February is the perfect time of year to promote the romance genre at the library. I work at an elementary school library and we set up a decorated table with Valentine's Day-themed books. The students enjoy perusing the table and they check out books they would not normally pick up and choose.
There are several avenues one could take to promote romance in a public library. I think the best part of the romance genre is that you can let go while you read; not take yourself too seriously and fall into the book. The fun aspect that I see in the romance genre could be played up with programming and displays.
A fun program that could attract patrons would be "Book Speed Dating;" several tables are set up with 5 or 6 romance novels at each table, with other novels off to the side for possible replenishing. At the beginning of the program, the patron chooses a table and begins taking some time looking through the novels on the table. This gives them some time to get a first impression of the book; the cover, the font size, any illustrations- not just choosing a book by its cover! Once they get past the first impression, they can start reading the first chapter for a few minutes. If they find a book that they think they might enjoy reading in its entirety, they can take it to the next table with them where they will start the speed dating process over again. The area for the program could be decorated with hearts or a heart chain which is easy to make. This is a fun, lowkey way to promote romance in a program.
An eye-catching display that could be pitched to your boss would be a "blind date" with a book; wrap the book in paper, listing on the front a few key points of the book. The patron would decide based on a little information, without knowing the title or the author, whether or not they wanted to check it out. Along with this, adding incorporated advisory to the mix, would be a read/watch-alike display; If you like Jane Austen's Emma, you may enjoy a comedic take shown in the movie Clueless. If you liked Every Day by David Levithan, you might enjoy the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. These connections could be made with books and movies that are currently part of the library collection.
Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of speed dating with the romance books. This is a neat idea and give patrons a chance to check out the book before checking it out. My library has done the blind date with a book several times and the young adult library just did it for the young adult section this year. I like you if you like this try this with movies and books. We use to do a what is the librarian reading/watching and several of the librarian did this on the display area. Good job with this ideas.
I love the romance pen name! The speed dating with a book is also clever and a great way to get patrons to check out other authors! Full points!
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