Book Display Basics – Diversity

 I have mentioned diversity more than once. Because they are planned in advance, there is no excuse to not include a diverse group of authors, authors from around the world, small press titles, and books about marginalized people. Bestselling, very popular books don't need our help to find their readers. The biggest names in publishing have media appearances and large advertising campaigns along with huge audiences. The nature of publishing in the United States is that it is dominated by people from similar backgrounds. Our job is to find titles that need the spotlight shown on them. 

Diverse books are part of any library's collection. Authors like Colson Whitehead write books that win awards and draw attention from readers. Most library's have collections which include his books. A walk through your stacks will reveal books by authors of color, LGBTQ authors, immigrant authors, and works in translation. Unless your collection development policy or purchasing rules are extremely strict, you will likely find small press titles as well. When these titles leave the new books area, they often get lost in the stacks. The new book area is a curated, smaller group of titles which does allow more attention to fall on the books shelved there. 

The truth is that we should actively work towards expanding the diversity in our book displays and book lists. If you constantly struggle to fill in a display or a list with books that are written by people are underrepresented then your collection development may need to be reviewed. The world is a big place filled with a huge variety of people. Don't presume that your patrons' interests are limited to books about people just like them. Feed their curiosity by displaying books that will introduce them to someone or someplace new. 

One way to increase your ability to provide the best readers advisory service to your patrons is by having your staff take a new ALA eLearning course called Actively Anti-Racist Readers’ Advisory Services. It's a two part webinar taught by Becky Spratford of RA for All and Robin Bradford, a collection development and readers advisory expert. The course is designed to change your mindset and "learn how to help your entire organization craft an actionable plan to seamlessly incorporate the values of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging into your regular RA practices." Moving from having a passive approach where racism is acknowledged as something to be avoided to becoming someone who is active in promoting, sharing, and being an advocate for the underrepresented is a powerful transformation. I have taken course from Becky and Robin before and I encourage you to register for their course. 

Upcoming Appearances - ARRTcon

 On Friday, December 6 I will be speaking at ARRTCon 2024 which is being held at the 95th Branch of Naperville Public Library in Illinois. I will be presenting about book displays as part of merchandising your collection for effective readers advisory. There will be a horror panel, moderated by Becky Spratford, as well. Her post about ARRTCon is available here. 

You can register for ARRTCon here. ARRT is a great organization for Chicago-area librarians who are interested in readers advisory, genre studies, book discussion training and other adult reading professional development. 

If you are in the region and will be attending, come up and say hello I will be at sessions outside of my own presentation. I will also post my slides and photos after the conference. 

If you celebrate Thanksgiving in the US, I hope you have a relaxing and joy-filled holiday. I will be with family here in Florida. 

Five for Friday - Puerto Rico

 Let the news prompt you when you are struggling for ideas for book displays or lists. For this week's Five for Friday, I've picked out some adult fiction and non-fiction about Puerto Rico. When you create a display like this - make sure that you include both fiction and non-fiction as well as using authors from the region. 

For this Friday, I chose 5 books about Puerto Rico- fiction, a biography, and a cookbook. In addition to the photo of the books, a link to an online list of books (physical or eBooks) could be added. Don't stress yourself out worrying about a snappy title; we aren't copywriters for an advertising agency, after all. Even something as simple as "Learn more about Puerto Rico" would work. A display inside your building with more books or a sign with a QR code to an online list will complement it nicely. 

December Book Display Ideas

 

December is almost upon us! This year has flown by and it’s time to think about merchandising your collection for December. While there are two big holidays to consider, I would always suggest that you include some displays and lists that are not about Christmas or New Year’s Eve. Not every patron celebrates Christmas or holidays in general. There will also be patrons who are seeking a break from holiday preparations, even if they do celebrate Christmas.

