Panorama Project Wants You

As I mentioned briefly in this post "...the Panorama Project,... is a large-scale, data-driven research project focused on understanding the impact of library holdings on book discovery, author brand development, and sales."

Well, that Panorama Project is finally launching and they have created a Readers' Advisory Impact Committee as part of it's work.  

And even better....I know the three people who they put in charge to facilitate this committee and I can tell you, this entire project is serious because they are GREAT RA people [they are also great people in general]. 

But let me back up.  First you need to even know why you would care about this new initiative. Basically, this project is going to attempt to do the first real study on how library use effects book sales. We have had anecdotal evidence that people who use the library buy more books, but now, libraries are going to try to prove it.

We need this data to help us stave off budget cuts. If the publishers are behind us, they will lobby for us. This is very important. People all over the country are asking why their tax dollars need to go to libraries. Some are already seeing major cuts. We need unconditional support from the publishing companies [and not just their library marketing teams], and the best way to get that is by proving with hard data how much money we make them.

Here is the official word from the Panorama Project from their extensive site:

Click here to read it

I know the Panorama Project will get to the bottom of how much public libraries help book sales because they are looking at the entire picture of what we do to help increase book sales at the library. This is evident in the Readers' Advisory Impact Committee. The work we do matching readers with books does have an ecominic impact.

Here is where all of you, my readers can make the most impact.

The committee wants all of you to join and help them. The more RA service people we have involved the better. Below is their charge and here is the link to get involved. Please consider joining.

Every single one of us who works with readers at any public library across this country has something to add. Don't think you aren't "important enough." If you are reading this post, the committee wants your help. Seriously.

All the info you need is here. Please join. I did. This is one of the biggest things you can do to help the entire institution of the Public Library which in turn will help all of our patrons.

I will be following the progress of the Panorama Project here on the blog and have created a new tag to make it easier to index all of these posts in the future.

Click here or on the link the image below to learn more and meet the committee facilitators.

Click here to read more and meet the facilitators