AUTHOR: Elisabeth Doucett
STARTED: February 6, 2013
FINISHED:February 21, 2013
PAGES: 124
GENRE: Library Science
FIRST SENTENCE: [From the Preface] I became a full-fledged librarian three years ago when I graduated from Simmons College with a masters in library science.
SUMMARY: [From BN.com] The buzz in marketing right now is branding, but many libraries are put off from starting branding projects because they do not know how, consider it too large a project, or do not have extra funds. This book will help. Doucett's approach to branding takes each step as a single project, making it accessible and achievable. She defines marketing and branding and then offers practical advice on the different aspects, from creating a logo to using templates, working with outside help, and creating and evaluating the branding plan. She emphasizes including staff, patrons, and board members in the process and offers helpful examples with which one can follow up online. Doucett even provides a practical list of pitfalls in which she sees libraries get bogged down. By breaking the chapters into individual steps for branding, Doucett makes this book a helpful guide for the beginner as well as the seasoned marketer. Each chapter stands on its own, so one can read or review whichever sections are needed. Doucett sprinkles her text with tips and FAQ boxes, plus exercises at the end of each section to provide a starting point for the project. Possibly even more helpful is the glossary of terms that marketers use regularly but with which beginners may not be familiar. This type of guide can serve as a useful ready reference, but be forewarned-marking helpful pages will require a book full of tabs.
THOUGHTS: I've read a lot of library marketing books and this is one of the better ones. Doucett focuses on the library brand (or image). This brief work instructs the reader on how to determine the library's brand, build it from the ground up, and maintain it successfully. It's a straight forward read with great examples.
RATING: 7/10 [Very Good]
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