Reading & Roaming

Develop and design a nonprofit pop up event to solve a local social issue, library deserts in parts of Texas.

Illustration ★ Branding

Objective

According to https://publiclibraries.com/state/texas/ there are 648 public libraries in Texas. There are nearly 29 million people in Texas, which means that if they were evenly distributed, each library would have to serve around 45,000 citizens. Libraries aren’t evenly distributed however. They’re concentrated in urban areas, creating library deserts across Texas.

First, let’s define the problem.

Research

Reading & Roaming is a nonprofit Texas library that is not focused on providing physical book access, but rather distributing ‘paper’ e-readers, ‘paper’ indicating that they’re black and white, lowering cost and making grant funding more likely. Each reader will have the Reading & Roaming apps, including a dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia set, pre-downloaded, as well as access to a full catalog of books to check out. The library travels to rural areas in Texas to host pop up events to distribute e-readers in library deserts.

Now, what’s the solution?

Let’s explore three personas to further define our audience.

I live in Valentine, Texas. We don’t have a library in our town and the county library is 42 minutes away, making it inaccessible to me.

Susan Jeffords Age 23

My family has a farm in rural Zuehl, Texas, and I’m not old enough to drive to the library on my own to complete my studies.

Walter Ramirez Age 13

I live in Wylie, Texas, home of the Rita Truett Smith Public Library. Unfortunately there isn’t much for the niche of books I’m interested in.

Hya Malik Age 42

Now that we know our audience let’s gather the rest of the building blocks for our brand.

Strengths - Fills a genuine need for poor and rural communities Weaknesses - Low tech skills in audience, advertising for pop up event

S.W.O.T. Analysis

Opportunities - We can bring a more varied and accessible education to small and relatively homogeneous communities Threats - Communities in Texas have been increasingly banning books and may take issue with libraries that traditionally provide access to such material

Onliness Statement

We are the only pop up mobile library providing e-readers to communities in Texas.

Brand Voice

Non threatening, welcoming, simple