Prompt Response Week 15

Social Media

I really liked the route that Jessica Trouter took in Hilyard’s (2010) article. Bringing readers advisory, book lists, and suggestions to social media is a great idea in my opinion. And as she says, it keeps things more interesting so patrons don’t tune you out as easily. About a year ago my local library started posting a wider variety of things to their Facebook page, and they started up an Instagram account. It was honestly refreshing. They still advertised events, but it was mixed in with other things: photos of programs or contests, asking people to take ‘shelfies’, and on occasion they’ve had random quizzes asking people what quote a book is from. They don’t really include RA to this, but I think it would be a great way to add to the progress they’ve made towards broadening their social media presence: if you like X try Y, book lists, involving people so see which book they’re currently reading, or want to read, things like that.

Genre Studies

Again, from Hilyard’s article, Martha Patten’s discussion of a yearlong genre study at her library was fascinating, and it makes me want to participate in one! There are some genres that I know I’m going to have to spend more time with after this class is over, as there simply wasn’t enough time. The only downside is the likely untenability of the study without a grant to help fund the project, especially at smaller systems. This, of course, is all behind the scenes work as opposed to marketing the library’s collection. Patten mentioned that they had an author talk at the end to bring a close and bring the public in, but I wonder if they did or could have done more.

A book club that focuses on a different genre each year or so could be an interesting program to try to bring marketing and programming back into the picture. Members could be unfamiliar or very familiar with the genre (I think a mix would be ideal), and the different subgenres could be explored and then compared to one another - what makes legal and political thrillers differ from crime thrillers? It would take the right mix of people willing to both focus on a genre and potentially read out of their comfort zones, but I think it could turn out well.

Book Displays

This is a classic way of promoting the libraries materials, but I think it’s really effective if done right. Sarick’s notes in this week’s chapter on promoting and marketing that one still needs to be careful about what books they chose, because with time readers will rely on our choices in the displays for quality material that’s accurate to what genre or subject of book the display is promoting. I’m all for the entertainment value on the “the cover was X color” displays, but I worry that sometimes the selection process for those displays is lacking in picking quality items. And, the less rigorous we are in picking out accurate quality books for our displays, the less likely they’ll be seen as a place that readers will go to and look for books - if it’s hit or miss if the book is good, they may well begin ignoring the displays, which would defeat the purpose of creating them.