Unshelving July - Making A Plan in Advance

 It's more than halfway to July! If you haven't put together your plan for July, I am here to help! The easiest one to put on your calendar is the Fourth of July. With the United States celebrating 250 years, I would make several displays or rotate out the type of material on your single display. Make sure you include youth materials, fiction, non-fiction, audiobooks and movies. Also, include the depth and breadth of people who make up the United States. If you can't see your entire community reflected in the items you put on the display, find more in your collection. 

July also includes Canada Day on the first. It's a good reason to bring out fiction by Canadian authors, books about Canadian history, and travel books about Canada. Make it an interactive display by asking patrons to answer trivia questions about Canada. 

The middle of the month is when Major League Baseball will host its All Star Game. This is another event that can include all parts of your collection. The game this year will be on July 14 in Philadephia. 

The 14th is also Bastille Day in France. 

There are so many food related days every month. Picking one or two every year, perhaps related to local cuisine, can include passive programming like recipe exchanges or having local cooks or restaurants come in for a tasting/cooking demonstration. 

With summer reading, some of your display space should be kept for special events and promoting the themes of summer reading. Have your youth librarians come up with a list of themes for the month. In my area, the local professional sports teams sponsor summer reading challenges so I would try to include them on a display as well. When programming ends is determined by your local school schedules, of course. 

How to make a schedule? Start with how many displays you plan to have up and set up a weekly schedule. With pre-planning, you can already have staff lined up to make the displays. The staff you have will also determine the displays. Anyone on staff should be able to participate and have a voice in deciding which displays are set up.  When the displays change out should also reflect, what makes sense for you and your library.  If the displays change out on Wednesdays, it might look like this.

July 2026

July 1-8
    July 4th Display with information about local events [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Theme [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Special Event [staff member name and location]
    World UFO Day [staff member name and location]
    Park and Recreation Month with information about local parks for staycations
        [staff member name and location]
    Princess Diana's Birthday with materials about royal families 
        [staff member name and location]

July 8-15
    Summer Reading Theme [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Special Event [staff member name and location]
    Baseball All-Star Game [staff member name and location]
    Disability Pride Month [staff member name and location]
    National Video Game Day [staff member name and location]
    National Mac & Cheese Day with recipe exchange and event featuring local  
        restaurants  [staff member name and location]

July 15-22
    Nelson Mandela's Birthday/Mandela Day [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Theme [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Special Event [staff member name and location]
    National Grilling Month [staff member name and location]
    Take Your Poet to Work Day. Display filled with related materials. Passive program where             patrons suggest their favorite poem or poet. Results displayed in library and online. 
        [staff member name and location]
    National Zookeeper Day Display filled with related materials. Information about local zoo.             Partnership where zoo has materials about library programming available. 
        [staff member name and location]

July 22-31
    Summer Reading Theme [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading End of Summer Event [staff member name and location]
    All or Nothing Day with materials related to choosing extremes 
        [staff member name and location]
    Take and Make craft for Adults. Display filled with related books and patrons receive kit at             service desk [staff member name and location]
     Local Summer Festival with information about the festival. Include materials related to the             festival. [staff member name and location]
    Day of the Cowboy [staff member name and location]

Having a schedule like this available to staff means that anyone can add materials when needed to a display. That divides up the work during a busy time for public libraries. 

I have been asked where I find sources for the other holidays I use for book displays. Here are some options. The links are to July but you can bookmark the main page. While there are always many options for each month, because you are making a plan in advance, you can select the ones that work best for your library. Consider your collection and your community. 

National Day Calendar
Web Holidays
Holiday Insights

I will include information monthly to help you plan your displays. If you are interested in a program for your staff with more details about how to set up a monthly schedule or help setting up a plan for your displays, please let me know!

Read-Alikes and Bestsellers - Some things to remember

 The idea of choosing read-alikes, even for favorite books, makes some people more anxious than it should. As I mention when I teach passive readers advisory, there are many ways to approach a book. They are all legitimate as readers will approach the same book in different ways and will find themselves drawn to different parts, characters, or themes in a book. If you are providing readers advisory to an individual, you should ask the reader some questions about what they loved about the book to help find the best read-alike.

