Passively Recommending Books

This is an easy way to harness pop culture to move your backlist. There are no right answers as to what books fans of a certain show might like because what draws people to a television show or movie is different. Use your collection and involve staff, any staff, who are fans of that show or movie. If the first one you choose makes it difficult to find enough items, add a second one and create your own version of the Barbie/Oppenheimer mashup “Barbenheimer.”  An alternative way to harness excitement about a show or movie is to come up with a display highlighting titles that characters from the show would like. Again, there are no right answers. You can allow patrons to suggest titles if you wish for it to be a passive program as well.  You can also use the setting or time period from a particular show as the basis for a book display. Expand it to include other books and movies that take place in the same location as well as travel and non-fiction about that place. An easy example would

As part of the Horror Writers of America 's StokerCon Librarian's Day, I am moderating a panel on promoting horror in libraries. I have posted some of the displays I have done which include horror. Don't forget that you can include horror titles in almost any book display.  Don't get stuck in the box of only promoting horror in October. Don't strictly segregate genres because your patrons don't care as much as you think they do. (One huge exception is romance readers - romance has a happier ever after ending.) One final tip is this- book displays in libraries are not a school project. The objective is to get materials into the hands of your patrons. Be broad with genre and theme. You don't have to be exacting as far as which titles you include as long as it's not a genre or subgenre specific display. Even then, I use the broadest possible definition.  This display was easy to fit horror into. It's "Get Possessed by a Book". Include non-fict

T he popularity of true crime podcasts makes them a great source of inspiration for your book displays. Pick a few or more and pair them with books or movies with similar themes, subjects, or tones. Because book displays are passive readers advisory, we don't have the conversations with patrons that we would normally have to learn what they loved about the podcasts. By broadly interpreting what a read alike is, there is a better chance of catching what it is they love.  I'll pick one podcast to use as an example. True Crime Bullshit  is hosted by Josh Hallmark on the Our Americana Network. TCBS is a serialized investigation into the life and crimes of serial killer Israel Keyes. (Of it's four seasons, three have focused on Keyes. The third season told the story of another serial killer.) Hallmark is a compelling narrator who focuses on telling a story about people: Keyes, his victims, and his friends and family. The story can seem intimate and personal at times. The listen

Suggestions for what to read while you wait for those holds on the Witcher books or are done binging the series. Dark fantasies or books with similar main characters are what you should look for. Search for "read likes for..." when you want to put up a display based upon whatever the most popular show on the streaming services is. 

People were thinking about the 20’s at the beginning of 2020 so I obliged them with a book display . First things to be taken from this display were books about fashion. In theory, you could put this up every year until 2030.  Pay at least some attention to what is bouncing around in popular culture; you can mine it for ideas for easy book displays that let you faceout backlist lonely books. 

Quick Neil Peart memorial book display . Fill in with books about drums, drummers, and rock music. Don't forget to add any CDs or DVDs that you have. Include info about digital services like Hoopla that have music available to check out would also be a great idea. 

This is another easy book display that staff created. The titles will be familiar to your patrons, even if they are not readers. Sometimes patrons won't even realize that a popular movie was based upon a book. You can pair the books with DVD copies of the film if you have it. It's also a good idea to include a list of books and films that are in your collection, both digital and physical. 

These are Edgar award nominees from the Mystery Writers of America. I always post the list with any display about awards as well. It can be filed in with other books by the nominated authors as well as winners and nominees from previous years. 

Women in horror month is part of an international grassroots effort to promote the work of women in all parts of the horror industry. February is a great month to promote horror titles written by women in your library. People love to read horror all year so don't just put up a horror fiction display in October.  I usually include some psychological suspense in horror displays because it will draw in those people who say they don't read horror but who would love books by authors like Jennifer McMahon or Paul Tremblay. This can also help you keep the display full and to increase the diversity of the authors you include.  Other resources:  Women in Horror Month official website Ladies of Horror Fiction RAforall:Horror 

Absinthe book display is fun and can be used at any time of the year. There is plenty of public domain artwork that can be used for signs. Historical fiction, historical romance,  and steampunk can be used to fill out the display. I was also able to find some cocktail books that included drinks that used absinthe. There are also non-fiction titles that review the history of the drink. Other Resources:  Absinthe Fact and Fiction from Discovery.com Absinthe: How the Green Fairy Became Literature's Drink from BBC.com Devil in a Little Green Bottle from the Science History Institute The Art of Drinking Absinthe, the Liquor of Aesthetes from NPR.org

World Fragrance Day is March 21. This is a good display for mixing non-fiction and fiction, A/V materials and books. Perfume, fragrance, fashion, and lifestyle are all subjects to check in your catalog. Being more flexible with how the items fit into the theme helps keep displays like this filled.  Adult fiction was surprisingly easy to find as perfume and fragrance are popular themes but fragrance/perfume is one of those themes that are present in popular non-fiction as well. I found guides to perfume as well as histories of fragrance and various fashion houses in our collection.  Do some quick research on the history of perfume to find materials in your collection that is tangentially connected to the theme. The idea is to help people discover hidden gems in your collection not to strictly maintain a theme.  Other resources:  Perfume Society Strange History of Perfume from Bustle.com The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Perfume from Longreads.com  The Fragrance Found