Booklist - Shelf Care #51: It’s Not an Art Project; Book Displays with Lila Denning

I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with Bookllist editor Susan Maguire about book displays! You can listen here and the notes are below:  

On this episode of Shelf Care: The Podcast, host Susan Maguire chats with librarian Lila Denning about the ins and outs of book displays; Audio Editor Heather Booth talks audiobooks to fall asleep to (really!); and Kelly Ferreira, Senior Editor, Books for Youth, shares a few books they’ve been reading and loving lately.

Chase’s Calendar of Events

“Unshelve with help from Booklist—Body Horror” blog post

RA for All: Horror

“Unshelving When Inclusive Displays Make People Uncomfortable” blog post

Bruja’s Nest, by Brenda LaTorre

The Mars Room, by Rachel Kushner

Passively Recommending Books (Lila’s blog)

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

Game Changers, by Rachel Reid

Heated Rivalry, by Rachel Reid

Tough Guy, by Rachel Reid

The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, illustrated by Irene Koh and Killian Ng

The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire, by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, illustrated by Michelle Wong and Killian Ng

Scream with Me: Confronting Social Injustice through Horror (webinar)

When Evil Lingers, by Melissa Blair

Off the Reservation, by Stephen Graham Jones

Yesteryear, by Caro Claire Burke, read by Rebecca Lowman

More titles by Susan Maguire

Passively Promoting a Short Vacation

 I was out of town seeing my dad and some of my siblings so I apologize for the lack of posts. This is a good time to leave a short reminder that if you are the person who creates and fills in displays for your library, prepare for your own leave by setting up simple displays that anyone can fill in without having to search far and wide for titles to fill them in. Don't set up complicated themes or you might come back to either an empty display or random books added. 

Ideas like Books We Have Loved, Great Mysteries, Quick Reads (shorter novels and novellas) can be filled in by anyone on staff. 

Frank, my host with the most!

Unshelving October - Making a Plan in Advance

 It's time to plan for October already. There are many days, weeks and month-long celebrations in October. Halloween is the big deal in October. I have some posts about horror, The Bram Stoker Awards, and why you should not limit horror just to October. I think that what you should consider with your spooky book displays is to be as broad as possible as far as the authors, publishers, and level of scares you have on display. Stephen King is popular and finds his audience without our help so set him aside unless you want to use some of the books he has blurbed and do a display on that. There are roughly 100 so you likely own some of them at your library. 

There are also opportunities to take authors like King and come up with read alikes. One of the most common readers advisory questions I get is "What should I read if I've read all of Stephen King and Dean Koontz?" There are lists here, here, here, here, and here. I find Reddit useful for searches like this because you are getting answers from readers. Because King has written so many books, there are many options. For Dean Koontz, try here, here, here, and here. 

Hispanic Heritage Month crosses over into October. 

Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples' Day is on October 12. There is plenty of horror written by Indigenous authors if you want to take your spooky theme and go in that direction. I would suggest that you know your community and your library administration. Use that knowledge as a guide for setting up a display. A balance between both themes is always an option. It's also National Indigenous People's Month which could be a separate display. 

It's also Italian-American heritage month which is a quick display to set up. You can use fiction, non-fiction, and DVDs in a display. 

With October 1 being National Poetry Day in the UK and October 15 in the USA, setting up a poetry display when it is not April is a great idea. While the 800's are sometimes a hard sell, I find that poetry will get checked out if you put it face out and in front of people. 

National Cookbook Month is also in October. There are the James Beard award winners but don't forget local cookbooks. If you partner with some local chefs and restaurants, there is an opportunity for programming as well. Do a book talk in a cooking store or a library card sign up outside a local restaurant. 

If it all seems overwhelming as you recover from summer reading and prepare for the winter holidays, note the various food related celebrations and put up a display with a sticky note on various titles which notes the celebration day. That can be continuously filled up. 

World Space Week is October 4-10. This is a UN designated week to highlight exploration in space. There are tons of fiction, non-fiction, and DVDs in every library that could fill a display for this week. Don't forget children's books.  It's fun to echo an adult display with youth materials. 

October 14-16 is also Sherlock Holmes weekend in Cape May, New Jersey. How much you focus on the Holmes books would depend on how they circulate in your library. There are also books not written by Doyle which you can find in many collections. Find read-alikes for the Holmes books here, here, and perhaps even books which have won the Agatha Awards. 

Finally, I will suggest Punk for a Day Day on October 25. This might be fun and unexpected for your patrons. Beyond whatever is in your non-fiction and DVD collections, try books on these lists: 

r/punk: I'm looking for books about punk
r/punk: Any good punk coming of age books to check out? 
r/punk: Fictional Punk Rock Literature?
r/booksuggestions: Books with punk characters/culture?
Goodreads: Best Punk Books
Goodreads: Best YA Books With Punk Rock characters
LitHub: Read These If You Aren’t A Poseur: Books That Embody The Punk Ethos

Unshelve With Read Alikes for Your Library's Top Reads

Many independent bookstores promote their top sellers even if they promote the New York Times Bestsellers. This photo is from my local, amazing independent bookstore, Tombolo Books. Publishing a list online or in your library of the top titles will certainly draw patrons' attention. The best way to use it as a book display is to add information about how to place a hold. Then look through your stacks for read-alikes for them to check out while they wait for that book with all the holds. 

 

Unshelve those Independent or Small Press Titles

 I really love when stores like Tombolo Books in St Petersburg, FL shine a spotlight on small press and independent press titles. This is a great theme for a book display. Search your ILS for titles with small press publisher or that were independently published. Add them to a book display and encourage your patrons to suggest more. 

More and more bestselling authors these days have gotten their start with small publishers or by self-publishing. There are series that are popular, with many reader reviews, that aren't by one of the huge publishers. 

I can't recommend all of the presses to check out but RA for All Horror does have a list of horror publishers recommended for libraries. 

Unshelve with Mini-Reviews from Your Staff and Patrons

 

Another great idea from my local indie bookstore, Tombolo Books, is something that you might find in other indie bookstores. These shelf readers have a paragraph with a brief review including a tiny bit of plot and why the reader loved it. This is a way to provide passive readers advisory with even staff who work behind the scenes involved. Put the title of the book, the author, and a QR code to your online catalog so patrons can place a hold. If you own the book in your digital collection, add a link to that to the card as well. 

Spread the shelf readers around your collection - include non-fiction, youth, young adult, & large print as well. Don't forget to spotlight some of your A/V collection as well. 

Because these are written in advance, they can be reviewed before they are posted, anything that needs to be corrected can be changed before the public sees them. This would include your patron written blurbs. Either set up a an email address where patrons can review their favorite reads or have a box where they can drop their written reviews. You can either put them on the shelves or set up a specific display where your patrons can see what others thought. 

As with all passive advisory tools, remember that bestsellers and authors/titles in high demand don't need our promotional help. Have staff make shelf talkers about titles they loved which need some more help finding their readers. Staff who are fans of specific subjects or genres can help readers with similar tastes find hidden gems in your stacks. 

 

Unshelve Yourself for Labor Day

(The menace known as Stuffing)

 Today is Labor Day in the United States so I'm spending the day at home with my bunnies and some books. Tomorrow we will continue to look at some ideas from my local independent bookseller.