Work has been progressing on a ‘Single Digital Presence’ for public libraries in the UK. Here Tiina Hill, Head of Delivery, LibraryOn provides an update on the project as it reaches a new phase in its development with a new name and visual identity.

EVER since the term “Single Digital Presence” was coined by William Sieghart in his 2014 Independent Library Report for England, the appetite for a digital shop window to unite public libraries across the UK has remained high. Since then, the British Library has been working towards developing a sustainable and inclusive online space that puts public libraries and their users at its heart.

This Q&A provides an update on the project as it enters a new phase of its development.

InfoPro: For those who need reminding, what is the ‘elevator pitch’ or mission statement for this project?

Tiina: We are creating a unified, national branded space online that brings together and promotes everything that’s most useful, valuable and loved about libraries across the UK. Arts Council England have supported the project with £3.4m of investment, which will go towards building not just the first iteration of a national platform but increased digital capability at local level. We want to celebrate and advocate for libraries across the UK and increase physical and digital visits locally.

We have recently announced the name and visual identity for the project, which is now known as LibraryOn.

How will LibraryOn connect users to their local library?

Connecting library users to their local library and services can be done in a multitude of ways, and part of our job is to learn what work can be done fastest – to deliver value for the sector soon – and what work may entail further complexity but is worth keeping on the roadmap. In order to do this, we’re testing prototypes with potential user groups to understand their needs.

Our research shows people recognise the work of library staff and celebrate the difference they make to communities, but they also acknowledge the lack of a central online place to learn what libraries do. We are testing a range of options to address this, including a one-stop shop accessed via smart phone or computer that showcases the best of the sector as a whole, while also connecting users directly to the resources available at their local library, with a smooth and intuitive user journey between the two.

Anyone will be able to browse the site, find out how to access information and reading material from their local library as well as events, news, free-to-access content and reading recommendations from libraries nationally, including the British Library.

We will invest in national marketing campaigns and search engine optimisation to ensure the site ranks highly on Google, and provide physical and digital marketing assets for public libraries to share with their users to introduce the new name and brand.

Is the plan for all public library visitors to access their local services through the new national platform? If not, at what stage in their online visit to a public library do users come across it?

We want to enable two-way traffic so that users can easily end up on the national presence from their local library site and vice versa. Our grant scheme will help local authorities to upgrade their existing web presences as they see fit. Local websites will still be the main place to engage with transactional services and we expect users to go straight there to browse catalogues, book meeting rooms etc.

Are you aiming for commercial suppliers to build the platform, or for it to be done in house? If you have discussed the concepts with commercial suppliers, or any others, have you had any feedback about the feasibility of the concept?

LibraryOn is being built with the library sector at the heart of it, and it will operate as a not-for-profit initiative to support the sector, rather than as a commercial enterprise. There will be a core in-house team of digital experts around product, technical and content development and management to drive the project. We expect to have a mixed model of drawing on the market too for freelance and agency support for site build.

As with all digital products, it’ll be an incremental process, in which the team will learn from the way people interact with this and increase functionality as we go, and by having a core team in house we will be able to respond to emerging feedback quickly and efficiently.

How will LibraryOn contribute to the digital transformation of the sector?

Our vision is for a new, unified digital offer that will act as a catalyst to increase public library use, enable efficiencies and amplify the impact and importance of libraries at local, national and international level. The national platform will provide a high-profile digital presence for public libraries across the country, and the grants programme will drive local digital improvements, addressing digital transformation of the sector from both local and national perspectives. We will collate best practice guidance and continue to share insights and learning with expertise from the LibraryOn digital team.

Some people see digital transformation as mainly a culture change in organisations – to what extent do you think LibraryOn will need library authorities’ culture to change and how will you support that?

We’ve maintained an open and active dialogue with colleagues so they can share what they think the risks and opportunities are. We contribute to sector development work (including skills and culture change) at strategic level where invited to by CILIP and Libraries Connected, as well as via the successor body to the Libraries Taskforce and the Living Knowledge Network.

As part of our grants programme, we will build a cohort of sector representatives to co-design the grants programme to make sure it addresses the digital needs of the sector. The grants programme will act as incentive for library services to assess their paths to digital transformation and connect with peers as a community of practice around digital literacy and development.

How much data will you collect about users? What will it be for? And will the public need to have LibraryOn accounts to access things like the newsletter and other services?

Librarians are one of the UK’s most trusted professions and libraries are safe and trusted spaces for all. Data management and data ethics are a fundamental part of our approach and we will share an update on our data governance as part of this phase of work and as part of the wider development of data strategy.

Will public library services need dedicated staff to provide content and manage their interaction with LibraryOn? How will it cope with the range of IT capability across the sector?

