2019 Essays

The Library is the Brand

Cartolano, Robert T.

Today’s academic library manages a complex set of online information resources, delivered by a combination of locally managed and externally provided services. It is vital to academic libraries that the digital library services we provide — whatever their source — carry clear university brand identity. This strengthens the library’s position in the university and enables it to secure the budget and political capital necessary to do its work. Both libraries and their vendors have much to gain from this approach to brand. Here is how Columbia University developed a more formal approach for Library branding and achieved success with some of our largest vendors.