Since its inception the Robert L. Bogomolny Library has often gone by RLB Library, using the initials of its eponym and past president of The University of Baltimore. The problem with this is, I am sure, immediately obvious to all of the readers of this blog. RLB stands for Reinforced Library Binding, so everyone mentally reads our name as “Reinforced Library Binding Library” which sounds awkward at best.
Over the past few months, the RLB marketing team has conducted numerous Zoom focus groups consisting of students, alumni, staff, and faculty from The University of Baltimore in order to figure out how to best tweak the name. As a result, our team made two startling discoveries that eventually led to the new name that is being announced today.
First, since the person for whom the library is named isn’t changing, our team focused on the order of how the name is presented. Our first surprise was the discovery that almost everyone in the focus groups chose “L. Bogomolny, Robert.“
Second, people wanted some word other than “library” to designate the building. Almost everyone said they wanted to call it something unique and inspirational. This was a real challenge since few people seemed to agree on a word that would achieve this effect. But on Oct 31, we accidentally hit paydirt when one of the focus group participants suggested “eerie”, probably in jest because it was Halloween, but our recorder accidentally wrote down “eyrie” instead. Much to our (second) surprise, the focus group participants responded very positively to eyrie. “It gives a unique sense of being able to survey the knowledge of the world from on high that you don’t get from those terms you were suggesting like ‘learning commons’ ‘” said focus group participant Gavin Eagle, who asked to remain anonymous.
We wanted to provide these details first, because when you first see the elements of our new name, L. Bogomolny, Robert + “eyrie”, it may look rather strange. But now that you understand its origins, we hope it will soon easily slip off the tongue.
So without further ado, we give you;
The LBReyrie
Please rest assured that even though our name is changing, all LBReyrie services will continue without interruption. Ah, I see you’ve got the hang of it already!