0:03
Hello and welcome to today's info people webinar visual merchandising for public libraries presented by Alison viscous. Alison is the manager of the mommy branch of the Toledo Lucas County public system where she has been employed for the last 14 years in addition to her work as a public librarian Allison was previously a children's lead and digital lead at Barnes & Noble where she gained first-hand experience in the retail merchandising realm. She now seeks to apply her knowledge of visual merchandising strategy to the public library environment with the specific intent of increasing Community knowledge of Library Collections and resources and improving circulation. I am now happy to turn the webinar over to Allison piscis.
0:47
Thank you, Mary. And hello, everybody. Welcome to the jewel merchandising couple of quick notes before I jump in the first thing that I'm going to try to get through a ton of material in about 45 minutes to leave plenty of time for questions. So if you have questions as I go through stuff, feel free to send it through and we will address as many as we can at the end the others that there are two handouts that are available for this one is the slides from the particular presentation in the other is kind of a handout style one that addresses the merchandising rules. There is a purposely blank page in there. It's meant to be printed double-sided in case you want to hand it out to staff so that will be available to you. So don't feel like you have to take quite too many notes and on that note.
1:33
I'm going to jump right in so why merchandise I'm assuming if you're taking part in this other know that you probably don't need much convincing that merchandising in a public library is something that has quite a few great benefits to it, but I wanted to address some of the studies in the science behind why we know it to be important nonetheless.
1:57
So the first is that Library Services changed and we have made convenient Paramount so much of what we do we worked extremely hard to make our content as available as possible ebooks 24-hour Locker pick up hold place from your cell phone. You guys get the picture the same is true for retail establishment. I would say think Amazon Prime you probably explains quite a bit. This is have the effect of subtly discouraging people from Act 2. Sorry people actually visiting retail establishments mean you see these statistics come up around Christmas every year, you know sales maybe up but actual visit to actual places is down according to the 2016 Pew Library usage and engagement survey print collection circulation has also been on a fairly steady decline since libraries have embraced the media as a main portion of their services.
2:53
It's easy to understand how this could happen. When you consider that user habits have changed even if people are coming into a building. They quite possibly for example place a hold on a book ahead of time, which means they're walking in going directly to a whole shelf going to a check out and then they're going back out the door again oftentimes. They don't even need to talk to staff.
3:14
So that means that customer perceptions of the shopping experience. And therefore their expectations have also changed consumers have come to expect at their willingness to actually venture out of their homes and into physical spaces will be rewarded. They expect an environment that will put their entertainment needs their education to the Forefront and they are cognizant of the fact that they are drawn to places where organized attracted displays are present. So this all comes down to subliminal messaging which is a hugely powerful tool for retailers and the same is true for libraries. You take the time to make our spaces inviting attractive and access to our materials convenient and beautiful. It makes a big difference.
3:59
So these two things have combined to change how customers interact with our libraries? I don't need to explain this too much. I'm sure you have experienced that on some level and what it means is that we know that visual merchandising works. So let's talk statistics just for a quick second because I know they're pretty boring. There was a 2014 study of visual merchandising and Retail establishments and it talked to the respondents who said that 94 percent prefer to shop in stores where attractive visual merchandising was present 88 percent said that it played a role in their choice to purchase.
4:39
And afterwards they could identify that beautifully crafted displays elevated the stores character in their minds that encourage them to choose to return. That's he they were more likely to buy they were more likely to stay for longer periods of time and they were more likely to return it built store loyalty which any of you libraries that happen to be Levy fun doesn't know is crucial to what we do. There are also cognizant of the fact that poorly designed messy and unattracted displays stood out as prominently in their minds as the good one, but had the opposite effect. They described them as overbearing and irritated and it had a lasting negative opinion of the store that discourage them from returning. So keeping all that in mind. Where do we start?
5:34
I suggest a three-part plan.
5:38
First you're going to examine how things are then you're going to study how your customers are currently interacting with your sister with your space. And finally you're going to create a plan of action because you will not be the only person who is doing this work.
5:54
First examine how things are right now. So let's look at what you already have in terms of furniture space and accessories. Do you already have furniture that is being utilized for merchandising? If not, is there anything that can be repurposed? I'll talk through this more in depth later. But I want you to in I want to encourage you to get creative with this avoid temporary Furniture folding tables are always going to look just like a folding table. They're never gonna look professional. What's your space arranged? Are you cramped? If so are there things that can be removed to declutter and make room for materials to showcases. Maybe have a lot of space. That's my current situation and my current Branch quite large, but it actually works against us. We have a lot of open areas. It's beautiful but it's really difficult to get folks who come into Venture all the way back into the area where the non-fiction books are in the children's areas are if they didn't come for that specific purpose. So we're strategically placed in displays.
6:54
Throughout that area to pull people through the space and into deeper areas of the building. I also suggest you take a good stock of what you have in terms of accessories. I mean sign holders book easels that type of thing. I I know you'll be attempting to make these changes with little to no money. That's okay. There are options to proceed without spending any money, but knowing what you have ahead of time what that your disposal is going to really inform what your plan is.