I also suggest that while winter-y décor is appropriate in the northern hemisphere, avoid decorations that are Christmas oriented. For those who are not from Christian backgrounds, it can be off putting to see a tree and so forth in their library.  Perhaps youth library staff can have the youngest patrons create snowflakes to hang from the ceiling. Adding a small Menorah for Hanukkah or Kinara for Kwanzaa doesn’t balance out a giant Christmas tree in your lobby.

An idea for an interactive display or passive program would be to ask patrons to put their best memory from this year on a card of some sort. You can display them on a bulletin board with a cart of books about memories nearby. At the end of the month, transition it to hopes for the upcoming year and add books about positive psychology, planning, or hope in general. Whether or not you mediate this program depends upon your building and your patrons. Set up separate ones in your youth and young adult area if that works better for your building and the expectations of your stakeholders.

Both programs can be replicated on your website or social media. Have patrons email you their answers and you can aggregate them in a post, in your building, or online.  If they write their memory or hope down, images can be posted, and your library can be tagged with whatever tag you come up with for these programs or your online passive programs in general. Don’t hesitate to do both – patrons who primary use eBooks and eAudiobooks should not be excluded from your programs if you are able to post about them online.

Fiction is filled with winter themed titles in every genre. Don’t forget to just use books with frozen, snow, cold, frost, winter and so forth in the title. Winter horror, thrillers, and suspense novels will be popular as will mysteries and romance. Winter starts on December 21^st officially, but this display can be up all month.

It’s best of the year time. Any outlet that sells books or has book news and reviews will be releasing their best of year lists. Review them and compare them to your collection. You may find titles that you need to order. Check for books that could use a circulation boost, especially those by underrepresented authors or from smaller presses. The books which were best sellers and filled your request list don’t need the boost that a book display or booklist can provide. Remember to make copies of the lists you post online available for patrons in your buildings. You can also put a shelf talker where the best of books are shelved and add read-alikes for when they are checked out.

December also includes Pearl Harbor day. It’s a good time to dig out military history, World War II history and fiction that haven’t circulated in a while. You can pair this display with a program with your local Veteran’s Administration office or hospital to highlight available services for veterans. There are constantly new historical fiction titles about World War II being published which makes this an easy display to keep filled.

With Hanukkah and Kwanzaa both starting near Christmas this year, they might not get the attention they deserve. While your youth collection likely has many options, don’t forget to add Jewish history books and fiction by Jewish authors as well as books by Black authors and 1960’s Black history to fill in your adult display and lists.

I hope this gives you some options beyond Christmas books for your December displays. While I have put up displays with holiday movies, music, and books, I always try to add some displays that are not Christmas themed. Remember that your library needs to represent everyone in your community.

Book Display Basics - Get Inspiration from Marketing Emails

One thing I always suggest is that you pay attention to the many marketing emails that you receive from publishers and other mailing lists. They often create lists with clever names that you can borrow. Just create a list or display with titles from your existing collection. Alter the title as you need to depending upon your library’s needs. They can be used to just spark inspiration. I will list some recent examples I have received below.

From A Love So True:
15 Sad Romance Novels That Hit You Right in the Feels
8 Books Like ACOTAR to Keep Your Fantasies Going
Swoon-Worthy Books Like 'Persuasion' by Jane Austen
8 Romance Novels Like 'The Mummy'
11 Sexy and Spooky Romance Novels

From Brodart Books:
Mouthwatering Morsels (a collection of cookbooks)

From Fierce Reads:
Meet the Best of Booktok
The Perfect End of Summer Reads

From The Portalist:
13 Gripping Sci-Fi Books Like 'Black Mirror'
The Most Explosive Space Battles in Science Fiction Books
Genre-Bending Horror Books Like Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires
8 Cozy Fantasy Titles Like Bookshops & Bonedust
13 Powerful Standalone Sci-Fi Books

From The Line Up:
Sci-Fi Horror Books to Fill You With Futuristic Dread
What Book Recommendations Would These Iconic Horror Movie Villains Offer?
The Next True Crime Book You Should Read Based on Your Zodiac Sign
These 11 Books Deliver Chillingly True Ghost Stories

From Off the Shelf:
8 Literary Must-Reads with a Hint of Mystery
10 Historical Fiction Mysteries Ideal for Winter
8 Sinister Stories Featuring Secret Societies

 

I hope these give you some inspiration and help you with coming up with titles for your lists and displays.

