Library Signage and Information Graphics: A Communication Tool for Library Users

Introduction

Recently, Informational graphics and signages are among the most basic, and at the same time most indispensable, forms of library instruction and communication. Like other media employed to educate the library user, they derive their importance and usefulness from the needs that users experience as they search for information. Signages and information graphics include and are not limited to signs that identify individual areas and rooms, as well as signs that identify the objects and applications found in these rooms.

There are a variety of function to what information the signages can communicate the library users. For example, an informational signage need not only tell users about things that they are seeking information on but can also tell them things they may have never known about. Library digital signage is also the perfect tool to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs), how-to inquiries and even display upcoming events and highlight new library services. For optimal results, library kiosks should be placed in areas with high foot traffic, preferably placed near front desks, entrances and lobbies. Amongst other roles, library digital signage can provide people with the necessary information that they need and can even promote new things that the library wants to highlight.

Library signage is also there to help users to use the library, which could be anything from assisting a user in navigating the library collection, to explaining how to use a self-check loans machine. The role of the librarian is not only to connect people to information but communicate this information appropriately and accurately to them, to buttress this point, Schmidt and Etches (2014) posits that signages can be seen as tools to achieve this, and hence their design falls well within the scope of library work.