Intentional Readers Advisory for Busy Librarians

10/21/2022

Our library is the heart of the school, figuratively and literally. With two main floors and 6 different entrances, I often feel like I am managing my own two floor Barnes and Noble. It occurred to me after our first year managing a library at a STEM academy that I needed to change how we display books and engage our students more.

Between our Student Library Board, my amazing para, and myself, we were able to revamp different elements of our readers advisory program and our displays. This has led to over 100% increase in our book checkouts this year compared to last year (including physical and virtual books). The main changes we've made:

Relevant and easy to see displays
An intentionally curated list of read-a-likes based on current trends and our students favorite shows/movies based on surveys and observations
A new reading reward system that allows students to read on their own time (a 'loyalty' card)
Updated our marketing for our personal book shopper service
A TextBox subscription for students that includes a Project Lit book selection that ties into an IA theme and fun goodies with a secret location to our book club for the month

I'm going to write a series of blogs that explain the changes we've made. This particular post will focus on something you can take and implement TOMORROW. Just plug in your own books or QR codes to Sora and you're ready to go. I have always offered read-a-likes through natural conversations and our social media channels, but we've just amped up how we use them to do displays.