dec07b.indd


Nancy F. Stimson 

Library
change
as
a
branding


opportunity

Connect, reflect, research, discover 

Prominent library changes, such as a building renovation, provide the perfect 
opportunity to re­examine the library “brand.” 
The promotion and publicity associated with 
big library changes of any kind put the spot­
light on the library. This is a good time for 
library staff to examine the library’s image, 
identify its strengths, and try to position the 
library, relative to the competition (other 
information resources and services) favor­
ably in library users’ minds. In the case of 
a building renovation, the branding process 
can also influence decision­making regarding 
new building spaces, library services, and 
collections. 

In December 2004, the Biomedical Library 
at the University of California­San Diego 
(UCSD) moved from its permanent location 
near the medical and pharmacy schools, 
home of many of the library’s primary clien­
tele, to the main library for the duration of 
a renovation and expansion project, which 
lasted until August 2006. Journal and book 
collections, equipment, and staff were all 
moved to the temporary location. 

During the temporary relocation, the staff 
considered how to identify and promote the 
value of the library, physical and virtual, 
old and new. Was the library still relevant 
to library users? In the age of Google, why 
would users choose to use the new library 
(or its Web site) instead of the competition 
(Google, other libraries, bookstores, etc.)? 
Why should they decide to visit the physical 
library instead of just searching online? The 
library staff considered these issues and iden­
tified the library’s strengths, which became 
the core of the library “brand.” 

What is a library brand? 
A library brand has been defined as “all the 
things that come to mind, all the expectations 
they have, when they hear the word library, 
and how you wish people to perceive your 
library. The former is referred to as brand 
identity and the latter as brand aspiration.1 

Having a brand creates a choice in the mind 
of the user, allowing people to distinguish 
between your library and the competition, 
so that hopefully they choose your library. A 
brand can also be viewed as “a promise that 
an organization makes and strives to keep.”2 

Sometimes the concept of branding is too 
narrowly construed as merely logo develop­
ment and matching graphics. The brand ap­
plies to all faces of the library, the Web site 
as well as the physical library. Every library 
has a brand whether the library staff realize 
it or not. Proactively identifying and crafting 
a library brand is important for attracting and 
retaining users, and assuring that all library 
services and resources are in alignment with 
library goals and values. 

Getting up to speed 
The first step in the library’s branding pro­
cess was to re­examine the library mission 
statement and core values, written five 
years before but still largely up to date. The 
mission statement simply says: “To provide 
a gateway to organized biomedical informa­
tion in support of research, education, and 

Nancy F. Stimson is outreach services librarian in the 
Biomedical Library at the University of California-San 
Diego, e-mail: nstimson@ucsd.edu 
© 2007 Nancy F. Stimson 

C&RL News December 2007  694 

mailto:nstimson@ucsd.edu


patient care.” The values document informed 
the library branding process by organizing 
values pertaining to library and information 
access, staff, and collections in terms of 
what “our users want” and what “we want 
to be seen as.” 

Inquiries were sent to two market­
i n g  d i s c u s s i o n  g r o u p s ,  A C A D L I B P R  
( a c a d e m i c p r @ a l a . o rg )  a n d  M R K T L I B  
(mrktlib@listserv.louisville.edu), to elicit 
ideas and experiences from other librar­
ians. A literature search revealed numerous 
articles about library branding. The Special 
Libraries Association publication, Informa­
tion Outlook (and its predecessor, Special 
Libraries), has published many articles on 
this topic. More specific articles include 
Brodsky’s article about using a new library 
building as an opportunity to market the 
library,3 and an article by Simon about 
marketing libraries using library spaces and 
features for marketing purposes.4 Shill and 
Tonner discussed the impact of specifi c 
physical improvements in academic librar­
ies on the use of those facilities.5 Franklin 
and Plum, in their study of academic health 
sciences libraries, concluded that most of 
the people surveyed accessed their library 
remotely instead of in person, and that librar­
ians should accept that and not worry about 
low in­house use statistics.6 

Most famously, the OCLC report, “Per­
ceptions of Libraries and Information Re­
sources,” served as a wake­up call about 
how many library users from a variety of 
libraries think about libraries—as just being 
about books!7 This report is a reminder that 
the library brand is the perception the user 
has of the library and is not always under 
the library’s control. Web sites such as Mar­
ketingProfs.com and FrugalMarketing.com 
provided key information about market­
ing and branding from a general business 
perspective. 

