1 of 52

The Making of the

Presented by Nancy Dowd and Krista Biggs

2 of 52

Helping librarians help readers

3 of 52

Current State – Existing Content

4 of 52

How can we help

libraries solve the

RA problems

they are facing?

If they don’t what we offer?

5 of 52

Practice what we preach

Market segments

Make a personal connection

6 of 52

11 Interest Groups

RA Tips
Beyond Genre
Club Scene
Genreland
KidLit Connection
School KidLit
TeenLit Connection
Diverse Reading
Navigating Nonfiction
NextReads for Adults
NextReads for Youth

7 of 52

Planning

8 of 52

Formed Leadership Team
Defined vision
Presented to Senior Management Team
Set goals and timeline

Lynne Rohweder

Shauna Griffin

Beth Gerall

Me ☺

9 of 52

Training

10 of 52

Marketing and�Best Practices and Structure of an Email��

Hierarchy
Call to Action
Short and Sweet
Short Titles
Images

11 of 52

Continual Growth

White Board Meetings
Edit for Content
Edit for Design
Weekly Editorial Meetings
Ongoing Trainings

12 of 52

Creation

13 of 52

What does it look like to �solve a problem with email?�

14 of 52

First off, we help identify problems

15 of 52

Share our expertise

16 of 52

And marketing solutions

17 of 52

Offer tips for using NoveList content

18 of 52

Address Trending Topics and News

19 of 52

How did we do?

37% Open Rate

(1454 people read this email)

Engagement Level: 610 clicks

+ Searches conducted in NoveList

20 of 52

Another example…

Genreland-Lemonade

21 of 52

Personal and engaging writing

22 of 52

Readers’ Advisory Marketing Solutions:

End Cap Flyer for Read-alikes�
Nearly 700 people downloaded this flyer

23 of 52

Additional Searches

24 of 52

“How can

we prepare

our readers for

The Cursed Child?”

25 of 52

Writing Style

Informational, Persuasive,

Educational, and Enlightening

26 of 52

Engagement is our

primary measure for success.

27 of 52

Metrics

28 of 52

29 of 52

Thanks!

Love the easy to use

posters for in-library display.

30 of 52

31 of 52

Initial Concerns

Writing style
Design background
Enough to say

32 of 52

Getting the Word Out

33 of 52

The

NoveList Book Squad

Logo

Photos

Profile pages

Bookmarks

34 of 52

Spreading �the word…��Outreach�at conferences��Email Campaign �to subscribers��Ads in Library Journal and Hotline��Cross Promotion webinars and �printed materials

35 of 52

Evaluation

36 of 52

How did we do?

Sent to 8,000

46.98% Open Rate

1962 Clicks

772 854 939

People read this genre outline.

37 of 52

How did we do?

Sent to 1,267

46.79% Open Rate

209 Clicks

115 people printed out this flyer

38 of 52

Since January…

Yessssss!

Sent 374,561 emails

34.94% Open Rate

40,153 Clicks

39 of 52

This is so great!

I forwarded it to the book editor so she can pass on to

Mary Roach.

W.W. Norton & Company

Even publishers love us….

40 of 52

Krista Biggs

Attendee of Food Festivals, Provider of Cat Kibble, Book Omnivore

41 of 52

Book Displays with a difference

42 of 52

I still make recommendations

43 of 52

Get the conversation started

Since there’s little opportunity for physical interaction, we've taken the virtual route.
And NoveList Book Squad is our vehicle to get in touch with readers’ advisory librarians.

RA Tips is my email group. Each email might contain an article, a peer’s describing their success stories, or other advice for programming and RA services. At times, the email will contain an entire piece, at others, I give the highlights and direct readers to NoveList.

Sending RA Tips emails allows me to get "out from behind the desk" and meet my readers with the goal of have conversations about readers’ advisory.
Keep in mind that by conversation, I don’t mean just standing with readers, chatting about books. There just isn’t enough room for everyone to fit in my cubicle for that. It might mean clicking on a link, printing a booklist, or trying the searches we put in our emails. These are all things we can use can use to measure interest. To see if we’re on the right track.

44 of 52

RA Tips:

We can help you, help your patrons…

And here’s an example

45 of 52

Talk to me!

When I ask something like what would you like to see more of in these emails. I'm not kidding. I really want to know. What makes you curious or excited.
1. Incredibly important, it will drive the content we create for book squad readers (and the NoveList database) in the future.
2. And on a much more selfish level, it helps me plan my email topics.

For example, my last email was about the horror genre, which featured Becky Spratford’s article on readers’ advisory for horror readers.

There were a couple of ways to interact with me.

1. Readers can look for Becky’s complete article and/or the terrifying travel book display with the searches I provided.
2. Readers can print the Terrifying Travel bookmark in the email.
3. I don’t always do this but I asked for some direct input, what horror topics readers would like to see discussed in NoveList.

46 of 52

“Refreshing to see that not everyone in our reader's advisory world sees horror as a dirty word.”

47 of 52

Everyone started with a different set of skills.: As Nancy said earlier, some were uncomfortable with a personal writing style, had no design background, or other factors.

Apart from my enthusiasm for readers’ advisory, I was fortunate enough to have a few skills going into the project.

Already editing a newsletter. If you subscribed to RA News, you’ll recognize the image on the left. Longer, formal newsletter. Each month had a theme and I shepherded 3-5 writers per month through the editorial process.
Already using LibraryAware several months before the book squad kicked off.

One thing I especially like about writing for the Book Squad.
Most of the content I work with that goes directly into the NoveList databases has guidelines. Articles certain length, style, format, tone. With a few exceptions, I don’t get to decide any of that.

With RA Tips,, I’m the sole voice. I do get to choose subjects, tone, method of engaging (click button, try this search, send email, etc.))

This project allows more creativity as you’re designing the email while you’re writing. Allows me to be expressive.

48 of 52

You can write

Develop your style

Cherish feedback

Just a few things to keep in mind if your library tries this style of communication. These are simple but so true. You have a lot of freedom.

You’re a writer. You may not think you are, but you are. These are messages with a personal feel and from a single person rather than formal, standardized content like a newsletter. You choose the topic, tone, the type of engagement (email me, click this, try this search, print this bookmark!)

Give yourself the time to develop your own style.. Don't compare to other writers. That’s one thing I struggled with a bit. While going through some of the training, I felt that other writers seemed to do a better job at...whatever. �
Feedback: Our editorial process has several feedback opportunities built in to keep each of us on target. We have other book squad members edit our rough drafts and everyone in the group gets a chance to look at each email before a weekly meeting where we talk about the purpose of the email, what we hope readers will get out of the email.

We have an ongoing planning process so we can adjust for future needs and goals. Nancy is going to take a few minutes to talk about that.

49 of 52

What’s Next…

50 of 52

New Strategies &

Marketing Materials

51 of 52

Webinars

September 29 at 2 pm EDT

Register Here

52 of 52

Thank you! Sign up for The NoveList Book Squad

Contact Information ndowd@ebsco.com | kbiggs@ebsco.com