Examples of Great Marketing of a Collection - LaGrange (IL) Public Library

 While I was in the Chicago area for the Adult Reading Round Table conference, I stopped by the LaGrange Public Library with Becky Spratford who serves as a trustee there. I took some pictures to share some of the great marketing decisions they have made to unshelve their collection and bring it out in front of their patrons' eyes. 

When you enter the area with the adult non-fiction and fiction stacks, you are greeted by a display of books with the theme of Illuminating Winter Tales. There is one sign with only the title and suggestions of other books on the sign. 

The display itself is simple and clean with the emphasis on the books. It's also blends genres on the display. You could add a QR code with a link to an eBook collection with the same theme or a blog post about the theme. Overall, it's a great display that brings book covers to readers as soon as they enter the space. 

They make use of endcaps to provide more reading ideas. This one is tied into a reading challenge "Feeling Blue." They have used the only sign to provide more reading suggestions. This sort of display is easy for anyone to fill in. 

There is a "Warm Up With a Hot Romance" endcap. I love the visual effect of the multicolored covers. 

I love the idea of having a display with titles recently returned, especially if they are backlist titles that might be new to a lot of readers. 

There is not a season for those interested in genre fiction. I love the horror display up in December. While you should fill displays. Having one with empty spots will help reinforce to other patrons that the books are on display to be checked out. 

   

The first step in unshelving your collection and letting the covers help sell your backlist titles to patrons is putting easels up on the shelves like they have done here. It draws the eye to the shelf and is a simple way to put up faceouts. You will be surprised what will get checked out simply because it is faced out. 

Using Library Aware from EBSCO does make some of this signage easy but you can replicate these great ideas. Don't feel intimidated if your library can't afford that product. Use the idea and go from there. Offering readalikes for books with long wait lists is another way to draw attention to your backlist. 

Finally, this is a great use of a bulletin board in a public library, Encourage people to place holds so you know what will be popular!

I loved seeing how LaGrange promoted their collection. Hopefully, you saw some ideas that you can borrow for your own collection. I will try to post more pictures from libraries I visit.