Displays
Displays are the best form of marketing, in my opinion. They are incredibly versatile and can be used to market any type of book not only fiction. The best part about them is that they can either be as lazy or as intricate as you want. For example a librarian I used to work with once did a display called "There is something on your face." All of the books had covers in which someone had something on their face. She picked books with cool covers and the display did well. On the other end of the spectrum on of my coworkers did an "Afternoon Reads" display last year. The unifying theme of the display was that all of the books were around 200 pages. This display could not be filled fast enough. The themes of the display and picking books that are eye-catching are different, but important aspects of a display. They can be used to market under read genres or to promote books that the patron would not expect the library to have.
Social Media
In our increasingly online world libraries need to make sure that they are keeping up with the times. Social media is the best way to reach people who do not use the library and to reach users who have not been in a while. The library that I work at has a presence across almost all social media platforms, but the posts I want to highlight are the staff recommendations that are posted across all of our social media pages. The posts vary from book reviews, to one sentence recommendations, and what the librarians have been reading recently. These all work to market the library to different patrons. They show books that we currently have in the system, and brief thoughts about them.
Programs
Like displays programs can truly be anything. They are just events that the library puts on that usually have a specific theme. These can be used in truly any way imaginable to market the collection. This can be something like a book club, or something that my library does which is author talks. The library that I work for is apart of the Library Speakers Consortium. This is digital event that occurs monthly in which a author is interviewed by someone and the videos are posted to a website that we host. This works to market the books of these specific authors, and hopefully makes more patrons interested in their work.
I also love that a book display can be either lazy or super intricate! My lazy go-to display is Staff Picks. It is so boring but some months I am just too busy with programming to think of a catchy display. We did one not too long ago that was page to screen and then had the book and the DVD together on a display and that did extremely well! While very time consuming, I really enjoy making the displays that go up around our library.
ReplyDeleteI really like the Afternoon Reads display! I may have to borrow that the next time we need a display put up!
I chose the exact same three things! These three are just such strong contenders, in my opinion, it's why we keep doing them.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE the idea of an "afternoon reads" table or the "something on your face." They would 100% grab my attention and make me look through the books on display to see if there's something I'd want to pick up.
Hi William! I am parroting what others have said here, but your library has some great ideas for displays. I always find it interesting when we have always been told to "not judge a book by its cover," (both literally and figuratively of course) but as library staff we often make displays based on book covers (like your display "There is Something on Your Face"). The more ridiculous it is, the better. There's just something about it that patrons find clever and they are drawn to it, even if it tells them nothing about the book itself. I think the humor also says something about the library and its staff, putting the patrons at ease and making them comfortable.
ReplyDeleteCallie, I like what you said about the old "adage" don't judge a book by it's cover. While we know it's true, covers really are important when it comes to book sales and circulation. I purchase for the teen collection, and book covers for teens are super-important. They aren't going to check out a book with a boring our lousy cover. You can always pick out a young adult book in a pile of books just based on the cover, right?
DeleteHi William! Displays are very helpful tools for marketing our fiction collection. I like your note about creating displays for under-read books. Often, these are hidden treasures. When we add them to a display, we are drawing attention to a book that might have never been discovered otherwise. I like that your library promotes staff reads on your social media platforms. I know that patrons really appreciate recommendations from trusted people who they can talk to about the book in-person if they choose to!
ReplyDeleteI think its super important to display under-read books. I know most libraries will mostly display popular or new books, which is totally understandable, but I also know there may be a bunch of hidden gems in library collections that are under-read as well.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas!
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