Design & Marketing Resources
Library Marketing & Design
658.8 – Marketing, Management, Leadership, Libraries Librarian Design Share Brand New (branding criticism, great for branding befores and afters) Designing Libraries Library Marketing and Communications Conference (Amigos Library Services, TX, USA) Of possible interest: ALA/AIA Library Building Awards (US/International) ALA/IIDA Library Interior Design Awards (US/International) American Association of Law Libraries Excellence in Marketing Award (US) CILIP Marketing Excellence Awards (UK) IFLA BibLibre International Library Marketing Award (International) John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award (US/International) LibraryAware Community Award presented by Library Journal and EBSCO (US/Canada) Library Marketer of the Year presented by Library Journal and library ideas (US/Canada) LLAMA/PRMS PR Xchange Awards (US/International) Ontario Library Association Library Building Award / Architectural and Design Transformation Award (Ontario, Canada) School Library Association Inspiration Award (UK) Welsh Museums Federation Marketing Excellence Awards (Wales, UK) Sample Marketing Plans (OneDrive Folder) Yext (paid) BeFunky (collage and layout tool) PicMonkey Smore (“Beautiful newsletters in minutes? You bet.”) DaFont (free fonts; it’s where I found Ad/Lib’s logo font) coolors (fast colour generator) Dribbble (show and tell for designers) CreativeMarket (mostly paid, but new free stuff weekly) CompFight (image search engine with CC filters) From Libraries, Archives, and Museums Biodiversity Heritage Library Make sure you understand the terms for re-use before you use an image. Continuously updated. Think something should be here? Let me know. info(at)adlib.info / @adlib_infoMarketing Websites
Library Marketing Websites
“posts might include musings about marketing communication plans or social media strategy or brandishing the library brand…”
Academic Library Marketing
“…facilitate collaboration, networking and intentional marketing across college and university libraries”
ACRL Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group (Facebook)
An active Facebook group, with a broader focus than academia.
Intellicraft Research
Honestly, an even more comprehensive tool and resource list than this one!
The Library Marketing Toolkit
“A whole website full of stuff to help you market your library.”
Libraries & Social Media (Facebook)
A Facebook group where library workers discuss social media outreach.
The ‘M’ Word – Marketing Libraries
“Marketing Tips and Trends for Libraries and Non-Profits”
Marketing Library Journal
“a new peer-reviewed, independently published, open access journal…”
Marketing Library Services (Paid/Subscription)
“MLS will provide information professionals in all types of libraries with specific ideas for marketing their services.”
Programming Librarian
Not, strictly speaking, a marketing website, but some programs include details of how they were marketed. “ProgrammingLibrarian.org is a place for library professionals to share, learn and be inspired to present excellent programming for their communities.”
Sketch Librarian’s Marketing Resources Page
Links to even more websites, including a bunch on library displays, and a small bibliography.
Super Library Marketing
Full of marketing advice and tips centered around content marketing.Library Marketing Mailing Lists
Design Websites
Library Design Websites
“Librarian Design Share is intended as a community of creativity for librarians, people who work in libraries, and library students.”
Library Graphic Design
Images and commentary on Scot Sterling’s library marketing design projects for the Alachua County Library District in Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Walking Paper
“Walking Paper is a library design consultancy, and blog by Aaron Schmidt, hailing from SE Portland, Oregon.”Branding Websites
Logo Design Love
POPSOP
Brand ChannelBuilding Design & Architecture
“The centre for library design and innovation: a resource for library planning and design, a database of library buildings and a marketplace for services.”Conferences
Library Marketing Conferences
Marketing Libraries Think Tank (Ontario Library Association, CAN)
Content Marketing for Libraries recommendations for non-library marketing conferences
Academic Library Advancement and Development Network (ALADN) ConferenceAwards
Marketing and Promotions Awards
“…To encourage excellence in the architectural design and planning of libraries. Any library building project designed by architects licensed in the United States is eligible for entry. The libraries may be built anywhere in the world…”
“The Library Interior Design Awards honor international excellence in library Interior Design. Award winners demonstrate excellence in aesthetics, design, creativity, function, and satisfaction of the client’s objectives.”
