Westmoreland County’s library system is freshening up its vibe.

The network of 26 locations and branches has rebranded as Westmoreland County Libraries and has started to distribute new cards to its nearly 60,000 users to reflect the name change.

“We did an entire rebranding and polled the community to design a new logo,” said director Naomi Cross. “Our legal name is still the Federated Library System of Westmoreland County, but we wanted a fresh start.

“There was a lot of confusion about the name, so we just wanted to match the transition we made in the office.”

Cross is a year on the job as the director of the network. She is part of what has become a largely new administrative team that oversees 17 member libraries, plus five branches and four affiliate locations.

The network’s redesigned logo features a yellow, green and blue W that mirrors the color scheme adopted several years ago by Westmoreland County as part of its rebranding efforts.

In addition to the rebranding, the library will offer users new cards with the updated logo and name. Cards will be available at the libraries, Cross said.

Go Laurel Highlands, as part of it’s Discover Westmoreland tourism program, sponsored the new library cards with $11,000 in local hotel tax revenue.

“It’s a natural partnership,” said Dawn Lamuth, director of culture and community connections for Go Laurel Highlands. “Anything that makes Westmoreland County a better place to live and work, we support. The new logo and name is so fresh and it’s very harmonious with the county’s new branding. We felt new cards was a really nice way to show off the new logo.”

Cross said older cards will still be accepted, but users can come into their local libraries and swap them out for the updated cards.

Increased offerings on the way

Meanwhile, the library system will move forward to increase its offerings.

Cross said expansion of its digital offerings through e-books and new physical media, books and other reference materials, will be updated.

She said libraries, which suffered in the post-covid era, have started to rebound.

“Our numbers are now back up to where we were before covid. We’ve become community centers again,” Cross said.

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