Elevating the School Library: Building Positive Perceptions through Brand Behavior

Branding isn't just for companies and celebrities. Your school library is a brand too, and this book will show you how powerful the concept of branding can be. You will learn how to use it as a tool for articulating the value and importance of the school library while also better defining and delineating to stakeholders who school librarians are and why having a school librarian matters. Complete with a list of guiding questions at the end of each chapter to help you put its concepts into practice, this book

• includes templates, checklists, and worksheets to assist you in undertaking school library branding, a rebrand, or a brand rehabilitation;
• offers concrete guidance and techniques for engaging effectively with your community by creating a strategic communications plan;
• walks you through incorporating the use of data and community demographics analysis to improve your practice and thus increase positive perceptions of the impact of your work;
• shows how to use existing AASL personas as well as how to develop additional learner personas (such as trauma-sensitive, special groups and non-users) through a brand audit;
• presents a focused exploration of brand behavior, emphasizing the impact, influence, and integrity of brand credibility;
• analyzes the work of Jim Collins (Good to Great), John Kotter (Our Iceberg is Melting), and others to shed light on the importance of the "business" aspects of the school library; and
• spotlights successful and unsuccessful examples of branding from the realm of both business and libraries, connecting them to the AASL Standards.

Susan D. Ballard A former Director of Library, Media and Technology, Susan guided her district to AASL National School Library of the Year Award recognition. She has served as an adjunct professor and lecturer in various school librarian preparation programs, published numerous articles in professional and scholarly journals and edited and contributed to several books. A Past-President of AASL, the New Hampshire School Library Media Association, and the New England School Library Association, Susan served on the Standards and Guidelines Editorial Board for the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. 

Sara Kelly Johns, an online instructor at the Syracuse University iSchool and a long-time school librarian, is a past president of AASL, the New York Library Association (NYLA), and the Section of School Librarians of NYLA. She received the NYLA Lifetime Achievement Award and the first AASL Social Media Superstar Advocacy Ambassador Award. Active in ALA Council and ALA committees, Johns was a member of the Implementation Task Force for the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. She has written articles for several school library publications and contributed chapters for various books.