“The Excellence in Marketing Award honors outstanding achievement in public relations activities by an individual, group of individuals, library, chapter, special interest section, consortium, caucus, or any other group affiliated with the Association.”
The Marketing Excellence Awards celebrate successful library marketing and promotional campaigns across the UK.
“…honors organizations that have implemented creative, results-oriented marketing projects or campaigns. Up to 10 finalists will be chosen to recognize them for their outstanding achievements and three winners will be selected.”
“The John Cotton Dana Award, provided in conjunction with the H.W. Wilson Foundation, the American Library Association and EBSCO, honors outstanding library public relations, whether a summer reading program, a year-long centennial celebration, fundraising for a new college library, an awareness campaign or an innovative partnership in the community.”
“…emphasizes the library’s engagement with the community and will recognize a library or library system that has demonstrated its ability to make its community “aware” of what the library can do for it—and has delivered on that promise.”
“The award recognizes the importance of innovative approaches to marketing of library services, the role of marketing in building library engagement, and the value of quality marketing collateral to help build a vibrant sense of the library and define its relevance in the community.”
“To recognize the very best individual pieces of public relations materials produced by librarians in the past year.”
“Awards are given for new buildings. / Awards may be given for additions, renovations, restorations, conversion to library use, and interior redesign and refurnishing. The competition runs every third year to allow a critical number of projects in all types of libraries to accumulate.”
“The Inspiration Award is designed to reward innovation and creativity in school library design and resource use.”Other
Library Marketing Plans
I’ve collected marketing plans from libraries that have posted them publicly on the internet, including a template. Got one to add? Let me know!Social Media
Manage your brand information across a suite of platformsDesign Tools
Creation & Layout
Layout
Canva (simple graphic design layout tool. Small non-profits can upgrade for free)
Infogr.am (“Charts & Infographics the Easy Way”)
Piktochart (easy-to-use infographic maker)
Typorama (text and layout for iPhone and iPad)
Venngage (easy-to-use infographic maker)Photo Editing and Manipulation
Pixlr
ThingLink (create interactive images with hotspots)
SnapSeed (free image editing program for Android & iPhone – I use this regularly)Email and Newsletters
Fonts & Colours
Fonts
Lost Type Co-op (non-commercial pay what you want)
Open Font Library
Font Squirrel (freeware)
Google Fonts (free web fonts; I use them on Ad/Lib)Colour
Colour Lovers Palettes (user-generated colour schemes)
Design Seeds (colour inspiration from nature)
Pictaculous (upload an image, get a colour palette)
Swiss Style Color PickerInspiration
Behance (“Showcase and Discover Creative Work”)
Designspiration (“… focused on maintaining a high level of great design inspiration to share around the world”)
Philographics (using shape and colour to create compelling design)Icons & Graphics
Icons & Logos & Graphics
FlatIcon (free and paid icons)
Icons8 (free flat icons)
Material Icons from Google (open source icons)
NounProject (free and paid icons)Stock Photos
Stock Photos and Free Images
DepositPhotos (royalty-free stock photos)
Flickr’s Creative Commons collection (images licenced for re-use)
Fotolia (royalty-free images, 3 free per week)
Free Images (from Getty)
Getty Images (embeddable stock photos)
MorgueFile (free)
No Backs (PNG images with transparent backgrounds)
Pexels (free stock photos)
Pixabay (images licenced CC0/Public Domain)
Public Domain Archive (free stock photos)
RGB Stock (free)
Unsplash (free)
Vecteezy (vector art)
British Library on Flickr
Digital Public Library of America Images
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
NASA Image and Video Library
National Gallery of Art Images
New York Public Library Public Domain Images (link goes to ‘designer’ section)
Rijks Museum Rijks Studio
Wellcome Collection Images (science, health, medicine)
Some images are totally free, some require acknowledgement, and others have different limitations.
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