Library marketing & communication resources

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Additional marketing & communication tips, tools & resources

• ​​ALA press kits
• ​Closed captioning software
  • Amara​​
• Working with data
  • Datacamp 
  • Datamonkey
• Communication & language
  • Advancing Language for Equity & Inclusion, An Equity Fluent Leadership Playbook
  • APA Style Bias-Free Language
  • Communicating Effectively with People with Disabilities, ADA.gov
  • Disability Language Style Guide, National Center on Disability and Journalism
  • Disability Writing & Journalism Guidelines, Center for Disability Rights
  • I am Disabled: On Identity-First Versus People-First Language
  • Words at Work
• Design tools 
  • 1001 (free) fonts (usage rights may vary — check individual font for permission information)
  • Canva (Canva Pro is free for non-profits!)
  • ColorZilla: browser add-on to pick colors for your design palette right from websites
  • ​Easel.ly: infographic creator with many templates
  • Google Drawings
  • Lucidpress
  • Photopea: free, online image & photo editor
  • Piktochart
  • Postermywall
  • Zazzle
• ​Email marketing software 
  • MailChimp
• ​​Image editing programs (free)
  • befunky photo editor, graphic designer & collage maker
  • DesignCrowd
  • Elance
  • fiverr
  • ​GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program): open source software freely available for personal use; suitable for users accustomed to the sophistication of PhotoShop.
  • GimpShop is a modification of GIMP, which creates an interface more familiar to users of PhotoShop.
  • Google Photos
  • Inkscape
  • ​logoglo
  • Paint.NET for Windows
  • PicMonkey
  • TinyPNG.com is a free site to reduce the file size of your PNG files (helpful before adding them to the site, as smaller file sizes = faster page loading)​
• ​Image sources (free)
  • 123rf.com
  • Age-positive image library
  • Better Allies list of sites that specialize in stock photos and illustrations featuring people from underrepresented groups
  • Compfight
  • Disabled And Here Collection, a disability-led effort to provide free and inclusive stock photos shot from our own perspective, featuring disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) across the Pacific Northwest.
  • ​Flickr Creative Commons and others on Flickr:
    • Internet Archive Book Images
    • Library of Congress on Flickr
    • U.S. Government on Flick
    • Library of Congress on Flickr
    • U.S. Government on Flickr
    • Internet Archive Book Images
  • Free Digital Photos.net
  • ​​FreeImages.com
  • Disabled And Here Collection, a disability-led effort to provide free and inclusive stock photos shot from our own perspective, featuring disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) across the Pacific Northwest.
  • freepik.com
  • The Gender Spectrum Collection
  • Liam's Pictures from Old Books for something different
  • morguefile
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • nappy, Beautiful, high-res photos of black and brown people. For free.
  • New York Public Library - Public Domain Collections
  • NounProject: partially free source of lots of icons
  • ​Pexels
  • Pixabay
  • Unsplash
  • Wikimedia Commons
  • WOC in Tech, Creative Commons images on Flickr
• ​​​InfoSoup App Marketing Toolkit
• ​​​​​​Library Marketing Plan template created by the Wisconsin Public Library Systems Marketing Cohort​
• Library Value Calculator
• ​Photography tips
  • ​Digital Byte: Tips for Taking Better Photos: Watch this 8-minute video to learn about 13 tips for taking better photos (especially with a smart phone). Presented by Jamie Matczak, Wisconsin Valley Library Service.
  • DPI samples: Library Photo Release Form & Child Photo Release Form
  • Libraries and Photos of Patrons (ALA)
    •  A Communications Handbook for Libraries
    • Sample Photo Release Forms
• ​​Public library fast facts
• Website design & accessibility
  • Check My Links is an extension developed primarily for web designers, developers and content editors that crawls through your webpages looking for broken links and identifying them for you.
  • The ColorPick Eyedropper Chrome extension is an eyedropper and color chooser tool that allows you to select color values from webpages.
  • Dyslexia Font and Style Guide, The Reading Well
  • WAVE Evaluation Tool extensions allow you to evaluate web content for accessibility issues directly within Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers.
  • Working With What You’ve Got: Practical Tips for Improving Your Library’s Website (60 min. YouTube video), presented by Laura Solomon
  • ​​​www.w3.org/WAI (World Wide Web Consortium [W3C] Web Accessibility Initiative [WAI])
• ​​​Website tips & Weebly tutorials page (Weebly information to be removed in 2026)
• ​​Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC) Library Resources & Training
  • Resources: Research and promotional materials about ebooks (OverDrive/Libby), digital information, and other library technologies.
  • Training: Library technology learning opportunities and training materials for OverDrive front line support, including materials from the OverDrive Support Course
• Check Out Wisconsin State Parks At Your Library
• Workforce Development marketing toolkit