The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
With the change in seasons, public libraries often have topical displays
with such headlines as "SUMMER" and "BEACH READS".
I'm certain that each library will have its own methodology for selecting books for said displays, but I'm more concerned with ways to establish policies for such displays in general.
What are some of the standard guidelines regarding selection of these books? Can these displays be used for other purposes, such as an opportunity to "market" poorly circulating books to the general public?
jonsca
I've worked in a couple of public libraries, and neither had a written policy for displays. We utilize thematic displays and individual easels spaced throughout the collection. Thematic displays are usually topical and will include as wide a variety of items as possible. A gardening display will have everything from container gardening to planning a landscape, and it might have DVDs, books, magazines, and flyers for an upcoming program. While it is always rewarding when someone takes an item from a display, it is especially rewarding when someone excitedly tells you they didn't know you had ...
The purpose of a display is to get the viewer to slow down and engage, and perhaps find something new. It is essential that the items on display be attractive. Poorly circulating books generally make poor displays. We increased the circulation of our kids' nonfiction section by 22% this past year largely by putting books on easels throughout the area. Now kids can easily find the dinosaur books, the truck books, the animal books, Garfield, etc. Those displays empty out faster than any others in the library, but it isn't just the display books that are going. Once a kid has found where you hide the Lego books, they will often check out every one.
I am disinclined to do displays that are political or controversial. A favorite book display in some libraries is the annual banned book display, and I have to say it is one I do not favor. First of all, the books were rarely banned, they were only challenged and perhaps removed from a single library here or there. More than this, the underlying message is that we want to alert the public that someone somewhere wanted them not to be able to read these books. It says to people that banning or challenging books is bad. The truth is, whether or not we would ever consider the removal of a book from our library (since we follow a defensible collection policy), we welcome challenges - we may not enjoy them, and we don't want to deal with a new one every week, but we do want to know what the people in our community are worried about. Additionally, I think this display advertises to people that there may be materials in the collection of which they would disapprove. While we welcome challenges, we don't want to spend a lot of time on challenges for materials that people would not have ever picked up had we not waved the materials at them.