7:25
What type of shelving do you have? This is a big one. It can director entire approach to your changes. For example, if you are lucky enough to have the Deep slanted shelving that is often used for media throughout your entire building. There's a whole shelving standard that you can do that eliminates the need for bookends and greatly increases your ability to face out materials to browsers which will greatly increase the likelihood that they will take something off of yourself. What is the state of your entrance? How is it arranged? The first thing that people should see when they come in your building our books preferably beautifully arranged one. They've come to a library hit them with the books right away.
8:06
What collections are struggling and why might that be is it a lack of Interest or lack of knowledge that they exist. I always encourage people to take a good hard. Look at what is working and what isn't and ask people to consider changes to help one of the things I often repeat during these trainings. Is that the hardest part of all this is learning how to see your space differently when you've been coming to work for 5, 10 15 years and the Teen section has always exist in the same location or the 800s have always been 15 to 20 shelves. It's really difficult to consider changing those things because that's how it's always been in your mind. It's how it's supposed to be but push yourself to Envision it differently push yourself to change things and be bold about that change if you're purposeful about it, and they're backed by things that you can prove to be true about your patrons and their youth they will definitely pay off.
9:01
A great example of this is a Jason sees this is something that retail establishments take a lot of effort to arrange as Trends change. The thing I always go to is team. I know that this will not be appropriate for everyone. But if you're not lucky enough to have a teen section that's actually sectioned off in a way from the reference desk in a place where teens actually want to be there's a very good chance that your teen collection could be struggling in that case may be moving at next to adult fiction would help because those readers often overlap and those readers are awesome not necessarily likely to move from an entirely different area of your library to the next to view both collection. I would also say take a look at what is Prime real estate and by that, I mean are your DVDs or your hold shelves the units that are closest to your entrance and do they need to be consider convenience? Yeah. Don't put your holes all the way in the back of your library, but people will walk pretty darn.
10:00
Our for their DVDs and maybe science fiction use that space for maybe it needs the ability to be seen more. Also new books are new to your customers for far longer than they are to you. The average number of times people visit their Library currently across the u.s. Is only four times a year. One of the first changes that should that you should plan for is provide a section for your new materials that last at least 12 months and they should be featured I'll demonstrate more of this later but keep that in the back of your mind.
10:36
All right, so I can study how your customers are currently interacting with your say what do I mean by the take an hour each day for a week and sketch a heat map of how people are using your building what I mean by that is take someone that the near the entrance and as people come in have them Trace their steps through the library for as long as they can before they lose track of them. This is an example of the Reynolds Corners Branch. You'll notice that there are a ton of red lines right at the front of the library where they're all convening is the entrance and then across that bottom portion is the reference desk the circulation desk the hold shelf the self-checkout and the bathroom. I'll give you one guess we're all of our materials are and it's all along the other border if people aren't already venturing into that space.
11:30
There's no need to put merchandising there to start because they're not going to see us so this Tell you the best place to begin and it will also inform how people are currently using your space. So you're not necessarily using guesswork.
11:45
All right. Number three create a plan what collections can be moved around help promote the circulation I mentioned this a little bit before but now it's time to make that decision. You're going to want to map this out for clarity more than likely more than one person is going to be doing this and it's been my experience that it doesn't matter how clear you are verbally if you tell someone what you want to be changed. It will not be like that when you come back to it the next day so map it out. However makes sense for you whether it's providing shelf counts or using Excel and color coding something but map it out. You'll be happy that you did.
12:26
Similarly what collections are easily accessed or prominently featured the don't need to be again. This goes back to the hold shelf to your DVDs. Do they really need to be that way now is the time to take a look at that and today I want to move this on someplace else. This is a great place for our new books to live.
12:47
Plan to shift and possibly to weed. I know how much we all loved that last word. But it's one of those certainties that you kind of have to look into before you start this because you're going to be using your space in a different way. You may not need as much space as you think you need for certain collections. If you can condense them to free up ranges so that you can use those for display. You should consider doing so if your 800 there much longer, sorry to pick on poetry if they're much larger than then they really need to be that's a that's a hard choice that needs to be made but it could have positive effect.
13:26
What furniture is currently being used that could be repurposed for display book again? No folding tables here. But if you have tables that are just lying around if you have end tables that are never used there will be a place where those and there will be a way to use them and it will look professional and it will look good and it is something worth considering. All right. Do you have fixtures or small Shelby is that can be moved to a different area. This is easier than you may think you can use it to Define entry ways. You can use it to promote products. You can use it to lead people through your building a good example of this is we had a small shell being run of two Bay's to double-sided base. I had previously been used for magazines at our library. Well the magazine industry being what it is. We did not need that much space anymore.
14:16
We moved it closer to our interest in now houses all of our new 700 800 900 and biographies and it's Been put to far better use.
14:28
And then this last one is a little bit its own beast, but it's worth looking at consider developing and committing to a brand identity. So this should be all encompassing. It should be the font to use on size. It should be the colors using your promotional materials. And if your library already has one of these established you should really leave mean into us. We'll go into this more in depth later.
14:53
Okay, the We've talked about how to prepare to implement a merchandising initiative.
