ALA Midwinter Galley Guide and Spring Book Buzz

With the ALA Midwinter Meeting [beginning today] and with everything virtual that means there are more opportunities even if you are not registered.

I will be attending the conference and will share what I can, but I already have 2 things to help you.

First is the Library Journal Galley Guide made specifically for this conference, a list of all of the ARCs that attendees can get digitally in the virtual exhibit hall. 

Here's the thing though, these guides are actually more useful to those left behind or to access and consult after attendees return. Why? Click here to read my explanation from a previous round of Galley Guides. This post his about how and why Galley Guides are an excellent RA and Collection Development resource.

Another excellent RA and Collection Development resource is a good old fashioned Book Buzz. There are tons of these at conferences. Publishers getting together to pitch us the titles they are most excited about for the coming season. Well, earlier this week, the ALMA [a group of the library marketing people] got together and presented this 90 minute Pre-Midwinter Buzz. Click here for access.

This one featured a lot of publishers and a wide range of books. That is one reason I loved it; the breadth of titles from different publishers. 

The other is that every speaker is conscious of the fact that we need to be prepared to talk about these books without reading them. The talks are focused on WHY someone would like the book and what other authors or titles it is similar to. You can learn about a lot of books but just sitting back and taking the presentations in. 

Also, seeing a buzz with so many publishers represented at one time allows you to see trends emerging before your eyes. Trends in covers, trends in themes, trends in genres, lots and lots of trends. You cannot help but notice them in this format.

Finally, since it is a video. You can pause and take notes, look things up online, breathe between presenters, and actually enjoy the event. Seriously. When I attend these in person it is a race to get the title, author and key details jotted down to return to later. I often live Tweet these events too. That is stressful, but useful because my notes are then in my Twitter feed and I can pull them up easily at any time. 

This Book Buzz will not disappoint. You will learn quite a bit about what is on the horizon, how to handsell the titles, and who would best enjoy them. After watching this, I felt invigorated.

And then if you are attending the conference, downloads of many of the titles will be available.

Check out both the Galley Guide and the Book Buzz video when you have a chance to get up to speed on the most anticipated titles for library patrons this spring.