Today, I am going to focus on the things I did where I can share things you can use. Tomorrow I will write about the Opening and closing sessions and link to a few reports from other outlets.
But I do want to let you know, there are a few resources that will be ready in a week or so and I did have some meetings that will lead to more posts and information coming over the next few weeks.
Let me start on Friday at the Library Insights Preconference. The things said on my panel are all things you have heard before here on RA for All. But I do want to talk about this panel and provide the info from what I am calling the most useful handout of the conference-- Tell me What to Publish: What Librarians Wish Publishers Knew:
What are readers asking for—and what aren’t they finding? In our closing conversation, librarians from across the country share insights from their circulation data, collection development priorities, and daily patron requests. We’ll look at what the metadata is revealing about genre trends and where publishers may be missing opportunities. From urban systems to rural branches, these experts will identify gaps in the marketplace, shifts in reading habits, and emerging categories ready for attention. Designed for publishers seeking actionable direction, this session delivers a rare, unfiltered look at what librarians truly wish you’d publish next.
Ann Lehue, Director, Collection and Metadata Development, Ingram
Christina Chatel, School Library Media Specialist, Boulan Park and Smith Middle Schools
Dr. Corinthia Price, President, International Association of School Librarianship
Stephen Sposato, Collection Development Manager, Chicago Public Library
Click here for more info on the panelists.
Ann from Ingram Content Group's Library Services made a two sided handout. One side was a great resource for the publishers. It's on how to maximize sales to libraries and gives them lots of advice on what we like to see and the resources we use. On the bottom, says, "Libraries rely heavily on reviews for their push casing decisions." After that heading it has the link to all of the journals with their age conus and the link to where they submit for review.
The other side is a document entitled, "Publishing Trends and Gaps" and this is what the panel focused on. I have recreated that bulleted list here for all to see for free, with attribution to Ingram.
THIS HANDOUT IS RA AND COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT GOLD!!!!!
Please click through. These are the areas that are in demand at libraries for all ages. Please look through this list and use it to make displays and pass on to your children department and the people who order books. I am also hanging on to this for my end of the year reports.
I want to link the info on the handout with a few other things I saw at the conference. Publishers (especially Harper Collins) were making sure to mention all of the titles they were now including in Large Print. There are a lot more than previous years. Also, speaking of HarperCollins, they had an entire section at their booth with the covers of audio ARCs available through Net Galley and QR codes to go directly to them. Here is that page. Multiple formats with ease were everywhere at the conference and I know all of that is great for us.
The woman who was one of the co-founders of the Young Teen Lit movement (also in the handout) was on the panel and talked at length about the issue shared their website: https://youngteenlit.com/. Go there to follow them and the authors and books they recommend. After seeing this panel Friday and was primed to notice the books that are being marketed to fill this gap while I was on the show floor.
Now on to other things.
I want to thank everyone who came to my signing at the S&S Booth. Many of you said you saw it here on the blog. We had 80 books and I had 1 hour to sign them. I never imaged I would have 80 people come, let alone have one of those EPIC ALA links that has to be split by the booth, but I did. I met so many of you and signed those books in 70 minutes. Thank you all. Here are some photos of the line and me signing that Lila Denning took. And thank you to Melissa Croce and her assistant El. who ran the appearance. They worked hard all conference. I know this because I went back to offer to help them with other things.
On Sunday, Lila and I had a huddle (mentioned in this post with links to Lila's quick slide show of 5 Tips for Book Displays). Readers of this blog know what I talked about. We had 20+ people show up for a space ment for 6-8, including someone from a display shelving company. The biggest comments were that it should have been a panel. I agree. Maybe next year we will do that.
Also welcome to my new readers from that event.
I also attended the Booklist/LibraryReads Read N Rave on Sunday. Booklist now has the blog post up with all of the titles here. Please consider voting for them for LibraryReads.
Finally, I got to see Tananarive Due on her LibraryReads panel, Monday. We were able to hug and celebrate our Stoker Award wins and take a selfie for our wonderful editor Joe Monti. I was so proud to see the room so excited for Due's new book--Mazywood. I have turned in my Booklist review and spoiler alert-- it is great and you can read my pre-review thoughts here. But when she spoke about it specifically, she talked about moving from the pain and trauma of writing The Reformatory and how Mazywood leads with joy. It really does, but I will say, joy for Horror people, maybe not everyone's idea of joy, because it both a novel of early Hollywood and the Black experience in it AND a good old-fashioned 1980s survival monster horror story.
Here are photos from the panel and of me and Due celebrating our joy! Oh and a bonus pic of me and Lila in the audience (early Monday morning.)
That's enough for today. As I mentioned above, I have somethings to say about the Opening and closing ceremony and my overall experience. I will also link to reports from others.
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