What does your library’s brand say about you?
What is your libraries ‘brand’ saying?
In a recent report by OCLC entitled Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm information regarding library usage was reported and the information was both enlightening and alarming. Consider these facts:
- 84 % of respondents use search engines
- 1% begin their search on a library web site
- Respondents do not trust purchased information more than they trust ‘free’ information. In fact that have a high expectation of free information.
- Library users like to self-serve. Most do not ask for or seek assistance.
- 86% feel confident that they have the personal knowledge to evaluate information resources.
- 82% state that they validate information by searching another Web site that contains similar information.
With those facts in mind, what does that say about the future of libraries? When the general public is asked to describe a library, the overwhelming response is ‘a building with books’. Obviously, we are more than books but how do we change the current mind-set or branding of the library to reflect the services offered by libraries today? In the report the statement is made, ” In addition to being familiar, trusted and high-quality, strong brands must be relevant. Relevance is the degree to which people believe a brand meets their needs. Over half of the respondents said that search engines perfectly fit their lifestyle. Seventeen percent said libraries are a perfect fit, and over 20 percent said that libraries do not fit their lifestyle.’ Respondents were asked about activities were they doing less of and visiting/using the library came in second after watching less television. The article continues by saying that the library has not been successful in leveraging its brand to reflect the changes and its investments. ”
Virginia’s own, Audrey Church writes in the November December issue of Library Media Connection that our school libraries must become virtual as well as physical spaces to meet the demands of our students. She writes, “Your school library Web page is your library’s presence outside of the physical library walls. It provides you a space and an opportunity to inform, guide, and instruct. It can be an advocacy tool, a visibility tool, and a public relational tool.” The school library Web page meets the needs of your students 24/7 and can provide a method of branding your program and connecting it to the needs of the student body.
The OCLC article concludes by informing us that the data is clear that libraries must change the way we present ourselves in order to establish our role in the community as a place to ‘make information freely available, to support literacy, to provide research support and a free Internet access”.
If your school community was asked to define your library’s brand, what words would they use?
November 3rd, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Thanks for your remarks! I wanted to pick up on your last sentence in which you ask how readers might define “your library’s brand.” One of the very difficult things the library community must deal with is the difference between a universal brand and a local one. “Library” really is a universal brand and the linking in our report of “library” with “books” is an example of peoples’ perceptions of not any particular library, but all libraries. It would be a mistake for each and every library to try and develop a brand–what we collectively need to do is extend the universal brand so that people think of (for example) “free”, “welcoming to all”, “experts” for libraries in general. At the same time, the local library has to market what it does that is more than the universal brand. A useful way to think about this is a franchise: MacDonalds has a very strong brand, yet all MacDonalds are not exactly the same (different regional menus, eg). Another helpful model is milk producers: the “Got Milk” campaign strengthened the universal brand, not a particular dairy.
The more thinking and talking and writing we all do about this, the better!
November 7th, 2006 at 12:45 am
Alane.
Thanks for your comments. I really enjoyed the articles and the other information on the OCLC Web site. School librarians are struggling with an identity crisis–part of which is a result of the major changes that have occurred in our jobs over the past 10 years. Adding to the confusion is the number of different names that we call ourselves. Librarian, library media specialist, library-teacher, and media specialist–and others are used to represent the work that is done in the school arena. This blog is intended to stir up the thoughts and hopefully initiate conversations with those in positions to make changes in the way we are perceived.
I hope that you will continue to read and to comment.
The Admiral-Librarian by definition!
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