needed to be reviewed and updated in order to be correct, but that required library board vetting and approval before it could be confirmed. So the Spanish language version was put on hold. Weeks turned into months, and by the time five months rolled around when the board finally got to the safety issue and resolved the language, the library district was completely out of welcome brochures. Hmmm....

Finally, in a model demonstration of speed and efficiency, the brochure design file (cover seen at top center image) flew from my desk to the printer lickity-split for a press run of 5,000 copies once the new safety text was set into the brochure and approved for release.

When I received the redesigned duotone brochure, I instantly hated it. The cover elements were off-center—something you couldn't detect from the printer's .pdf proof; the contrast in the duotone watercolours was flat and dull; the text a boring series of bulleted, itemized lists; and the photography boring and uninspiring. Nothing was "warm and fuzzy" about this brochure. And worst of all, in an effort to keep costs as low as possible, the paper stock was about the lowest possible grammage available at a flimsy 60lb text stock. In short, from a design (and what I consider a branding/pr/marketing) standpoint, I considered the brochure horrible...seriously horrible.

New Welcome Brochure 2012 interior design.
Bottom half folds upward, toward viewer, allowing
three mission statement words to remain visible.

By July of 2012, when the library district was running low on copies of the new duotone brochure and wanted another round of reprints, I simply couldn't contain myself. I had to let requesting parties know my feelings about how tragic I regarded the welcome brochure design to be. I couldn't stand the idea of that it would continue to be used to promote our library. In my opinion, the message it sent was "we are a cheap and unsophisticated library, and that's how we regard you too." If that was what they wanted to put out there, fine. But I had to at least put my point of view out there for a little reality check. 

I designed a new welcome brochure over the course of a couple of days. I took the necessary text, regrouped it into new sections based on the library's mission statement, and highlighted them in bright, cheerful colours. I wrote an introductory welcome paragraph, added a branch location map, removed the dreary photography, and organized it all into a more interesting folding layout. I even modified the standard logo so it would finally reproduce better when seen at smaller sizes and reversed it out of the background. It was a tri-panel brochure with an additional uneven vertical fold measuring roughly 10.5x15.5 inches when open. It was simple yet modestly sophisticated, with neatly organized essential information and some actual welcoming text. It also avoided the pitfalls of tacky clip art and poor quality photography as a result of being too cost-conscious to consider hiring a professional photographer with proper equipment to take good quality shots.

Top: printed brochure exterior unfolded. 
Bottom: flip side of the unfolded exterior shows
interior side with long panel folded upward.

I then asked for an audience with the senior staff who were responsible for putting together content and approving funding for the brochure. Before I showed them my redesign, I set out on a table one at a time a selection of brochures from other local similar level organizations to show the level of presentation and sophistication they offered. They all looked acceptably decent for what they were. I then showed the duotone version of our welcome brochure and sat back for a moment to let them take it all in. I already knew what the impact would be.

I asked which organizations caught their interest and appealed to them based on how their brochures looked. I told them: "if we are going to welcome people to the library, why don't we do it like we mean it? Why don't we show them how much we care about them by showing how much we care about how we appear to them in our branding effort by using a nice looking brochure? It will be one of the first items given to them when they become a visitor or patron. It will represent the quality of our library. Because of that, it shouldn't be some flimsy, cheap looking piece of bond paper printed off an office copier." I had to say these things because it was true, and because I was embarrassed for us whenever I saw that brochure. It was terrible. They agreed; we looked cheap, uninspiring, and barely even sincerely welcoming. 

Top: printed unfolded exterior. 
Bottom: flip side of the exterior
 shows interior fully opened.

Once it was agreed that a new direction was needed, I was ready to pull out my more colourful redesigned welcome brochure. I went over how it addressed and improved upon all the deficient points of the previous brochure. I even went over how printing it on a heavier weight paper and/or textured paper could enhance the presentation of the brochure. The way the brochure folded even allowed for it to wrap around and package a patron's new library card when it was issued. The design direction and talking points were all well received and it was agreed that we would pursue the new redesign instead of a reprint of the previous duotone "ASAP" brochure. Believe me, I was very relieved.

