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Library Signage Advice

These who know me know that one of my minor rants is about library signage (among a plethora of rants – ;-))

This presentation by Curtis Rogers at South Carolina State Library is excellent and offers some good advice.

Library Signage: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

http://www.slideshare.net/crr29061/library-signage-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly?utm_source=slideshow&utm_medium=ssemail&utm_campaign=upload_digest

 

If you need more to convince you to do such a simple signage audits here’s some advice from me:

1.  Take a small team from the library to the local mall (retail isn’t that far off libraries as a public space).  Look and learn from their signs.  Do their signs lack branding?  How many of their signs tell you not to do something? Are they handwritten or done with magic markers?   Are they ragged, taped to walls, full of tiny text?  Are there visuals?  Like Curtis says, overall signage can be made more effective by removing some of it.  How do they compare as professional communication?

2. Is there any reason you can’t use a colour printer?  They’re pretty cheap now.  If you don’t have great design skills it’s not a big leap to make templates and build frames for signs in PowerPoint or Word.  Then you present a more professional image.

3. Do your signs reinforce your logo, tagline(s), colour palette, social media links, URL?

 

3. Check out these Flickr Groups:

Library Signage:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/librarysignage/

Library Signs and Wayfinding

http://www.flickr.com/groups/librarysigns/

Library Signage

http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/sets/72157594237320616/

4. Another Slideshare:

Bad Library Signs

http://www.slideshare.net/watersongbird/bad-library-signs-with-voice

5. Check out this Tumblr group:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=tumblr+library+signage&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=4LV_UqrCCpXUsASXx4DwCQ&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=799

6. and these Pinterest groups:

Passive Aggressive Library signs

http://www.pinterest.com/terryannl/passive-aggressive-library-signs/

Library signage

http://www.pinterest.com/warrlib/library-signage/

Funny Library Signs

http://www.pinterest.com/hillsdalelib/funny-library-signs/

7. My older post
2011 Library Signage Plea
http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/12/21/new-2011-library-signage-plea/

 

Are your signs effective?  If they don’t achieve their goal, what’s wrong with them (or do staff blame the users?)?

People are looking at your signs.  If they’re not . .  why post them?

 

Stephen

 

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Posted on: November 13, 2013, 6:21 am Category: Uncategorized

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