My library is in the midst of redesigning a number of things, and chief among them are building signs. Directional and informational signs are out of date in need dire need of a cohesive redesign, so I’m taking inspiration from today’s featured design by librarian Lina Rinh. Although currently at North Lake College, Lina designed the following endcap signs for the Hampton-Illinois Branch of the Dallas Public Library using Canva.
The Presidential Debates may be done, but we didn’t want to miss the chance the share this fun event advertisement from Erica Street, Instruction/Serials Librarian at the Jenks Library at Gordon College. Focusing on one primary design, Erica was then able to modify it to suit different mediums.
Once upon a time, libraries didn’t keep numbers and stats; or, if we did, we quietly kept them to ourselves. However, a recent trend in libraries is to publicize our annual numbers so that stakeholders can understand the importance of a library’s existence.
Library Specialist KC Frankenburger at the Parham Road Campus Library location at Reynolds Community College explains the infographic she designed with Canva:
Academic and school librarians are finally beginning to settle into the fall semester, and many of us are able to relax (or just stop running in circles) due to the efforts we put in during the summer to prepare for this school year. Joanna Hare, a Subject Librarian at the Run Run Shaw Library at the City University of Hong Kong, recently updated a guide to assist students in using the library.
Dan Vinson, the Coordinator of User Services and Library Assessment at Haggerty Library & Learning Commons at Mount Mary University, is an expert at making clear, concise tools to help simplify library business to students. If there is any doubt to that statement, be sure to check out his Dewey signs that he submitted to Librarian Design Share about a year ago, which he created with Easel.ly. Dan’s most recent designs, however, make use of every librarian’s new fave: Canva.
Dan created these latest designs, which he plans to link to from the library’s homepage, in direct response to his latest user survey. He explains more below.
We conduct a user survey every semester on rotating topics, and afterwards, we try to make “quick fixes” which we can then market. In our Spring survey, multiple students mentioned how difficult it was to figure out what tools to use when, and how to distinguish our request options.
In addition to retooling our library instruction marketing to faculty, I created this handout series from a Canva presentation template, each of which we will link directly to from our home page. I feel like they condense and organize the different points pretty well.
Not only is it an awesome idea to respond to the issues students are having, it’s so great to do it so beautifully, but also so plainly. I know you’re going to want to modify these for your own libraries, so you can find PDFs of Dan’s “quick fix” web designs on the Librarian Design Share Google Drive. You can also check out Dan’s prolific collection of library-related Canva designs here. And, if you have any specific design questions, drop Dan a line.
Cindi Tysick, Head of Educational Services in the Research, Education and Outreach Unit of the University Libraries at the University at Buffalo used Canva to create posters to visually represent each of the frames of ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.
Cindi reveals her sneaky trick to teach the Framework and explains why you’ll find seven, rather than six, posters in her library:
By putting these posters around your library you can begin cementing the concepts into subconscious of students and faculty. The posters can also be printed into a brochure format, which can be given to students and faculty during orientations, workshops, or library instruction.
When looking over the posters you’ll see that there is a seventh frame, “Information has Structure.” Our Educational Services Team at the University at Buffalo Libraries felt that there were so many knowledge practices under “Searching as Strategic Exploration,” that maybe there were actually two frames hidden there. After debating about it we thought that students needed to know that the strategy they employed should be based on the knowledge that the information sources they were exploring had a structure (i.e. controlled vocabulary, thesaurus, browsability, etc.) so we created the seventh frame.
We are finding that this simple way to define the frames are aiding us in the development of learning objectives and lesson plans.
The Framework is always a hot topic, and these posters, with their eye-catching colors, images, and icons, certainly help visualize and conceptualize something that can be confusing to faculty, student, and even librarians. You can download all seven PDF posters from the Librarian Design Share Google Drive, and you can contact Cindi with any design-related questions.
With the ALA Annual Conference wrapping up, there are likely several librarians and library school students breathing a sigh of relief after completing a successful presentation. Super proud of your poster? Feeling like your presentation slides were on point? April and I would like to encourage you to submit your poster / slide deck designs for an ALA Conference feature post.
In the mean time, today’s post is a poster from a different conference: The Maryland-Delaware Library Association Conference in beautiful Ocean City, MD. Jenise Overmier, Instruction Librarian at American University in Washington, DC, created a great poster using a combination of Canva and Google Slides. Here’s Jenise in her own words:
These days, most universities are moving towards learning management systems and libraries are moving towards online resources. However, we often overlook the fact that many students don’t have a reliable internet connection at home. Librarians at the San Juan College Library recognized this major issue and took action. Librarian Kim Lowe explains:
Houston, Texas is rich with culture, and the Houston Area Digital Archives division of the Houston Public Library works hard to capture the city’s history and make it accessible to all. In that spirit, HPL Cataloging and Metadata Services Librarian Jeanette Sewell recently submitted the digital archival coloring books designs she created.
Jeanette describes her process in creating the covers and pages for the online books:
Librarian Design Share 