While there are a lot of ways to market your collection, I think there are a few really successful ways that can get people excited about the books you have to offer and hopefully increase circulation. First, nothing gets the word out about what books you’re excited about than catchy displays. There are so many fun themes and topics you can run with–you’d be hard pressed to run out of ideas. Displays can be colorful and dramatic but still fit in with the library. One display in particular that I remember from my local library was a selection of “roadtrip kits”. Basically what they did, is they bundled together a couple of books that you could just grab to check out and head out on your trip without having to think too hard about it. Displays are a great way to bring attention to less utilized areas of your collection or to incorporate other types of media like movies, music, and audiobooks as well.
Another great way to market you collection is by creating booklists. Booklists serve a similar purpose to displays where they can draw attention to specific themes or topics. However, while displays get old after a while and need to be changed out, this is not necessarily the case with booklists. You could use the same booklists all year potentially, but you will want to make sure to keep them at least semi-current.
Lastly, I think it’s a great idea to do a “year in review” type activity for patrons. My library has done this a couple of years in a row and I think it’s really great. Basically, the librarians divide up into Children’s, Young Adult, and Adult groups and then give booktalks on their favorite books from the year. This is a wonderful way to bring attention to new collection items but to also increase circulation of specific books. I came away from that activity with multiple books to add to my TBR and it’s wonderful knowing that my library has all of them on the shelf.
What's She Reading? 