I contacted the printer to ask for a selection of papers from their stock that interested me. Once received, we selected a couple of papers that appeared to have a suitable weight that was within our budget. I then asked the printer to send new unprinted samples of the selected paper cut to the correct dimension and machine folded so that I could assess the folds for any splitting along the seams. It took a couple of weeks before I received a selection of blank, poorly hand-folded papers. I could see that the preferred heavier weight paper would crack far too much along the folds, so I went back to the paper samples to find lighter weight versions and asked to receive new samples of lighter weight stocks along with estimates for printing. 

Another couple weeks passed before the next set of folded papers arrived. Fortunately, one of the selections appeared to be suitable in weight and price. After it was approved by the library client, I sent my design file to the printer for the next step in the process: having them create a digital print of the brochure and mailing a physical proof to me for a final review. Once received, I could assess it to make certain it was folded and trimmed properly, that the colour panels were the correct dimensions and didn't bleed into the panel space of other colours, and that fine lines in the art elements didn't fill in or wash out. I didn't want to leave any stone unturned for quality control checks. With a print run of 10,000 copies, I didn't want to spend another year feeling as badly about this welcome brochure as I did the last one. After this version was printed, we'd move on to creating its companion Spanish language version. That is, if we'd commit ourselves and the funds to it. If not, well, there's always the flimsy, two-colour duotone version to fall back on. But we all know what that says about us and how important you are to us too.

Library Marketing Designs for The Big Read 2012

The Big Read came and went through our library in April. It's almost surprising, because it almost didn't come at all...at least from a marketing standpoint. 

Despite the fact that it takes about a year's worth of advance planning and organizing, the person in charge of coordinating this series of events for our library still hadn't approached the marketing department for any publicity as late as two weeks and a couple days before April 1st. You could almost hear the chirping of crickets as we waited and waited, knowing it would eventually come...but when?

I wasn't surprised by this oversight, and knew that if I didn't sound the precursory alarm, we would probably still not have heard anything until about two days before the first event. And of course, that would mean I would have to inherit that person's emergency due to lack of proper planning. As a general rule of thumb, our library likes to try to send printed publicity out at least two weeks in advance to the public so they have time to set it on their calendar and make arrangements if needed. 

This advance planning and effort by the marketing department is chronically lost on some people who get so wrapped up in the details of getting events organized that they practically forget to tell the public that it is actually going to happen. It only makes common sense to me that if you're going to spend the time and effort to have a public event that you might, you know, want to tell people before, say, a day before the event takes place. 

Once the alert was sounded to wake up sleepy minds, the marketing requests came pouring in like the pulling of teeth. Of course, with these newly identified rush items mixed in with all the already well organized other projects on the production schedule, time was tight and everyone had to scramble to make up for lost preparation time. Thankfully, not everything had to arrive before the first of the month; some events and their respective collaterals could be staggered in the production schedule. 

To complicate matters, however, I planned to be away from the office during the first week of April. So whatever time could have been spent during the first week of the month to finalize any remaining projects, had to be spent either before my departure or after my return on the second week of the month--or background images made for people to add their own text over top of while I was away. This was easily accomplished once the need was determined.

To the national organizer's credit, pre-designed "templates" were provided for a few marketing items. Unfortunately, however, these documents weren't modifiable in a way that they could be taken and made into other documents. So, for example, if you wanted to send out an 8.5x11 inch flyer, as well as an 8.5x11 inch sign--each requiring different amounts of text and space--you were stuck with the same 8.5x11 inch template they provided that had a big illustration on it of the featured author. Or if you needed another common size of something like a quarter page invitation, it wouldn't be there and another design would need to be canibalized to make it. But then, the logos and attribution text--which had to be maintained at a required size--would be scaled down along with the design to render the text an unreadable, or unapproved point size. Not helpful! To remedy the muck, I took what I could that was offered from the media kit and developed my own set of templates that maintained the design sensibility initiated by the national organizer and met all the mandatory associated grant requirements for publicity use.

In the end, over 16 different marketing items were created by our marketing department to support a variety of different events that took place over the course of the month. Above, I show a numbered key to indicate the different collaterals used. I may be missing a couple, but these are the ones I recall most.