An always great display pairs a bestseller that has ever increasing holds with your library's backlist. This way you help the books in your collection find new readers while highlighting your holds service. While a request or hold list is something that library workers live with everyday, not every person who comes into your library or visits your social media or website is familiar with how they work or that they exist. Include a QR code and the URL that they need to add a popular title to their list to the display or post. 

If your library subscribes to NoveList by EBSCO, you can use their subjects to find books that will attract someone who has heard of the book or loved the book and wants something else. If you look at the entire list of read-alikes NoveList provides, there are details about why that title was suggested. There are similarities but what they all have in common is that they read-alikes for the selected title even if different facets are reflected. 

To demonstrate what I mean by there are different ways to approach a book, I will use a bestseller that has many holds in my library, Whistler by Ann Patchett. From the publisher's website: 

When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.

Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It’s a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.

Remember that you do not need to limit yourself to books you have read. Marketing the collection is the goal, the entire collection not just what you have personally been able to read. From the publisher's description, you can see that is is about - 

Family Relationships
Fathers - Daughters
Choices
Memory
Love Over Time

I would suggest that next you browse readers comments on Goodreads. For a popular book like this, there will be many reader reviews. You will see themes repeated and those that remind you of other books.Here is a brief list: 

Authentic characters
Tragic events
Stories of reconciliation
Divorce 
Complicated childhood
Stepfamilies

You will come up with enough subjects and themes to fill a display more than once. You might even get creative inspiration. A reader named Ron mentions Patchett's books are like "opening a box of old photographs." Use that as a theme for a sign, add face outs of your read-alikes, information about holds and you have a display. There is enough information on Goodreads, so you can proceed even if you don't have NoveList. 

A final place I will suggest to get ideas is Reddit. If you search for Reddit.com and the book title with author, you will find posts in a variety of subreddits. One theme from there is that there is a lot of love for Eddie Triplett, the stepfather. Some readers identify it as a love letter to New York City. The subreddit, suggestmeabook, is a place where readers suggest books to other readers. 

Have fun with a display like this, remembering that the main point is to showcase your backlist while marketing a valuable service. 

Reach out to me if you would like me to train your library staff in how to use passive readers advisory to market your collection. In the near future, I will be discussing more ideas to harness the power of the bestselling author and book to market your collection. Come back for more ideas! 

 

ALA Annual 2026 in Chicago - Library Insights Summit 2026 - Connecting Publishers & Librarians

 On June 26, I will be participating in the Library Insights Summit, presented by Foreword with IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association), BISG (Book Industry Study Group), and NISO (National Information Standards Organization). It is a day-long conference with breakout sessions targeted at publishers, author-publishers, and librarians as well as sessions for the entire group. The registration price does include breakfast, lunch and an exhibits only badge to attend ALA Annual which follows. 

I am a participant on a panel called Smarter Marketing for Maximum Library Impact, moderated by Becky Spratford. Kaycie Hoffman Blaylock, Library & Resource Coordinator, Alexandria City Public Schools, and Rebecca Vnuk, Executive Director, LibraryReads, are also panelists. The description, from the website: 

As library supply chains and discovery systems evolve, publishers are facing new challenges in getting their titles seen and ordered. At the same time, librarians are navigating a fragmented marketplace to find trustworthy, complete information on forthcoming books. This session brings together marketing and distribution experts to show how publishers can sharpen their strategies, stretch their budgets, and strengthen relationships with this vital audience. Learn how to optimize metadata for library visibility, coordinate publicity with wholesale and discovery platforms, and build long-term awareness among collection development professionals.

I hope you will consider joining us. After Baker & Taylor's implosion, it is vital that libraries understand the publishing industry and update policies so that they can purchase directly from publishers when needed. Many of my local library systems are still dealing with shockwaves from B&T's closure, including adding in-house processing. With social media platforms, like TikTok, driving book sales, there is more of a need than ever to include small press and independently published books in our collections. 

For more insight, check out Becky's blog post about the event: Join Me and Others at the Library Insights Panel in Chicago on June 26th

I hope to run into you at ALA Annual as well as the LIS preconference!

