ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR PROMOTING Y/A MATERIALS/PROGRAMMING:

Minnesota-based Search Institute (www.search-institue.org) has a list of 40 developmental assets that can help youth grow into health & caring adults and can often provide justification of many youth programs in libraries.

Also, check out the following articles:

Young Adult Library Services; Fall 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 1, pp. 19-42 “REFORMA and YALSA Working together to reach Latino Youth” by Alma Ramos-McDermott.

YALSA; Fall 2008, Vol. 7, Issue 1, pp. 35-45. “It’s all about the kids: presenting options and opening doors” by Joni Richards Bodart.

YALSA; Summer 2008, Vol. 6, Issue 4, pp. 8-9. “Reaching Out to teens in need through great stories” by Victoria Vogel.

YALSA; Summer 2008, Vol. 6, Issue 4, pp. 24-26. “Marketing Teen Read Week” by Sarah Campbell and Lindsey Dunn.

Promoting Y/A Materials – a presentation prepared for LIS 9364

April 14, 2009.

As I was thinking about this topic it occurred to me that we have been promoting Y/A materials in this class since the beginning of term. We have, for example, visited a library or bookstore and looked at which materials were available and how they were shelved and displayed. We’ve also discussed establishing teen advisory boards so they can help us promote materials. We’ve identified graphic novels as one way to get reluctant readers more interested in books (that, of course, is not their only function – they could be just plain fun!). We’ve discussed book clubs, poetry slams, movies, music, gay and lesbian literature, classics, and awards. And we’ve done book reviews and book talks. We’ve promoted Y/A materials amongst each other and we’ve discussed ways in which they can be promoted to others who are interested.

We haven’t, however, looked at how to promote materials to people who aren’t already inclined to look for them. We haven’t reached out beyond the library walls. While it might be argued that the book talks do just that, I suggest that if an individual is not already interested or looking for information on a book, they will not likely be looking for book talks. I hope that the class will prove me wrong about this.

Nichols & Nichols (1998) suggest that Librarians often feel that a library markets or promotes itself (and its materials) just by the goodwill feeling it projects to the public. Librarians are, after all, enthusiastic about their profession. But, they say, usage still drops as one enters the teen years. One way to work at changing those statistics is through community outreach.

I define community outreach as any activity that promotes the library beyond the walls of the library itself – any activity in which the librarian or someone associated with the library goes out into the community to promote the library as a place of interest to individuals who may not already be using library materials and/or facilities. And here is where I have come up with a conundrum. In this course the focus has been on materials. But I’m not sure that promoting services does not achieve the same end. I found few resources which discuss promoting materials alone and more that discuss promoting services offered by the library and even the library itself. While this may point to a gap in the literature, I wonder if it doesn’t also point to an ideology in which these two types of promotion are not mutually exclusive. I wonder if we don’t do both simultaneously. Perhaps what this gap really suggests is that it’s not really about promotion. Perhaps, it’s about empowering teens (Jones, et al, 2004) – perhaps it’s about being an advocate.

All that aside, how do we promote Y/A materials and/or services beyond the walls of the library? Jones, et al (2004), Crowther & Trott (2004), Pfeil (2005), and Nichols (2002), among others all talk about networking, building relationships with our communities, and partnering. Partners help us reach teens we may never meet otherwise.

The first thing we need to do is make a list of community agencies and businesses in our area that serve youth. Then we need to set up interviews with representatives of these organizations so we can learn about them and what they do for youth. Next we need to be active in our community so we can observe these organizations at work – go to their public functions. We need to make note of opportunities for collaboration. What can they do for the library and what can the library do for them? Perhaps we can supplement our collections with their publications. They might have space in which we could set up a book display that would reach youth who do not visit the library. They may also have meeting rooms that could be used for programming at which we could also promote materials. Or, they may need meeting space and could use the library meeting rooms and we could set up displays that would follow the theme of their meetings (Fisher& Price (2006).

Jones, et al (2004), reminds us that one common element in every community is the teens themselves. Ask them where they go, who they listen to, and how they spend their time. YALSA has also put out an assessment of community resources and services for young adults which is available on-line (see the link below in references) and talks about physical spaces where teenagers hang out, suggesting we look at how they are marketed. It also discusses what agencies or businesses that cater to young adults do to welcome and involve young adults, what agencies you can join as a librarian, and what space is available in these places to deposit collections or displays from the library. The most used partner for a public library is the local school and this is the place you should start and may be the only place you deal with if you encounter any resistance to outreach within your library hierarchy. In the schools you will find a lot of non-library users all of whom are somewhat captive, as well as other adults who can reinforce your ideas. The key is to find opportunities to interact with teens outside of the four walls of the library (Jones, et al 2004). You need what many in the literature have referred to as, face time. That is, you need to make yourself known to teens in the community whether they come into the library or not.

