Become a destination…
When building or renovating Public Libraries, consider opportunities to benefit from traffic generated by council services that share the building. Become a destination. If deemed viable, incorporate a café, art space, garden area or small business incubator into new branches.
Use seating as a marketing tool…
Use seating as a marketing tool by creating innovative spaces for meetings, independent and collaborative work and leisure. In education, using seating to create a point of difference over classrooms is fundamental to maintaining relevance.
A contemporary library should be set up as the community’s shared living room…
A contemporary library should be set up as the community’s shared living room – cleverly selected furniture is at the foundation of this advice.
Now is the time to nurture other other parts of the product offering…
Whilst many Public Libraries enjoy strong usage stats from DVD, they too will inevitably loose appeal due to improved and cheaper streaming. Now is the time to nurture other other parts of the product offering to fill the void that will inevitably be created.
Free internt access is no longer a point of difference in many communities…
I am concerned about some Public Libraries that rely heavily on the Internet to maintain customer numbers. Free access is no longer a point of difference in many communities, so the strategy is loosing relevance.
No more could be done to make the collection look less appealing…
Rarely is a book displayed face-out and little or no innovative signage solutions have been developed to help print compete with online resources. There’s really no more they could have done to make the collection look less appealing!
Has Non Fiction (in print) lost relevance?
In education, I have met with countless people who question whether Non Fiction (in print) has lost relevance. These schools have keep abreast of developments in technology over the past 20 years. However, during this time, the faded, poorly weeded Non Fiction collection has remained on tall, dated shelving arranged in narrow isles to the […]
In the design and renovation process…
In the design and renovation process, much effort is invested in architecture and interior design. Of course this is important, however it is easy to unknowingly create a contemporary veneer around traditional and outdated ideas. A impressive library is not just architecture and decor – that’s an impressive building. An impressive library should be measured […]
Technology is constantly evolving…
Technology is constantly evolving and for the most part this is driven by external influences; constant software updates, maintaining current hardware. But who drives innovation in the display and marketing of physical resources? This must happen at ground level, within each library. Defaulting to traditional ideas has long lost relevance.
If a book retailer were to adopt the ideas…
If a book retailer were to adopt the ideas applied in many libraries they’d go broke!
