LJ's Midwinter Galley Guide: A Great Resource for Those Left Behind

Like many of you, I am not in Seattle for the ALA Midwinter Meetings, but thanks to the work of others I am able to stay abreast of what is happening.

I am particularly excited about the Adult Media Awards on Sunday night and of course the Youth ones on Monday-- details here.

Monday I will have all of the adult links on the blog, especially the RUSA CODES Reading List winners which are the adult genre fiction winners. Click here for the archive of past winners sorted by year and genre. There is always a winner, readalikes for that winner, and honorable mention titles. This is a wonderful resource for both suggestions and collection development.

Speaking of resources, one of the best collection development resources are the Library Journal Galley Guides which Barbara Hoffert compiles for every major conference. Here is the current one for 2019 Midwinter.

Here's a secret, I think this guide is actually more useful to those of us who aren't at the conference. Why? Well, when people are there in person, most use it simply to find out which galleys are going to be given out when and who is signing where. [I am on the record saying that running around trying to get free books and wait in long lines is not a good use of your time.]

But, those of us who are back at home, we have time to go through the Galley Guide, taking note of which books the publishers are pushing the hardest. What do they think will take off? What should we be pre-ordering.

Also, don't forget to look through the guide and note trends, authors who you already have in your collections who are going to have a new book, etc... You can make displays based on what you learn from going through the guide even though not a single one of these books is out yet.

I'll help you get started. Make a display titled-- "Coming in 2019 By...." and put out books by Colson Whitehead, Jaqueline Winspear, Sonali Dev,.... and that is just the first few big names I encountered in the guide. Make sure you also offer a handout with their new titles where patrons can check off those they want to put on hold. This is a display that is easy to put up and keep filled and it is very interactive for your patrons.

Also by default it will be diverse and inclusive because you aren't limiting it by genre, format, fiction vs nonfiction, etc... The display will and should include anything and everything.

And, another benefit, a display as broad as this one higjights the breath of your collections. For example, have you ever had literary fiction author Whitehead and romance author Dev in the same display? I bet not. But, I would also bet that more readers than you think have read and enjoyed both of these authors. I know I have.

So stop being sad you are ALA left behind, and start using the resources being created by the conference to serve your patrons better right now. Your colleagues in Seattle will have to catch up to you when they get back.