I am getting ready to attend ALA Annual in DC. On Thursday morning, I will have my general schedule and some other details. I am presenting on Saturday but it is not on the schedule because I replaced someone. Again, details on Thursday.
I will also have detailed information about the blogging schedule because I want to bring as much of the conference to you, my readers who cannot make it, as possible. But to see what you can expect from me in terms of reporting back, click here for my PLA 2022 recap posts. I no longer live Tweet events as I don't pay as good attention when I do that. I may retweet others but I focus on recaps from my notes.
However, today I do want to focus on a great resource for you the library worker who is NOT going to ALA-- the Library Journal Galley Guide. This resource is a list of all of the ARCs that attendees can get in the exhibit hall. But again, it is not about being there. It is important to remember that the LJ Galley Guide for any conference is a wonderful resource for everyone, but maybe even more valuable for those staying home.
First, and most obvious, every single one of the ARCs listed here is also going to be super easy to download from NetGalley or Edelweiss. The publishers are prioritizing that. If you get the Library marketing emails, you have probably already seen that. They want everyone to have access to these books.
Second, those of you who are back at home, you 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? We should all be using it as a resource to help our patrons and craft our collections, but unfortunately, those who are there, they mostly use it to be greedy and go around and grab books. [I am on the record here saying that running around trying to get free books and wait in long lines is not a good use of your time.] You should take your time and use it for collection development.
Third, everyone, whether they are attending ALA or not, should look through the guide and note trends or authors who you already have in your collections who are going to have a new book, etc... Across the entire guide, what are you seeing that is similar? Where are the trends? Promote these upcoming titles and start taking holds. You could even make a few lists based off trends you find that would most interest your patrons and call them, "Hot Titles Fresh From ALA Annual."
Fourth, after noting trends in the guide and trying to gather advanced holds numbers to make your ordering easier, you should also be making displays of titles that fit those trends you are noticing at the same time. Reminding people of what you already have that they may like while you are letting them know what is coming soon is very important to do in tandem. Those buzzy titles coming soon can be supplemented by readalikes from your backlist. You are anticipating what they want to read by giving your readers targeted displays now. Trust me it works and you look brilliant.
So that is my push for the ALA Galley Guide for those left behind. I hope those of you who are going, go back to this post and do the same thing after you return.
Tomorrow I am going to focus on one of the larger things that is happening at ALA, the report by the committee tasked with finding alternatives to neutrality. And then Thursday the first of ALA specific posts with much more detail about what will be going on here on the blog.
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