15:00
But how do you actually display materials in a way that is ordered attractive and I can chew This is what we like to call the role of but first.
15:13
Hi, my name is Allison and this is not my personal opinion.
15:18
It's science the rules. I'm about to go through are not based on my personal opinion of what I think is attractive. They are based on the science of eye movement, the long-established elements of successful design and quite frankly the successful ways in which bookstores have arranged in materials for years to entice people to actually spend money on what we're trying to give away for free. Well organized and clean display will literally cause the eye to linger longer on it and items contained within it and it will force the eye to systematically move through it instead of forcing the eye to bounce around and move away.
15:59
It is improved to increase information retention. It is been proved to be more attention catching which is key this defeats convenience when someone's walking to the hold shelf and their attention is caught that's what we're trying to do here and it encourages impulse purchasing which is also again what we're trying to do. We're trying to work merchandising into the convenient aspect of current modern-day Library service. It's also based on the seven principles of design design, which should be familiar to anyone who has taken any course in art or art history balance emphasis proportion Rhythm color lighting and Harmony all of these works together in a way that we as humans find appealing these rules capitalize on these principles.
16:46
Okay one must know there's a reason why we call them the rules and not the guideline or anything last purposefully strict when we were first developing this as our system with in Toledo library. We had a bit of a disagreement about what's called. My colleagues didn't like the word rules because they thought it was too forceful to which I replied that is exactly the point. There may be more than one way to arrange the same books to follow these rules, but the rules will always be just that we didn't want to give the impression that these were only a guideline and were therefore optional we wanted to stress their importance and their necessity because this is some only really works and everyone is following the same procedure. I recommend mentioning them to whoever is taking part in this if you're instituting it in a larger way within your library and I would own up to the purposeful strictness of the system.
17:42
It will help people to understand that this is not a Opinion. It's about the science and it's about what we know works.
17:53
All right. Now for the rules, there are five rules that come into play with any book display pyramids base out in front up straight line balance and Symmetry and no prompts. Let's take a look at each of these individually pyramids.
18:16
Pyramiding is the act of arranging all item so that the tallest piles are the tallest materials are in the back and the center of the display with the size of the piles are materials decreasing As you move to the front or to the sides you pyramid from all angles from looking at the front of a display.
18:39
Here's a before shot of a staff recommends. This guy. He's got a range of materials. They're all lined up on 3 shelves. There's no real order to it. Some of them are overlapping it's chaotic. It's not appealing. It's not something that necessarily people are going to stop this. I want to look at that.
18:56
Now here's the same display with pyramid included. It makes a huge difference. It went from being chaotic and difficult to look at something that you're I can easily travel through which again is key. And the cool thing about pyramiding is when you have a display like this, which is a range of materials. And as you can see the acrylic shelving is kind of old and it's not all hanging at the same height necessarily it's slightly off. It provides some semblance of order that helps people to view the entire display as a whole. Here's a more complicated example notice that the blocks and the tables have been used to elevate the books in the back to even further exaggerate this principle. We've also utilized the stacks of books and face that materials On Eagle's while maintaining their pyramiding throughout those also that each pyramid begins Anew with each new side.
19:53
So even though the book at the very front is taller than the item behind it still works because it's orientation within the larger display for the great things about this display as well is that it does encourage the browser to walk on all three sides and they've utilized the space in a way that has taken advantage of nearly every bit of surface space that's available to them.
20:17
Another example of pyramiding on a larger scale with titles that are all essentially the same size notice how they utilize the different depth length Etc of the book to establish the pyramid now, you'll want to check and adjust your pyramid frequently Asked people take things your stuff is going to get unpermitted a word. I just created and you're going to want to constantly be looking at them and WE peer mentoring them to keep the display where it should be.
20:48
One last example pyramiding this is just a really simple display. It's an end cap on a backless stack, but the use of pyramids makes this look like they frankly were not chosen at random by the shelter who was just trying to get some stuff out on the shelf and it draws your eyes through the entire display. Okay. Next one. Thanks out and front facing out in fronting up is the act of placing as many materials as possible in the face of opposition and aligning them close to the edge of the shell and with each other.
21:22
This is a new fiction book display knows that the majority of the materials are faced out and in line with each other in the edge of the shell the spine up materials are placed on the third shelf because you want to take advantage of as many eye level face as possible and also want to consider that people have a difficult time seeing items on the bottom shelf. We had enough space here that we could use a third shelf or sign out items and fill in the Extra Spaces face outside while slowly phasing out the other three shell A good rule of thumb to follow is the place your materials about an inch from the edge with the front covers parallel to the edge notice also that we are not using any easels for the supply if you have easels and you have enough and this part key to use them across the entire display use them but they're not necessary to merchandize and they're not necessary to successfully face out things prominently. All right.
22:19
This is just another example is utilizing a Fixture for as many face outs as possible.
22:26
This is a regular stack of backless books older than a year fiction notice that the space has been utilized to face out as many of these as possible even in their regular location. One of the things that will naturally begin to happen is people adjust your merchandise faces, let it begin to travel to new and deeper areas of your library. So you want to be setting up your regular book substance stacked in a manner that ensures that people will find something that catches their attention no matter where they're roaming through your library.
