Berks County Public Libraries

The Berks County Public Libraries, serving Reading, Pennsylvania and the surrounding communities, believed they could do more for their patrons online, but they weren’t sure where to start. Their 19 individual locations offered diverse services, special offerings, and a wide range of events for every audience. Clearly communicating this wealth of resources and opportunities had proved difficult to achieve, and their old site was not mobile-friendly for users on the go. They wanted to do more to engage the community across their entire federated library system. 

Easy access to every branch’s assets 

I.F. began our work for Berks Libraries by building a strong data foundation. By getting to know their users’ habits and frustrations, we were able to develop a plan to prioritize the improvements that would make the biggest impact. Because their users trended older, we made sure we prioritized readability and accessibility for all users. We also moved difficult-to-find information about events front and center and created individual branch pages that allowed every library to spotlight their unique assets and services. Additionally, we were so impressed with the photography assets they had that we set to task to use them to our best advantage throughout the site, and in the process we also wound up revamping their logo and created a new brand usage guide for the organization. 

Success factors 

• Mobile-friendly, responsive design and functionality
• Individual branch pages to highlight unique offerings
• Prominent, user-friendly listings for events and classes
• Accessibility auditing 
• Easy-access to online collections and resources