When I went to read Joyce Sarick's article on promoting and marketing readers' advisory collections and services, I already had an idea of what I wanted to include in this prompt. Book displays focusing on genre or subject, book marks and annotated lists and a prominent presence on the library website were my three ideas for marketing the library's fiction. Lo and behold, these were exactly what confronted me in the article! So I had to think some more. This is a good thing, of course. Because I came up with a couple of great ideas.
1. Facebook: A book club on Facebook would be a great way to promote good books and connect readers. An involved presence on one of the most popular social sites in the world seems like a no brainer, but at least at my library, the closest thing we have to an online readers' advisory presence is the new books list scrolling at the bottom of the website and absolutely nothing on Facebook.
2. Read-Alike posters/blurbs: Positioning posters and lists next to or near certain bestsellers is a great way to get people to try other authors. For instance, right next to Gone Girl should be a list of books with twisty endings or other psychological thrillers. Amish books are extremely popular in our community, so lists of other authors of Amish fiction could be situated right by Wanda Brunstetter's books.
3. Great Books You Might Have Missed: This obviously was not my idea, but I really loved it and is something I will truly do when I am a readers' advisor. I am always thinking about that book that I may have missed, the one that is still sitting there waiting for me to read it and love it. I believe that I would absolutely love this display as a patron. I would love the challenge of getting those books out there as a readers' advisor, too. At my library, we have a staff picks display which should be similar, but the same books keep getting put up and the display sort of languishes. Further, the one readers' advisor we have only reads romance and mystery, so these are the only books she promotes. As Saricks pointed out, the display should have a great variety of genres and quality authors for the best patron experience.
Hi Jeannine!
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea for a FB book club. Would it be in a FB group? Or a page? I also like the idea for the Great Books You Might Have Missed. At my library we also see a lot of the same books being put up or recommended so this would be a great way to make sure other books, whether they're from various genres or older titles get noticed. Great job!
The idea of a book club on Facebook is interesting. I think I would miss the face to face aspect, though. But through Facebook you could reach so many more people which would be a great way to interact with people from all over the world.
ReplyDeletegreat ideas! full points :)
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