22:59
This is an inspection before I noticed a similar setup. In this case. We utilize the bottom two shelves for the extra materials that are signed out. We also set our shelves at the very very bottom shelf is not in use again. You want to consider he's of shelving for the people who have a hard time getting down to that bottom shelf the amount of shows that we use for this find out materials varies and you'll see that throughout these textures. You'll also notice if you start setting displays to this shelving technique that the amount of shelves you're using for the extra spine out materials will vary as your collection fluctuates during the different time of year when publishing is at highs or lows Etc. This is one year's worth of our new nonfiction and this particular run is a zero hundreds to the 600. I mention that because I want you to notice how few materials are actually left on our shelves. This is one year's worth everything else.
23:59
It's checked out and in somebody's hand. This is how we know it works.
24:06
Straight lines straight line straight lines. I could probably say that a thousand times and it wouldn't be enough. I've also unofficially rename. This will be overly picky because people will accuse you of being just that and I say on it straight lines are really only second to pyramiding as the most powerful impactful part of your display. Again, this is just a basic end cap with a truly random display of materials, but it looks purposeful. It looks attractive and your I will flow from the top of that to the bottom and back up again landing on each book in turn. I always tell people that your display get everything where you think it needs to be and then take a step back and you will see imperfections and fix those imperfections get your lines is in a straight of order as you can and just adjust accordingly. It's a good tactic to use across the slaves.
25:00
It's also a good skill to just instill in people who are working on merchandising having a Section is I in this is not a bad thing at all. It's something to strive for.
25:15
This is a new fiction display. Same here notice again the variation on where to include this find out items and I should specify that this this is for example all of the new fiction and science fiction hardcover for a year in in our Branch at this particular time. So the items that are signed out or just the Overflow of what we can't actually face out in this play at that time. And that's what I mean when I say it's going to vary according to what the time of year is whether people are checking out heavily etcetera Etc.
25:50
Notice again the variation the pyramiding of the materials even though it is only a slight difference. I mean, we all know most adult fiction books are just about the same size, but you're still able to successfully pyramid though and it's important even though it is only slightly different and again notice that that we can maximize the amount of space out that we have and the lines are straight from top to bottom you can see some imperfections in this and that mostly has to do with how much of the book has been open to stand up. But if you're looking at the space on you don't notice them.
26:27
And this is just another shop the focusing on the entire display of new fiction. This is not taken on the same day. So you'll notice that now we're using two shelves because the quantity on hand has changed. We've also kept that consistent across the entire run of shell and we've we kept the straight lines consistent. So our spine out items are approximately the same the same with from the left to the right on each shelf to keep that consistent straight line from top to bottom side to side maximum maximization of face out material. Here's a before photo that causes a physical pain. This is a craft display that is situated just behind where the line forms for the circulation desk placement was specifically chosen due to its proximity to where people are likely to go and now look at it after it's been recovered with the rules applied.
27:24
Specifically look at those straight lines, they draw your eye through the display that is key.
27:33
Here's another before this is just a backless fiction stack. And this is the same fiction stack with the rules applied. Another good thing to know is that you don't need to pyramids find out materials. I do have some overachiever to try to do that, but it obviously will not work when you're doing things in alphabetical order and it will drive you actually insane if you try to do it elsewhere, so I don't suggested again more back with section and then with the rules applied notice the to face out. So we're really trying to fit as much space out as we can comfortably in the space without it seeming crowded.
28:13
All right balance and symmetry. This is the most complex and the most suggestive of the concepts that I'm describing as well as the one that's going to take you the longest a master don't be discouraged. You will come to instinctively know what works and what doesn't seem quite correct. Well balanced display is one that is not waited too heavily in one spot or another symmetry in display does not necessarily mean even numbers but rather a purposeful display construction that evenly distributes materials throughout this the students specifically speaks to the visual weight of the items and their placement throughout the display, it takes practice, but it's possible to follow all the other rules mentioned and still create displays are visually balance.
28:59
And Visually symmetrical so let's look at some examples.
29:04
Here, we have a nonfiction display. That is mostly the same size materials with some slight variations yet. It looks balanced because the distribution of those materials makes sense within the display the display as a whole notice the folio size materials on the under shell the largest X in materials are in the back and towards the center and it's also worth noting that this is a circulation desk. This is previously was a handicap-accessible circulation terminal that just didn't get a lot of use so it was removed and we've now utilize that space for display. It's also one of our most used displays in the entire library and that's because it's just right on people's way when they're trying to go about their business.
29:52
Here's a before shot of the children's fall display besides meeting a good recovery. It's not terrible. But it's also not great. It does follow with approximately the same structure that we've talked about. In other ways. You've got based on materials on the bottom. You've got face out or spine doubt materials on the second and third shelf, but it's not an even amount of sign-outs and the the bottom shelf guy. I would say consider your materials. So this is mostly children's books who's going to be looking at these if it's mostly going to be kids. It's okay to put things on the bottom shelf because they don't have any problem crawling all over the place anyways.