Unshelve Your Collection Using a Writers Conference - StokerCon 2026 Wrap Up

StokerCon is the premier horror and dark literature writers conference in the United States. Part of the convention is the presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards with categories including superior achievement in a novel and superior achievement in long non-fiction. The Horror Writers Association presents the conference but you don't have to be a member to attend. 

One of the highlights of the conference is Librarians Day which anyone with a ticket to the convention can attend. For more details and resources from Librarians Day, please visit Becky Spratford's blog. She is the co-chair of Librarians Day and secretary of the Horror Writers Association. 

The panels this year, just like very year, are very helpful and planned by librarians who work in libraries. The skills and information learned could be transferred to many genres and subject areas. Attendees learned about programming and upcoming titles while also attending a brainstorm session. Every year, I have the honor of interviewing the Guests of Honor, introducing library workers to authors who are shaping the future as well as those who have created works vital to the history of horror. This year the Guests of Honor included : 

Rachel Harrison (Author of Play Nice and Cackle)

Linda D. Addison (Award Winning Poet and author)

Billy Martin (Author of Exquisite Corpse)

John Shirley (Acclaimed cyberpunk/horror author)

James Tynion IV (Eisner Award-winning horror comic writer)

Ann VanderMeer (Editor and anthologist)

The librarians who purchased a ticket for Librarians Day were also able to attend the Mass Author Signing which grants you time to purchase book and get them signed from a huge number of authors. This is a great way to discover horror works that you may not have known about. They also could browse the dealers room which included small press publishers. If your library doesn't allow you to purchase titles directly from publishers, this is a good time to start that conversation. With the shake up of library purchasing, many of us are processing items in house. Finally, they were able to attend one of the highlights of the convention, the Final Frame short film festival. The winner this year, Scissors, was amazing. 

I've attended librarians day events for romance and mystery writers, The HWA's is the best of them, with programming and speakers who are focused on libraries and library workers. 

StokerCon is a great weekend with the Halloween People and I hope to see all of you there next year!

Upcoming - Collection Development Crash Course from ALA eLearning

 In September 2026, I will be joining three colleagues to teach a four part crash course in collection development. The four parts are: 

• Developing the Youth Collection with Julie Jurgens: Thursday, September 3, 2026 at 2:30pm Eastern/1:30pm Central/12:30pm Mountain/11:30am Pacific

• Developing the Adult Fiction Collection with Lila Denning: Thursday, September 10, 2026 at 2:30pm Eastern/1:30pm Central/12:30pm Mountain/11:30am Pacific

• Developing the Adult Nonfiction Collection with Stephanie Sendaula: Thursday, September 17, 2026 at 2:30pm Eastern/1:30pm Central/12:30pm Mountain/11:30am Pacific

• Weeding Popular Materials Collections with Karen Toonen: Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 2:30pm Eastern/1:30pm Central/12:30pm Mountain/11:30am Pacific

We will cover the basics of genres, where you can find information about titles, how to find diverse titles including those by independently or self-published authors, and more. It's a course that I always enjoy teaching. The other three instructors are passionate and experts in collection development. 

Whether you are a seasoned acquisitions librarian or just want to learn more about the topic, I encourage you to register! You can find out more here. 

Five Book Display Basics To Help Start Your Unshelving Project

 This is a very brief presentation that I prepared for a smaller group of librarians.  It covers five best practices that I think every library worker should have in mind while they work on their book displays or online lists. 

I do have a more detailed version of book displays basics available for presentation. Please reach out if you are interested in starting to unshelve your collection. 

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

Unshelved Book Review - It Came from Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo

 My review of Cynthia Pelayo's It Came from Neverland was posted on LibraryJournal.com. 

You can find the review here. My other reviews for Library Journal are available on their site. 

I gave It Came from Neverland a well-deserved star. 

My Goodreads version of the review is below.

It Came from Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Notes for pending Library Journal Review.

