Prompt Response 15 - Book Promotion

My job has been as the computer guy. As such, one question worth consider is how can I promote books digitally? I’ve actually tried to think this through before, but I’ve actually made some recent developments that are work related.

I teach some computer classes at the branch, and I have talked about how to use the OPAC as part of computer classes. I have a class coming up on Wowbrary, LibraryThing and RottenTomatoes. I’ve done a class on GoodReads before. Mostly these are classes on how to use web sites that happen to mention library-related tools. They indirectly promote books. I’ve occasionally used actual books with the computer programs, but they tend to be props. However, indirectly promoting books by directly promoting review sites and explaining the OPAC is a start. If people sign up for updates from Wowbrary, there may be a very direct effect on circulation even though I’m not promoting a particular book.  

The other thing that I did for the first time just recently was that I wrote a staff pick and a kid’s pick. For a system our size, the staff pick is monitored by someone downtown, and individual branches only submit picks twice a year. It was interesting to write up a staff pick to post on the library blog site. (It hasn’t been posted yet. I have found myself checking on a regular basis.)  It was remarkably like creating a blog posting for this class. The kid’s pick had to be around 75 words, and that actually made it much harder to write.

I’m thinking about a Pinterest class down the road. While playing with my first Pinterest account, one of the things that I only recently noticed were the social media buttons on Overdrive’s book listings. It looks like you can post, pin and tweet a book. That might be a good way to have a digital presence to tie-in with an event or display. From what I’ve seen so far, it looks like I can pin an item then share it to Facebook. (Sharing it directly to Facebook generated a rather strange message. I have no idea why.) However, I may begin to create Pinterest boards that would serve as virtual book shelves. Whether this will help or not, it looks like it will be fairly entertaining to learn about it.

Screenshot of one of my tests. Facebook, Overdrive and Pinterest are all squished onto the screen.

In the non-digital world, I'm thinking that as a librarian I'll do displays and so forth, too. I'm thinking I'd do more movie, superhero and graphic novel displays than are normal in my branch currently. I would want to do fun topics rather than important ones.