30:31
So here's the display with materials balance and symmetrical throughout.
30:37
Here we have launch pads and book packs. If you have these in your library, you know, what a joy they are to constantly show but this is set up currently in a way that pretty much follows the rules as I've previously mentioned. Mine is the one launch pad that's turned around and drives me crazy every time I see it, but take a look at the same material in a way that has been presented in a balanced manner. This is the exact same amount of material.
31:05
But it's changed and it's way better. I don't know how this is a really hard concept to describe. It's a really hard concept to explain. It's something that I would say. It's just going to take practice and I would refer back to these slides as a way to kind of know if you're on the right track. I'd also say in general. If you have people who have previously worked for book stories. Particularly Barnes & Noble these types of rules are drilled into their employees. So I would take advantage of that fact and I would I would choose to have them help you with this because they'll already have an instinct for what you're doing. All right last rule no props.
31:49
Sorry about that. See also temporary Furniture tablecloth scraps of fabric Ellison machine cutouts clipart. I know please don't send me the angry emails. It's Library blasphemy, but trust me you do not need them. They distract from the very things that you are trying to give attention to and they provide an unnecessary barrier between the patron and the materials if your display looks like a sculpture people will be afraid to touch it and the Beautiful part of this is that books displayed on their own will be stunning in their Simplicity. They'll be beautiful. They make covers pretty for a reason. You don't need the other stuff. The same is true for any signage that you may use again. Think about your brand identity avoid overly decorated signs small print intricate font. You don't need Comic Sans. You don't need curls.
32:46
You don't even need serif fonts if you can avoid Instead develop a generic time with a striking but simple background that can be changed easily and used across different displays choose a font that is bold and simple and make it large enough to be seen across the room and you'll have everything that you need. If you want to use imagery you'll notice that I did use some of it in the past display. That's okay. Keep it to one image make it large enough and it make sure it's not pixelated. You want to look professional I recommend using pixabay if you're not familiar with that already pi x ABA why it has quite a few beautiful images that are royalty free that you can feel free to use without breaking any laws.
33:34
Okay, let's talk about some challenges that you might experience while you make these changes.
33:42
I found the consistently there are four things that I hear from people who are beginning this process.
33:48
Too many books, first two few bucks single and multiple copies. They don't have any money. How are they supposed to make these changes signage and brand identity and how that plays a role and Staffing. How are you supposed to accomplish all this without additional people. So let's take them one by one.
34:06
Too many books to few bucks singles and multiple depending on the size of your library this may or may not be a problem. The truth is though that the rules are set up in such a way that it doesn't matter. It's going to work for you whether you have a ton of books. Are you only have one of each you can still follow each of these rules and it will still be successful for you. I will say that if you are a library that frequently finds himself struggling with many copies of items that are past the man I'm talking James Patterson, John Grisham Janet Evanovich placing those items on display in their quantity will help them circulate past their initial pot off the run hot off the press run and and this is like a scientifically proven thing. It's strange humans are strange. There was a study done by the Spackle industry of all places that looked at quantity and how it contributes to what they called perceived popularity. In other words. They found that people were more inclined to purchase.
35:05
You're at because there were more of them on the Shelf is based on the perception that if there was a lot of them clearly a lot of people wanted them and they must be popular. So we as humans instinctively want the thing that our peers want because we want to fit in so multiple copies can be your friend. If you don't have them you don't need them, but don't let them hold you back.
35:31
Here's a multiple copy display also an example of mixing of genres display young adult fiction, there's chain and here there's adult here. There's science fiction in here. There's a bunch of different stuff in here. It's okay to mix that stuff within your displays as long as it has some kind of overall theme to it.
35:50
And again here is an example with very few titles. The cool thing about this is that in books are naturally different lengths which means that they're naturally different sizes. And so you can use that to your advantage to set up your displays accordingly.
36:07
Here is another example of merchandising with just a few copies. This is actually new nonfiction display at the king rode Branch. It's important to note that they're not in any sort of order is actually quite a large mix of materials and it still works as long as people know what they're looking at new nonfiction. They will browse. All right, no money how to work with what you have. This is real for all of us. Fortunately. We are Librarians and we know how to Pinch A Penny. So do you have fixtures that can be repurposed? I talked about this a little bit earlier, but I want to go into it with more depth. That's an end table wasn't used as an end table. So now it is a multiple copy fixture.
36:51
That's a copy or table for some reason in this particular Library. There were four of those we did not need four of them. So now it's in the entrance. It's one of the first things that people see when they come through and that selection of picture books on it is merely things that we had multiple copies of then we could easily get out that's a random table that we never knew what to do with and that's the bench and this is used for a quantity display this display also switches up quite often. So don't feel like once you set it and you've made it something it has to say the same thing right now. It's fiction. I've seen it be nonfiction in the past. They're equally successful in both ways. I will say though notice the placement of it. That's the reference desk behind and the circulation desk is just out of shots to the right. So when people are coming into either of those things they're walking right past this display. All right. Does your library have slanted shelling?
37:50
Flint is holding is the merchandisers best friend. This happens to be a picture of the new picture book section at the mommy Branch. These are magazines shells.
