Pleasanton public library’s card design contest promotes community
During the last library card design contest held in 2017, about 175 entries were submitted.
May 15, 2022
During National Library Week, Pleasanton Public Library announced the start of a design contest for their future library cards, promoting people’s involvement in the community and creating an opportunity to encourage reading.
“Not everyone feels completely safe coming to the library, but [now] is a time to bring people back again. … [The contest] is a very meaningful event, and there is no age limit— everybody in Pleasanton has the chance to participate,” said Penny Johnson, a librarian at Pleasanton Public Library.
During the pandemic, the library continued to remain active online by providing many digital resources such as e-books to their readers. Now that the library has opened once more, its staff is working hard to bring back their frequent visitors.
“Because of COVID, the library was closed for quite some time, and when it reopened, we really wanted to reach the community and have people come back to the library again. This event is something that will help get the whole community to engage; it brings back community participation and engagement,” said Yu Tao, the Library Manager in charge of the contest.
Pleasanton Public Library held its second library card design contest this year. The event lasted for a little over a month and anyone was welcome to participate.
After the library reopened, people gradually began returning to study and read. The design contest is also meant to help the library regain its visitors more quickly.
Even when the library was closed due to the pandemic, it continued to provide online resources and books for the people of Pleasanton.
The card design contest was a great way for the library to reach out to and interact with the community while bringing back its more frequent visitors at the same time.
Since the library reopened, many students often go there to study and finish their homework. Thus, the many students who use and appreciate its resources often wish to do something in return for the support they receive.
“I joined the library design contest specifically because I thought it was giving back to the library in a way; I go there almost every day, and I just feel like this contest would be a fun way to participate in the community more, too,” said Hannah Cha (‘24), a participant of the library card design contest.
The contest involves numerous people from around town. By including as many people as possible in both the contest itself and the voting that comes afterward, the library created a wonderful event in which the whole community can interact together.
“When it comes to deciding the winner of the contest, we involve the library staff, the city staff, and the friends of the library. We would pick the top five, and then it would be voted by our summer reading program participants. Our library commission will pick the finalists. Later in August, the final design will be commended in the City Council, and then we will begin making the new cards,” said Tao.
The library is always open to anyone who needs it, and people recognize how essential of a role it plays in Pleasanton’s community interactions. Contest participants also acknowledge this and therefore draw their inspiration from the different aspects of the town.
“The library is such a big essence of Pleasanton and [it] plays a big part in our community, … to incorporate that, I tried to include different aspects of Pleasanton into my library card design. … I really enjoyed the whole process of creating something new and I would also like to see everyone else’s designs for the new library card, so I’m really excited for the new card’s release,” said Cha (‘24).
