Passively Recommending Books

  Outlets like NPR  , The Guardian , and the  New York Public Librar y (and on NYPL Twitter ) feature a different book every day. Titles for any audience, fiction and non-fiction, are selected. Your library can copy this idea for your own social media. It's a great way to market your backlist and to introduce titles they may have missed to your patrons.  This is a perfect ongoing campaign for your entire staff to become involved with. Don't exclude anyone who wants to participate. As I have said before, everyone in your library is an expert in something and they may bring out titles that you are unfamiliar with. Please make sure that staff are using titles that are in your physical or digital collection. You want to draw people into your library to check out the titles you feature! It will take some planning to keep going every day. Set up at least a week in advance. Repeat the call to your staff to submit their ideas monthly so that you can obtain enough content. The posts can

  September is almost here already and it's time to start thinking about book displays. Planning and scheduling them in advance is the best way to make certain that they are best able to help you market your backlist, programs, and services. Have fun with them and let staff be creative but don't lose sight of how they can be a serious marketing tool.  Back to school is the first topic that comes to mind when September rears its head. (Even though many students will return to class in August.) No doubt your youth librarians have picture books with themes including first day of school. There are also many juvenile fiction titles about school friendships and problems. Look to your adult fiction and non-fiction sections for books which reference school or teaching. Don't forget books about mathematics, grammar, and other basics. In addition, work with your local schools to see what topics, upcoming assignments, and focus areas would be most helpful to your patrons. Curate lists

The website The Portalist recently ran an article called " Sci-Fi and Fantasy Recs Based on Your Favorite Foods and Drinks ." As I have mentioned before, these sort of lists are flexible and there are really no right or wrong answers. They have been created based upon a reader's favorite character in a movie or TV show, astrological sign, tarot cards, and more. Publishers often send out lists like this as part of their marketing emails or library newsletters.  Take advantage of these ideas to market your own backlist and promote those titles that can benefit from the spotlight that a book display can provide. Don't worry about using the same titles that are included in the email or newsletter; instead take the idea and apply it to the titles you have in your physical or digital collection. While the themes can promote creativity and provide an interesting and fun task for staff, the real purpose of a book display is as a marketing tool for the books which are in your

While you are planning out your library's book displays and lists, don't limit input to certain staff members. Allow anyone who works in your library to contribute to coming up with ideas and selecting titles. There could be things percolating in parts of popular culture that you are not familiar with or have not even heard of. Meanwhile, someone on your facilities team or in your business office may have done a deep dive into that thing and could help you assemble something for your patrons.  Allowing anyone to contribute an idea or theme for a display or list will also expand the parts of your collection that receive attention while also encouraging staff to share their passions. It can be helpful to know what your co-workers are interested in as you work with the public. This is something that we did when I worked for a bookstore. We knew who was the historical romance readers, who loved poetry, and who was fluent in all kinds of space operas. When a customer asked for help

  One of the most common questions I get regarding book displays is how long they should stay up before they are changed. My usual answer is no longer than a month because after 30 days, your patrons will likely have seen it and will stop looking at it. As I have mentioned in presentations, you should archive the titles on your website so that patrons can locate titles they viewed but didn't check out. It also allows patrons who are interested in the theme to see the full list of titles that were included.  To address scheduling more broadly, it's a good idea to outline your book displays at least several months in advance. Create a monthly schedule as part of a larger plan to market your collection which includes what themes for book displays and book lists you will use. Between your programs, major holidays, and local events, you are already scheduling much of what happens at your library each month. Adding book displays to this schedule will allow you to better leverage thei

  I recently finished two books, one back list and related to my Brian horror fest and the other an upcoming release.  Our Black Hearts Beat as One by Brian Asman is a novella about heartbreak. I posted a short review on Goodreads, available here . It's a book with an increasing sense of dread and levels of unease. The plot, from the author's website:  "Hearts don’t just break, they explode. Destroying everything around them." Michael Mallory's living the dream as the lead singer of a hot, up-and-coming band, Modern Love. When a sudden breakup shatters his world, he plunges headlong into the city's occult underbelly in a desperate bid to salve his pain. Lost amidst wayward souls and brutish killers, godlings and grotesqueries, Mike's about to learn one incontrovertible  There's nothing more terrifying than love. Put this title up on a display with other titles about heartbreak and deep emotions. Because Michael is in a band, fiction about music would