38:03
They previously held magazines and another part of the library juvenile magazines, but For whatever reasons, you know magazines are not terribly popular in our library. And these shelves were talked in a corner where they really weren't being utilized. So we took our magazines. We put them in magazine folio boxes to get the same amount of circulation in those as they did before when they were fully phased out and we took these and we moved them to this area. So we had a way to easily and beautifully display our new picture book this by the way is 18 months of new picture book. This is all that's left. It works. So consider this get creative look at areas of your library that have this type of shelving and say do I still need to have that there is it worth giving this sort of prime Supply to something that's not really worth it and make that hard decision again be bold about the change you make and it will pay off in the end.
39:04
This is the D planted shelving that I mentioned earlier. I am so Green With Envy at libraries to have this throughout that I may as well be called The Hulk. I mean if you have this you are set up for Success instantly now, I know that this example is DVDs. The only place we have is currently in our library system is our audio visual department. So you'll have to bear with me but imagine these are books.
39:35
You can use this shelving method throughout your entire library to maximize the amount of content that is faced out. You can get rid of your booking. You do not need them you use the materials to hold the other materials up and you fill up your entire space. This isn't great for multiple copies because you can stack them on top of each other, but they does it does not need to be used for multiple copies.
40:00
If you do have this another great thing you can do is use your entire bottom shelf space outs, which would it would which help to you know, prevent people from having a hard time staying with down there but This is the Shelby standard that bookstores years and it's actually funny. If you work for Barnes & Noble, there's three different shelving standards. This is ideal. There's one that is a little bit less spaced out than that. And then there's one that they call library shelving and if you get to that point you're in trouble and it's all find out materials. So that hurt a little when I learned that but that's okay.
40:45
Are there Barry bookstores that you can reach out to and form a relationship with this one really is quite dependent upon luck and connections. But if you can make this habit and can really pay off book stores like Barnes & Noble will phase out their display fixtures as their merchandise and their focus changes and when this happens usually the stars are tasked with disposing of their pieces that out spending any money. So if you can make this connection and you're willing and able to do the transporting there's quite a lot to be gained here. This is gift fixture from our local Barnes & Noble high-quality attractive extremely functional. This is our new juvenile on the selection nonfiction display and it's been overwhelmingly successful. We went from having a ton of material.
41:29
We were holding a year of new out to having two full years out and we can barely keep this display full because face outs work, This is a Barnes & Noble Classics picture that they're no longer using. This was a particularly lucky fine because paperback books are notoriously difficult to face out unless you're lucky enough to have that slanted shelving throughout your library because they can stand on their own they fall over their covers and etcetera. This allowed us to do that. Again. This is a Year's worth of paperback fiction being displayed.
42:02
It's a lucky connection to make but it's definitely one that is worth trying to make Do you have book Stacks that are out in the open I mentioned this earlier, but it's worth repeating. Do you have books text or are the first stack in a Range that then goes back convert these in their entirety to display? Here's that example again, it's right along and I'll this is an area behind a reference desk. And this is random we call it featured fiction and it's random it is us going through our fiction section and pulling books as they're taken and we can barely keep it full. It just constantly is in motion and it's easy to refill.
42:52
All right, sign is your brand identity and the role that it plays signs are important. So is maintaining an air of professionalism when we are trying to create this merchandising realm within our libraries. Remember that when reacting to merchandising people were aware of what was attractive and what wasn't and could identify that and though they were less likely to return with those that they seemed unkempt or less attention to detail but I see signage brand identity plays a role. This is what I'm referring to - helps people to understand what they're looking at and decide an interest in the topic but it's a sign lacks that professionalism that this display is trying to project it will bring everything else down with it. So if your library already has an established brand identity, I'm talking logos colors Etc. I suggest that you lean into it.
43:46
This may seem boring but it's important you will help customers to know that the merchandising and signage or something that Doing purposely and that your library is trying to take ownership of it will help them associate that shopping experience with your library are our ligh our marketing manager at played a library has this great phrase. She says people shouldn't always have to relearn that what they're looking at is coming from the library. And so what they meet what she means by that is keeping all this consistent will help people to instantly know that it's something that the library is doing use your brand colors and your van across all sizes associated with display. The good news about this is that it actually makes them easier for you because you can create a template that all staff can access and can adjust as needs present. The thing about Library displays is that they're going to change spur of the moment and that is just the nature of being a library.
44:42
We're not like a bookstore where when something is purchased a new one is automatically shipped in so having the ability to switch it up and keep it granted is important this An example of what we've been shifting to in Toledo is the future titles display. We have a ton of these their pre-printed there on Brands and we can put them wherever we need to this is an example to of the feature titled Bay that is just in the regular fiction stuff at the beginning. This is science fiction. We use this as B we use throughout the year to deal with the ebb and flow of materials being present and it on displays though. You should always have them in a sign holder. If you don't have sign holders don't use them loose papers will never look professional and that's what this is all about. It's all about polish. So keep that in mind. Alright lastly Staffing. How do you do all this without extra hands on deck?