In WWI era London, Wendy Darling struggles to get through each day, residing in her family home and working in the orphanage where she stayed after leaving the hospital. Her parents put here there when she and her brothers returned after being reported missing for three days. The real world horrors of a war which is at its beginning hang over the novel. Kensington Gardens is the center of many missing children. Wendy was not believed and her placement in the orphanage led to her estrangement from her brothers, John and Michael.
The Darling children were told to push their visit to Neverland down and not speak of it. The idea that trauma will go away if ignored is used by Pelayo to demonstrate that this tactic will only lead to the past feeding on hope, promise, and joy. Neverland and Peter are not as they are described in the storybooks as both have a hidden side. While she survived, Wendy lives in the past and in her stories. In Pelayo’s telling, stories are a way to navigate the past and its trauma.
Hints of the past are revealed slowly using alternating timelines. This allows for the perspective of Wendy from her childhood as well as her two brothers to be included. The tension and fear rise slowly in the novel and readers will be compelled to read further even as every shadow and noise in the dark becomes more menacing.

Wendy begins to see signs that Peter is returning and that the children of the orphanage are in danger. She and her brothers reunite to attempt to rescue a girl who has gone missing, like so many before her. However, they may not be strong enough to face their fears and trauma which lay hidden and unexplored for so long.

Beautifully written, terrifying, and filled with horrors both fairytale and real.

View all my reviews

Some of what we are unshelving at my library

Here are some of the book displays we have featured in my library! I hope you can find some inspiration for your own displays. We use a schedule and have a wide variety of staff volunteering to set up a display. 

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare:

Now Trending: BookTok Made Me Read it

Cli-Fi Books For Earth Day

Cookbooks (This is easy for anyone to fill in when they see a gap and different staff will select different titles.)

Movie Night (Movies for kids in the main aisle of our library)

Don't Judge a Book By The Movie

Let Them Eat Cake: Cookbooks for Those With A Sweet Tooth

Unshelved Book Review - Kiss Slay Replay by Rachel Harrison

Kiss Slay Replay by Rachel Harrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rachel Harrison has once again used her magic to create a book with terror and humor while also being very rooted in the human experience, particularly that of young women. Willa has broken up with her long-term fiancé, Ravi. She is questioning herself about whether or not she did the right thing while bracing herself for seeing him again at their college friends' wedding. She makes it upstate to the wedding only to have it end in death and misery when a slasher crashes the wedding. Willa wakes up and repeats the day, over and over, with different but still horrifying endings.

What could be a wedding horror story with the clever twist of a time loop becomes an examination of uncertainty, anxiety, and the need to replay the past in our heads, wondering if we could have changed it. Doubting ourselves and taking the easiest path can lead to as much disaster as taking a risk and maybe making a mistake. In the midst of all of the emotion and horror, is a reminder that life is worth living.

The book is fast paced and suspenseful as Willa and her friends face increasingly high stakes. The characters are well-developed and bring their own joy, love, insecurities, and fears to what should be the happiest day in a young couple's life. As with all of Rachel Harrison's books, you will miss them when the book ends.

View all my reviews

Unshelve Your Collection - Using Celebrity Picks

One constant is that readers enjoy celebrity reading picks. We can see this every time someone like Taylor Swift is seen with a book under her arm. I have had great success with celebrity reading focused book displays. Bill Gates and President Obama are two people who come out with annual lists. When Gates recommended a book on the history of shipping containers I put it on a displays and it was checked out the first day.

You can find lists by searching for [celebrity name] reading list , favorite books, or reading recommendations. For a different take on this idea, you can create a display inspired by a particular album, artist, movie, or song. Use the title "Reading with [celebrity name] and put up those books along with titles you have that feature that actor, musician, or author. 

Here are some lists to get you started! If you create a display, I would love to see it. Tag me on social media or email me!

Billy Porter Shares His 6 Favorite Reads — Including This Viral Self-Help Book

Radical Reads: Celebrity Book Recommendations

Celeb Book Recs

celebrities with great reading lists?

20 Great Celebrity Book Recommendations

Amazon Book Review - Celebrity Picks

Listopia > books taylor swift has mentioned

What books do we know Taylor has read and liked?

