Week 14 Prompt

I think marketing library books to patrons can be a great tool to get the word out about new and old books.  I am going to talk about three ways I see libraries marketing materials and I am going to try and pick ones that are more passive due to social distancing and less in-house programming.

1. Staff recommendations from all staff and in multiple ways. We have done this in a few different ways over the past year. Last year when we got sent home we got asked to send pictures of books that we were reading. If we were reading books online we were asked to send a list to our outreach librarian. The outreach librarian would create graphics with the photos or a graphic with the list and post it on all of our social media. She would let patrons know how they can read the book online and once we were able to do curbside orders she let them know if the book was available in print. This alone has been pretty successful in connecting with patrons who are staying home and especially when we were doing curbside orders. We got them to read some new fiction and some books that brought back nostalgia. I recommended a science fiction series back in January and it has been constantly checked out or on hold both in print and online with ebook and eaudiobook formats. Now that we have more patrons coming into the building we are using our plexiglass surrounded desk to our advantage and created a staff recommendations section that spans YA, DVDs, and books. This has been going on for about a month and the circulation manager switches out the selections every week to keep the display fresh and appealing. Any staff member can send a list of recommendations to our circulation manager and he randomly selects from them and tries to make sure there are a variety of genres. This method has been great to get readers into older series and some of our new authors and books. I also think one way that would be fun to try with staff recommendations is through shelf talkers. We could have them say why they liked the book and what was appealing. After they have written their opinions then we place it by the book. As they get checked out we can take them down, save them for another time, and add new ones to the shelves.
2. I have seen a lot of libraries that put suggestions into bowls and patrons randomly select a book to read. I then saw one where they color coded the paper with a genre patrons should try. I think it would be fun to do it a little differently. I would color coordinate the paper with genres and then have a bookmark or sheet for each genre that gives suggestions that the patron can find in our fiction collection or through our online resources. I think to make it more patron friendly I would do a couple bowls that accommodate to those who read regular fiction, those who can only read large print materials, and our young adult collection (it is also upstairs). The library could do some popular genres mixed with some more unknown or underrated genres. I also think it would be fun to somehow incorporate this for those who look at our social media accounts with some sort of color spinner (like twister if anyone remembers playing that game). Then the patron could look at an image of a curated list that matches what the spinner landed on, place a hold for a book, and pick it up at their earliest convenience through curbside. They would not be long lists, and I think it would be smart to switch out the suggestions once a month or every other month so patrons can keep enjoying the spontaneity. Who knows, the patron could find a new favorite author this way! 
3. I know one way our library has successfully gotten new books and movies to get checked out faster is by sending out genre or format newsletters. We use BookSite and just scan the barcodes into the correct newsletter and it creates a newsletter with a photo of the book and details on the book for readers to look over. A couple examples of these newsletters are new fiction, new mysteries, new large print, new audiobooks, new Christian fiction, new movies, and a few nonfiction newsletters. This has created hold lists for many authors that were not being seen and even longer lists for popular authors. The newsletter is not fancy but it allows patrons to see what is new within the library. I think if we wanted to expand the newsletters it would be fun to create a nostalgia list where librarians can ask patrons to write down books they loved years ago (that we have in our collection) and create a list to send out to our patrons who subscribe. Then all areas of fiction could be represented in the newsletters.

If you have similar ways of promoting fiction or if you have different ways that your patrons have enjoyed finding new books let me know in the comments section!

References:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/80924124533546067/ 

Carrol, B. (2020, December 7) Don’t talk to me: Passive readers’ advisory. State Library of Iowa. https://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/ld/c-d/continuing-ed/iloc/copy_of_iloc-2016/handouts/dont-talk-to-me/donttalktome.pdf

Saricks, J. (2005) Promoting and marketing readers’ advisory collections and services. Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library. ALA. 136-160.