Patrick Jones discusses three levels of partnerships: communicative, cooperative, and collaborative. I prefer to think of these terms as verbs. As librarians we need to communicate with local businesses in our community. We could, for example, make an agreement with a local CD shop to post flyers for our upcoming “battle of the bands” and have books and CDs on display. Or we could make an agreement with the local radio station to make public service announcements such as, meet the author at your local library. Or, meet the DJ and learn how to do it too (using materials from the library). We need to cooperate with local businesses. We could, for example, have teens participating in the summer reading program read three books and receive two passes to the Cineplex Odeon. Cineplex could allow us to put up posters at the theatre. The fact that the coupons are from them, would be advertising for them and an act of goodwill on their part. And we need to collaborate with community organizations. We might make an agreement with the juvenile detention center, for example, to provide materials on STDs.

Another area for outreach that I have not discussed at length in my presentation is the web presence of the Y/A division of the library. Using web 2.0 opens up opportunities to extend the reach of the library beyond its physical walls. Paula Wilson discusses this in her Library Web Sites: Creating Online Collections and Services (2004). She talks about providing a link to Novelist and having a list of teen advisory board “picks”, as well as other reviews. She also discusses on-line book clubs in which you could invite teen input into discussions about books, movies, music, websites, and short stories in a manner like that done by the Central Rappahannock Regional Library (Va). Their web site is viewable at www.teenspoint.org. Facebook might be another venue on which to host such a book club simply because of its ability to mushroom out to others.

And the final word – Why did I want the class to read about Tupu Public Library in New Zealand (Dorner, 2003)? Several reasons really, but the one that makes it appropriate to this discussion is the manner in which they brought their community into the planning process for determining what materials and services would be available within their library and designing the space within which they would be held. They spoke with the youth of their community to determine their needs and then addressed those needs. They even had to negotiate with a youth gang! And, of course, the bottom line is, they have been and continue to be successful.

Resources for Outreach & Promoting Y/A Materials (some cited, some not):

Baker, Sharon L. and Karen L. Wallace. (2002). The Responsible Public Library: How to Develop and Market a Winning Collection, 2^nd ed. Colorado: Libraries Unlimited

Crowther, Janet L. (2004) Partnering with Purpose: a guide to strategic partnership development for libraries and other organizations. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.

Dorner, Daniel D. (2003). Tupu-Promoting ‘New Growth’ through innovative resources and services to youth http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla69/papers/200e-Dorner.pdf retrieved April 1, 2009, 10:30 p.m.

Fisher, Patricia & Marseille Pride. (2006). Blueprint for Your Library Marketing Plan. Pp. 75 – 89.

Goldsmith, Francisca. (2005). Graphic Novels Now. Chicago: ALA.

Jones, Patrick, Michele Gorman, and Tricia Suellentrop (2004). Connecting Young Adults and Libraries, 3^rd ed. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Nichols, Mary Anne. (2002). Merchandising Library Materials to Young Adults. (pp.101-118)

Nichols, Mary Anne and C. Allen Nichols, eds. (1998). Young Adults and Public Libraries: A Handbook of Materials and Services. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Pfeil, Angela B. (2005). Going Places with Youth Outreach: Smart Marketing Strategies for Your Library. Chicago: ALA.

Ruth, Lindsay, D. & Sari Felman. (1994) “The Whole Service Approach: Plugging the Holes in your Y/A Service” School Library Journal, May94, Vol. 40 Issue 5, p28.

Vaillancourt, Renee J. (2002). Managing Young Adult Services: A Self-Help Manual. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Siess, Judith A. (2003). The visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy Chicago: ALA.

Walters, Suzanne. (2004). Library Marketing That Works! New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers

Wilson, Paula A. (2004) Library Web Sites: Creating Online Collections and Services. Chicago: ALA.

A useful website about teen poetry slams is http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/655

Information on outreach school/public library cooperation

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/yalsamemonly/yalsamounder/yalsamotopics/commrsrcsassess.pdf

Compilation of suggestions from PubYac on Promoting Y/A Materials

I sent a message to the Pubyac list-serve as follows:

To: pubyac@lists.lis.illinois.edu
Subject: [PY] Promoting Y/A Materials

Hello Pubyac!

I am an MLIS candidate and I am working on a project for my Y/A class
about promoting Y/A materials.  I’m wondering what all of you in the
real world do to promote Y/A.  Can you tell me the one thing you’ve done
that you felt was most successful?

Thanks in advance!

N.

