Abstract
Public libraries provide their community with a convenient and accessible source of media, literature, and professional services. Regular patrons see their local library as a communal hub, providing a safe, accessible, and welcoming environment to meet, seek enrichment, and engage with their community. The result is a local community wholly unique in patronage, organization, location, hospitality, and, most evidently, identity. This paper discusses identity-making, branding, and placemaking within Western Pennsylvania Public Libraries and insights and experiences from ranking members in attendance. With the cooperation and collaboration of ranking library members, community leaders, and community patrons, it will detail the plan, process, and design strategies for realizing and developing identity systems for the Cambria County and Westmoreland County Library systems and the more than thirty libraries under their jurisdiction. It explores the combination of community-driven research methods used in developing each unique community identity, including on-site meetings, focus groups, surveys, participatory research sessions, design-thinking charrettes, and heuristic evaluation, to name a few, resulting in systems and solutions reflective of each community and wholly unique in sensibility and implementation. Lastly, it considers the effectiveness of the process, learned best practices, experienced failures, scalability, and repeatability.
Presenters
Donald "Kent" KerrAssistant Professor of Graphic Design, School of Art and Design, West Virginia University, Ohio, United States Barb Mitchell
County Coordinator, Cambria County Library System, Pennsylvania, United States Naomi Cross
Executive Director, Westmoreland County Libraries, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Graphic Design, Identity Systems, Branding, Design Thinking, Participatory Research