So here's a round-up of our library's The Big Read event publicity:

1)   Thank you poster 16x20 inch
2)   Event listing flyer 11x17 inch
3)   Background template for 8.5x11 inch for print ad

4)   Half page 5.5x8.5 inch event program front 

5)   Half page 5.5x8.5 inch event program back
6)   Background template for 5.5x8.5 inch communications
7)   Art contest 8.5x11 inch sign
8)   TV station public service announcement ad (PSA). 

       Same item used for quarter page handbills.

9)   Print magazine ad NFSD

10) Website invitation notice

11) Quarter page event invitation front

12) Website banner ad for art contest

13) Quarter page event invitation back

14) Website banner ad for general event announcement

15) Website ad 4x4 inch

16) Art contest artwork labels

Library (Signage) Helps You Find Your Way

Can't find your way? Let the Library show you!

As a point of fact, our library is a fantastic resource for information and a wellspring of knowledge. There are some things it does well, and others that, shall we say, does a little "too well." Case in point, showing visitors the way out of our downtown Headquarters Library. 

Since my arrival at the library a couple of years ago, I've always marveled at how many EXIT signs (and derivatives thereof) keep popping up to point visitors out through the appropriate front door exit. Every few months, I go back to our lobby in part simply for my amusement as well as to more specifically count those signs:

One...two...ten...eighteen...more...are you kidding me? For four doors?

I, probably like a couple others (I'm sure we're an endangered species), will actually camp out to watch the traffic flow, paying careful attention to what visitors look at as they enter and exit the building. I want to see where their eyes are going, what catches their attention first, second, last. The interaction between visitor and the environment varies, of course, but by and large most people have been successfully "trained" to pass through a "metal detector" looking structure that scans for RFID stickers in front of one of the doors. Other visitors, however, probably consider the device an obstruction of some kind and decide to avoid it in favour of two other doors that appear to be more accessible--until they read the sign(s) on them.

Our lobby has four sliding glass doorways, two of which are identified as fire exits only, one as an entrance as indicated on both sides, and one as an exit, also indicated on both sides. In addition to that, library staff have printed numerous 8.5x11 pages to mount on windows, walls, and pedestals with ropes attaching them together that act as a funnel to guide visitors through to the RFID tag detector and the only door specified for exiting. The mass result looks like the photo above, compiling an impressive 20 or so signs that say "EXIT."

Why so many? Is it that difficult for visitors to find the exit? The obvious answer must be "yes!" otherwise some of those signs wouldn't be there. But the resulting visual clutter is an unsightly environmental chaos that looks tacky too. 

The challenge is how to fulfill city code requirements for emergency door access signage, yet reduce the overall number of signs it takes for the lowest common denominator of visitors to successfully navigate their way to the appropriate door. Just like "conduct code" signage, a balance needs to be struck between what is "reasonably sufficient," and what is "overkill."

Trust me, we have our crack team of experts working on it.

Library Rules: Library Conduct Signage Design

A new conduct sign was created in three sizes to be displayed in library environments.

As we all know, the library has always been a place where people could go for reading. In order to do that, a certain amount of ambient quiet has always been encouraged in library settings. Earlier generations of visiting patrons used to be more restrained and considerate about noise. But with the passage of time, the evolution of library services and activities that include much more than reading—as well as generational changes in behaviour—the rise in noise has increased in the library setting.


I'm sure few librarians relish the task of enforcing library rules of conduct, but this has fallen upon them as first responders to violations. After that, reinforcements—additional library staff, managers, private security, and even city police are called if needed. Problem behaviour reports are then generated and even no trespassing violations are issued to serious or repeat offenders.


Library staff look for ways to reduce their front-line involvement, as well as a way to validate interjecting themselves into problem behaviour situations. Often, violators will feign not knowing rules exist for simple common sense and courteous behaviours. A way to address this lack of knowledge and to raise awareness about what isn't acceptable public behaviour is by posting rules where patrons will see them.


Unfortunately, when a code of conduct sign is installed, it is all too easy for patrons to not  notice a sign in a location that displays the rules. I can empathize with patrons who might miss seeing such a sign due to the visual assault I see myself when upon walking in to some libraries. There is simply way too much material clutter to take everything all at once—especially if standing in a room to read all the signs posted everywhere isn't your primary reason for coming to the library.

Whether or not patrons actually see a conduct sign or not, there is no way for library enforcement to guarantee they have. Therefore, librarians request additional signs be placed in all areas where undesirable behaviours occur. Then, when signs are placed there and problem behaviours continue, they ask that the signs be made bigger.


One can easily see where this escalation in signage creation and placement is going and ultimately how ridiculous it will become. Because at the end of the day, no matter how many signs you make, nor how big you make them, there will always be some problem behaviour visitor who will say they didn't see a conduct sign or know the rules (when in fact, it would be almost impossible not to know).


Finding a suitable informational vs. aesthetic balance is always a challenge I face as a designer. Whereas librarians want multiple, large signs conveniently placed within eyesight and an easy finger-pointing distance away for when they have to address behaviourly-challenged patrons, I want fewer and less conspicuous signage that doesn't add to the already volumnous clutter on display in the library environment. I believe that the exercise in behaviour modeling should be in continually educating the public about conduct rules without posting a written message over every available surface of the library. This will undoubtedly continue to be the ever-present debate between first-line responders who must manage patron behaviour, and designers who must manage aesthetics.

The early conduct sign I inherited when arriving at the ACLD.

For our library, no conduct signs had ever been created for consistent district-wide use. The closest that had been developed to date was the "please be considerate" sign which was used in a couple of  libraries. Later, different libraries would request signs with different messages that pertained to specific offending behaviours they wanted to address. This resulted in a variety of ad hok, unrelated new sign designs and sizes, with new language on them—none of which looked like they belonged to the same corporate organization.


After getting requests for more different signs, I asked that the district approve development of a standard sign design that would be used district-wide. The first requirement was to reduce the 33-odd formally identified rules of conduct down to a more manageable top 10 or less—otherwise the sign would either have to be very large and dimensionally impractical, or the text would have to be very small and ineffective for reading. We needed a sign, not a memo.

A conduct sign to address specific single rules.

Next was to develop a simple and recognizable style that utilized the corporate brand elements—logo, type face, colour—one which reflected the corporate identity design sensibilities. I first proposed a sign style (seen right), and later  was asked if I could include pictogram elements to further illustrate each behaviour for quick identification. The result was the sign at the top of this blog post.


The sizes this sign design was applied to include 1): a 20x30 inch large format poster that would be placed in a glass enclosed pedestal display at the entrance of the Headquarters Library; 2) a 5x6 inch small sign that could be wall mounted in a variety of locations in every library; and 3) the same 5x6 inch sign image used as the screen saver on computer monitors.

New Year 2012 Library Prediction Poster Results

The New Year Predictions display poster results at the end of January 2012.

Just a quick update on the results of the New Year 2012 prediction display installed during January at the Headquarters Library and online at the library's Facebook page (first blogged here: http://librarygraphicdesign.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-new-year-predictions-at-library.html ). Visitors were encouraged to add their prediction for what may or may not happen during 2012 and the resulting participation was both fun and encouraging. As you can see in the image above, there were so many predictions (114 in fact!) written on Post-It notes and stuck to the crystal ball that they couldn't all be contained within it.


On the last day of the display, the librarian managing it gathered the Post-It notes to tally up the answers. You can see the results here:  http://www.aclib.us/research/blog/what-are-your-predictions-new-year-part-2

Creating a display that encourages viewer participation is a great way to engage visitors in promotional efforts and to get feedback from them to see how you are doing. I receive a lot of positive feedback from the staff about displays like this, so I always enjoy exploring themes and presentations that lend themselves to incorporating an interactive, value-added component to what would otherwise be a static poster and message. It's great fun to see the poster continue to visually evolve during the time it is on display.

Creepy Characters in (the Library) Popular Culture

The 118x69 inch large format alcove display poster.

