Marketing & Outreach Interest Group Meeting (3/9/23)

Meeting Information

Join us on Thursday, March 9th, at 12:00 noon, for our next Marketing & Outreach Interest Group meeting!

Navigating Without Noise:  A Talk on Library Signage and Wayfinding Design with Mark Aaron Polger

If you're like most library marketers, the top request you get is for signs. And you probably ask yourself "Is it a good idea to make this sign? Will it really help? Do we have too many signs now? Where should we put our signs?" 

If that's you, then you're going to love our with librarian, library marketer, and author of Library Signage and Wayfinding Design, Mark Aaron Polger.  Mark conducted extensive reserarch - including testing and auditing inside real libraries - to undreestand how people find their way to library content.  We'll talk with him on Thursday, March 9th, at noon, for guidance on making our libraries easier to navigage without all the noise and confusion that signs can so easily create.

About Mark Aaron Polger

Mark Aaron Polger is an academic librarian who received his MLIS degree in 2000 from the University of Western Ontario (London, Canada). He has been working in libraries in different capacities for over 30 years. Currently, he is the Coordinator of Library Outreach at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York (CUNY). His responsibilities include coordinating the library’s marketing and outreach activities, engage in campus community partnerships, and assists in the assessment of library services and resources. He has been deeply engaged in working in various library signage activities since 2012. He has written about library signage audits in journals and other publications and has presented nationally at library conferences.

He is also an accidental library marketer, as most of his professional experience as a librarian involves the marketing of library services and resources. His research interests include library marketing, outreach, and UX (user experience) design. He is most interested in how users interact with the library’s physical and virtual touch points; specifically the web site, terminology, signage, and promotional materials.  He has written and presented on topics ranging from library marketing strategies, faculty outreach, Information Literacy marketing campaigns, library jargon, and library signage.

In 2019, he wrote Library Marketing Basics, published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. This "how to" guide is a great introductory text to library workers who are charged with marketing their libraries to different targeted groups. His latest book, Library Signage and Wayfinding Design: Communicating Effectively with Your Users, will be released in October 2021  by ALA editions.

Originally from Montreal, Canada, Polger holds a DEC in Pure and Applied Sciences from Marianopolis College, a BA in Sociology from Concordia University, an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario, an MA in Sociology from University of Waterloo, and a B.Ed. in Adult Education from Brock University. He is currently a 6th year Ph.D. student in the Graduate Department of Education at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he is starting his dissertation research. 

Interest Group Facilitator:  Chris Boivin