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BRANDING THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY

Dalia Mikėnė

 

In today’s world libraries are no longer just a quiet place where you come to borrow a book. With lots of expertise and human resources, academic libraries become information centers where the huge amount of “know-how” lies. Librarians can help their users to get from A to B in the changing world of information more quickly and effectively, and give the right insights to the right users in that way empowering them to find the answers they need by themselves. But the patrons of the libraries still have to be convinced to choose library services over millions of others information sources. That’s where the library branding should step in. Branding should be viewed as a part of marketing strategy, it is the process of defining a library’s story, distilling that into one appealing sentence, and then adding visual elements such as library’s logo, colors, fonts and other recognizable details that makes associations with your library. In a broader sense, branding should be seen as all the visual standards that makes your library recognizable, but what should not be forgotten – is the great services that adds up the most to your brand. Users delighted by your services spreading the positive message about your library is what makes the core of the strong brand today. At Mykolas Romeris University Library we initially had a focus on our services, without having a particular branding or marketing strategy. But in the recent years we have realized the importance of promoting our library and its services, because it does not come by default that students or other patrons should rely on us while doing their research. We have to show and convince them that we are ready to help, and we know how to do it. That’s all the library branding is about.

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