Merchandising Made Simple - The Book!

After 2 years of hard work, our book "Merchandising Made Simple: Using Standards & Dynamic Displays to Increase Circulation" is coming in June. http://lu.com/showbook.cfm?isbn=9781591585619

Order your copy today! It will for sure top the library bestseller list and keep those with display lust awake at night reading. We are very proud of this accomplishment, but discovered that writing a book is not so glamorous. Bazillions of emails have flown around in our quest to get photos, get permission for photos, and get the editors the right photos. Hours working on writing and editing and more writing and more editing and tracking down even more photos was a challenge. All this said, it was very fun too. We hope our enthusiasm and passion for merchandising and displays shines through in our book. Please let us know what you think of the book. We'd love to hear your comments. Criticism not so much.

Poppin'

I am super fortunate to work with so many creative people. Those doing displays at our branch keep a schematic of what displays are where and who is doing them and when. It also becomes a good lesson on just doing the display and letting it go. Others will pick up the fluffing as needed or take the initiative to switch it out if it isn't moving well. Recently, one of our dynamo librarians, Tara, had this analogy: Displays are like the bag of popcorn in the microwave. At first it is like "poppin" constantly. Then after a while the "poppin" dies down and you know you have to take it out or it will burn. Same for displays. Who wants one that's all burned up? And by burned up we mean not moving or moved so fast and then interest wained.
As long as we're talking popcorn, a great prop for oh so many displays: a popcorn bucket from your local movie theater. You can also turn it over and use as a lift or riser in a display.

Oh rats!

These precious little fellows jumped off the shelf at Watermark http://www.cleverpapers.com/ and asked to come back to the library. Pictured here above my monitor they have caused quite a ruckas. Now you may be thinking "why rats"? Well, the display possibilities are endless. Think Chinese New Year coming soon. However, they showed up the first week our new librarian Anne started in October. I handed them to her and asked her to create a display around rats. She later said she thought this was some sort of a new librarian hazing ritual. (Note to self: next new librarian assign display on snakes.) The "Oh Rats" display was very popular. So much so that weeks after is came down a young customer asked where "those books on rats were". Apparently, he saw the display and had been begging his mother ever since for a pet rat. They were back at the library to stock up on information. This made me pretty happy except that the mother was glaring at me the whole time. Perhaps I should have steered them to another display on cute, fluffy kittens. As you do displays you constantly learn what works and what doesn't. (Another note to self: remember to tell the custodian that the "trash" in the display is actually a prop and he doesn't have to remove it each morning.)

We want to hear from you!

We would love to see what you have been doing in your libraries. Please join our Flickr group and share your thoughts, ideas, and photos!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/librarymerchandising/

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope your Thanksgiving displays have been up since before Halloween.
Do you have your winter holidays displays up?
Have a Happy Holiday

To Have and to Hold

We have given our merchandising presentation to many library districts in the metro area and one concern always comes up.


"Doesn't a display take titles away from customers placing a hold?"

or "How do you find it in a display unit?"

First, take the sour puss candies out of your mouth. Let's remember our mission: helping customers connect with our materials. Do you want the alternative to be that items just sit and grow dust?

To this we offer a resounding "Not a chance!"


While it is wonderful that we offer many electronic services, we shouldn't neglect the patron that actually visits. Many feel that we place too much emphasis on the request lists. A lot of this worry comes from a fear of change. We are used to the old ways and believe that to remove a book from the shelf is to doom it to the black hole of lost items. Displays aren't meant to take titles away from customers. In fact, when done correctly they will showcase titles that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Current displays, like a holiday one, are anticipating what the patron will be looking for and puts the titles front and center.


Here are a few rules of thumb that will make this a fearless process.

• Keep the number of displays in proportion to your collection. Displays should be little showcases, not the majority of your collection.
• Communicate to your staff what is on display.
• Stay organized by using a calendar or a display list at service desks.
• Don't include often requested items in a display. Put those items at the check out desk for a quick turn over.

When you create eye-catching displays, chances are the titles will be checked out before someone requests a hold. But be ready to offer some alternatives to your patron if the title is unavailable.

Banned Books

Tomorrow finishes up banned books week and we hope everyone out there promoted your collections. Check out www.theloudlibrarian.net for her fabulous take on the banned books display.