Fiction titles for adults – this is
an area of my library’s collection that sees HUGE circulation statistics and
interest from patrons. I do feel that we do a fantastic job of marketing these
titles (we actually are lucky enough to have our own PR/marketing team that
work in conjunction with our reference department fiction selectors.)
One way of marketing within the
library that has been very successful in the past is the physical location of
our new fiction title arrivals. As soon as patrons walk in the door, they are
greeted with a special area dedicated to new fiction arrivals. They know where
to go to look for the newest materials, and this also seems to increase
browsing in patrons, as well. Near this area, we also have a digital display
from OverDrive that is actually a large LCD monitor mounted onto the wall,
which displays our entire OverDrive eBook catalog, including fiction titles,
which patrons can browse and read samples through. This has also been very
popular, and has helped to increase knowledge of our rapidly growing eBook
fiction collection.
Special programming throughout the
year, such as author talks and readings, can also help to bring patrons in to
the library. We usually offer handouts and bookmarks on similar fiction titles
both at these special events and at the reference and RA desks to help increase
awareness of fiction titles in the collection.
We use displays to highlight parts
of the collection when you first enter the library in our glass cases. We’ve
had everything from African American authors for Black History Month to Downton
Abbey read-a-likes. We also on occasion have taken out small ads in a local
newspaper for popular fiction title releases.
We also feature new fiction titles in our physical, paper copy of the
library newsletter, along with our digital library newsletter. I prefer the
digital newsletter because the patron can simply click the link for the fiction
title in the e-mail newsletter and be directed straight the our library’s OverDrive
site, where they can place the title on hold, get a sample or check it out and
begin reading immediately!
We are currently investigating the
idea of a ‘mobile library.’ One option would be to have an LCD screen on the
exterior of the bookmobile that would rotate, featuring not only information on
the bookmobile but specific titles, such as fiction items. We utilize Pinterest
to promote our fiction collection heavily, and receive a TON of unique visitors
to our library’s site from this social bookmarking service. We also use Animoto
to create short book trailers to promote some adult fiction titles. The videos
are posted to our site and our blog. We often use Twitter to promote new
fiction titles, but these tweets are rarely re-tweeted. Our catalog is linked
through our Facebook site, which allows patrons to access fiction titles
easily, but we never really post about the collection (aside from eBook
titles.)
There is a HUGE Fourth of July
festival and parade in the city where my library is. We are part of the parade
every year, and I would like to see a float themed around fiction titles and
popular areas of the collection that somehow relate to the holiday.