Developing the brand 
To introduce the staff to branding and its 
importance for the library, a trainer from 
the campus staff education and develop­

ment department was asked to help plan the 
branding project and to moderate the staff 
brainstorming sessions. The entire library 
staff then met to discuss: 

• Why should anyone physically visit the 
library anymore? 

• What makes our library unique? 
• Why do library users choose our librar­

ies instead of the competition? 
• What will it be like in the new build­

ing? 
The branding concept needed to be ac­

cepted by the entire staff, since every staff 
member, as a “library ambassador,” conveys 
the brand and makes it true, or not.8 How­
ever, the process of developing the brand 
was not easy for some staff members to 
understand and accept. It is a somewhat 
amorphous concept, and marketing ideas in 
general are perceived as alien and even sus­
pect by some library staff. One staff member 
worried whether the library could live up to 
what the brand promised. It is notable that 
the library director originated the idea of de­
veloping a library brand, and promoted and 
pushed the project, top down, among the 
library staff, which no doubt led to greater 
staff participation and acceptance. 

The information from the brainstorming 
sessions was condensed into a grid of core 
brand values that represented the qualities 
for which the library staff wanted the library 
to be known.9 The items in the grid were 
then further distilled into the key ideas 
which made up the “brand statement.” 

The brand statement was reviewed to 
make sure it applied to not only the physi­
cal library, but also the library Web site, 
library services, and all other aspects of the 
library. During this process, recent data and 
feedback from library users (entrance survey 
results and health sciences graduate student 
focus group transcripts) were reviewed and 
considered. The entrance survey results 
revealed that undergraduate students were 
the majority of the library visitors, and that 
the main activity in the library was study­
ing. The focus group participants, health 
sciences graduate students, indicated, quite 

December 2007  695 C&RL News 

http:FrugalMarketing.com
http:ketingProfs.com
mailto:mrktlib@listserv.louisville.edu
mailto:academicpr@ala.org


vociferously, that their main concern was 
fi nding a quiet place to study, and that they 
preferred a place of their own apart from the 
undergraduate students. The library incorpo­
rated this feedback into both the branding 
process and space and policy planning for 
the new building. 

Creating a tagline 
The brand statement is long, refl ecting the 
complexities of an academic health sciences 
library with a rich assortment of resources, 
services, and spaces. In order to communi­
cate the essence of the brand to the public, 
the library also developed a tagline, which 
“captures the essence of a company or prod­
uct brand.”10 A branding team was estab­
lished to propose a tagline for the library. 
Ideas were solicited from library staff and 
more than 50 suggestions were received. Six 
tagline candidates were chosen and a poll 
was posted on the library Web site to gather 
input from library users. The library staff 
also voted on their favorite taglines. The 
library administration slightly adjusted the 

winning tagline to create: “Connect. Refl ect. 
Research. Discover.” 

This tagline is effective because it is short, 
yet each word has multiple meanings to 
the user. For instance, connect refers to 
connecting online via the library Web site, 
connecting with library staff in person or 
online, and connecting with friends and 
colleagues within the library. In short, 
together the library staff and library users 
developed a versatile and classy tagline, 
which will hopefully remain relevant for 
a long time. It should be noted, however, 
that some library staff members confused 
the brand and tagline concepts and thought 
that the tagline was the brand. Explaining 
the differences more clearly to staff in the 
future should eliminate this confusion. 

Applying the brand 
After the brand has been developed, what 
should the library do with it? The library staff 
has looked for ways to highlight and promote 
the aspects of the brand that seem to resonate 
with user values. 

UCSD Biomedical Library Brand Statement 

C&RL News December 2007  696 



For instance, since the focus group results 
indicated that health sciences graduate stu­
dents wanted a quiet place to study, the li­
brary has promoted itself as a place for “quiet, 
serious study” and goes to extra lengths to 
keep the library as quiet as possible, espe­
cially during finals. This distinguishes this 
library from the “competition,” several of 
the other libraries on campus that are much 
noisier. The overlap of the branding project 
and the library renovation led to building 
use decisions that might not otherwise have 
been made. 

For instance, a “graduate study” area for 
graduate students only was created outside 
the main library and is open 24/7 via card 
key access, even when the library itself is 
closed. 

