What's Your Story? - Rebranding Pt. 2

So, libraries aren’t just books anymore. You know that, and I know that. We’re librarians for crying out loud! But, does everyone else know that? Do all of your students know this? What about your staff? Parents? The community?

If you have any hesitation or doubt about how people would define your library, the services you provide and the resources in it, then you need to think about rebranding! If you struggle identifying all of the amazing things going on in your library or advocating for your program, then you need to think about rebranding!

Before you get too excited, let’s be clear about what rebranding really means. It’s not just a new name, logo, tagline, blog, signage, etc. It’s not just a marketing strategy. It goes much deeper than that.

Your brand is your identity!!

So, before you do anything else, you must know your story, own your story and most importantly, be able to articulate your story. Here’s how!

1      Why do you want to rebrand? – Brainstorm a list of qualities or characteristics you want your patrons to think of when they think about the library. Make a list of feelings and expectations you want them to have.

2      Can you currently support all of those ideas? - Make a list of all of the ways students can utilize the library. List all of the reasons they might come to the library. Make a list of resources available to them (books, green screen, iPads, etc.).

3      What do your patrons think? – Ask your students what they think, feel and expect when they use the library. There are lots of ways to do this. You can email a survey, post a survey on your web site or blog, etc. The most effective way, though, is to just talk to them! Get a group together or simply walk around the library and interact with your students.

4      What’s working and not working? – Evaluate all of the information you collected in steps 1-3. First, celebrate all of the ways your patrons love the library. You don’t want to fix what’s not broken!! Now, look for gaps or mismatches. If your view of the library program is not matching your patrons view, there’s a problem somewhere.

Keep these things in mind when you get started. You do not own the library’s story – your students do! Your students should steer every decision. If you don’t like the story as it is currently written, revise it!! Never stop revising your story.

May your story end happily ever after!