Library Marketing Websites

658.8 – Marketing, Management, Leadership, Libraries
“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.
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

ALA PR Talk

Library Design Websites

Librarian Design Share
“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

Brand New (branding criticism, great for branding befores and afters)
Logo Design Love
POPSOP
Brand Channel

Building Design & Architecture

Designing Libraries
“The centre for library design and innovation: a resource for library planning and design, a database of library buildings and a marketplace for services.”

Library Marketing Conferences

Library Marketing and Communications Conference (Amigos Library Services, TX, USA)
Marketing Libraries Think Tank (Ontario Library Association, CAN)
Content Marketing for Libraries recommendations for non-library marketing conferences

Of possible interest:
Academic Library Advancement and Development Network (ALADN) Conference

Marketing and Promotions Awards

ALA/AIA Library Building Awards (US/International)
“…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…”

ALA/IIDA Library Interior Design Awards (US/International)
“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.”

American Association of Law Libraries Excellence in Marketing Award (US)
“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.”

CILIP Marketing Excellence Awards (UK)
The Marketing Excellence Awards celebrate successful library marketing and promotional campaigns across the UK.

IFLA BibLibre International Library Marketing Award (International)
“…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.”

John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award (US/International)
“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.”

LibraryAware Community Award presented by Library Journal and EBSCO (US/Canada)
“…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.”

Library Marketer of the Year presented by Library Journal and library ideas (US/Canada)
“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.”

LLAMA/PRMS PR Xchange Awards (US/International)
“To recognize the very best individual pieces of public relations materials produced by librarians in the past year.”

Ontario Library Association Library Building Award / Architectural and Design Transformation Award (Ontario, Canada)
“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.”

School Library Association Inspiration Award (UK)
“The Inspiration Award is designed to reward innovation and creativity in school library design and resource use.”

Welsh Museums Federation Marketing Excellence Awards (Wales, UK)

Library Marketing Plans

Sample Marketing Plans (OneDrive Folder)
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

A list of libraries on Instagram

Layout

BeFunky (collage and layout tool)
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)
Venngage (easy-to-use infographic maker)

Photo Editing and Manipulation

PicMonkey
Pixlr
ThingLink (create interactive images with hotspots)

Email and Newsletters

Smore (“Beautiful newsletters in minutes? You bet.”)

Fonts

DaFont (free fonts; it’s where I found Ad/Lib’s logo font)
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

coolors (fast colour generator)
Colour Lovers Palettes (user-generated colour schemes)
Design Seeds (colour inspiration from nature)
Pictaculous (upload an image, get a colour palette)
Swiss Style Color Picker

Inspiration

Dribbble (show and tell for designers)
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 & Logos & Graphics

CreativeMarket (mostly paid, but new free stuff weekly)
FlatIcon (free and paid icons)
Icons8 (free flat icons)
Material Icons from Google (open source icons)
NounProject (free and paid icons)

Stock Photos and Free Images

CompFight (image search engine with CC filters)
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)

From Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Biodiversity Heritage Library
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)

Make sure you understand the terms for re-use before you use an image.
Some images are totally free, some require acknowledgement, and others have different limitations.