This document provides tips and strategies for public libraries to effectively manage their collections and increase circulation and patron use. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration between selection and public services staff to support readers' advisory work through handselling items, personalized recommendations, and encouraging browsing. Other key points include using the front of the library and first 20 feet for branding, balancing abundance with value through effective merchandising, and acting as passionate advocates or "customer chiefs" to help patrons connect with materials.

1. Always Be
Circulating
How Public Libraries Meet Demand
and Increase Use

2. Selection, Distribution, Floating
Buy Smarter
Formulas
What Is The Goal Of Distribution?
Depth & Breadth
Statistics
Turnover
Floating
And Don’t Forget Deselection!

3. always be using … your public services staff
from http://digital.omahapubliclibrary.
org/earlyomaha/galleries/librarian%20helping%
20kid.jpg
make your collection work
support readers’ advisory
ensure communication between
selection and public services
staff
allow all staff to “talk books”
with patrons

4. support readers’ advisory work
people want to interact with books -- and with you
from the late 2012 Pew Internet study (http://www.pewresearch.
org/daily-number/even-in-the-digital-age-many-library-patrons-say-
traditional-uses-are-important/)

5. support readers’ advisory work
from http://www.digitalforsyth.org/jpg/uzz/lbd/uzz_lbd_00358.jpg
bring back the serendipity
encourage connection and
conversation
promote beyond the bestseller
displays, book lists,
personalized reading
recommendations, blind date
with a book

6. don’t forget the virtual...

7. selection & public services staff
from https://s3.amazonaws.
com/WebVault/surveys/ReadersAdvisorySurvey_repo
rt_Jan2014.pdf

8. selection & public services staff
share newsletters, galleys, catalogs
consider an internal newsletter highlighting what’s new and
interesting (and outside the box)
engage public services staff in the collection maintenance
and refreshment work
selection staff: work the desk!

9. handsell the inventory
you have staff -- at all
levels -- who are
passionate about
reading: celebrate it
your clerical and page
staff have the most
patron contact: take
advantage of it
from https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/151625739/book-stack-illustration-
screen-print?ref=shop_home_active_2

10. Merchandising and Layout
Wendy Bartlett

11. What’s your long term strategy?
• “They loved the experience,” William S.
Simons, the chief executive of Wal-Mart’
s United States division, said at a recent
conference. “They just bought less. And
that generally is not a good long-term
strategy.”

12. Public Space with BOOKS!

13. Three enduring merch principles
• The first twenty feet are completely lost,
so use it for branding—urls, books,etc.
• People turn right, not left. The left is a
dead zone. Put circulation or self check
there.
• Need to balance “the way men shop” with
the need for “abundance”. That never
changes.

14. More says “value”

15. A branch within a branch
• Capturing the “Smash and Grab”
customer
• Mini-versions of our store front “retail”
branch in our new/renovated locations.
• Helps to increase our “items per
transaction” and increase convenience.

16. It’s all about perception
“Historically, the more a store is packed, the
more people think of it as value — just as when
you walk into a store and there are fewer things
on the floor, you tend to think they’re
expensive,” said Paco Underhill,, founder and
chief executive of Envirosell, who studies
shopper behavior.
.

17. Competing Demands can Co-exist

18. Commit to using the front door

19. Be the Customer in Chief

20. Silent Readers Advisory
• Not “Passive Readers Advisory! There
shouldn’t be anything passive about it.
• Turn it in to PASSIONATE Readers
Advisory and help your librarians curate
a great browsing selection; the Pew
Report says that’s what our customers
want.

21. Passionate RA the Cheap Way!

22. Act like your job depends on it

23. Bibliography
• Why We Buy: the Science of Shopping by Paco
Underhill, (revised 2008)
• www.pacounderhill.com; and he’s on FB and Twitter
• “Stuff Piled in the Aisle” NYTimes, April 7, 2011
• “Take the Merchandising Test” Dave Genesy. American
Libraries. Apr2006, Vol. 37 Issue 4, p69-69. 1/2p.

24. Contact
Wendy Bartlett
Collection Development Manager
Cuyahoga County Public Library
• wbartlett@cuyahogalibrary.org
• Follow me on Twitter:
CCPL_WendyB

25. Dirty Little Secrets Or,
How we really count!

29. Let me count the ways we count!!
● How is your AV cataloged - individually
or as a set?
● How is eBook circulation counted and is it just eBook
or all eContent?
● How long are your circulation periods?
● How often can you renew items?
● What is your holds ratio? Does it change by format?
● How many items can your patrons check out?
● How many buildings are in your system?

30. Robin Nesbitt, rnesbitt@columbuslibrary.org
@CML_RobinReads
Alene Moroni, amoroni@kcls.org
@surlyspice
Stephanie Chase, stephanie@bibliocommons.com
@acornsandnuts
Wendy Bartlett, wbartlett@cuyahogalibrary.org
@CCPL_WendyB