45:38
All right, first recognize that this is most likely a culture change for your library. You may have had a couple people here and there who were taking part in merchandising but never before I did you really have, you know this as a primary objective of the whole system. So be open with your staff about why it's important and stress that it's everyone's responsibility repeat this often. It's important bill the work into your daily schedule. So we have it on our desk as well be a librarian or be it circulation and it's a part of the opening and closing routine of all pages as well. We recover the entire Library every day. And when I say recover, I mean walk every aisle and make sure that everything is set to the shelving standard that we want it set to if people are doing it consistently and making sure that it's being done in the de Leon, you know, just the regular work.
46:36
It's not going to take a Time but provide time for it on the schedule as possible. So that people know that it's important and they know that they have to do it.
46:45
Lastly you need to hold people accountable. If someone isn't following the rules correct them preferably in the moment. They may not know that they're not doing something correctly. And if someone isn't going to say something to them, they're never going to know this will also help to reinforce the importance of the work that's being done. Also avoid the temptation to make this just one person's responsibility. It really does take a team when we were first enacting this at Toledo library. I felt this burden greatly was one of the only people within my building who really knew the rules are really knew what was going on and it took some time for everybody to get up to speed and for us to do all the trainings and during that time all of this suffered because this cannot be just one person's responsibility. It takes a team for this to be successful.
47:33
All right time for questions and I see that some have been sent through. So let me go back to the top here and try to address them one by one Allison if you want I can read them off to you because I have them here. Sure. Look at that. Yeah, and some of these may have been answered people were putting them as they occurred to them. So some you may have answered but they're definitely worth revisiting. How do you get the entire staff from pages to helpful admin to maintain our display standards when they helpfully add an item to an empty display?
48:03
So a lot of this is about communication and what we've done is we've systematically driven this point home in as many ways as you can it's a part of our system my goals for the year. It's been built into our Branch goals. It's been built into our individual goals. And we also talked about it and every staff meeting we have doesn't have to be anything expensive. But what we do is say a five-minute share best practices and it gives people the time to say I found that this works really well for me or I noticed that this is happening and this is how I'm helping with it. And the beauty of that is that it often times addresses issues while keeping the whole thing very Anonymous. So if you're one of those people that's been committing one of the merchandising crimes and they don't realize it they will after they've had these best practices talk getting admin to be in on this is one of the one of the harder steps because the truth is that a lot of this constant reinforcement should be coming from them so they can see that it's working.
49:02
It's been my experience that they're very receptive of it. It's just a matter of keeping things consistent and constantly saying, you know constantly saying things in the moment if you see something that's not correct fix it. It's it's a little uncomfortable but after a while they'll understand the importance of it. That's that's the The Helpful part. There is that once people realize that this is a change that their stats being taken seriously, they will take it seriously as well which is why I say, you know own up to it own up to by the rules as an awkward word own up to the fact that this is different from what we've done in the past because it's really worth, you know taking it to a serious level.
49:47
And a few people have asked about the signs and having signage and so do displays need themes or a sign saying what the theme is like if you have wedding books on display. Do you need a sign?
49:59
Sure, it's optional but my experience has been that for whatever reason people really like their signs the picture that's in the background of this particular slide is of the king rode branch and they initially this was a brand new branch that was open with brand-new merchandising Furniture. So take that with a grain of salt because I know we're not all starting from this this state, but they were in I don't want to anti signage but they were definitely not really interested in doing too much times and they struggled for a little bit with getting people to understand what they were looking at. Once they added those signs in it made all the difference in the world. Anecdotally.
50:42
I can say that we've had displays that we put up without any signs because we thought it was obvious and people wouldn't touch them and then we put up a sign that said featured section and all of a sudden we were constantly refilling it I would note as well that when you're choosing materials to On display, you should keep your things pretty broad. So if you have a ton of wedding books, that's awesome. We have a gardening display up right now and it covers all manner of gardening but don't pigeonhole yourself too much unless you have the staff power to change that display out frequently because these books will go and then you won't have anything to refill it with.
51:23
Okay, is it more important to keep new books on display for one year or to have new books face out when you have a limited amount of new material space?
51:33
It's definitely a balance and I am I am truly a stickler for keeping a year if at all possible, if not more this is funny because it comes up like once a week in my library because our new bus do tend to get a little bit on the full side. And then they said what if we just go back a month or two and I'm like, nope because there's a direct correlation between when you remove those books from a new shelf and you put them in the regular stack and their circulation dropping to next to nothing and I've seen it again and again so find a balance keep as much as you can if having a Year's worth of new books means that you don't have anything face out that's obviously not going to work. But what I would also say to you is if if you only have a limited amount of space for your new books re-evaluate where you're placing your new books. Maybe they need to be in a new location entirely. Maybe they need to be given more real estate within your library.
52:34
And someone is asking that they're saying their main display Furniture is octagonal and designed to be seen from all sides. How does one pyramid materials on this type of display?
52:44
On each of the octagonal side. So if they're big enough to put more than one book out Barnes and Nobles typically have we called them octagon? So this is a and besides we're not even I should also say so like on the for bigger size you were able to do three to four books 2324 fiction size looks across and you would pyramid that area and then there would be maybe one book on the smaller side and you do it from each side just like the the picture of the multi-tiered table with the picture books. I showed you earlier. There's pyramiding involved in that they're straight lines involved in that but it's done from each of the individual side.