In late September I asked one of the Library display team members if they had any ideas what the next display would feature after the Banned Books display came down. "No idea," she said, clearly not on her radar yet. The day before, I'd had a vision for a display, so I pitched it to her: "How about: 'Creepy Characters in Literature' or 'Fiction' or 'Popular Culture.'" I had initially thought to call it "Creepy Characters in the Library" but then thought better of it, not wanting the inference to suggest any of our patrons. That would undoubtedly be too tempting for some. By extension, I also wanted to steer away from the potential of slandering the character of real people by keeping the focus on fictional characters.


The librarian liked it, so we pitched "Creepy Characters in Popular Culture" to the rest of the team, and it was unanimously approved. With that green light, the librarian sent out an email to ask others for their creepy people suggestions, and what came back was a copious list of some of popular culture's most creepy characters of all time. Now, I have to say that for me, the term "creepy" has more to do with an observation of a person's looks and/or behaviour that results in an unsettling sense that the person appears to be capable of doing something scary, horrible, horrific, detestable, or grotesque--but has yet to actually do it. Fear hasn't actually occurred, but the concept of it has "crept in" to one's consciousness. The actual definition includes all of those secondary reactions, however, so you'll find that whereas some of the people on our list are indeed creepy, others may actually be downright frightening. And since not everyone has the same level of tolerance, you can imagine there would be a little "bleed-over" between creepy and scary (no pun intended). There are a couple on the list that I don't think look creepy, but I may not know their story well enough to rule them out (Heathcliff and Lady MacBeth, for example). A couple have a humorous quality about them, but admittedly, they also have a certain creepiness about them as well (Burger King and the GEICO money stack come to mind).


So once we had a list, I gathered photos of the entries and developed a layout to show a good portion of them. If I didn't find a very good photo of an individual, they'd have to be left off. I didn't want any low resolution pixelated images to ruin the look. For some of the lesser-quality images, I could use them for the smallest size photo locations, and for the best resolution and sized images, use those in the most prominent positions. 


I also suggested that we engage the opinions of others by making the display interactive--asking viewers to write down who their most creepy character was and place that suggestion into a jack-o'-lantern. Once all suggestions were collected, we could post the result somewhere...on a blog, on our Facebook page, or both. The librarians liked that idea, so they took on that aspect of the display. A Facebook page was set up asking for patrons to pick from a selection of five offered. Results will come later! 


The 118x69 inch large format poster was printed out in two 118x36 inch strips from the in-house Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 800, trimmed, and spliced together using double-sided clear tape, then T-pinned to the display wall. A few additional halloween decorations were added: faux spider webs, spiders, bats, rats, a styrofoam tombstone and the jack-o'-lantern to place additional suggestions in...all to strengthen the connection of the poster with the Halloween holiday.


That just leaves one question...who is YOUR creepy character in popular culture?

Do Not Touch...in the Library

Okay, here's the skinny. I get a work request asking to create a sign to place on our large, 45x36 inch plasma television monitor in the library lobby. The sign is to say: "DO NOT TOUCH SCREEN." It went on to specify: "The sign should be approximately 2" tall x 11.5" wide, however you may want to measure the space to see what looks best." I'm thinking to myself: "Yep, here we go...the beginning of plastering "DO THIS / DON'T DO THAT" signs all over the library. 


Now, I understand that certain undesirable incidents can take place any time, any place, and that placing a label of warning or instruction provides the person whose job it is to "protect the merchandise"--as they say--something to point at in order to say "see? you were warned not to do it...right HERE." 


The only problem with that is that no matter how big you make your sign and no matter how many locations you place such instructions on, somebody, somewhere, will inevitably touch whatever it is you're trying to tell them not to, whether intentional or not. So when I see a sign that says "DO THIS / DON'T DO THAT" I immediately think of what a waste of time the effort is. Legal liability aside for truly serious things, some signs are ineffective and just downright petty.

Excessive labeling is esthetically abusive and gives signage
a bad name. 

