The Changing Face of Librarianship
IU’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) merged with the IU School of Informatics and Computing (SoIC). The merging of these top-ranked schools created one of the largest and most prestigious informatics schools in the United States.
Despite the strength of their degree program, many alumni and donors disengaged when their School of Library and Information Science was rolled into the School of Informatics and Computing. This feeling was evidenced by a decreasing number of donors to the ILS program.
Leaders from the IU Office of the Vice President for IT and CIO, the IU Libraries, and the IU School of Informatics and Computing charged our team to create a publication that would resonate with alumni and donors, showing them that library education and innovative librarianship was alive and well at IU, and spur them to re-engage with IU.
Our team agreed that profiles of successful alumni with impressive careers were the way to spur that re-engagement. Dubbed “Faces,” this theme enabled us to tell IU’s library education story through interesting people and weave impressive facts about the ILS program, facilities, and opportunities into the profile copy. Building on the “Faces” theme, I designed the booklet to allow readers to play with alumni portraits, mixing and matching them for interesting results.
Excellent photography was a vital element of the project, and our photographer flew around the country to snap headshots and workplace portraits of the profile subjects.
In addition, a strong call to action included a social media twist. The back page of the booklet urged readers to get in touch because “We miss your face!” alongside mirrored paper to reflect their own face. We encouraged readers to snap a selfie and show us how they’re part of the changing face of library science—and then upload it to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter with the hashtag #MyIULibFace.
Project Manager: Daphne Siefert-McCanse
Design: Maria Morris
Photography: Jenn Taylor
Writing: Ceci Jones
