When Eye On St. Paul thinks about memes and videos that go viral, what springs to mind are cat antics, trending dance steps and outrageous sports feats. Not library cards.
But viral is exactly what happened to the St. Paul Public Library late last year when staff members launched the Laser Loon library card, inspired by a beloved design suggested for the new state flag. An effort to coax a few more folks to use the city’s libraries quickly became a sensation and brought in thousands of new users. Eye On St. Paul recently chatted with Stacy Opitz and Claire Huber of the library system’s marketing department to delve into the origins of perhaps the coolest library card ever and ask about what might be coming next.
This interview was edited for length.
Q: Who came up with the laser-eyed loon card?
Stacy: It was Claire’s idea. We, the marketing team, had been thinking for a while about ways to bring more people into our libraries. And I think the L.A. library had done limited edition cards, and the Brooklyn library did some based upon the anniversary of hip hop. And so we had been keeping our eye open for what’s St. Paul’s thing or what’s Minnesota’s thing and Claire raised up the Laser Loon.
Claire: I kind of proposed the ideas, almost thinking not anybody would take me up on it, right? I was like, “Oh, wouldn’t it be funny if we just did a limited edition card with this Laser Loon on it?” And sure enough, we have a culture here at the library of saying yes to things, trying things, you know, experimenting and learning from projects. And so this was one of them that we said, “Yeah, let’s, let’s give it a try.”
Q: What was the goal here?
Stacy: Claire and I are on the marketing and communications team. Our big job is to tell the library story and make sure residents are aware of and using their library. Some folks in our community might still be thinking that libraries are just warehouses for books, right? We offer so much more. Of course, library cards are an important piece of using our spaces. If you want to access materials and some of our other services, you do need a card. To get more people in St. Paul signed up for cards, that was our big goal.