To illustrate this point, I don't have to go far to argue my case. All I have to do is spin my chair around in my office. Directly behind me, is a Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 800 large format printer. At  65x42x32 inches in size, it's a pretty big hunk of office equipment. And I'd have to say, not exactly showroom beautiful too. But what makes it truly unsightly is the fact that someone who really wanted people to know that it (at one time) belonged to the Youth Services department of the library, decided to impart that message with silver marker on the black plastic housing. Not once on only one surface, but ten times. TEN! I mean, what is the freaking need for that? Essentially, they just graffitied all over some office equipment in permanent marker. And for what? Who's gonna wheel that lumbering piece of equipment out of the office and down the street? And who's gonna chase after them, shouting "Hey, you! Whattya doing there? That belongs to Youth Services!" I mean, r-e-a-l-l-y. One mention alone would have been plenty. Maybe even more than plenty. If you don't believe me, go ahead. Touch it. What does it matter? If it topples over on you and you want to complain about it, no sign is going to make a difference. It wasn't yours. You shouldn't have been touching it...and because you did, look what happened? It's nobody's fault but your own. 

Get rid of those unsightly, excessive "DO / DON'T DO"
graffiti marks with GOO GONE.

Now then, for the solution. First for the existing graffiti. One of the guys in facilities hooked me up with GOO GONE, a solution that helps to remove grease, stickers, tar, gum, crayon, and tape residue. It's not quite strong enough to remove the magic marker in one application, but it does remove it slowly in layers after a soak. But since it evaporates quickly, there's also not much soaking time, and thus a lot of repeat applications. Nevertheless, in time it will eventually remove the offending mark...and hopefully not damage the plastic surface. I only wish the GOO GONE could have been used on the offending parties before they markered-up a piece of equipment that was plenty fine just the way it was before they defaced it.

The "DO NOT TOUCH" label affixed to the tv monitor.

Now then...for the tv monitor solution. I went up to look at the tv monitor. It had a black casing with a small area on the lower left side of the frame that had some tiny buttons on it. It also had small silver SONY brand name lettering centered in the middle of that lower portion of the frame. I decided to not make a sign as big as 11.5 inches wide shouting "DO NOT TOUCH SCREEN." Instead, I made a little label about 4 inches long by .75 inches vertical with 15% black lettering to immulate the silver brand label: "DO NOT TOUCH." It should be enough. I mean, really.

MORE Library Alcove Display Posters, August 2011

The "WORD" is that we have a great collection of urban fiction at the library!

In my earlier post, I showed two of the five large format alcove display posters developed for the month of August. Due to time restraints, we canceled one planned for Romance, but all others were created. Here, I show the two remaining posters. 


"WORD On The Street" is a simple graphic to promote the library's Urban Fiction Collection. I sourced for photos of urban street scenes--roadways and walls--and found an image that I had hoped to find: a wall with a great assortment of graffiti on it that I could add our own wording to in complimentary graffiti style. I had to source for graffiti fonts also, because prior to this assignment I didn't have anything that really looked like good, hand-generated graffiti lettering. I simply went to Google, input a keyword search for "free graffiti fonts" and perused some of the offered sites for fonts I thought I could use. I should note that I advocated for us encourage viewer participation by placing crayons or other writing utensils out for patrons to use to also mark on the poster, but we all knew that would leave us open to having certain unsavory words marked on the poster. As much as graffitiing up a wall would be just like real life, we didn't want promote too much delinquent real life behavior inside the library itself!

Mystery display poster incorporates the use of QR code
"clues" to reference selections from the collection to
encourage viewer participation.

Our Mystery display poster ended with its original concept visual elements. However, enroute to creating it, it took an interesting twist. First, I re-wrote the planned headline "If the butler didn't do it, who did?" to become "Who Done It?" so it could fit into three panels of a window I created. That phrase conjured up my memory of the Ellery Queen murder mystery novels which used the same phrase. That made me recall other classic catch phrases and themes often used in murder mysteries, such did the butler do it, did the murder take place somewhere else and the body moved or staged at a second location, was the victim poisoned, was evidence planted to throw investigators off the murderer's trail, etc. I thought it might be fun and kind of kitchy to include those questions on the poster too. 

The installed large format poster.

