The Second Edition of Our Directory of Readers’ Advisory Activities is Now Available

We’re delighted to announce that the second edition of the Project’s Directory of Readers’ Advisory Activities is now available—online and as a downloadable PDF. This revised version of the Directory includes a new appendix on Listeners' Advisory as well as a significant update of the Librarian Networking and Training appendix.

The Directory is the work of the Project’s Readers’ Advisory Impact Committee (RAIC)—a group of over 40 librarians and industry professional convened in fall 2018 by the Panorama Project to research and document the wide variety of Readers’ Advisory services, activities, and title recommendations provided by public libraries and librarians. The committee invites readers to share their feedback on the Directory and submit additional activities, examples and useful links.

The committee is currently analyzing the 400-plus responses it received from its recent survey of public libraries on their Readers’ Advisory activities and will issue a report later this summer.

Learn more about the Panorama Project Reader’s Advisory Impact Committee.

Our Book Expo 2019 Session on Readers’ Advisory and Panorama Picks Drew a Crowd

Over 175 people joined us at Book Expo 2019 in New York for our session, Learn How Public Libraries Impact Title/Author Discovery and Book Sales: Data-Driven Insights from the Panorama Project. It was an engaged audience of booksellers, vendors, publishers and librarians and we received positive reviews afterward.

Bill Kelly (Adult Programming Manager, Cuyahoga County Public Library) provided an update on the breadth of U.S. public libraries and how CCPL drives sales at its author events. In 2018 over 11,000 books were sold at 93 events—by the library and its independent bookselling partner, Mac’s Backs.

Alexis Petric-Black (Senior Publisher Relations Manager, Rakuten OverDrive) introduced Panorama Picks, our new program that reveals unmet demand for books and sales opportunities for booksellers. The program provides a series of regional lists of titles compiled from the wait lists for ebooks at local libraries. The initial lists are available now. Updated lists will be published on a quarterly basis. Click here to learn more and sign-up to be notified when new lists are published.

Book Expo panel members Cliff Guren, Bill Kelly, Alexis Petric-Black and Skip Dye

Skip Dye (VP of Library Marketing and Digital Sales and VP of Sales Operations, Penguin Random House) closed the session with insights on how PRH works with libraries to launch new authors and titles. With the longhand belief that library patrons are key influencers, PRH actively markets to library readers, in the library, in the library’s online platforms, and on a variety of social media sites. Skip is also a big believer in the power of print promotion in libraries: he noted that he’s often surprised how long the posters they distribute to libraries stay on the walls!

Click here to view and download the session slides.

Panorama Picks is Live!

Today we are introducing a new program called Panorama Picks that reveals unmet demand for books and sales opportunities for booksellers. Panorama Picks is based on demand for books that readers are waiting to borrow from the nation’s public libraries. The program provides a series of regional lists of titles compiled from the wait lists for ebooks at local libraries. The lists will be updated on a quarterly basis.

The Panorama Picks lists also provide valuable insights to publishers and authors. We expect that the data will be used to uncover trends—demand data from the library can be a leading indicator of the next hot genre or subcategory that booksellers, publishers and authors can leverage. The lists can tell a story and we’re excited to make them available.

Visit the Panorama Picks webpage to learn more, sign-up to be notified when new lists are available, take our short survey on the program and share your feedback. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on Panorama Picks!

Community Reading Event Report Update

Last November we published our Community Reading Event Impact Report which presented our findings on the impact of the April 2018 Big Library Reads event on the sales of first-time author Jennifer McGaha’s Flat Broke with Two Goats (Sourcebooks, 2018). The report tracked sales of the book from its publication in January through May 2018. This post provides additional insight on the impact of the campaign over the remainder of 2018. The update is based on sales and marketing data generously provided by Sourcebooks.

While print and ebook sales declined following the community reading event in early April and Sourcebooks’ social media campaign in late April/early May, the publisher reported that the rate of decline was slower than usual for similar titles. Sales in June, July, and early August remained close to the pre-campaign sales levels the title established in March.

In addition, the strong sales that the title enjoyed during the community reading event generated enough sustained interest to warrant two special ebook promotions--one in July and one in November. These promotions clearly impacted ebook sales (as seen below), but also correspond to increases in print sales during the same time periods.

The July promotion drove sales volumes close to the peak volumes established during the community reading event. The November promotion drove another substantial lift. (Note that December ebook sales numbers were not available for this update.) Post-campaign ebook sales (May through November) stayed above pre-campaign levels.

We will be conducting additional community reading event studies throughout 2019.

Panorama Project Open Meeting Draws a Crowd at ALA Midwinter

Our open meeting at ALA Midwinter in Seattle drew quite a crowd—75 people joined us for an update on the project and a preview of our 2019 research plans. The session began with Steve Potash (Founder & CEO, Rakuten OverDrive) speaking about the ongoing need for objective data that can help educate the publishing community on the valuable work libraries do to connect readers with books and authors. Cliff Guren (Panorama Project lead) then recapped the project’s accomplishments over the past 10 months and gave an update (posted here) on the 2018 sales of Flat Broke with Two Goats, the title highlighted in the project‘s recently published Community Reading Event Impact Report.

Cliff then introduced a new initiative called Panorama Picks. This project uses aggregated, anonymized library ebook demand data to surface titles beyond the current bestseller list in high demand at public libraries. The project will compile lists of in demand adult and young-adult fiction and non-fiction titles on a quarterly basis. The lists will be shared with booksellers at no cost to help raise the visibility of the titles and promote sales. More information on Panorama Picks will be posted closer to the target launch date in late March.

