Imagine If: The rebranding of Bigfork library

By DAVID REESE

Bigfork Eagle

The old library just isn’t what it used to be.

Once a place to read in quiet, research a paper or study, the library of today’s culture is a much different organization than it was even 10 years ago.

So things are changing.

The Flathead County library system this week unveiled a new image and branding for the community branch libraries, including Bigfork.

“Imagine If” is the new name for the organization that represents the county libraries, with Bigfork’s new name being “Imagine If/Bigfork.”

The rebranding effort started about two years ago, Flathead County library director Kim Crowley said, when her staff began brainstorming over how to keep the libraries relevant in today’s evolving digital society.

Bigfork resident Al Logan is president of the Flathead County library board, which oversees the library system. He is a retired CPA and had done a corporate marketing campaign before, and he said the library rebranding was needed to let the public know about how much of a role the county libraries play in our culture.

“My neighbors used to ask me, ‘Are libraries still relevant?’” Logan said. “And I told them, ‘Yes, of course, they’re still very relevant.’ This is part of getting the public to better identify with the services our libraries are providing.”

The library system did not just do a new logo for the Imagine If brand. The entire administrative culture at the library has shifted, Logan said. “It’s not just changing our name,” he said, “it’s a whole philosophy of how we do business. It’s about getting people out from behind desks, to out front, interacting with people. That makes a big difference to the people, and to the team.”

Libraries are no longer quiet places to read books and newspapers. Of course they still are that, but libraries are also places where people come to learn, and the Imagine If concept is part of that. People learn in various ways. Some do it by reading, others by doing. It might be a weekend class on how to build a chicken coop, or a seminar on mixing your own environmentally friendly cleaning supplies. The library system wants to be relevant to people who want to learn.

 “This has been a real culture change for our organization the last five years,” Crowley said. “And this is a culmination of that.”

Children from birth to five years old are key receptors to learning, and active learning environments are crucial to their development. Much of what the library system is aiming to do is geared toward making the libraries a fun, engaging place to learn. “Kids who enter kindergarten … are much more prepared,” Crowley said.

More people are using the Bigfork branch. In 2011, 27,263 people used the Bigfork library. In 2012, that figure increased 12.44 percent to 30,542. They checked out 31,581 library materials — a 17.4 percent increase over 2011. Between 2011-2012 the Bigfork branch library had the largest-single annual increase in use for Flathead county.

Downloadable materials in the entire county library system grew from 12,463 in 2011 to 18,399 in 2012, a 47 percent increase. While downloadable e-books are becoming more popular, you still have to pay for them. But at public libraries, you can check them out for free.

Even though people gain information largely through digital devices, the county library system is checking out more materials than it ever has, Crowley said.

Overall, the Flathead County library system saw a 10 percent increase in users from 2011 to 2012. About 513,771 people used the branch library system in 2011, compared to 565,596 in 2013.

Part of the library system’s makeover is a more user-friendly county library system. Library users will no longer accrue fines for overdue books, DVDS or CDs.

The fundraising arm of the library is the Flathead County Library Foundation, and it paid for the $40,000 rebranding costs. “We couldn’t have done this without the foundation,” Crowley said.

Rishara Finsel, senior librarian, was busy this week rolling out the new identity at the county library branches in Bigfork, Columbia Falls and Kalispell. She said the shift in the way libraries do business in the Flathead Valley is a big change from what she’s used to. “It’s taken us a little bit out of our comfort zone,” she said, “but that’s a good thing.”

Bigfork’s downtown library is the smallest of the county branches. It occupies a 900-square-foot section of the Bigfork Art and Cultural Center. About a third of that is used for children’s reading area. A study is underway now to determine how, when and where to expand the Bigfork branch library. Logan said the new location, if it does move, should be close to Bigfork schools and the Bigfork community. One of the largest users of the library is the Lakeview Healthcare center, a convalescent facility near Bigfork high school.

“Everybody loves our little library,” Logan said, “but it needs to get bigger.”