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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves

Library Director

847.639.2274

www.frgml.org

@mrsnicolesteeve

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

Image by Paf - Games Sport Casino, flickr

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

Another cost revealed itself when we considered whether we would only recommend books already in our collection. We only have 22,304 print books in our entire library - fewer, I believe, than the Adult Fiction A and B authors alone that were among my Collection Development responsibilities back at HWLC! We do have a commitment to buying great midlist titles in addition to bestsellers, though, so we chose to start with titles in our catalog. Space and budget considerations do force us to limit our recommendations to regular print materials. Side benefit: this created a patron-driven method for retaining high-quality materials with low-performing circulation. If we found ourselves wanting to recommend a book that we didn't own, we would purchase it using existing budget allocations for adult materials. This has not yet been necessary.

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

It is our small size that also makes this effort more viable (final piece of DFV), not less. We had a few requests come in when we first launched in January 2018 under the name "Your Next Great Read." As with any service, though, participation dwindled after the initial announcement. So the challenge to viability has been maintaining the initial user interest. In August 2018, our library closed for renovations for 7 weeks (we just reopened one week ago!). Part of the overall strategy for staying in touch with patrons was increasing the frequency of our monthly e-newsletter to weekly, allowing us to share renovation updates as well as to promote offsite programming and digital services unaffected by the closure. Staff continued working throughout the closure, too, so this was a perfect opportunity to bring back attention to Your Next Great Read, as the 2-3 hours per recommendation would be no issue. We tripled the total number of completed forms in this time. (Interesting sidenote - only 1/3 of the people who clicked on the link in the e-newsletter completed the survey, although it is a very brief form - only six short questions. It may bear investigating why some people click but do not complete the form.)

Now that we have reopened, we will let promotion of the service ebb and flow, calling attention to it when there is a lull in programming and when we are amply staffed. Because we demanded from ourselves to prove Your Next Great Read would be desirable, feasible, and viable, we can easily implement it on demand, and we do not need to wonder whether we are giving patrons a way to tell us what they want.

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

Around the time we planned Your Next Great Read, we also conducted a thorough weed of adult non-fiction. As I'm sure many other librarians have experienced, we faced that eternal NF quandary: "These books on [topic] circulate well, but they are woefully outdated!" I am firmly in the camp that these are the best candidates to weed and invest in new editions. Sometimes, this is easy - for example, whatever law books for non-lawyers Nolo has recently published should be purchased. Other areas are more difficult. Our budget cannot accommodate subscriptions to continuing travel book series, but it was another popular section needing updating. This area, though, has far too great a variety compared to Nolo law books to get just anything, and guessing would be, at best, imprecise. Enter patron-driven acquisitions.

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

So, we brainstormed a list of places we knew FRG residents had visited in the last 1-2 years or mentioned planning to visit in the next year. We looked to see which of these places had recent or upcoming editions from Rick Steves, Fodor's, Frommer's, Lonely Planet, etc. We took the locations that appeared on both lists and made a survey asking patrons for which locations they'd like us to get new guides. We shared it on social media and in our e-newsletter. After 60 days, we had received 28 responses - a great number for us - and made 100% of our buying choices based on patron input. Simple, fun, and successful – patrons loved that we asked them what they wanted and delivered. It’s not always possible, or even the sensible, but when the fit is right, it’s a great way to show that we spend their money in a way that is meaningful to them.

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves, Library Director * 847.639.2274 * www.frgml.org

Image by https://isaacjeffries.com/blog/2016/3/9/three-lenses-of-innovation

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Patron-Driven Acquisitions at Fox River Grove Memorial Library

Nicole Steeves

Library Director

847.639.2274

www.frgml.org

@mrsnicolesteeve

Thank You!

Questions?