This week, LitHub had a list of Comeback Stories. I love this idea as an anytime of year display. It can encompass fiction and nonfiction, many different genres, and will always attract interest.
In general, we need more ideas that are not tied to an identity month or time of year because we already have plenty of those. They are important because people expect them, but they are only useful when they are relevant with respect to the calendar.
We need more timeless options.
To that end I have created this form which you can use to crowdsource enticing "anytime" displays. Take a look but come back, I promise to return to that form later in this post.
Back to today's idea-- Comeback Stories.
This list on LitHub is only nonfiction and includes just a handful of titles. While the idea is great, we definitely need more books to make this a display. How can we identify more?
Here is how.
Running this Google search of "Comeback Stories Books," provides many different titles that would work for this display, from a variety of "comeback" perspectives. But it is sill too nonfiction focused.
As I was poking around Goodreads to look for the terms readers use for these types of stories in fiction, I found "underdog." While this is not exactly the same, it is adjacent. And running the Google search of "Underdog Stories Books" came up with completely different lists and they also contained a lot of fiction and materials for all ages of readers.
Now we have plenty of titles for a timeless display entitled-- Don't Call It A Comeback! And one that you can use to showcase your entire collection. For example, including movies is super easy. Just swap out the "books" in each search for "movies."
However, I also wanted to use this post to remind you that another way to build displays is to make the process interactive. Again, use the form I mentioned above to ask staff and patrons to add to the display and lists you are building.
My favorite way to use this form is to ask patrons is BEFORE you put the display up. Take a few weeks and put a question in every book on the hold shelf. Every. Single. Book. And for all ages. Make a plain bookmark that says, "Please help the library with our next display...." Then every time you ask a question, you can add it in and make lots of copies. Putt those bookmarks into books that are check out or put on the holds shelf. Place the bookmarks by your self checkout machines.
Make it clear you want them to write the answer down and return it with the book. Answers will filter in over the next 2-4 weeks.
On my provided form I have given you the language for 7 timeless display ideas, but in this case you would write, "What are your favorite underdog books?" As I showed you above, "underdog" is a better term to get the widest range of results.
By putting this bookmark in every book as they leave your building, you will get a variety of answers, from all age levels. You can sue the results to put up one while library display, or have a display in each service area, at the same time.
You can also expand all of this to Facebook or Instagram. For either, have a standard post where you ask people to help the library with our next display by adding your titles to our list. Swap in the current question.
When you ask, they not only helping you build a display, but they are also giving you feedback about what books they have enjoyed. This helps us craft our collection to fit their needs better.
Another benefit, when someone is asked to add a title to a display, I promise you, when said display goes up (and you should do another social media post announcing displays and letting people know their titles were included), people make a trip to the library just to see the results.
Your attempts to be interactive should also extend to when the display in question is up as well. Allow patrons to add titles while the display is being featured. Allow comments on your social posts where you ask for more titles or put out a suggestion box at the display area where people can add their thoughts.
None of this is hard. Once you set up the templates, it is actually quite easy. And the data you collect not only improves your displays, but over time, it will improve your collections as you will be getting feedback as to what titles are resonating with your patrons, allowing you to add other titles that they will also enjoy.
And ultimately, you are showing your users that you actually listen. When people feel heard, they come back, they tell their friends to visit us, and they support us when we need it.
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