–
Nancy Bertolotti,
Hons. B.A., M.A.
M.L.I.S. Candidate
University of Western Ontario
London, ON
nabertolotti@gmail.com

These are the responses:

I have found the best way to promote YA materials is to let the
programming do it for me. That is, scheduling programming that teens
like and then slipping the books to them without much fuss and overt
promotion. Videogame programs push game guides and techie books pretty
easily. Drawing classes tend to push the manga and anime drawing and
story collections. Etc

Casey A. Nees MLIS
Children’s Unit Manager
North Regional Library
(919)560-0234

cnees@co.durham.nc.us

If you can get your hands on a copy of Invitations, celebrations : ideas and techniques for promoting reading in junior and senior high schools, by Fay Blostein, she’s got loads of fabulous ideas.  My favorite three ideas from her book include the single book bookmark – this has a heading like An Adventurous Bookmark then has one or two sentences to promote the book and ends with the title and author.  Another idea she had that I liked was a horoscope bookmark – each of the 12 signs had a one-line “horoscope”  which emphasized some aspect of character – the horoscope for Cancer went something like this: You are a romantic and listen to your strong intuition before you listen to reason.  Then under each sign’s short horoscope was a list of 3-4 books that fit the description – so the Cancer sign would have books along the romance/friendship/relationship line.  And my third favorite idea from Blostein’s book is a jumble of book promotions that are written like ads in the classified section of the newspaper.  A couple of examples I wrote included a listing of items for sale: one right shoe size 6M, pom-poms, … and the book title was Izzy, Willy-Nilly, by Voigt about a girl who loses her right leg after riding in a car driven by a drunk friend after a party.   Another example to promote a collection of short stories about vampires read: Feeling a bit old?  Want to permanently regain your youthful energy and appearance.  Call VAM-PIRE.  Evening appointments only.
Have fun!!

Karen Lucas
Youth Services Librarian
Madison Public Library, Sequoya Branch
261-9807, 266-6385

kglucas@scls.lib.wi.us.

One of the most successful phenomenons I’ve seen is the “If You Like…”
booklist!  It’s nothing more than a readalike booklist for a popular YA
title/series, but when you keep them in plain sight immediately
following the release of a hot new book, you can’t keep enough printed.
 Our “If You Like Twilight” booklist was fantastically popular *and*
an awesome way to introduce teens to other authors they would enjoy.  It
also helped stave off heartbreak for those discovering that the wait
list was in the hundreds — something great to read in the mean time!
Circ on those titles (even the hidden gems that hadn’t gone out in a
while) skyrocketed.

Courtney Grant
Young Adult Librarian

Beaverton City Library
Beaverton, Oregon
www.beavertonlibrary.org

My first and foremost suggestion is to READ as much YA lit as you can! And then read more! The more YA books you read, the better able you’ll be to booktalk them to teens (& their parents, who are often concerned about content), and to hand them a book that fits their need.

Kris Chipps
Teen Programming Specialist
Arapahoe Library District
12855 E. Adam Aircraft Circle
Englewood, CO 80112

kchipps@ald.lib.co.us

­­­­­

One on one booktalking. And I push my YA books on adults too *grins* 1 -
2 sentence book ‘hooks’ so rock.

Example: The Morganville Vampires series

Morganville, Texas is a sleepy little college town, the townies minding
their own business, not getting involved with the students… much…
unless they’re hungry.

Carol Erkens, aka Wolfie
Omaha Public Library, Benson Branch

cerkens@omahapubliclibrary.org

One thing that I do to promote the literature is put the audiobooks in the teens hands.  They think they are getting away with something by listening to a book.  Plus they like the idea of listening to a disk a day for approximately 1 hour and can be done with a book in less then a week.  Once you find something that they like most times they will come back looking for something similar.  I also like that we have added something called playaways to our collection.  The teens love being able to shove an MP3 player into their pockets and listen to their books that way as well.  Here is a link http://www.playawaylibrary.com/shop.cfm.
The biggest marketing tool that I have discovered with the teens in anything that you are doing with them is being out on the floor and making yourself visible.  Do lots of readers advisory, and always invite the teens to your programs.  Once they start to see you out on the public floor on a consistant basis you can start to form a bond that will bring them back over and over again.  Ask their opinions on just about anything.  You don’t necessarily have to do whatever their way but by making the area theirs as much as possible is a huge draw.  And get yourself in good with the teachers.  Whether they know it or not, they can make or break your program/teen area.

Let me know if you have any questions or what not.  I am always willing to share information.

