When I worked at the Tippecanoe County Public Library, one of the items that I thought was a good marketing tool for fiction was read-a-like lists in the form of book marks. I think that many times we run the risk, at the library, of having so many different posters and pamphlets that everything just becomes white noise for our patrons. What I liked about the reading lists we used was that they were long, thick bookmarks, and they would just kind of live in certain books. For example, there'd be a David Baldacci book with a read-a-like list put together from Novelist suggestions inside of it, and someone would check it out and return it with the same bookmark in it-- so, over time, they'd get worn out, but you knew that the bookmark was getting looked at repeatedly.
At the St. Joseph County Public Library, one of the big programming cycle events is called "One Book, One Michigan." I know a lot of libraries have events like this, where they encourage patrons to read a specific book-- often a classic-- and then have all kinds of different programming themed around it. But I really think it's helpful, and you can really spotlight an excellent book and get your entire community behind it. The book that we did that I thought went particularly well was "Killer Angels." People eat up Civil War themed programming-- I don't know why. I guess it's just about a common thread in American History.
Of course, displays are fun to do and I really think they help circulation in specific areas of your collection. I always like to do science fiction and graphic novel displays because I like those genres of literature. I did a Hugo Award winner display not too long ago where we numbered a bunch of Hugo winners and put the numbers randomly in a little Bingo ball where people could crank it and get a random number, and then the idea was that they took the book with the corresponding number. I think that sometimes, when people know that they like a specific genre, they're more willing to take a risk on an author in that genre they may not know-- and I think that helps interactive displays, like the one I described, succeed.
I have always been a fan of bookmarks. Patrons will always take a book make and pay attention to whats on them. They are the best way to advertise for children and adult in my opinion. We have One Book One Region in East Chicago and our library participates in that also. Usually the books that are picked are new to me, staff and patrons. Displays, poster and book marks are used to promte
ReplyDeleteNice post, I think having all the major and genre book awards on print-outs & readily available is also underutilized. I am a fan of the one-book idea, sometimes it is helpful to have a local theme or tie-in to invite people in, not just fiction - maybe local history.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of leaving a bookmark in a book! I never thought of that, but that is the most likely place to put it so it will get used. If a person is reading a book and they love it, they are likely to be interested in the read-a-likes. I guess your worn-out bookmarks are evidence it's true.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness I love the idea of getting a generated number and choosing the book! It makes me think of a "blind date with a book" or other random draw system, and it's very interactive! I will certainly try to incorporate that in the future! Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness I love the idea of getting a generated number and choosing the book! It makes me think of a "blind date with a book" or other random draw system, and it's very interactive! I will certainly try to incorporate that in the future! Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more about the white noise. We struggle with this so much at our library. I think that your idea is excellent though! Instead of one more thing we are trying to get them to pick up, this is an organic way of stumbling on more books that might be of interest to you. Did you get positive feedback about this? I love the idea of leaving surprises in our books :) It doesn't factor into reader's advisory, but we have, just for fun, done this with poetry and positive affirmations before.
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