Close your eyes and transport yourself to a library. Run your fingers along a row of book spines and breathe in the distinct aroma of a world of possibility. From Chaucer to the Bronte sisters and Kerouac to Dostoevsky, the library is the sacred resting place of great minds who graced the pages of history. But what if you’ve never visited a library or the Dewey decimal system is foreign to you? As many libraries open their doors and welcome students and the public back, here’s how library signage can enhance any visit.
1. Encourage Easy Circulation
The library can be overwhelming for first-time visitors, so an easy-to-navigate space is important. To accomplish this, directional library signs and graphics can help point an eager bookworm to resources or to a great read for their age bracket or interest. Ideal wayfinding solutions direct guests throughout the space, to resource rooms, the book checkout station and restrooms. Ensuring that community members are able to easily find their books of choice, and discover others, is part of what it's all about.
2. Help Guests Check Out the Latest
Comprehensive visual communication solutions enable libraries to educate a first-time visitor of the variety of services available including asking a librarian for help, checking out a book, getting online access, finding resources for research papers and providing a place to quietly study. Many libraries even have interactive areas for children and STEM kits available for check-out
With so many resources being moved online, when a library supporter does step foot into the space, you want them to have the most positive experience possible. By informing them of anything from safety or health protocols to family-friendly events taking place in the future, the library can fully carry out its mission to provide resources that the community needs.
3. Transform, Inspire and Transport
Creative signs and graphics can even inspire minds both young and old to dream big. Custom-made library logos and themes applied on walls help carry the brand throughout the different areas, while bold colors and inspirational sayings can enliven spaces for children and adults. Never underestimate the ability of a sign to positively impact a local library. Change out posters and banners regularly to promote special book events and upcoming activities. Digital signs and kiosks can be updated often to provide regulars with new information upon each visit—even serve as a self-checkout station to keep lines moving.
At a library, endless stories, characters and worlds all live under one roof, waiting for someone new to discover them. Library signage doesn’t have to be boring. The library is the perfect setting for learners of any age to find new motivation, inspiration and determination in the pages of the perfect book and on the walls around them. Implement library signs and graphics as unique as the communities that they are a part of and encourage many happy returns.