What do you think are the best ways to market your library's fiction collection? Name and describe three ways you do or would like to market your library or your future library's fiction. These can be tools, programs, services, displays - anything that you see as getting the word out.
One of the best ways to market the library’s fiction collection is through the use of eye-catching displays. We do a new display every month at my library, and it usually is tied into something happening that month (i.e. horror books for Halloween, romance in February, beach reads one of the summer months, etc.). We usually decorate and design these displays to stand out, so patrons want to come by to view it and see what is going on. So many compliments have come from these displays, and I find myself constantly adding new books because books are always being taken from them.
Another way to market the library’s collection is through the library’s website. Having a marquee showing the new books the library has to offer on the main page, so that it’s the first thing a user will see when accessing the library’s website. I find it helps to have the marquee show a description of the book when the mouse is hovered over it - that way the user won’t have to leave the main page if they’re in a hurry to find something but spot a cover that catches their eye. A Facebook page could also promote materials in a similar way, by choosing a new book a week to post about.
Finally, I think having a monthly book club at the library and choosing a different book and genre each month is a good way to market the library’s collection. By choosing a different genre each month, it allows people with different interests to come as they please when a genre they love is chosen. During the discussion, there could be a small display of read-a-likes for patrons who enjoyed the book club pick and want to read something similar. Not only would this be fun programming for patrons, it’s also an easy way to market the different materials the library has to offer.
Using your library website's home page to advertise new book displays is a great idea. Do you have a way of tracking how much engagement you get for those marquees (in terms of clicks or time spent on the page)? That would be an interesting metric to track in order to plan future displays.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you would have a set of repeat members of the book club, or whether you would have to start anew at every genre pick! That could be interesting.
ReplyDeleteReadalikes at book clubs absolutely work! Patrons can't read what they don't know about! Full points!
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