One thing that helps patrons build a personal connection to their public library is ‘seeing themselves’ in the catalog, events, and other programming.
That’s why libraries are actively promoting diverse voices to their patrons. From featuring famous and emerging authors from underrepresented communities to also exploring sensitive issues, libraries want to give diverse voices a platform to reach the people who need to hear them.
In this article, we’ll explore a variety of creative strategies your library can adopt to support, spotlight, and celebrate diverse voices.
From simple, time- and cost-effective ideas to more substantial investments, we’ll dive into how you can boost awareness, interest, and item circulation for these collections.
One easy way to amplify the voices of local, indie, new, and diverse authors and creators is to share their social media accounts, websites, or online content with your audience.
Here are a few ways of doing this using your social and broadcast channels:
If an author or creator shares interesting, library-appropriate content online (e.g., book excerpts, behind-the-scenes content, further learning content, etc.), reach out and connect to them about collaborating with your library.
If they are open to it, then re-share their original content with credit/attribution to them as well as a link to the item’s page in your online catalogue. This will help your audience know they can access the author’s works from your library. Use an online discovery product like BiblioCore to enable patrons to place holds or even checkout electronic copies of those works online to make it easy for your audience to use that content.
Have an upcoming author event or book signing program at your library? Consider adding a link to the author’s social media profiles and/or website to your own blog and social media pages/profiles. You’ll help amplify the author and build their following; but at the same time, encourage the author to also share the blog and/or social media posts you created. This will help drive more awareness about your program.
Source: Instagram
Reviewing a book? Marketing a list? Direct message (DM) the author with a link to your review or list page or tag their social media accounts when you promote your post. This will grow the reach and audience of the authors as well as amplify your library’s official social media accounts.
Source: Instagram
Source: Instagram
Collaborating with featured authors is a great way to both help them build their audiences and amplify your library’s activities. For example, you can get the author to do a ‘social media takeover.’ This would involve getting the author to temporarily post from your library’s social media accounts.
This strategy benefits new and/or less-known authors the most. It gives them immediate access to an established audience through your platform, helping them reach more people quickly and build their own social media following. This can be an empowering experience for voices that otherwise don’t get many opportunities to present their ideas or showcase their works.
Authors can also give your social media efforts a fresh look and access to new ideas. Established authors could also promote your library to their own audiences, helping you reach more people. Potentially, you could start engaging under-represented communities, thus helping more people learn about their library and access your services and facilities.
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Your library has unique individuals as well as groups of patrons — from kids to makers to LGBTQ2S+ folks. For each of those groups, you likely have a wide variety of resources, services, events, and catalog items to meet their needs. Help your patrons see themselves in the library, find those resources, and further amplify patron and creator voices through audience-specific landing pages. These can live year-round but also serve as a landing place for key campaigns or seasonal activities like Pride Month.
Here are some examples:
Source: Glenview Public Library
Source: Stark Library
Source: Pima County Public Library
Many literary awards celebrate diverse voices and characters – including awards focused on ability, racial, gender, and geographic diversity. If you are looking to promote quality books written by and for a wide range of audiences, this is a great place to look for inspiration and content.
Leverage a website platform that will help build an ecosystem of content around these awards. You can, for example, use Reader’s Advisory tools to promote award-winning books, or create reading lists using books/media from diverse authors.
BiblioCommons, for example, offers a dedicated feature for promoting awards and bestsellers. Libraries can promote any of the more than 100 awards and bestseller lists maintained across the network (see the examples below).
Schneider Family Book Award
Presented annually, this award honors authors and illustrators for books that deliver the artistic expression of the disability experience for children and adolescents.
Source: Hennepin County Library
Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature
These awards honour and recognize works that celebrate Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage.
Source: The Seattle Public Library
Golden Oak Award
The Golden Oak Award is presented annually by the Ontario Library Association (OLA) to Canadian books that help adults learning to read. The readers vote for the winners themselves!
Source: Pickering Public Library
Source: Boston Public Library
When visiting your physical branches, patrons get the opportunity to engage with your staff. Your staff can share their ideas, unique experiences, and build genuine connections.
Library staff work hard to guide people to diverse books and media in their readers' advisory interactions, in book displays, and in their school outreach. You want to provide that same space on your website so that they can guide your online patrons the same way to your unique and diverse collection. Your blog is a great starting point for providing that space, giving your staff creative ways to highlight specific authors, genres, and programs, especially in ways where they can be authentic and personable to your online patrons.
The right tools can make achieving those goals simpler, especially at scale. For example, Boston Public Library (BPL) can tag/label its blog posts by genre, target audience, and other attributes. In turn, whenever a patron searches for items in those genres, BPL’s catalog search page will serve that blog.
In the example above, BPL wrote a series of monthly blog posts reviewing queer literature. Not only does it pack original insights from the library staff, but it also contains a list of recommended reads.
If a patron is searching for a diverse title, the library can serve as a community hub and serve up more content to connect you with other content that is part of that community. Not only does this help the patron connect with reads they may be interested in, but it’s also a scalable way for library staff to get diverse content in front of as many patrons as possible.