Keeping the brand alive 
In order to keep the brand “alive” in the 
minds of library staff, each staff member was 
given a small, attractive card containing the 
brand statement. Several staff members have 
this card prominently posted in their offi ces. 
When the library staff moved into the new 
building, they were each given a high­quality, 
ceramic mug with the tagline written on it. 

About a year after the brand was devel­
oped, a “brand checkup” was held so that 
the staff could review the brand and discuss 
what the library was doing or should do to 
support it.11 Supervisors were encouraged to 
emphasize the brand in new staff training, 
and to use it as a benchmark for staff perfor­
mance evaluations. 

Despite some staff skepticism about the 
branding process, one staff member did say 
that she thought that the amorphous branding 
concept had been successfully systematized 
and translated into a logical series of concrete 
steps, and another thought the process was 
“intensive and interesting.” 

In the near future, the brand will be un­
veiled to library users by posting it on the 
library Web site, discussing it on the library 
blog, creating a brochure, etc. 

The library brand makes a number of 
promises to users, and once the brand is 

shared with the outside world, the library 
staff must be prepared to deliver what they 
promise. In the meantime, the library tagline 
is promoted on the library Web site, news­
letter, postcards, giveaways, and in other 
places. Several staff members also include 
the tagline in their e­mail signature blocks. 

The library outreach services coordina­
tor was appointed the informal “keeper 
of the brand” and, as such, tries to think 
of additional ways to promote the brand 
among the library users and staff, to “keep 
the brand alive.” 

Conclusion 
The brand development process was long 
and complex, but it was well worth the 
time and effort required. The process made 
the library staff take an honest look at 
the library, and identify and articulate its 
strengths. The library brand will continue to 
serve as a benchmark for strategic planning, 
space and services initiatives, and marketing 
programs. 

Working on the brand during the build­
ing renovation worked well, since informa­
tion gained in one project informed and 
improved decisions made in the other. 
Although the renovation project was an 
impetus to develop the library brand, the 
branding process itself, the brainstorming 
and reflection, was professionally invigorat­
ing for all levels of library staff. 

While designing and carrying out this 
project without the assistance of consultants 
may have lengthened the project, it also 
allowed the library staff to take ownership 
of the brand, and saved the library a lot of 
money. Branding is an evolving process, 
always a work in progress. 

The UCSD Biomedical Library will con­
tinue to look for opportunities to implement 
the brand in ways that are meaningful for 
both library users and library staff. 

Acknowledgements 
The author thanks Susan Starr and Alice 
Witkowski for their encouragement and 
assistance. 

December 2007  697 C&RL News 



Notes 
1. Beth Dempsey, “Target your brand: 

Build an identity that works in the age of 
the superstore,” Library Journal 129(13): 
32–35. 

2. University of Maryland University 
College. 2005. Identity Standards Guide. In­
terim: November 2005­March 2007. p. 2. 

3. Karen Brodsky, “If you build it will 
they come? Using a new library building 
to establish a culture of marketing,” The 
Reference Librarian 82: 183–197. 

4. Matthew Simon, “Marketing librar­
ies through their physical environment,” 
Wilson Library Bulletin 66(7): 33­35, 
120. 

5. Harold B. Shill and Shawn Tonner. 
2004. “Does the building still matter? Usage 
patterns in new, expanded, and renovated 
libaries, 1995­2002,” College & Research 
Libraries 65(2): 123­150. 

6. Brinley Franklin and Terry Plum, 
“Library usage patterns in the electronic 

information environment,” Infor mation 
Resear ch 9(4), informationr.net/ir/9­4 
/paper187.html. 

7. OCLC Online Computer Library Cen­
ter, Inc. 2005, Perceptions of Libraries and 
Information Resources, Dublin, OH: OCLC 
Online Computer Library Center, Inc., 
www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions. 
htm. 

8. Lissa Krull, Lissa “Living your library’s 
brand,” Indiana Libraries 20(2):16­20. 

9. Mike Moser, United We Brand: How 
to Create a Cohesive Brand That’s Seen, 
Heard and Remembered (Boston: Harvard 
Business School Press): 11. 

10. Chris Olson, Slogans and taglines. 
There is a difference! Marketing Treasures 
14(6). 

11. Mark Shipley, “Keeping the brand 
healthy: The annual brand checkup,” www. 
marketingprofs.com/7/keeping­brands­
healthy­annual­checkup­shipley.asp (reg­
istration required). 

C&RL News December 2007  698 

www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions