In Our Mailbox: How Do You Keep Track of New Releases?

Occasionally we get email from readers, which we try to answer. One question we’ve gotten asked a lot is about how we keep track of upcoming MG and YA releases. So today we thought we would share with you each of our personal methods. Share yours with us in the comments please.

How Karen Keeps Track of Upcoming & New Releases

I have learned over the years that I am a visual person, so I have made for myself a notebook which is my life blood for both reviewing for the blog and collection development for my library.

The notebook is divided into months and at the beginning of each month I print out a calendar where I write in release dates for review purposes and schedule posts.

Then within each month I print off a variety of lists of titles that come out that month. I use sources like Edelweiss and Baker and Taylor 360 to build my lists of upcoming titles. For example, I will put titles into carts based on their release dates. Then in February I can go in and submit the March and April carts for purchase (we can’t have titles more than 3 months out in our ordering carts). Having a visual print out of my carts also helps me do a double check for diversity. I look at each title to see what topics it covers, who the authors are, etc. If I find I am ordering too many of one type of book, I look to see what midlist titles I can drop off and replace with different types of titles. And yes, I take covers into consideration as well because teens do judge a book by its cover. I have the amount of money and how many titles I can purchase by month down to an exact science, which also helps.

For specific tools, I like to use Edelweiss, Netgalley and B&T. Edelweiss, for example, allows you to move titles into a “Collection” and give it a name. I name mine by publisher and release date. I then print them off and place them into my notebook. Then when it’s time to order I can move those collections into an ordering cart to be submitted.

I use Edelweiss and B&T because they allow me to sort and print lists in ways that are meaningful to me. They also allow me to include things like synopsis, subject headings and age ranges. I then also visit other blogs to make sure I’m not somehow missing either big name titles or something that maybe sounds awesome but just isn’t getting the big buzz. No matter how hard we all try, however, things do occasionally get missed because we’re all human.

You can also get a good visual list to begin with by Googling “April New YA Goodreads” (as an example), particularly during the first three months of a new year. For some reason, these lists tend to taper off as the year progresses. This is by no means a great collection development tool, but it can be a great resource for new series titles that are coming out in the beginning of the year.

And yes, I recycle. 😀

How Robin Keeps Track of Upcoming & New Releases

How Heather Keeps Track of Upcoming & New Releases

I keep a running cart that I can add to. I check http://www.teenreads.com/coming-soon pretty regularly (I should do it every month, but don’t always remember) so I can preorder. That’s mainly for ordering purposes. For my own TBR list, I use Goodreads.

Filed under: Collection Development, New Releases, Professional Development