On a snow day, the sign taped to the library door still says the branch opens at 9, and the branch manager is at home with no key. With a screen inside the door, she opens the dashboard on her phone, swaps one slide for "Closed today, back tomorrow at 9," and goes back to her coffee. That takes a minute. The slower work is deciding what else belongs on the screen and who keeps it fresh.
If you’re the clerk or branch manager who got handed the screens, you probably run the front desk too. Signage is one job among several, so the setup has to be something you can keep up between patrons and phone calls.
Put up the things that change and the things people ask the desk about. That means this week’s programs, today’s hours, closures, new arrivals and where to find a room or a section. If staff answer the same question ten times a day, that answer belongs on a screen.
The University of Michigan Library notes that library users generally see signs while they are studying or passing through. That holds for a small branch too. Most people give a screen a few seconds, so each slide gets one message.
A workable starting set looks like this.
| Slide type | What it says | How often it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Hours and closures | Today’s hours, holiday closings, weather delays | Daily, or when something happens |
| Programs | Story time, book club, computer help, with day, time and room | Weekly |
| New arrivals | A few covers and titles | Weekly or monthly |
| Where things are | Restrooms, study rooms and copiers | Rarely |
| Community notices | Town meetings, voting information, partner events | As requested |
The first two rows earn the screen its place. They’re the ones that go wrong on paper, because a printed sign can’t be corrected once it’s taped up.
Bigger than feels necessary. The same Michigan guidelines list a type size for each viewing distance, and the table below shows the first four. Stand where a patron stands, measure the distance to the screen, and pick the row that matches.
| Viewing distance | Smallest type size |
|---|---|
| 10 feet | 20 point |
| 15 feet | 34 point |
| 20 feet | 50 point |
| 25 feet | 66 point |
Check the shape of your slides as well. Michigan asks for landscape orientation only and a 16:9 aspect ratio, and the University of Illinois Library asks for a horizontal image sized to 1920 x 1080 pixels. If your screen is a standard TV, build everything at 16:9 and you won’t fight the edges. Our guide to choosing the right screen size covers the viewing-distance math for the screen itself.
The Illinois policy also says 20-30 words allow for maximum readability. Read your draft slide out loud. If it takes longer than a breath or two, cut it.
Give every slide an end date when you create it. A screen that still shows last month’s book sale tells patrons nobody is looking after the place.
Printed signs have the same problem in every building. Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee put it this way on its customer story page: "After you put it to print, you can’t easily make an adjustment. It is old news almost." A screen lets you fix the message the moment the schedule changes.
Emory Libraries builds the end date into its policy. Its signs are meant to promote ongoing exhibits or events occurring within 2 weeks. Two weeks works for a small library as well. You announce a program while people can still plan for it, and let it drop off once it’s over.
How long each slide stays up matters as well. Emory’s signs usually are on the screen for 7 – 10 seconds at a time. With a loop of twelve slides at that pace, a patron who waits two minutes sees the whole loop once. If your loop grows past that, drop the oldest slide before adding a new one.
A weekly ten-minute routine does most of the work.
Pick a fixed day and put it on someone’s calendar. The routine works because it’s small and has an owner.
One person publishes, and everyone else sends requests. Larger libraries have already learned this. At Illinois, information will be approved for display at the discretion of the Chief Communications Officer. A small branch doesn’t need a committee, but it does need a single name.
A short written rule saves arguments later. Decide what the screens are for (library programs, closures, partner events), who approves a request, and how long a slide runs. Send the form to the person who owns the screens, not to the whole staff.
A town, city or county library usually hears from the clerk’s office, the parks department and the school district once the screens are up. Council notices and election information will probably be the most frequent requests from outside the building. Decide up front whether they run, for how long, and who at the clerk’s office signs off.
That also helps with copyright. The Illinois policy warns that use of logos or photos pulled from the Internet or other sources may violate copyright law. Use your own photos, your own covers where you have the right to show them, and stock media you’re licensed to use.
A library needs a player that plays all day, restarts itself after a power cut and can be updated from a browser. A consumer streaming stick works fine at first, and plenty of small libraries start there. The trouble comes later, when a stick stops updating and nobody is sure whose job it is to fix it. We wrote about that in why signage hardware matters, and our player buying guide lists what to check.
Whatever you buy, check three things before you commit. Ask what happens when the internet drops, because a slide that says "Closed Monday for the holiday" shouldn’t need the connection once it’s on the player. Ask who can change a slide, since you want front-desk staff doing it from a phone or desk computer with no visit from IT. And ask who you call when a screen goes dark, including the hours and whether a person picks up.
More than they planned. A 2010 article in College & Research Libraries News describes the University of California, Merced library’s early system as little more than 17 displays running what amounted to an unsophisticated electronic slide show. Within two years, the system displayed more than 300 unique signs, and approximately 80 of those came from nonlibrary units or student groups.
The authors also describe how the screens became a channel for the whole campus. During the spring 2009 influenza threat, one of the first request from campus emergency planners was to post information about influenza symptoms and prevention on the library’s digital signage.
A public library has a version of this. Once the screens work, other offices will ask to use them, which is why the approval rule above is worth writing down early.
The most common one is putting a whole flyer on the screen. A poster has a paragraph of detail, but a slide needs a title, a date, a time and a room, plus a short link or QR code for the rest. If you catch yourself shrinking the font to fit more, split it into two slides.
Letting expired content sit does more damage than people expect, because patrons notice a dead event faster than a missing one. And without an owner the screens look good for a month and then drift, so name one person and one backup.
Screens also do their best work where people already stop for a few seconds, at the door, by the desk or near the holds shelf, and very little in a corridor nobody lingers in.
Contrast is the last thing to check. Use strong contrast between text and background and avoid text over busy photos. Michigan’s guidelines say to choose colors with appropriate contrast, and your own city or county branding rules may already have approved combinations.
Start with one TV, a player and a free design tool you already know. Build slides at 16:9, keep each to one message, and give each an end date. Then update from a browser instead of carrying a file to the screen.
Large type for the viewing distance, a 16:9 layout, a short message of roughly 20 to 30 words, and a clear date range. Those come from the Michigan and Illinois guidelines above. A QR code or short web address for details is a common habit, not something those policies require.
It depends on the player. Some keep playing content they have already downloaded, while live feeds such as weather need a connection. Ask the vendor before you buy, and test it by unplugging the router for an hour.
SmartSign2Go sells a player that ships already set up, plus a per-screen software plan, with free staff training. Plans start at $19 per screen per month, and the Lite player is $149. You can see both on the shop page.
Scheduling by time, day or month comes with the Advantage plan, which suits closure and program slides that should switch on and off by themselves. Plans start at $19 per screen per month, and the players ship already set up. You can see the options on the shop page and the pricing page. If you’d like to see it running before you decide, book a demo, or call (844) 888-7446 with questions.
