Promoting Romance and Horror
Generally, when I want to promote a group of books, I would make a fun display. However, because we are closed to the public, my displays would go unseen. That led me to start thinking about virtual displays, and I came up with a couple of ideas, one for horror and one for romance. In both cases, I would likely start by visiting NoveList and using the “For Fans Of" feature to find appropriate matches.
To promote romance novels, I was thinking along the lines of a matchmaker/dating app, but realized that could get very complicated very quickly. So I settled upon the idea of a Buzzfeed-style quiz that would match patrons with a book based on their movie and television series choices and link to our catalog so they could place the book on hold.
For a virtual horror display, I thought a fun way to use Google Slides would be to create a haunted movie theater. Patrons could click on different posters to lead to books related to films and series. Additionally, other non-integrated recommendations could be linked to other elements on the slide- for example, clicking on a bat would lead to a collection of vampire novels; clicking on a mummy would lead to zombie films.
You had me at "haunted movie theater." I think using a virtual display would really help promote the horror genre and get the message out to patrons. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI really like your Google Slides haunted movie theater idea! It's super interactive, almost like a scavenger hunt, and a fun way to get patrons involved when the library isn't able to offer in-person programming. I've seen a Google Slides presentation used for something similar before, but it was geared more towards kids. I think your idea would be great for teens and adults. There could also be a kids version with books like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Goosebumps, Haunted Indiana, etc. It's a great way to promote the horror genre without having to build a display or host a Zoom program.
ReplyDeleteYes! They could be customized in many ways.
DeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteI like your ideas regarding the utilization of apps to personalize tastes and deal with the Covid restrictions. As I was reading your romance description, I was reminded of the popular mind-reading app Akinator. The app is basically 20 Questions but it covers a wide variety of topics. I bet with some refinement and testing, a librarian version (Bibliotekar?) could be used to help uncertain patrons about what their next read should be by whittling down their tastes and choices into a possible option. If you choose to pursue this idea, I will humbly ask for a meager half of the proceeds.
That's a great idea! I wish I had the tech skills to manage it.
DeleteI love what you came up with! I need to be better at Google Slides because your haunted movie theater sounds awesome. Also who doesn't love taking buzzfeed style quizzes?! Great job thinking outside of the box - full points!
ReplyDelete