Organizing a Statewide Library Around Who Is Asking: A Brand and Platform Redesign for AskRI
AskRI gives every Rhode Islander free access to research databases, learning platforms and state resources. It had grown to the point where finding the right one was the hard part, so the redesign was an exercise in information architecture with a new identity on top.
The work
The Challenge: The Library Grew Until Finding Things Was the Hard Part
AskRI is a digital librarian on call for every resident of Rhode Island. It is a collaboration between state government, the Office of Library and Information Services and Providence Public Library, and it gives free access to premium research databases, online learning and tutoring, and consumer resources for health and employment, alongside a FAQ section answering the questions local librarians actually get about state services.
It is an unusually good public resource, and it had grown to the point where finding the right part of it was the hard part. Residents struggled to locate what they needed; the people running it struggled to organize, update and extend it.
The Strategy: Reorganize Around Who Is Asking
Refresh the identity, then rebuild the architecture around who is asking.
- Discovery first. A short phase established that the user base shared little audience to audience, ruling out a single hierarchy.
- An identity built on two-way exchange. Logo rounds explored marks that suggested both conversation and Rhode Island’s own shape, with a brighter palette alongside.
- Persona-based organization. Only a small part of the audience arrives able to search for what they want by name. The architecture had to work for everyone else.
The Outcomes: A Route in for Every Audience, and a Librarian at the End
- Engagement | A route through the collection for each audience it serves | The FAQ section retired in favor of Ask a Librarian, where residents submit questions and common answers get published
The detail
Why finding things had become the problem
- Three different ways in, and a user who knows none of them. The platform is organized three ways at once: by database, for third-party research and learning tools; by audience, for K-12 students and teachers, parents, non-native English speakers and adults in continuing education; and by FAQ, for the crowd-sourced questions local librarians field about state services.
- Growth made the good thing harder to use. AskRI accumulated real value over years. The more it offered, the harder it became for a resident to find the one they needed and for site managers to organize, update and expand what was there.
- Three goals, set before the work started. Refresh the branding so the service felt live again inside and outside the organization; give managers more flexible and efficient content tools; and increase use of the resources across every audience.
The call and the build
- Discovery found a user base with little in common. A quick Discovery phase established that the audience shares almost nothing — schoolchildren, parents, language learners, adult students — which pointed the architecture at personas rather than at a single hierarchy.
- An identity that looks like the state and like a conversation. Several design rounds explored logos built on two-way exchange, the thing the service actually does, while suggesting Rhode Island’s distinctive shape. A brighter palette came with it.
- Architecture for people who cannot name what they want. Only a small part of the audience arrives knowing what to search for. Frequent users got fast search and filter tools to reach familiar databases; everyone else got persona routes with curated lists, a “Find Resources for You” menu and an “Explore Topics” section grouping state resources by need — small business, health, families.
- The FAQ section was retired, not redesigned. Making the platform simpler removed the need for an FAQ section at all. In its place is the Ask a Librarian page, where residents submit questions on any topic and the most common answers are published for browsing — the most interactive part of the platform, and a feed of what residents actually need.
What it left behind
- A persona-based route through a collection no one reads end to end. A statewide service reaching schoolchildren, parents, language learners and adult students cannot use one hierarchy for all of them. Organizing by who is asking lets the same library answer four different questions.
Library platform redesign questions
How should a library platform be organized?
Around who is asking. AskRI’s audiences — K-12 students and teachers, parents, non-native English speakers, adults in continuing education — share almost nothing, so no single hierarchy serves them all. Frequent users get fast search and filters; everyone else gets a persona route with curated lists, because only a small part of the audience arrives knowing what to search for.
What does a library brand refresh need to do?
Re-energize the service inside and outside the organization. AskRI’s new identity draws two thought bubbles that together form the shape of Rhode Island — conversation and place in one mark — with a brighter palette that keeps the sense of trust a library needs.
Should a resource platform have an FAQ section?
AskRI’s redesign answered no: making the platform simpler removed the need for one. In its place is Ask a Librarian, where residents submit questions on any topic and the most common answers are published for browsing — more interactive than the section it replaced, and a running record of what residents actually need.
What makes a statewide digital library easy to use?
For the AskRI redesign by Pare & Co: a persona-based architecture with a route in for every audience it serves, search and filter tools for the residents who already know their database, content tools the people running the service can use, and an identity that reads as both a conversation and the state it answers for.