Current Trends of Naming in the Corporate Network of Public Libraries of St. Petersburg

Abstract

The informatization of modern society motivates library management and staff to modernize their professional activities and apply various strategies to position a new, relevant image. As a consequence, libraries and many other cultural institutions are striving to move from faceless number designations to a strategically justified name, as it is one of the most important tools for forming a vivid brand. These phenomena are referred to by experts as “naming”. A successful library name, if successfully positioned in general, attracts new audiences to the library and can increase the effectiveness of the cultural institution. There is a growing number of studies of the history and current activities of named libraries. Despite the large volume of thematic materials, the problem of terminological disunity in the researched topic is increasing. In this regard, the author justified the use of the term “naming” as a universal and the most accurate designation of the activity on creation and functioning of an effective name of an organisation, product or service. The author’s generalised classification of approaches to the formation of names of public libraries (personified, toponymic and conceptual), which formed the basis for the study of current trends in naming in the Corporate Network of Public Libraries of St. Petersburg (CNPL SPb), is proposed. Personalised names are given to libraries named after writers and other important representatives of culture and art. Toponymic names characterize the relationship with the territory where the library is located. The conceptual variant of the name is connected with the reflection of the priority direction of the cultural institution’s activity, as well as with associative names, the basis of which is a certain image. The study concluded that the concept of “named library” is increasingly used by specialists in the context of toponymic and conceptual naming. It was found that there are more named libraries in the CNPL SPb than numbered libraries, the prevalence of personified and conceptual naming was found, and the trend towards the further spread of named libraries was noted. The article is of interest to librarians, librarians, specialists and students of higher education institutions of culture.