Answering the Calls to Action: Now and Anytime-- Featuring Morton [IL] Public Library

As the end of the year approaches, I am going to take a break from the Call to Action posts in favor of focusing more on Year End posts; however I did want to post an update to last week when I had this Call to Action explaining why your library need to make a local holiday gift guide.

In that post I mentioned how you could make one fairly quickly now, and also how you could work to build a better one next year by starting early and soliciting help. I also argued that big or small, any library could do something.

Well my friend Alissa Williams, the Director of Morton [IL] Public Library, a small library in a community of about 15,000 outside of Peoria, IL took the call.  She didn’t overthink it. She simply compiled some titles off the top of her head-- ones that had been popular both on best lists and at her library.

She spent about 90 minutes compiling and then gave the info off to the staff member in charge of making it look good and viola! Here is the link.

They already have it posted on the website too! It’s under the Books and eBooks tab as "Book Giving Guide."

The point of this post is to show you that any one of you can do this. Any one of you can do any of the Calls to Action.

Remember, I don’t expect any library to do them all; that would not be a good idea, you would exhaust yourself. Rather, I post them as a way to inspire and encourage you all to step out of your comfort zones and try something new. I try to post them weekly so that you don’t forget to think outside the shelf about your RA service, not to overwhelm you with how you could be better.

So look through the archive and pick one to try now, or as your goal for 2017.

And, I highlight some of the very best people who take my Calls to remind you that there are real people, at libraries not that different from your own, trying to serve leisure readers better, just like you are. You are not alone, and there are more people than just me there to support you.

We are all in this together.

Thanks to everyone who tried a Call to Action this year. Remember you can try any of them, at any time. You don’t need to follow my schedule [easy archive access here]. In fact, I love hearing about someone trying an older idea. I have analytics on this blog. I know you guys are looking at these posts. So if you have tried something, don’t be shy. Let me know if you have answered a call. I try to share as many as I can here on the blog.