Collection Promoting and Merchandising

This area of study is a favorite of mine, as I did a research paper on marketing/merchandising public libraries early in my MLIS studies.   The author agrees that public libraries ought to take a lesson from successful bookstores, such as Barnes and Noble.  These stores are arranged, illuminated, and scented (seriously) to sell books to visitors, not to make work easier for their employees.  Isn’t that what libraries should strive for – high circulation and patron satisfaction?   This chapter covers user behavior as well as types of merchandising and promotion, such as displays, fronting, shelving, and end caps.  This is a highly valuable chapter for the modern librarian.  However, I would have liked to have seen more information on advertising the collection in other ways (online, community promotion, etc.)

Disher, W. (2014). Crash course in collection development (Second ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. pp. 107-114.

Jhana Morlan

INFO 266 / Spring 2016