What’s New
Going public again:
Queens Library changes name to restore people
BY BILL PARRY
I n order to honor and serve
the diversity of it customers
and communities, Queens
Library President and CEO
Dennis Walcott announced and new
long-term initiative that includes a
name change.
As part of its Renewed Promise to
the Public initiative, the library will now
be known as Queens Public Library
(QPL) with a new logo, tagline, pat-tern
and colors, a new website, and a
sharpening of its focus on customer
experience.
“We want to make it clear who we
are, what we aspire to be and what
people can expect from us whenever
they walk into one of our locations,
have an interaction with us, call us, or
visit us online,” Walcott said, promising
to visit QPL’s 65 locations across the
borough in 65 days to welcome the
public alongside library staff.
The previous logo, adopted in 2005
when the library was known as Queens
Library, was an orange and yellow
book topped by a wing with the tagline
“Enrich Your Life.” QPL’s main color is
now purple, a color associated with
some of the qualities QPL seeks to
cultivate, such as wisdom, creativity,
dignity and ambition, and a second-ary
palette of colors highlights the
vibrancy and diversity of the public
library serves.
The new tagline is “We speak your
language.” It means QPL not only
speaks Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Rus-sian,
Greek and many other tongues,
but also imagination, tech, history,
LGBTQ, HTML, finance, non-fiction,
science, fiction, story time, chess, teens,
opportunity, and many other interests
and pursuits. It makes clear that the
library is here for everyone, understand-ing
what their needs are and helping
them pursue their goals, according to
QPL’s announcement.
12 APRIL 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
“We are upholding a promise that
requires us to define how we think
about our role in fulfilling the public’s
needs, how the public perceives us and
the experience we are committed to
delivering,” Walcott said.
The new logo is a Q comprised of
tilted pieces that signify the many
diverse perspectives of Queens Public
Library, its resources, programs and
services, and communities. It uses
two- and three-dimensional space to
express QPL’s physical and cultural
characteristics.
In two dimensions, the mark is the
letter Q, referencing the library’s name
and the borough of Queens. In three
dimensions, it houses an open book,
an open doorway, and a welcome mat,
extending QPL’s promise of welcoming
everyone. All QPL locations now have
tablets dedicated to Google Translate so
staff can have conversations in multiple
languages with customers. The library
will also offer another type of translation
Courtesy of Queens Public Library
device at every site and will soon pilot a
language line service offering telephone
interpretation at several locations.
“The word renewal recognizes our
123-year history and that we are con-stantly
evolving to meet the changing
needs of our communities,” Walcott
said. “And we added ‘public’ back to
our name to reinforce who is at the
center of our work and to whom the
library belongs.”
The new website is faster, easier
to navigate and search, and clearer,
with more contrast to better meet ADA
compliance and it can be translated
into over 80 languages. It also features
a responsive design which will work on
PCs and mobile devices with different
screen sizes.
“Our ‘Renewed Promise to the Pub-lic’
is not just about words,” Walcott
said. “It is about helping people get
where they want to go in their lives
by working hard to understand where
they are coming from.”
power to its brand
/www.qns.com
/www.qns.com
