Take 5: Creative RA Campaigns for Your Library Shelves

Sometimes, creative RA ideas come to me. Other times, I feel like I’m tapped out and drawing a blank; like I’ve already done every display idea or RA theme I can think of. In those moments, it’s nice to get inspiration from others. Today I am sharing with you some recent RA campaigns from others that have inspired me. I think they might inspire you as well, or you can put them in your pocket for a day when you need inspiration.

Booked on a Feeling

The Epic Reads blog has a series of posts that recommends books based on the feelings you may want to feel when you read. I loved this idea so much I put together my own RA tools that linked books to feelings. One of the things I loved about it is how they came up with a consistent branding scheme, making it easy to identify and use. You can create your own lists based off of the idea, or use theirs. You can find them here: https://www.epicreads.com/blog/category/booked-on-a-feeling/

Refreshing the Canon

School Library Journal did a series of book lists on refreshing the canon that recommended newer reads for everything from Shakespeare to Hatchet. Our own Amanda MacGregor participated in this project (go Amanda!). This is a great way to get readers thinking about updated texts instead of just going straight to the classics. You can find the lists here: https://www.slj.com/page/refreshing-canon-booklist

Bookflix

Many of us are used to Netflix and how it recommends books in easy to scroll through recommendation lists. Like British Mysteries? They have a list for you. Teen dramas? They even often have a helpful movies based on books. If you use OverDrive or can create your own PAC catalogs, this is a great model. But you can also use this model for visual displays. My coworker did a giant wall display a few years ago, which inspired by RA tools. I like the visual appeal and you know what, Netflix hit on something that works. In my opinion, it’s a great RA format so I run with it.

Romance Tropes

Back over at Epic Reads, they have a Trope Rec Generator. You choose the trope and they give you a book recommendation. I was so inspired by this idea that I went through and made RA sheets for Teen Fic romance based on every book I can find. It helps teen readers find the books they want and it helps me, not a romance reader, learn this genre better so that I can do better RA on the fly. You can find the post here: https://www.epicreads.com/blog/trope-book-recs/

Reading Jukebox

One day, years ago, I stumbled across a booklist for an album. Years later I remembered that book list while my own teenager went down the Billie Eillish rabbit hole and I started to think of books that would go with their songs. Thus I started creating reading playlists which I called a reading jukebox. The theory is music lovers pick a song and they get book recs for that song. I haven’t made tons of them, but the ones that I have made have been wildly successful.

I hope I have inspired you and if you have some other great RA tips to share, please do in the comments. I’m always looking for RA inspiration.

Filed under: Reader's Advisory, Take 5