Cassie

Cassandra E. Rondinella, M.L.I.S.
Young Adult Librarian
Stark County District Library
Lake Community Branch
11955 Market Ave North
Uniontown, Ohio 44685
330-877-9975
crondinella@starklibrary.org<mailto:crondinella@starklibrary.org>
www.starklibrary.org<http://www.starklibrary.org>

Booktalks have been really successful for promoting our YA books. You just
need a cooperative english/language arts teacher that is glad to have you
come visit for a day!

Laurel Rakas
Coordinator of Youth Services
Pemberville Public Library

rakasla@oplin.org

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Nancy,
I’ve found that the best way to promote YA materials is to go to local schools (jr highs and high schools) and booktalk.  Whenever I do this, at least 50% of the books I booktalk are checked out by the end of the week.

Another promotion for YA materials we have been trying in our library is to have a whole library theme for the month (aka music).  An are in the library is designated the display are, and each department selects some books to display, so while patrons are looking at all the music books, they might see some YA books they wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.

The other thing we do with YA books is to display the newest ones on top of the YA shelves.  Our YA section is on the path to the computer center, and more than once I’ve seen an adult stop at the shelves and look at books after their eye was caught by one of the displayed books.

Hope this helps!

Jenn Winston
Santa Maria Public Library
Youth Librarian/Teen Services Coordinator
(805) 925-0994 ext.821

jwinston@ci.santa-maria.ca.us

Booktalking and displays are among the best I’ve found. I also blog but unless you have a very popular page it seems like a ot of work for the amount of attention it gets.

Valerie Chism

Young Adult Librarian

Baldwinsville Public Library

33 East Genesee Street

Baldwinsville, NY 13027

315-635-5631 x 208

valc@bville.lib.ny.us

There is an opinion piece on the Feb 16 issue of Publisher’s Weekly
about getting adults to read and then help promote YA. It might be an
interesting addition to your research.

Rebecca Donnelly
Youth Services Librarian
Loma Colorado Main Library
505-891-5013 ext 3032
rdonnelly@ci.rio-rancho.nm.us

I saw your request on the pubyac listserv about promoting YA materials and thought that I could be of some assistance. I’m a recent grad of Western’s MLIS program too, and was lucky enough to land a YA librarian job in St. Catharines.

In my time here, I’ve tried lots of different things to promote the YA fiction collection.

Book bins (different themes/genres) and book marks tend to work particularly well for our fiction collection. I also have a “new book” display in the “teen area” that tends to make our new arrivals go pretty quickly. For my last “Twilight” program, I gathered up some vampire read-a-likes from the collection and put them on display in the room. Many of them were checked out at the end of the night. I’ve done the same thing with Banned Books and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Booktalking YA fiction has never seemed to fly in this Library. We’ve tried a “Books and Popcorn”  program where staff and teens share recent fiction that they’ve read, but attendance tends to be low or  non-existant. I’ve also tried various book clubs for teens (ie: Graphic Novels) but we usually have to cancel them due to lack of registration.

To sum it all up, the books that are displayed tend to be the books that move. The more interesting the display, the more attention it attracts!

In the summer, I design a summer reading program for teens that is different from the TD program for kids. Last year the teens were encouraged to read a book from a different genre every week. They filled out a ballot for every book read (either online or in person)  and enter a draw for a weekly prize. I had to refill the book bins every few days!

We’ve also experimented with putting a “top 5″ list in our monthly newsletter. Not sure if this has had any impact on circulation, but its one way to let teens know about cool titles.

Lastly, I wish that we had a blog or even a teen web page where we could showcase and review some of the newer teens titles. Hopefully we can achieve something like this once we get out TAG group up and running (this April!!!)

Julianne Brunet
Young Adult Librarian
St. Catharines Public Library
54 Church Street
St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 7K2
905-688-6103, ext. 225
jbrunet@stcatharines.library.on.ca

Put new stickers on the new books and displayed them on a separate shelf. I know, sounds really basic, but when I came here NONE of the new children’s or YA materials were being displayed, or in any way marked. I did have a suggestion box for a while and got some good suggestions which I posted up (you suggested, we listened and then whether or not we were getting it) but the box got vandalized so much I had to take it down.

Jennifer Wharton
Youth Services Librarian
Matheson Memorial Library

LibraryJeanLittleLibrary (worldwide)
http://bookmooch.com/inventory/jeanlittlelibrary
http://www.librarything.com/profile/JeanLittleLibrary
http://jeanlittlelibrary.blogspot.com/

I read your post to PUBYAC about promoting YA materials.  One of the simplest, no cost ways is to place books face out on the shelves.  You’ve probably already thought of this, and it really does work for all ages.  Think about how book stores sell books!  People really do judge a book by it’s cover. 

Sally

Sally Warburton
Youth Services Librarian
Pulaski County Library System
Pulaski, Virginia

swarburton@pclibs.org