Week 15 Prompt

What do you think are the best ways to market your library's fiction collection? Name and describe three ways you do or would like to market your library or your future library's fiction. These can be tools, programs, services, displays - anything that you see as getting the word out.

Of course the ultimate way to market any collection is to read it! However, that is totally unrealistic.  People are busy beyond belief these days.  They have family, work, friends, households, studies, and other hobbies that are more interesting than reading sometimes.

Three ideas that came to me while reading this weeks assignments for my Readers' Advisory class relate to book clubs, a "While You are Waiting" cart (Saricks, 145), and book annotations by staff (Saricks).

We have had patrons ask about book clubs and why we don't have discussion groups.  It would be worth a shot to have an evening, once a month or even once every other month to discuss what other people are reading.  I also think this idea might even bring about community bonds as attendees discover other people who have similar or unique reading styles.

The neighborhood and community that surrounds the branch where I work are hard working families that cannot attend programs unless they are on a weekend or a particular night.

We have a display for the New York Times Bestsellers.  But, the true best sellers are not available for almost a month sometimes.  Sometimes, we have to reach back a couple of months just to find something on the current display table just to have something on it that used to be a bestseller. The "While You are Waiting" cart would allow read-alikes to get some attention and satisfy much like an appetizer and perhaps even stimulate the appetite for further reading material.

For example, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins has been on the Best Seller list for months.  However, we never see it come back long enough to even put it on the display.  Therefore, in its stead, we could put a book mark in or have a temporary wrapper around a book that is similar (such as In Fidelity by M. J. Rose).  The bookmark or wrapper could give a synopsis about it and say "While you are waiting for  . . . (in this case The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins) enjoy this read-alike book . . . etc.

Book annotations by staff, number one keeps us reading, number two helps to enlighten us with what is out there.  We are all very busy, but we all read a book here or a book there.  If we emailed each other annotations of books after we read them, it would help us to help the patrons.  Also, it helps us to understand what we each like to read so that if an expert is needed in a specific genre, they are easier to find.  For example, I am not a big graphic novel reader, I prefer historical fiction, Christian fiction, and cozy mystery.  However, there are couple members on our staff that read graphic novels.  If I need advice, I know to whom I can go.

This also goes for patrons.  I know a patron who is in the library every day.  He's almost like the postman who doesn't take a vacation.  He's there rain, shine, sleet, hail . . . as long as the library is open.  He reads science fiction, graphic novels, and because I know what he likes I can ask for his advice.

The long and the short of knowing how to market the fiction section, or any section, is good old fashioned interaction with staff and patrons.

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Saricks, J.  "Promoting and Marketing Readers' Advisory Collections and Services."  In Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library.  Chicago: ALA, 2005.