Unshelve your collection with Pride!

 It's June and time for displays for Pride to be placed in libraries and on library social media. There will be plenty of online lists and posts with titles by LGBTQ+ authors. Don't forget to check the Lambda Awards and the Stonewall Book Awards for ideas. While you are assembling books for your displays and lists, watch that you are including as much of the LGBTQ+ community as possible. You can use the various flags to identify books that focus on a particular community to help those patrons who are not ready to ask for help. Creating lists and bookmarks with suggested titles that patrons can access online or pick up is another way to support LGBTQ+ members of your community. 

History and biographies are popular in displays for any cultural heritage or awareness month but don't forget cooking, fiction, poetry, art, and films. Make your the titles you select as broad and possible and expansive. Remember, as I frequently say, your patrons are as curious as you are so don't sell them short. 

Here are some lists to get you started: 

Penguin Random House - The Ultimate LGBTQ+ Book List

Reddit - Book rec for pride month? 

Brooklyn Public Library - Pride Month Books for Adults

Hamilton East Public Library - A Reading List for Pride Month

Goodreads - Listopia > LGBTQIA+ books to read during pride month!!

UCF Libraries - LGBTQIA+ Pride Month

Always be planning how you will unshelve your collection

I have mentioned Novel Suspects, a newsletter from Hachette Book Group, before on my blog. Their lists are great starter ideas for book displays and online posts. Recently, they featured a list they called "Psychological Thrillers Featuring Couples Gone Wrong." While this is a display that could go up at any time, I would keep this idea on my list for February as an "anti-Valentine's Day" display. It would also work for Sweetest Day on the third Saturday in October. 

Planning ahead will make changing out your displays much easier and will avoid a panic if you can't immediately brainstorm ideas. Keep a calendar for every month and write down the ideas that you and the rest of your staff come up with all year. This will give you more options along with the holiday and programming linked displays that you likely set up. 

Passive readers advisory is an important part of your collection marketing plan. Retail stores plan their displays and marketing in advance and so should your library. 

StokerCon 2026

 From Wednesday through Sunday, I will be attending StokerCon in Pittsburgh.  This annual celebration of horror and dark literature culminates with the Bram Stoker Awards which are presented on Saturday night. It is livestreamed on YouTube so you can watch from home. 

The past nominees and award winners are great for featuring on a horror themed display or list. The awards have become increasing diverse and do feature many smaller press titles. 

I will do a wrap up post early next week with my thoughts and reflections as well as the top takeaways for promoting your collection. 

Unshelve your collection with help from RA for All and the New York Times

 Don't be afraid to grab ideas for promoting your collection from anywhere and anyone. Recently, readers advisory expert Becky Spratford featured the New York Times's Summer Reading Bucket List on her blog. She does include a gift link in her post so go there first to read it. Becky explains why this recent shift in the Times's book coverage is so welcome. I recommend that you read her blog every day for news, commentary and great readers advisory ideas. 

This bucket list is a great summer book display or online post for your library. You can do a ten week series and feature one idea a week with recommendations. Another idea would be to feature staff suggestions for the various entries and to mix up the entries since they are not in a particular order. 

Adult summer reading programs are sometimes overshadowed by youth programs and this list from the Times is an easy way to up your collection promotion while giving adults something fun to do!

Unshelve with Cats! Meow...

 When I train libraries on book displays, I use an image from a display promoting a program one of my colleagues created. Charlee has been able to gather 100 people into a room to create cat castles. This one slide from my presentation generates more questions and requests for information than anything else. Librarians love their cats. 

Using cats as a theme is broad enough to include everything from cozy mysteries with cats to juvenile fiction about cats to non-fiction books about caring for cats. There are also books with cats on the cover as well as books with cats on the cover. An ongoing series of active and passive programs (made with interactive displays) is certain to be popular with patrons of all ages. Partner with rescue groups to increase your community involvement. 

I have embedded Charlee's slideshow below which shows the basics of how to create your cat castles. They are also suitable for guinea pigs, rabbits, and other small animals.

Unshelve With Help from RA For All & The Best Books of 2026, So Far

On Tuesday, Becky Spratford featured The Best Books of 2026, So Far from the New York Times on her blog, RA for All. 

On Tuesday April 28, Becky Spratford featured The Best Books of 2026, So Far from the New York Times on her blog, RA for All. I recommend that you and your colleagues read through Becky’s blog post.  In it, she discusses how the NYT book section is focusing on prioritizing the reader and what would appeal to readers like our patrons.

There is nothing to add to Becky’s analysis. However, I would suggest that you look over the NYT list after you read the blog post. The titles of the various sections will make great titles for book displays. Several examples - I want a lush historical novel about sisterhood, I want a fresh perspective on familiar history, I want a rivals-to-lovers road trip romance, and I love absorbing biographies that bring icons to life – can likely be filled with titles from your collection. Check for read-alikes for the exact titles on their list but don’t worry about expanding your selections far from what the Times has listed; the display is to market your collection, not to mirror the Times article exactly.

I love the idea of just taking “I love” or “I want” and creating a series of displays to run over a month or so in a library. You can see what the Times has listed but then create your own. There are plenty of tropes and plot points that you can select which will draw attention to your backlist. Something like “I want a new twist on vampires” would have plenty of recent examples such as The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste, and Nestlings by Nat Cassidy.

 

 

Unshelve Using BookCon 2026

 

BookCon 2026 has ended but it did leave us with some ideas for marketing library collections to readers. (There were also many instances of ARC related poor behavior. See here, here, and here for more information about that.) When a big book related event happens, use it to create displays and online lists.

Take aways? Dystopian fiction and romantasy remain popular. Swag is also something that readers enjoy so keep putting out bookmarks and perhaps investigate making buttons or other items patrons can collect. Adaptations of books were also discussed.

Use the bestselling authors who attracted the most attention to draw attention to hidden gems in your collection by doing read-alike book displays and lists. Find authors, titles, and series that those who enjoyed the very popular titles.

Some news from BookCon includes:

BookCon 2026 Proved There’s an Appetite for More Diversity in Black Romance Reads – From Ebony 
Includes Cannon Reads, ‘90’s Nostalgia, Modern Love, and Upcoming Spring and Summer Releases

New 'Divergent', Dungeon Crawler Carl and dizzying crowds mark BookCon's 2026 return – From USA Today

What is the best book-to-screen adaptation? Authors reveal their favorites. – From USA Today

BookCon Guests and Panelists

New Veronica Roth and R.F. Kuang Novels, Rachel Reid Dishes with Jacob Tierney and Other Biggest BookCon 2026 Bombshells – From People

BookCon Returns After Six-Year Break: Event Organizer on Reservation Rush, Boycott Response and Romantasy Reader Demand – From Variety

r/BookCon – From Reddit