Once I started placing the questions with their associated imagery, it occurred to me that since I was asking a question (or questions), wouldn't it be great if I could find a way to engage patrons to answer it/them? Perhaps I could even turn it into an activity challenge of some sort. I remembered when we began to develop our QR code program, the possibility of using QR codes as part of a scavenger hunt or other activities could be a fun and useful way of promoting our service using this technology. So I decided to ask if this poster could be a good project for testing out such an endeavour. Everyone liked the idea of it and wanted to see if it was something we were ready to undertake. After a few weeks of planning and developing the back-end resources, QR code images were created and added to white squares placed after each question. The activity results--whether people used them or not, and if so, to what extent and success—will be interesting to know. 

Our Volunteers Keep Us Cooking!

The Alachua County Library District is truly blessed to have an incredible number of people who are interested to donate their time and effort to work as volunteers. These people help to boost the level of support and service that librarians could never provide alone.


In 2010, the ACLD benefited from the assistance of 2,495 volunteers who worked 22,314 hours to help the library. The money their time and effort saved the library district equaled the cost it would have taken to employ approximately 10.5 full-time staff employees. 

The kind of work volunteers help with runs the gamut: re-shelving books, newspapers, and magazines; helping patrons with online services, teaching computer applications and homework tutoring for all manner of school subjects; assisting patrons write resumes and cover letters; preparing for and cleaning after program events; scanning, filing and doing other office related paperwork projects...the possibilities are endless.

These efforts certainly don't go unnoticed or under-appreciated by the library staff--and just to remind volunteers in a more formal way, the library district holds an annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon for all volunteers who provided their time and talent to the library during the year.

Each annual luncheon provides an opportunity for speakers from different library administrative departments and groups to offer their personal thanks and sentiments on why they appreciate the work volunteers do for the district. Typically, the program includes a brief speeches from the volunteer coordinator, the library district manager, and representatives from the governing board of directors, the Friends of the Library, the ACLD Foundation, and a guest speaker.

This year the guest speaker is local chef and restaurant owner Bert Gill. Gill is owner of four restaurants in Gainesville and an occasion guest chef on television news segments who provides viewers with cooking tips and recipes. At the library luncheon, Chef Gill would provide a live cooking demonstration, complete with an audio/video set-up that would provide the audience with an overhead view of his demonstration projected onto a large screen.

To promote the event, a theme was developed to focus on cooking and adopted the tagline: "Our Volunteers Keep Us Cooking!" Because Chef Gill cooked over open flame, we incorporated the use of flaming letters as the display font for the event print collaterals. The font was appropriately called "Flame." I also sourced for a public domain image of a flame that I could use in tandem with the lettering. It had been pre-determined prior to my involvement that a complimentary black apron emblazoned with the ACLD logo and tagline would be given out as a gift, so I adopted the apron as the central visual motif for the printed program.

I suggested that the door greeter should also wear a black apron to help further the visual theme connection between the life sized apron and the apron-shaped programs on the tables inside. We also discussed a bevy of possibilities for table center pieces, and in the end went with an understated and elegant floral arrangement and colour coordinated napkins of solid black, yellow, or red.

The promotional collaterals included:

Invitation: 360 3x4 inch invitations, printed 4-up on two sides of an 8.5x11 inch 110lb card stock sheet, then mailed or hand-delivered in colour coordinated envelopes.

Program: 200 3x8 inch single-folded 110lb card stock programs, printed on both sides and featuring a free-hand die cut in the shape of a cooking apron. The program was allowed to stand up on the tables at each place setting.

Table Seating Signs: 24 8x4 inch 110lb card stock table tents, printed on one side and double-folded into tent shape then placed on each table to indicate reservations for each library branch or combined department combination.

Welcome Sign: One 20x30 inch sign to be placed on an easel outside the doorway to the venue.

Of note: It took about two weeks to print and then trim by hand the 360 invitations and 200 programs. At 8 cuts per invitation and 5 cuts per program, plus hand trimming and assembling the poster and table tents, I made well over 2440 cuts with my trusty Xacto blade by the time I finished (that's about one cut for each volunteer, as it turned out!). All for you, volunteers! (and not even one volunteer used in the process).