Passively Recommending Books

 If you need a good idea for a fill-in book display, you can always return to the many reading challenges that pop-up in December and January. These challenges sometimes have an overall theme based upon a genre and sometimes they are very broad. Each month, a prompt to read a certain kind of book is presented. "Read a book that takes place in [city/country]" or '"read a book There are months where readers will struggle to find a title. In addition, some readers will discover a reading challenge that they didn't know existed. This might be an idea you reserve until June when you can set it up a half way through the challenge theme. While I am on record as advising against too many signs and decorations on a display, remember to include information about the challenge and where patrons can find out more.  Your book clubs can use these challenges for those months where there is a struggle to agree upon a title. There are challenges which focus on books by particular

  May has a variety of traditional and more adventurous reasons to set up book displays. Remember that you should use your programs and local events as inspiration as well.  Here are some suggestions for May book displays:  May Day- There are a variety of reasons to celebrate May day. It's the traditional start to summer. You could use Midsommer (the film) as an inspiration and include some non-fiction on wicca in addition to folk horror.  It's also International Workers' Day which would mean titles about the labor movement and work in general.  Star Wars Day: May the 4th be with you - Don't limit this display to just Star Wars films and titles. Look for other space operas in your collection which could use some exposure and put out some read alikes and watch alikes for Star Wars.  Mother's Day (2nd Sunday)- Besides the more obvious fiction and non-fiction about mother/child relationships and mothering in general, think about a "Bad Mothers" display. Books

  I will recap PLA 2024 at the end but there has been a lot of good talk about upcoming horror novels at the convention. I wanted to remind everyone that Summer Scares, a partnership between the Horror Writers of America, BookList and NoveList, is a great opportunity to promote horror outside of October.  I can guarantee that your patrons don't only think that beach reads are cheery and light. Living near the beach, I see people check out plenty of thrillers, suspense, and horror novels to take with them. Don't prejudge what your patrons are interested in and seasonally limit what portions of your collection that you market to them. There are adult, YA, and middle grade titles selected each year. They are always back list titles that are in print. An author is selected as spokesperson and this year it is Clay McLeod Chapman who is an excellent author to suggest to patrons who think they don't read horror. You can find out more about his books here .  There are free webinars

Day one of PLA 2024 included the panel Anti-Racist Readers Services: Beyond the Basics, sponsored by NoveList, and presented by Becky Spratford (RA for All), Robin Bradford, and Yaika Sabat. Becky has kindly posted the the slides on her blog . Becky and Robin have a course with NoveList called Actively Anti-Racist Readers Services to Readers  if you would like to learn more.  A question was asked about diversity in regards to human bodies, specifically looking for books with characters who are plus size or curvy. There are readers and librarians who have curated lists that you can draw from to create lists for patron and staff use. Even publishers have created lists . The titles can be highlighted on your social media as well to draw attention to the fact that your collection includes titles like this and even that they exist at all. Include them in your book displays and lists.  Take clues from the titles of the lists you do find and improve your search. As you will see, the titles of