When your hear the subject is about libraries, branding isn’t something that comes to your mind, at least not mine. This very interesting topic came to us from The Scholarly Kitchen in their article, “Guest Post — The Library is the Brand.”
Today’s academic library is not your neighborhood library from your childhood memories. It manages a complex set of online information resources, delivered by a combination of locally managed and externally provided services.
A vital part of academic libraries are the digital library services they also provide. This strengthens the library’s position in the university and enables it to secure the budget and political capital necessary to do its work. But without branding, that isn’t possible.
Electronic resources have evolved over time from well-known database products with strong brand names. However, discovery has transitioned to include unified library discovery and general search engines, enabling users to directly connect to individual articles, ebooks, etc., typically located on web-based vendor platforms with less recognizable to patrons. The shift from clearly labelled library services to vendor-branded web-based services results in a diminished or invisible library and university branding.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
