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How to Build a Cohesive Library Brand Across Your Entire System

Black-and-white photo of two women standing behind a library circulation desk, surrounded by shelves of books and large windows. Overlaid text reads “How to Build Your LIBRARY BRAND!” with “Library Brand!” in bold orange lettering.
Photo courtesy Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library

In this post, I walked you through what branding really means in a library: It’s the consistent experience people have every time they interact with you.

Now comes the harder question: How do you actually make that happen across an entire library system? Believe me, I know what a struggle this can be!

The Real Problem Isn’t Branding. It’s Alignment.

Most library marketers I work with tell me they struggle with branding because the library system is very siloed. Libraries are collaborative by nature but decentralized in structure.

Most library systems have:

  • Multiple branches
  • Multiple departments (youth, adult, outreach, etc.)
  • Staff with different backgrounds and comfort levels with marketing

So people do what they think is best in the moment. And over time, that creates inconsistency.

  • Each department and branch creates its own promotional materials
  • Messaging varies depending on who writes it
  • Tone and style vary depending on who writes it

No one is intentionally trying to dilute the brand. But no one is working from the same playbook, either.

The Fix: Give Staff Clarity, Not Control

Here’s where many branding efforts go off track. Leadership tries to “fix” inconsistency by:

  • Locking down templates
  • Requiring approvals for everything
  • Centralizing all marketing decisions

That might create consistency. But it also creates bottlenecks, frustration, and disengagement. It also lowers staff morale, because it appears that leaders don’t trust branch or department staff to do their jobs.

Instead, what staff really need is clarity.

The 2 Things Every Staff Member Needs to Know

If you want your entire library to create promotion using one brand, every staff member, regardless of their role, should be able to answer these two questions:

1. Who Are We?

I’m not talking about reciting your mission statement. I’m talking about your library’s personality, tone, and voice. 

Are you:

  • Friendly and conversational?
  • Educational and authoritative?
  • Playful and creative?

If staff don’t understand this, they’ll default to their own voice.

2. Who Are We Talking To?

Your audience is not everyone. I know that’s so hard to understand when you’re working in an organization that aims to serve everyone.

But when you are working on promotions, you have to target a specific audience. So, your staff must be trained to think in specifics.

Who are they hoping to see come through the door as a result of their promotion? Are they looking for:

  • Parents of young children?
  • Job seekers?
  • Lifelong learners?
  • Teens looking for a place to belong?
  • Some other target audience?

When staff can identify the specific people they are trying to reach, their messaging becomes more consistent — naturally

How to Communicate Your Brand to Staff

Your library doesn’t need a 40-page brand guide. Most libraries only need a simple document that includes:

1. Voice Traits (3–5 words)

These are the personality descriptors that guide how your library “sounds” in writing. For example:

  • Friendly, welcoming, knowledgeable, community-focused
  • Curious, inclusive, encouraging, playful
  • Helpful, clear, approachable, trustworthy

For example, if your library decides its personality descriptor is “helpful, clear, approachable, and trustworthy,” you can tell staff that instead of saying, “Patrons must return materials by the due date“, you’ll say, “Just a heads up… return your items by the due date to avoid any fees.”

2. Visual Guidelines (colors, fonts, image style)

These define how your library looks visually across every tactic and channel, including social media, flyers, signage, and your website.

For example, your library might have three colors in your brand palette. Each color likely represents a feeling or emotion that you want your community to experience when they encounter materials from your library.

Let your staff know about the intentionality of your color palette by explaining each color’s associated emotion, like this:

  • Primary: Deep blue (trust, stability). We use this color for promotions about our hours and policies.
  • Secondary: Bright orange (energy, engagement). We use this color for promotions that include a call to action, like signing up or registering for a program.
  • Neutral: Light gray or cream. This color provides us with a clean background for promotions.

Set guidelines for font use. Be sure to lay out which font staff should use for headlines, body text, or as an accent font for special promotions for kids’ programming, summer reading, or other big programs.

Finally, give staff clear direction about the use of photos in your promotions. You may want to indicate that all photos must depict real patrons in one of your branches. (Check out this post about how to do a “stock photo day” to build your library’s cache of photos.)

If photos of real community members are not an option, let staff know what kind of stock photos they may use. For example, you may set guidelines that all staff photos must include:

  • Warm, candid, natural lighting
  • Diverse, inclusive representation
  • Focus on interaction (reading, attending programs, using spaces)

Coming Next

Now that you know how to align your team, there’s one more big challenge.

How do you create a consistent voice and look without making everything feel rigid and templated?

Your job is not to control every piece of marketing. Your job is to:

  • Set the direction
  • Define the brand clearly
  • Equip your team to execute

That’s what we’ll tackle in Part 3, which will publish on May 11.

Want more help?

Branding for Your Library: Stand Out From the Crowd With Smart, Strategic Placement of Your Brand

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How to Do Social Media When You Don’t Have Time or Staff!

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#LibraryMarketingShow, episode 333

Running social media for a library is challenging. Running it alone is something else entirely.

A viewer recently asked how one person is supposed to handle it all — and it’s a question many library marketers are quietly asking.

In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, I share strategies to help you stay consistent, reduce overwhelm, and focus your efforts where they’ll have the biggest impact.

Plus, we’ll share kudos for a library that received a huge shout-out from a major author in a major magazine.

Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching! 

P.S.: If you wish, you may download a transcript of this episode.

Miss the last episode? No worries! Watch it now.

Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:

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AI Just Changed the Rules About Email Marketing. Here’s What Libraries Need to Know

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#LibraryMarketingShow, episode 332

You might be writing the same great library emails, but getting very different results lately.

That’s because email platforms like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook are changing how messages are delivered and displayed, with AI playing a bigger role than ever.

In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, I walk through what these changes mean and how to adjust your email marketing strategy to keep reaching your audience.

Plus, a library nominates their neighboring organization for kudos… find out why!

Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching! 

P.S.: If you wish, you may download a transcript of this episode.

Miss the last episode? No worries! Watch it now.

Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:

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What Branding Really Means in a Library (And Why Most Libraries Get It Wrong)

A black-and-white photo of a historic library reading room with long wooden tables, chairs, and bookshelves lining the walls. Desk lamps sit along the tables, and a few people are visible in the background. Overlaid on the image is a translucent box with the text: “What Is LIBRARY BRANDING?” with “Library Branding” highlighted in yellow.
Photo courtesy Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library

When most libraries talk about branding, they’re really talking about logos, colors, and templates.

But branding isn’t only what your materials look like.

It’s how your library feels to the people you serve.

And that experience doesn’t center only on the work that your communications staff does. It comes from every single staff member. This is especially true for small or rural libraries and for large metro libraries. 

A solid library brand will define your library in a crowded world. It’s the thing that makes people say, “I love my library.”

But many libraries struggle with branding. When I asked, “What do you need help with?” in the State of Library Marketing survey, one of the most common answers was “branding.”

So, we’re going to tackle that! This is the first in a three-part series all about library branding. 

Branding Is Not a Logo 

We’ll begin with this concept, because it’s the root of the problem.

Branding is often confused with:

  • Your logo
  • Your color palette
  • Your graphic templates

Those things matter. But they are expressions of your brand, not the brand itself.

In fact,  research into library branding shows that a library’s brand encompasses multiple dimensions tied to user experience, perception, and emotional connection — not just visuals.

That means your library’s brand is shaped just as much by a storytime experience, a conversation at the circulation desk, the tone of a Facebook post, or signage in your building as it is by your logo.

Here’s the truth: Your library already has a brand! People in your community have an existing impression of your library. This is true even if you’ve never written a brand guide, your graphics are inconsistent, and your co-workers all seem to do their own thing when it comes to library promotion.

So, you’re not starting this journey from scratch.

Real Library Examples: When Branding Becomes Part of the Library Experience

One of the best examples of true library branding is the transformation of Rangeview Library District into Anythink Libraries.

Here’s what happened: The Rangeview Library District was considered by its community to be old-fashioned, small, and unappealing. In 2009, as part of its renewed branding efforts, the District changed the names of its libraries to Anythink libraries.

But the library did more than a name and logo change. They renamed every branch. The changed staff job titles to include “Concierge” and “Guide.” They reframed the entire library experience around creativity and curiosity.

It was a complete alignment of experience, language, and culture. And it worked.

The rebranding led to higher circulation and visitor numbers. The system was able to connect with users and pass a levy, which helped them build or renovate libraries. And they were awarded a national Medal for Museum and Library Service.   

My own library, the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, also went through a rebrand in the last five years. While our name change is not as significant (previously, we were The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County), we are transforming our connection to the community.

Yes, we created a completely new visual palette. But the core of our new branding is focused on our beliefs, which every library staff member is committed to living out through their work. Our beliefs are:

  • Empathy: We believe in everyone’s innate value and potential.
  • Enjoyment: We believe there is no prescribed path to knowledge, so why not make the journey fun?
  • Connection: We believe we got farther, together.
  • Community: We believe libraries are incubators of community.

That defined focus on those four beliefs is strengthening the connection our library has to the community, elected officials, and donors. That’s the power of branding.

Many libraries have also leaned into branding through physical experience and design. In fact, studies show that libraries are increasingly positioned as community hubs and cultural spaces, with branding tied to how people use and feel in the space, not just what they see.

Branding encompasses everything. The building, the programming, the atmosphere — all of it contributes to the brand.

Where Most Libraries Go Wrong

Most libraries don’t have a branding problem. They have a disconnect problem.

It usually looks like this:

  • Marketing creates one type of message
  • Youth services create another
  • Branches design their own flyers
  • Social media has a completely different tone

This creates a fragmented experience. And from a patron’s perspective, it feels like interacting with multiple different organizations instead of one library system.

So What Is Library Branding?

Here’s the simplest, most useful definition I can give you:

Your library’s brand is the consistent experience people have every time they interact with you.

Branding is not owned by the marketing department. Branding is created by the entire staff.

That means every flyer, every conversation, every program description, every social media post is either strengthening your brand or weakening it.

Coming Next

In the next post on April 27, we’re going to tackle the biggest challenge libraries face when it comes to branding: 

How do you actually get an entire library system to act like one brand?

Meanwhile, if your library has worked on branding, I’d love to hear what worked, what didn’t, and where your staff struggled. You can let me know by commenting below or by emailing me.

Want more help?

Boost Your Biggest Supporters: Branding and Marketing Advice for Your Friends of the Library Group

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Circulation Trends Every Library Marketer Should Know

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#LibraryMarketingShow, episode 331

Library circulation isn’t what it used to be — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

A viewer recently asked about these changes, so I dug into the data. In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, I walk through five circulation trends and what they mean for how libraries should market their collections moving forward.

Plus, we’ll give kudos to a library whose promotion helped some unhoused people move into a safer situation!

Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching! 

P.S.: If you wish, you may download a transcript of this episode.

Miss the last episode? No worries! Watch it now.

Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:

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How Libraries Can Promote Their Collections in the Age of AI

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#LibraryMarketingShow, episode 330

AI can generate quick answers, but that doesn’t mean it replaces the value of a library collection.

A viewer recently asked how libraries can promote their collections as an alternative to AI, and I thought it was a fascinating question.

In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, we explore ways to position the library’s collection as something deeper, richer, and more trustworthy than an AI summary.

Plus, find out why a project that involves the whole of the United States is getting kudos!

Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching! 

P.S.: If you wish, you may download a transcript of this episode.

Miss the last episode? No worries! Watch it now.

Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:

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Library Marketing Case Study: How UVU’s Fulton Library Connects with 47,000 Students

Black-and-white photo of a large, historic library interior with multiple balcony levels filled with students looking down. Overlaid text reads, “Academic Library Shares Secret to Connect with Students.”
Photo courtesy Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library

Lauren Tolman learned to read when she was just three years old.

“Books have been part of my life since I was little,” she explains. “My family made weekly trips to our local public library. I tore through Arthur, The Baby-sitters Club, Little House (on the Prairie), and any series I could get my hands on.”

“As a kid, my dream job swung between ‘mermaid’ and ‘librarian.’ The librarians at my local branch sat at this big wooden desk surrounded by paperback spinner racks, and they’d read to kids on carpeted risers. I visited the library again thirty years later… the same desk, the same brown carpet, the same happy library noise.”

Lauren’s first library job was as a shelver. In her 20+ year career, she’s been a page, a story time performer, a clerk, a children’s librarian, and a supervisor. Now, she’s the Communications Specialist in the Marketing Department at Utah Valley University’s Fulton Library. 

Lauren and two other staff members market the library to the school’s 47,000 students. Lauren supervises the department full-time and handles project management, social media, and campus outreach. Her work is complemented by a part-time graphic designer and a part-time copywriter.   

Lauren says the most effective channel for reaching her audience is Instagram. The library appears to have a formula down that works well for their audience. All the videos are short-form with a healthy dose of humor.

The library is also really, really good at putting its own, unique twist on trends, as they did for this video. (You will remember when this song was all the rage on Instagram and TikTok videos!)

And this is an absolutely memorable video to help students remember citation styles!

But beyond social media, Lauren and her staff have other ways to reach students on campus. 

“Our staff is our best ‘channel,’” shares Lauren. “They talk with students constantly through instruction sessions, resource fairs, research help, circulation desk interactions, etc.”

“Students love seeing other students in marketing. We also work with peer mentors, ambassadors, and other student leaders who help share our posts or pass along information to their programs.” 

Recently, Lauren and her team worked through a library campaign refresh with new branding, colors, iconography, and more, called “Find It at the Fulton Library.”

“We aim for a new brand campaign every 3-4 years to keep our image fresh and current for our students,” explains Lauren. “The process can take 6-9 months, as we work with our campus marketing, communications, and photography departments to produce all the materials.”

“They help us with concepts and developing a brand kit with colors, fonts, and more to help maintain a consistent look among all of our deliverables. They also help us with student lifestyle photoshoots, giving us a high-quality photo library to use throughout the next couple of years.”

As you can see, this new brand has a vintage feel, while being fresh and colorful.

But not everything is all fun and games for an academic library looking for promotional success. Like most library marketers, there have been times when the strategiesy Lauren has tried just didn’t land with her audience. 

“I will say I’ve had many disappointments where social media posts or Reels get low engagement,” explains Lauren. “It always seems to be the ones that are really informative or take forever to make that turn out to have the lowest interactions. That can be frustrating, but I try to learn from it. If even one student is helped by the content, that’s great. And there are always other channels to try to share that information!”

To that end, Lauren has some advice for libraries of all sizes and types when it comes to marketing. 

“Get to know your audience, what they care about, where they hang out, what they struggle with. Lead with approachability and benefits. Our audience likes to feel seen and have their problems solved.”

“Track your results, even informally. This will help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses, and the direction your content should go. And don’t be afraid to experiment with types of content, even the casual kind. While we keep our language kind and professional, students love it when we go a little unhinged or use pop culture references in our content.”

Want more help?

From Shelves to Screens: How an Academic Librarian Captures Student Narratives for Library Marketing

Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:

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Opt-In vs Opt-Out Email Marketing: What Should Libraries Do?

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#LibraryMarketingShow, episode 329

Should libraries stick with traditional opt-in email marketing or consider moving to an opt-out model?

A viewer recently asked this question, and it opens up an important conversation about reach, engagement, and email reputation.

In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, I share my perspective on this sometimes controversial topic and offer guidance for libraries that might be considering a change.

Plus, we’ll award kudos to a library using social proof to promote its value across its whole community.

Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching! 

P.S.: If you wish, you may download a transcript of this episode.

Miss the last episode? No worries! Watch it now.

Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:

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Is Format Placement to Blame For Low Circulation? How to Tell and What To Do About It!

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#LibraryMarketingShow, episode 328

What do you do when one format in your library collection just isn’t circulating the way it used to?

A viewer of The Library Marketing Show is facing exactly that challenge and reached out for advice. In this episode, I share a few marketing ideas that could help revive interest and invite you to contribute your own suggestions as well.

Plus, we’re giving kudos to a library that is handing out VERY special, limited edition library cards!

Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching! 

P.S.: If you wish, you may download a transcript of this episode.

Miss the last episode? No worries! Watch it now.

Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:

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