What do they want, When do they want it: Increasing circulation through merchandising and Collection
Presenter: Sharon Lauchner, Library Collections Coordinator, Frederick County Public Libraries
Program Description:
Think of the hours we spend considering community need and interest, the hours selecting and purchasing just the right materials, the hours to process and get them onto the floor. By contrast, we spend very little time thinking of innovative, truly creative ways to organize and merchandise our collections. The result, for many, is declining circulation, but it doesn't have to be this way. Sharon Lauchner leads this fast-paced session, sharing best proctices and roven merchandising strategies to help you connect people to the material this is currently hiding in your stacks.
My Summation
This informative session discussed ways of making the library collections more inviting and browsable following some of the merchandising practices used by book stores. By organizing the collections using the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communication) scheme, libraries can make their materials more available to library users. Still, librarians (and patrons) must be able to find a particular item, so a combination of Dewey and BISAC may prove the most useful strategy. There was a discussion of library floor planning, creating a "Power Wall" (adult) or "Discovery Wall" (children), using tables for timely topics, and other tips for increasing circulation. Some easy to implement tips were to place impulse items at the checkout (DVDs), and to place read-a-like bookmarks right in the books on the shelves.
How it fits in the bigger picture
This re-arrangement of library materials make perfect sense to me, and I would like to pilot some of the suggestions to see if it would increase circulation as I suspect it would. However, I have found that patrons do not like it when things get moved around, so any changes must be well thought out before implemented.
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