53:27
Had a couple people have asked how do you find books for holds or if I ll s if they're not in any order like in a featured fiction area?
53:36
Sure, it's it's I'm not going to lie to you. It's not as easy as it as having them in order on a shelf, but these displays are not so huge that you can't quickly go through them and find them we've been doing this for years and we've never we've just never had a hard time finding books that are on hold especially if you know what is going to be on those displays. So for example, the future fiction shelf oftentimes as multiple copy books. So if you can't find it on the Shelf, but you know that they're supposed to be three in your library. There's a good chance has its on that shelf same thing with new books are new books are not in anything but Loose order and we don't really have much of a problem. This is something that I encounter I get this question all the time from people. They don't really seem to believe me, but once you're accustomed to what's there, it's not that difficult. I will also say that you're more familiar.
54:36
With the books that are on these displays then you are when they're just sitting on a shelf. I've never been more up to date and more knowledgeable about books that are coming out and Trends in publishing as I was when I worked for Barnes and Noble and that was do purely and simply to the fact that we were shelving these books in this manner all the time. So we were always seeing them. We always knew what was going out. So if you're the person who's looking for those books chances are you've also touched them to put them on display and it's a much easier way to remember things than just by, you know, pulling something off of a sign on as find out shelf. So it's not as difficult. It's not as difficult as you think it would be and unfortunately, you just have to take my word on that. It will take a little bit of adjusting but it's okay.
55:27
I noticed on the new picture book display that there were no books on the top. Why not?
55:34
that is it's a I would say as a personal choice that you can make for your library. And what is what is appealing the way our our room is set up it only tends to make it look cluttered and messy and again what you're going for with these displays is you're going for Sleek, you're going for attractive you're going for professional. We didn't have enough easel to put on the top and then we knew we would always be adjusting those and we also knew that that display worked well enough that we did not need to put more on top doesn't mean it won't work for your library. But again, just like with balance and symmetry as you work more with these displays, you will know you will set all those books up and then you'll put some on top and it'll look fantastic or maybe you'll put them on top and you have no idea what she's talking about and you'll see that it just doesn't it doesn't hit the same level of professionalism that we're trying to project and you won't want them up there.
56:36
We have some ugly old tables and do not have the budget to purchase new ones won't you still recommend props?
56:43
Definitely not prop. Definitely not prop maybe a branded tablecloth. If you have something that is a like and can be used across everything and I say that with really a lot of hesitation how I mean my guess my questions you would be you know, how ugly are they really and will you notice how ugly they are? Once the books are on top of them if the answer to that is yes, then I would say try it. But again, this is all about consistency. So let's say you have four of those tables if you don't have for tablecloths that are the correct size for those tables and match each other to go across all of them.
57:21
I would not use them and if the tables themselves are really as bad as all that I wouldn't use those either I would look to other Solutions You mentioned straight lines in relation to that heat map you mentioned and the flow of people walking between shelves the you ever angle materials to be seen by people walking through aha. I was wondering when the angle question would come up and we don't and the answer is very simply because it's next to impossible to maintain an angle that is consistent and will stay angled at the right direction. It's you can try it but the straight lines are much easier to maintain when you have them fronted up to this to the to the front of your display. It's really a maintenance thing. And and this is enough of a project on its own maintaining these 5 rules is enough on its own that you really don't want to add in something additional. Also once you start to get into angles you do Venture a little bit closer into that.
58:29
My book just looks like a sculpture realm and you We are hesitant sin people to touch it. So just be careful.
58:39
Okay, when we have about two minutes left, so we'll just this might be the last question you gave the example of the DVDs that go from one side of the Shelf to the other with a few turnouts with a few turnouts as being ideal. No empty space. I was under the impression that having some empty space on the Shelf was attractive to browsers. Not true.
59:00
I don't know that to be true. I think that that's a that is something that's a note of contention often within libraries, especially if you're reading the section and they come in and people all of a sudden don't see their bookshelves full where did all the books go? Did you throw them out? Why are you getting rid of bucks? I don't I guess I would be interested to to hear where that information came from. I've never heard it myself and I've also never experienced it as something that I can certainly say is a positive. I think. Well, I know that having the majority of your are as many items as you can face out will grab more attention than having an empty space that doesn't have anything in it.
59:47
Alrighty, I would so we're at the top of the hour. So we're going to go ahead and wrap it up. I am going to post a certificate of attendance. So for those of you who would like one and I just want to thank you so much Alison. There's also a lot of comments saying thank you and what a great job and people appreciating everything that you talked about today.
1:00:12
Awesome. Thank you. Everyone glad you came and for our audience. The presentation will be archived and available on the info people archived webinar page within 24 hours. Like I said, I posted a link to the certificate of attendance for those of you who would like one. We also have a short survey. You'll see after you close out of the webinar. So if you could please take a few minutes to fill that out it helps us in planning future training. Thank you again, and we'll see you at our next webinar.