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Compared to many other cultural and educational establishments, public libraries usually reach large numbers of visitors, however, they seldom achieve an appropriate esteem. Furthermore, at present a lot of municipal budgets are in a situation of financial crisis, which usually entails task criticism and austerity measures. This especially affects voluntary municipal benefits. With 240 000 inhabitants Graz is the second largest city in Austria, but this fact does not mean, that Graz also possesses the second largest public library. On the opposite, compared with other cities in Austria and Germany, which almost have the same size, the public library in Graz had to get by with small financial, personnel and spatial resources for many years. By example, the library only could offer 0,6 media per inhabitant and 8,5 m² per 1000 media. Three years ago, the public library of Graz found itself at a turning point, when the closing down of all its branches was under consideration because of a financial crisis of the city. Fortunately, the consistent customer focus caused a public opinion contrary to decision-maker evaluation: Citizens’ initiatives, action groups, thousands of signatures of protest, and a massive media campaign proved the public library’s well established and deeply rooted anchoring in its municipal vicinity. An external expert’s location report – developed by Prof. Cornelia Vonhof, Media University Stuttgart – became the initial point of a complete restructuring of the library system. Instead of cutbacks or closures, the public library of Graz became highly revaluated and is now an undisputable basic institution rooted within the city’s cultural and educational landscape. Several strategic measures and marketing actions during the last two years multiplied and strengthened attendance, degree of awareness, and financial coverage to a large extent. In comparison with 2005 the budget now is duplicated, the space of offer has been increased to 13 m² per media, a lot of new services and an intensified purchase of new media achieve a continuous rise of more than 100 000 borrowings per year. The presentation elaborates on the sometimes crucial impact of an external expert’s opinion, as well as on the many chances for a small library system (1 mail library and 6 branch libraries, 1 media centre, 1 bookmobile) to distinguish oneself by means of innovative projects, a modern corporate design, professional PR and, to some extent, unorthodox measures. The lecture presents the new branch structure, based on the opening of three new branch libraries in Graz (one of them was financially promoted by the EU) until the end of January 2008. All new libraries have their own profile and offer special services and selected media concerted to the structure of the population of the district. During the short period of their existence they have already developed to high frequented places of communication and information centres. Besides, the presentation shows the new corporate design with a lot of examples for use, especially the regular bulk mailings to 122 000 households in Graz, and the booming use of online media booking, combined with a free-of-charge delivery to any post office of one’s own choice within Graz. Last but not least the lecture talks about a new and concentrated reading promotion for children, entitled „Labuka – The Book Island“, and gives a forecast to the current project – the fourth new branch library.