Bookology Readers Advisory Service� �Presented by Melissa Doornbos

Public Relations �Department

• PR Manager, Digital Librarian, Staff Artist
• Responsible for creating, editing, and posting messages to various outlets:
• Written/created by PR
• Written by others, edited by PR
• Direct share

Obsessions

Throwback Thursday

Milestones, Memes,

& Retirements

Banned Books Week

Where Bookology All Began…

Decisions To Be Made

• Name
• Logo design
• Platform for booklists
• Participating staff
• Maintenance schedule
• Kickoff event
• Promotional tactics

Personal Touch

• Individual profile pages
• Pictures – ideally not at the library, and not holding a book
• Self-written biographies
• Direct contact info
• Booklists of their choosing – including movies, music, audiobooks, TV, etc.
• Less-structured annotations – “Yes.”

www.dglibrary.org/Books/Bookology

Timeline

Recruited staff,

May 2015

Staff photos taken,

June 2015

Booklists created; loaded into LibraryAware

July 2015

Website designed,

August 2015

Website launched; worked out kinks

September 2015

Bookology Fair kickoff event,

November 2015

Bookology Fair Launch

Bookology Fair Launch

• 517 interactions
• DGPL pens, candy, balloons, snacks = $100
• 307 giveaway bags = $604
• 200 bookmarks each = $40 per person (Too many bookmarks for one event! But we used them later.)
• Giveaway books = $2,500 (Some purchased, some donated. Needed more variety – especially teens and kids titles.)

Physical Spaces

Physical Spaces

Virtual Spaces

Promoting

• Ongoing, mostly revolving around one Bookologist at a time
• Media releases
• Social media
• PR department + individual staff
• Personalized, print bookmarks
• Print posters in-house and offsite
• Homepage feature

Participant Maintenance

• LibraryAware training – consistent formatting
• Adding new titles bi-monthly (could keep a few of the same)
• Posting on social media (optional)
• Hanging posters around town (optional)
• Documenting interactions (optional)
• Filling lobby bookshelf
• Re-evaluating:
• Fewer participants
• More strategic booklists (kids & teens!!)
• Supervision of responsibilities

Usage

• Page views after Bookology Fair launch

90 21

• Page views during Bookologist of the Month

109 56

• Page views after

17 9

Evaluating Bookology

• Interactions documented by staff.
• Shelf additions documented.
• In July 2016 we surveyed staff and based next round of changes off of that.
• The public was not surveyed directly, before or after launching this service.
• We did not do this initially. You should!!!
• Include evaluation plan and tools in initial project planning process.
• What defines success?

What have we learned?

• This is not a passive service.
• It will not run itself.
• You’re giving it time and money – it also needs attention and promotion.
• Act Strategically
• Include variety of reading tastes: Men vs women. Young vs old. Bestsellers vs hidden gems.
• Assign staff with time. And who will talk it up.
• Host events to maintain excitement.
• No stale content: photos, bio, booklists.

Tips

• Define your goal.
• Do you want to increase circulation of a particular genre? Or increase website traffic?
• Do you want to increase readers advisory interactions?
• Do you want to reach non-users at offsite locations?
• Define staff responsibilities.
• PR staff should not be main players.
• Project leaders should not be main players.

My Success Story