Chase Talks About Three Ways to Market a Library's Collection

Shelf Talkers

One of my biggest pet peeves at the circulation desk has always been signs, signs, signs. The little of ladies who made up most of my staff often taped signs advertising books, programs, etc. to the desk. If not, we’d have signs in the acrylic sign holders all over the place. A point that I often tried to make was that no one read signs especially when there was an abundance of them. A great illustration of this was when the library sold engraved brick pavers for the sidewalk outside the library. We put up a sign along with purchase forms next to a small pile of bricks as well as our other plethora of signs, but every day multiple people would come in and asked for information about the bricks while the sign for the bricks was literally right in front of them. My response was always, “Yeah, it’s next to this pile of bricks I’m touching.”

However, signage in unexpected places is more noticeable. An example of that is shelf talkers, which are small signs that are affixed to the shelves in strategic place. Shelf talkers are very versatile in marketing a library’s collection. The image of above shows a shelf talker whose purpose would be to draw attention to a collection of Smurf graphic novels. Shelf talkers can be placed under popular authors with suggested read-alikes and where to find them on the shelves. Staff can connect with patrons this way by recommending their own personal favorite books using shelf talkers similar to Barnes & Noble. I have seen this done two ways in libraries before: either in the stacks or on a special display. Patrons enjoy trying to connect staff members to the books, and it also gives them a chance to seek out staff members who have similar tastes for more recommendations.

A takeaway from this though is that signage in libraries needs to be dynamic and unexpected to get noticed in a library.

Adult Summer Reading Program

My previous library always had an adult summer reading program in tangent with the children’s department. Summer reading programs typically involve children reading a designated number of books to achieve prizes throughout the summer with a free book to those who reach the final goal. The adult version at my library was set up like a bingo card that required adult patrons to explore the materials in the adult section. The card had to be completely covered by the end of summer. For instance, patrons were asked to read different genres that fulfilled different squares on the grid. They were also asked to read something from the nonfiction collection and a biography. Other materials were on the sheet as well such as a magazine and newspaper that the library subscribed to. It was a program that asked patrons to step outside of their comfort zone to try different genres and types of books while secretly getting them to explore other services of the library.

Sadly, the library changed the program where for every five books an adult would read would get them entered into a prize drawing at the end of summer. I always thought that was a wasted chance of marketing the library’s collection and having an active relationship with adult patrons.

NoveList

Speaking of a waste, that library also had NoveList, but it was never actively used or promoted. I once visited a library that did not have a reference desk. Instead they had a small table where a reference librarian and the patron would sit next to each other looking at the same screen as they found information together. I can see this format being used with readers’ advisory and tools such as NoveList. This practice is an opportunity to not only provide marketing for the collection but also some of the digital services the library offers. Often times a staff member would come to me describing a patron interaction after the fact. I would ask them if they used the databases including NoveList. The answer would always be a no. NoveList is a service that should be heavily promoted to staff and patrons. Readers’ advisory was something that always made the part-time staff uncomfortable, but familiarity with this tool had the potential to move them past that. Their enthusiasm for it could have sparked an interest in patrons using it on their own and possibly recommending books that could benefit the library. I really like the notion that staff and patrons can work together on readers’ advisory using NoveList, which only benefits the library’s collection.