World Book Night is Only 20 Days Away!

This week, Kathy and I wore our fabulous World Book Night T-shirts to our monthly Trivia Night for the BPL. Although we knew it was too late to recruit other givers, we wore them to begin the process of explaining World Book Night to the community and to start the conversation.

In case you don’t know what World Book Night is yourself, click here to see exactly how we spread the love of reading from person to person on April 23rd every year.

Here is my full recap, with pictures [including of the aforementioned t-shirts] of how things went on April 23rd, 2013 for last year’s World Book Night.

Personally, I have been a giver since the US World Book Night began.  As a staff, we have 10 volunteers who signed up to be givers this year, and our library is an official pick-up location for givers throughout our community.  So as a team, The BPL is doing quite a bit to spread the love of reading and encourage a community conversation about books and reading.

But even if your library is not a pick-up location and/or you don’t know any givers yourself, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jump on the World Book Night bandwagon. I mean the entire night is built for libraries to take advantage of in order to promote themselves, whether or not you are officially involved.

Right now the team over at WBN has begun to promote the day and its purpose like crazy.  Go here to see a list of kick off events.  And, click here to read about Amy Poehler signing on to be the honorary chairperson of WBN. These are just 2 examples.  The WBN team is doing to work of putting the importance of books and reading into the mass media spotlight for you...TAKE ADVANTAGE!

Help carry this buzz into the walls of your particular library by posting signs about WBN; you can click here for promotional materials like posters, proclamations, etc...  Even if you are not physically participating in the event, you are working at a library, so it behooves you to use the buzz to your advantage.  The library is a natural place to talk about books, reading, and events that surround these topics. And they have done all the PR and Marketing work for you.

Go to the WBN official site and educate yourself on the event. Talk to people about it.  Try to find out if there are givers signed up in your community.  One of the best ways to do that is to find the pick-up locations (libraries or bookstores) nearest to your location.  Contact them and see if you can help them distribute books.  You will find out who the book lovers in your area are and then engage them in conversation.  Talk to them about books and book promotion.  Get their contact info for future programs and promotions at your library.

One of the reasons we wanted to be a pickup site at the BPL was to gather this exact data about the biggest “book people” in our service area.  By being a pick-up location, we have their names, we see them as they get their books, and we can develop a relationship with these uber-readers.  Strengthening your ties and relationships with book supporters can only help your library in the long run.

So get involved with World Book Night.  You still have 20 days.  It is not too late to spread the love of reading person to person.  Heck, it’s never too late; I do it each and every day!