Our most recent contest, “Ring in the New Year” was a very exciting experience. At length, there emerged a clear victor whose name tags possessed a unique blend of tactful creativity and utilitarian charm. Sharon Doty’s name tag submission, which was made in behalf of the Barrington Area Library, perfectly captured the essence of our contest and earned the advertised $50 Amazon.com gift card grand prize. I had the pleasure of interviewing Sharon and wanted to share with everyone the contents of the interview. Enjoy!

Please tell us a little bit about the Barrington Area Library.

We are a northwest suburb of Chicago located almost equidistant between Chicago and Milwaukee. (We’re slightly closer to Chicago, but it’s faster to get to Milwaukee.) We serve about 32,500 patrons and check out over a million library items in a year. The most famous person to live in our library district was Sweetness himself, Walter Payton, who lived in South Barrington. We are the largest geographic library district in the state of Illinois covering 72 square miles.

What events do you have planned for the near future?

We’re about to open a Smart Room complete with video conferencing and a cool system that projects notes, images and objects to a big screen.

How does the public library working environment compare to that of a private business?

Always busy, especially on nights and weekends! And we probably have the most excited customers in the world when it comes to our under age 5 patrons. Announce that a storytime is starting, and everyone better clear the way!

How have you been able to use our name tag products?

In particular we used nametag.com products to create personalized nametags from “READ” posters so patrons could better know our librarians. There’s Ryann who has a special interest in technology and is our “Gadget Guide.” For her nametag, we took a picture of her holding an iPad and surrounded by e-Readers. Then there’s Jennifer, our “Scary Story Specialist,” who did a great photo shoot shining a flashlight shining on her face in the dark. And then there’s Mike who is our “Professor of Gaming. He’s the go-to guy for Wii, Playstation and Nintendo.

What advice would you give other organizations and businesses?

In particular, the nametags that allow for inserts are really great because they allow you to bring some fun into the workplace. By creating personalized nametags like we did with the READ posters, the public was able to get to know our staff. In addition, we’ve also created custom nametags for special programs/projects like our One Book Community Read and for openings of our Gallery in the Library. The removable insert is a great way to highlight something special that is going on at the library.

~Thanks to everyone who participated and, once again, congratulations to Sharon and the Barrington Area Library. Be sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook and check back frequently for upcoming contests, giveaways, and other promotions!