Source: Boston Public Library
BPL can create a community online by equipping its staff to leverage deeper integration between the catalog and website. They can use meta-data across their blog posts, items, and item search functions to deliver relevant recommendations to patrons, thus encouraging them to explore more.
Source: Johnson County Library
Ratings and reviews matter on sites where customers are considering purchasing an item, especially when they are considering a new or unknown item. When comparing products, items, services – even attractions – online users rely heavily on ratings and reviews to help them parse information and make decisions.
Research from Northwestern University’s Medill Spiegel Research Center found that “ratings and reviews is one of the top factors impacting purchase decisions – second only to price.”
Since price does not directly apply to library patrons, we can assume that ratings and reviews are of equal – if not greater – value when people are looking for something new to borrow from the library.
The example above is a book page from Johnson County Library’s website. As you scroll down, you’ll see reader reviews segmented by critics, staff, and patrons.
Source: Johnson County Library
Since this gives your staff a platform, they must provide insights that help the reader see if the book is right for them. This is especially important with books from less known or underrepresented voices. For example, your staff should review those reads and highlight specific aspects of those books – like the backgrounds and motivations of the characters, or key historical moments or social issues that reflect today’s world – that capture the reader’s attention and interest. You want patrons to know that there are books/media that reflect where they come from, their concerns, their experiences, and their ideas so that they not just feel included, but connected to the library.
Source: Johnson County Library
We also routinely hear from patrons who value the ratings and review system, using it as a tool to enhance their library exploration and discovery experience. Here are a handful of unsolicited quotes from our feedback form in 2023 alone:
“I love this app! It’s so user-friendly and I really love being able to make a list of books I want to read and check them off as I go. I also love being able to leave a review and also be able to read reviews of fellow readers.”
Clark County Public Library patron, March 2023
“The online APL works so well. The features from the number of holds on number of copies in circulation to the reviews are so useful and appreciated. Every big city library system should be mirroring the APL.”
Austin Public Library patron, March 2023
“There are so many excellent features to your online website, including: being easy to use and search; having a comprehensive, accurate and always up to date user borrowing history, holds, their status, and due dates; having reviews/descriptions of books and their authors; providing users with the ability to share their opinions of books; having a full array of filters to facilitate ease of searches; and providing suggestions of similar authors/titles. One of, if not, the best-designed websites I now use on a daily basis. Whoever designed this, really did think of the needs of the user. Thank you so much.”
Ottawa Public Library patron, June 2023
In particular, users care about staff reviews and picks.
[Request for] “more books reviewed by you guys. your feedback can mean the difference between me picking up and throwing away a book.”
Greene County Public Library patron, December 2023
“I frequently find new books simply by opening the home page and looking through the recently reviewed or library staff picks. Thank you for such a user-friendly service.“
Bellingham Public Library patron, May 2023
Source: Edmonton Public Library
Library staff’s opinions and curation deeply resonate with patrons. The EveryLibrary Institute recently published the results of its “Public Libraries and Book Bans – Parent Perception Survey,” which showed that 92% of parents, grandparents, and guardians trust librarians to curate books and materials.
In a sense, your staff lists are a vehicle to connect readers with books. That’s why it’s vital to incorporate diversity at a deeper level in your library’s processes. The point isn’t necessarily to create a list that promotes diversity (although those lists are important and welcome); rather, libraries can take it one step further by ensuring that all of your lists, events, and initiatives incorporate diversity from the onset. So, for example, a list of sci-fi books should draw from authors of different backgrounds, demographics, and periods, thereby giving readers a fuller view of the sci-fi space, not a limited one.
Lists serve as a critical platform for curating and promoting diverse content and authors to your local community - especially for young people to engage with both your library, featured authors, and items.
Some more unsolicited quotes from grateful library patrons:
“I love the staff lists. I use them regularly and really appreciate having curated lists around a certain theme.”
Charlotte Mecklenburg patron, February 2023
“Just discovered the “Staff lists featuring this title” list. I want to check out 95% of them!! Look forward to checking out more “Staff lists featuring this title”. Thanks!”
KCLS Patron, April 2023
“I like the "polarizing books" article because it does not shy away from critical commentary. It is not blandly complimentary to fashionable authors, nor does it assume that aesthetic merit is purely subjective; but it does pay tribute to the plusses of these books, and offers plausible conjectures as to why the books have received the reviews they have (e.g. public tastes during the pandemic).”
Pima County Public Library patron comment left on Staff List “10 popular polarizing books you either love or hate”
Libraries want to reflect the diverse voices in their communities. In this post, we looked at some of the effective strategies you can use digital tools to amplify those voices. Equally important are the tools you leverage to drive that work. From creating shareable content to landing pages where patrons can see themselves reflected in the library, you can invite a diverse audience into your library’s digital world.
In your online catalog, you can amplify best-in-class items, and lend your credibility to items by rating, reviewing, and creating lists. Ultimately, the right digital tools can help your library reach out to a broad set of patrons and connect them to your rich and diverse offering. Explore our blogs below to learn how you can find and use these tools to evolve your online library experience.