  

Book Display Inspiration Using One Book - This Cursed House by Del Sandeen

 

Another in the series of demonstrating how you can both approach a book in many ways and that when you create a display or list, it’s not necessary to stress over how well an individual book fits a theme. These are marketing tools for your backlist and getting them attention will help your overall circulation. Today, we are going to work with a debut -  This Cursed House by Del Sandeen. From the publisher:

In this Southern gothic horror debut, a young Black woman abandons her life in 1960s Chicago for a position with a mysterious family in New Orleans, only to discover the dark truth: They’re under a curse, and they think she can break it.

In the fall of 1962, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago—and the spirits she has always been able to see. When she receives an unexpected job offer from the Duchon family in New Orleans, she accepts, thinking it is her chance to start over.

But Jemma discovers that the Duchon family isn’t what it seems. Light enough to pass as white, the Black family members look down on brown-skinned Jemma. Their tenuous hold on reality extends to all the members of their eccentric clan, from haughty grandmother Honorine to beautiful yet inscrutable cousin Fosette. And soon the shocking truth comes out: The Duchons are under a curse. And they think Jemma has the power to break it.

As Jemma wrestles with the gift she’s run from all her life, she unravels deeper and more disturbing secrets about the mysterious Duchons. Secrets that stretch back over a century. Secrets that bind her to their fate if she fails.

This is a great book to center in a display or list because it’s a debut which would benefit from the spotlight.

Where to start? There are many options even in this description from the publisher. We have:

Southern novels
Gothic fiction
Southern gothic
Fiction about black women
Fiction about young adults
1960’s
Chicago
New Orleans
Spirits/ghosts
Starting over
Moving/relocating
Tenuous hold on reality
Eccentric families
Family secrets
Curses

Most of these are themes that would lend themselves to titles that are outside of horror. I would bet that at least a few of them are themes that you could fill a display with using the titles in your collection. Adding non-fiction and DVDs are encouraged. At the very least, most people who read fiction will pick up biographies and memoirs so keep that in mind.

To get you started, I have put some book lists below. Have fun creating your own book display with one book as inspiration!

Decay, Rot, and Plenty of Hauntings: The Best Gothic Novels of 2024 – Crime Reads
So You Want to Read Southern Gothic: Here’s Where to Start – Penguin Random House
Best Southern Gothic Literature – Goodreads Listopia
Fiction Set in Chicago – Chicago Public Library
New Orleans: A City Whose Truth is Stranger (and Better) than Fiction – New York Public Library
7 Novels About Very Dysfunctional Families – Electric Lit
The 5 Best Books About Dysfunctional Rich Families – Crime Reads
10 Unputdownable Books About Big Family Secrets – Celadon Books
23 Books with Family Secrets We Still Can’t Believe – Epic Reads
Five Books Where Curses Are Magically Inherited – Reactor

 

 

 

Five for Friday - Alternative Dishes for Thanksgiving

 One easy way to promote your collection is to have staff take turns selecting 5 books on a theme from your collection, take a photo of them and post it to your social media. If you make it a regular feature, patrons may look for it and find their next great read. Set up a calendar and let different people from throughout your library get a chance to pick their five books. 

One display I try to put up every year is a selection of cookbooks for Thanksgiving that contain recipes outside of the usual options. Include vegan, vegetarian, international, and cookbooks for those with special health concerns. This will show off your cookbook collection while giving patrons ideas if they are seeking something unique to serve. 

As an example, I have several photos of cookbooks below with a simple fall themed picture behind them. You could add text explaining the theme and have just the first photo or add photos like I did below with each book shown faced out. Let your patrons know that you have a wide variety of cookbooks and give them some out of the box ideas for their holiday celebration.