We will have an in-house team to create editorial content and smooth interactions, and where there is capacity and appetite we’d like to be able to do this in collaboration with library services. We will run pilots with local authorities to understand if any additional investment is needed to enable local libraries to use LibraryOn in the ways they wish to beyond the current funding and to make the strongest possible case for that.

Will library authority technology need to meet specific criteria to connect with LibraryOn? Is the £1m for tech IT improvements?

Arts Council England have provided £1.1m for capital investment locally. We’ll provide further information on the grant fund shortly but this will include opportunities to learn from others and have access to shared design features and patterns. We will co-design the grant scheme with the sector to make sure it provides relevant interventions, such as digital innovation, enhancing existing digital services, building on digital capacity and testing out the national-local connection.

How important is user experience in building LibraryOn?

User experience has always been at the heart of our approach and each element of our work is grounded in research and testing with library users, non-users and staff. We are currently recruiting for an in-house User Researcher to ensure it remains at the heart of the project.

What is the thinking behind the name and visual identity? How was it developed?

The name and visual identity were developed in collaboration with creative agency FCB Inferno, who were appointed in December 2021 following a lengthy competitive tender. Their first step was to visit libraries and speak to people in the sector, alongside reviewing all the existing research available on the need for and value of a national digital presence for libraries.

Additionally, they assessed the visual landscape that the new brand would be living in, looking not just at other library sector brands but also brands with similar values which enable learning and discovery, harness expert knowledge or offer physical cultural spaces. And they undertook extensive research into accessibility to ensure that the brand was as inclusive as possible.

Following this discovery phase, they then developed a range of names and visual identities which were tested with library staff, users and non-users at various stages of development.

Both the LibraryOn name and the logo design represent the ambition for this platform to position libraries as an always-on experience. The name is also fundamentally a call to action to engage with libraries. There is currently no consumer facing site that talks about what libraries do and the name needed to be memorable and easily understood. In our research, the chosen name, LibraryOn, met all of the above criteria and prompted instant recognition and comprehension among testers.

What kinds of functions will LibraryOn provide? 

Based on user research, we want to make it easier for existing and new users alike to easily see what’s is going on in libraries near them and across the country. We know from user research that communities often aren’t aware that these things are happening nearby for free, so we want to help libraries to connect users with the kinds of events and information that interests them with relevant curated content.

Event listings are one of the features we have been testing in research sessions as a key feature, but they won’t be the central focus of the platform. Ultimately, we’d like to link people through to their local transactional services so they can browse the catalogue, borrow eBooks and so on, as well as sharing content from and about libraries across the UK, but this will depend upon the interoperability mentioned above.

Will this list include frequent small events like Storytime or Rhyme time?  And if so are there practical challenges to the volume, curation and functionality of achieving this? Where content pre-exists, is there any evidence or discussion about how the LibraryOn mission will benefit from showcasing this content? 

In our research with users, we found there was an appetite for a range of content. LibraryOn can bring pre-existing content to a wider audience than it might otherwise have reached before the existence of a national presence. However, information needs to be up to date and accurate without increasing the burden on services themselves. There will be thematic and campaign-based content curated from libraries across the country to encourage engagement from existing library customers and to attract new people who would not normally engage with libraries. It will support the wider positioning of libraries as relevant, inclusive and current.

What sort of content will the national newsletter have and who will it be aimed at?

The newsletter will be part of our wider content strategy and will highlight stories on things happening in libraries, advertise events tailored to the recipient’s location, signpost to content on the website etc.

How will reading recommendations and ideas from the library community be used to help LibraryOn?

Our key objective is to inspire and encourage more people to visit their local library, by showing what it has for them. If user research findings demand them, recommendations could be used to encourage people to visit their local branch and/or borrow a book online. LibraryOn will act as a national advocate and a marketing tool for promoting public libraries, but content will be rooted in the user research insights our team uncover. We see developing content and design based on our user insight as a key element of the user experience of the platform.

Can you explain if and how the project is flexible, able to cope with setbacks, able to upgrade, or respond to changes in behaviour by users?

A key driver behind recruiting an in-house team is that we believe this will enable greater flexibility, continuity, skills transfer and future-proofing.

We’re determined to build a sustainable product that meets both current and future needs, and doing that properly takes time and care, with an upfront investment in user research. Doing the groundwork in terms of research and testing now will maximise the chances of long-term value, adoption and investment and the current phase of investment has enabled us to scale up our work considerably.

Is there still scope for some of the other ambitions of LibraryOn, like an online community, shared catalogue, unified lending etc?

We are keen to ensure the best possible user experience across the ecosystem, wherever users happen to start their journey on a given day. We will continue to develop additional features based on iterative user testing and insight.

Visit the new LibraryOn project page to find out more and for sector updates on the platform as it develops: https://libraryon.org