Bad Bunny Reading List

 Listopia > Beyoncé Cowboy Carter Reading List

Pedro Pascal's Favorite Books Just Proves This Man Has Impeccable Taste

12 Celebrity Book Recommendations

Celebrities Who Read Diversely and The Books They Recommend

The Shameless Book Club: Jacob Elordi 

Pop Star Picks: Books, TV & Films Recommended By Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Zendaya & More

Book Recommendations from Celebrities

Unshelve Your Collection - Using Upcoming Books to Draw Attention to Your Backlist

 Book Riot sends out a newsletter devoted to horror called The Fright Stuff. The Friday, April 3 edition was titled "Scream-Worthy New Horror Books Coming Out in April 2026." Included were titles like: 

• Bodies of Work by Clay McLeod Chapman (Titan, April 7) You can see my starred review here.
• Morsel by Carter Keane (Tor Nightfire, April 14)
• The Take by Kelly Yang (Berkley, April 14) 
• Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker (Hanover Square, April 14) 
• May the Dead Keep You by Jill Baguchinsky (Little, Brown Books, April 21)
• The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer (Atria, April 21)
• Molka by Monika Kim (Erewhon, April 28) You can see my starred review here

Take a page from Concord, NH’s great indie bookstore, Gibson’s! Set up a display or bulletin board with covers from upcoming titles. Add a QR code with a link to your catalog where the patron can place a hold. Add read-alikes from your collection to the display. 

Never assume that all of your patrons know about even basic library services like placing a hold. You can mirror this display online and include a link to the catalog. 

Borrow ideas from newsletters and publisher’s marketing emails and use them to help market your backlist. 

RUSQ: A Journal of Reference and User Experience - Inclusion as the Norm: The Power of Diverse Book Displays

 
I was fortunate to have an article published in RUSQ. The Reference and User Services Association of ALA relaunched its journal in 2024. It's purpose is "... to disseminate information of interest to reference librarians, information specialists, and other professionals involved in user-oriented library services." In Vol 61, No 2 (2026) Winter Issue you can find my article "Inclusion as the Norm: The Power of Diverse Book Displays."

A pdf of the article is available online. 

I will quote from one paragraph here: 

" It centers a white, straight, Christian perspective as what is in “normal” books while making diverse books more of a niche interest, to be read by members of those communities and on special months. These books are not interesting or valuable because their authors and characters are diverse.  They need to be added to the displays, lists, and suggestions that are made to readers interested in a particular genre or topic. Moving who is centered in the culture of reading that is created in a library, allowing those who are marginalized to take center stage, even if a sign does not declare their identity, is actively promoting a culture of anti-racism. This active promotion does not require signage identifying the author’s characteristics to be actively anti-racist. These books are books that should be treated as titles to be potentially enjoyed by any reader. Deliberately developing a regular practice of adding diverse titles to all displays and lists both increase staff knowledge of those titles, creating more opportunities for them to be included in staff recommendations."

Upcoming Events - Penguin Random House Spring Book & Author Festival

 

I will be participating in the PRH Spring Book & Author Festival on Thursday, April 16. It's a free day-long event that has interviews, book buzzes, eGalleys, and more! There are authors of youth titles from picture books to young adult titles as well as adult fiction and non-fiction.  For those who need it, a CE certificate is available. The sessions will also be available for three months after the event. 

The panel I will be moderating is "Twisted Fiction." So far, the lineup of authors includes (with blurbs from the publisher): 

Bill Schweigart, author of Dirty 20 : The Sopranos meets Dungeons & Dragons when the son of a crime boss accidentally becomes a crowdfunding superstar and disrupts business on the streets with his RPG

Luke Larkin, author of The Unheld : Startling monsters and occult oddities abound in this chilling horror Western as a girl journeys across the haunted Montana Territory to rescue her father from an otherworldly creature.

Emeline Atwood, author of A Real Animal : In this unforgettable debut, a moment of metaphysical transformation launches a woman’s beautiful and terrifying journey through her twenties, through loneliness and complicated love that takes her from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the plains of Texas

Abe Moss, author of Morsels : Meeting the family is scary. Surviving them is a nightmare.

Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow : In this viscerally dark, queer Victorian gothic, longing and transformation take wing through the secret selves we nurture when no one is watching.

These events are fun and educational for any library worker. You can view the Winter 2025 PRH Book and Author Festival here. There is not a cost to attend. Staff can register here. 

PRH also has a page with upcoming author events which you can share with your patrons. Working with local bookstores benefits both the library and the bookstore. We are not in competition. Readers often will buy books from authors they have discovered at the library.