The focus then turned to Readers’ Advisory. Magan Szwarek (Director of Reference Services at the Schaumburg, Illinois Township District Library and Readers‘ Advisory Impact Committee co-chair) introduced the committee’s first work product. The Directory of Readers’ Advisory Activities catalogs the many services, programs, and marketing campaigns that public libraries and librarians, use to connect readers with books and authors. This first of its kind publication is the work of a committee of over 40 librarians and industry professional convened in fall 2018 by the Panorama Project. The full directory and a quick guide to Readers’ Advisory are available for download. You can also browse an online version of the full directory. The committee invites readers to share their feedback and submit additional activities, examples and useful links.

We were delighted to see that our open meeting was one of the sessions highlighted in Publishers Weekly’s show summary.

Learn more about the Readers’ Advisory Impact Committee and the Directory of Readers’ Advisory Activities

View/download our media alert on the publication of the directory (PDF)

View/download the session presentation (PDF)

Panorama Project “Directory of Readers’ Advisory Activities” Now Available

The Panorama Project Readers’ Advisory Impact Committee (RAIC) has published its first work product. The committee’s Directory of Readers’ Advisory Activities catalogs the many services, programs, and marketing campaigns that 16,000-plus U.S. public libraries and over 45,000 public librarians use to connect readers with books and authors. This first of its kind publication is the work of a committee of over 40 librarians and industry professional convened in fall 2018 by the Panorama Project. The RAIC introduced the directory at the Panorama Project’s open meeting at the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference. The full directory and a quick guide to Readers’ Advisory are available for download. You can also browse an online version of the full directory. The committee invites readers to share their feedback and submit additional activities, examples and useful links.

The directory provides descriptions and examples for 16 book/author recommendation services and activities. They include librarian-to-patron activities such as in-person conversations and recommendations, and library-to-community activities such as reading groups and book clubs, newsletters, author events, and a wide range of social media activities and virtual displays. The committee will continue cataloging Readers’ Advisory activities and reference examples. Updates will be published on a regular basis. Next, the committee will be surveying the country’s public libraries to determine which advisory activities are most prevalent and measure the effectiveness of the most widely adopted activities.

The Panorama Project convened the RAIC to research and document the wide variety of Readers’ Advisory services, activities, and title recommendations provided by public libraries and librarians. The committee is co-chaired by Bill Kelly (Adult Programming Manager, Cuyahoga County Public Library), Cindy Orr (Digital Collection Advisor, OverDrive), and Magan Swarek (Director of Reference Services, Schaumburg Township District Library).

Learn more about the Panorama Project Reader’s Advisory Impact Committee.

Panorama Project to Hold Open Meeting at ALA Midwinter

The Panorama Project is holding an open meeting at ALA Midwinter—the project’s first gathering at an ALA event!

Date: Saturday, January 26, 2019

Time: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Location: Washington State Convention Center (705 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98101), Conference Room 3B

The agenda for the meeting will include:

• An introduction to the project by Cliff Guren, Project Lead, including a review of the project’s progress to date and an update on its research plans for 2019.

• Magan Szwarek, Reference Services Director for Schaumberg Township District Library, and co-chair for the Readers’ Advisory Impact Committee, introducing the committee’s newly compiled Directory of Readers’ Advisory Activities.

• A review of the data and findings in the project’s recently published community reading event report which examined the impact of nationwide library reading campaign on the discovery, social media mentions, and sales of first time author Jennifer McGaha’s Flat Broke with Two Goats.

All interested publishing community stakeholders—librarians, publishers, booksellers, authors, industry service providers, industry organizations, and others—are invited to join us for this unique opportunity to learn about and discuss the project’s research on the many ways that libraries connect readers with books and authors.

Refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP if you plan on attending the meeting. 

If you can’t attend the meeting, but would like to arrange a time at ALA Midwinter to learn about the project please email us.

First Panorama Project Research Report Released

Today the project is releasing its first research report. The project’s Community Reading Event Impact Report presents findings on the impact of a recent OverDrive Big Library Read (BLR) community reading campaign. First-time author Jennifer McGaha’s Flat Broke With Two Goats (Sourcebooks, 2018) was selected for the April 2018 public library ebook club event. The data analyzed by the project shows that the selection and promotion of the title for the April 2–16, 2018 event aligns with significant increases in associated social media activity and retail print/ebook sales.

Discovery Impact from the Campaign

• 5.6 million page views globally of the ebook title details page in public library digital catalogs.

• An increase in title’s Amazon Kindle sales rank—from below 200,000 prior to the library ebook club campaign to 7,833 at the close of the event.

Brand Development Impact from the Campaign

• Over 13,000 Goodreads members added the title to their shelves during the campaign.

• 400+ comments from readers, librarians, the author, and OverDrive forum moderator on the OverDrive moderated title discussion board.

• 500+ mentions from libraries and readers across social media using #BigLibraryRead.

Retail Sales Impact from the Campaign

• 818% growth in ebook sales from March to April, 2018.

• 201% growth in print sales from March to April, 2018.

• Sustained retail sales above pre-campaign (January–March 2018) volumes:

  • April–June 2018 ebook sales continued at 720% above pre-campaign volumes.

  • April–June 2018 print sales continued at 38% percent above pre-campaign volumes.

Data was aggregated from a number of sources to obtain the most holistic view possible of all library and retail sales activity (print and ebook) across multiple channels. The data sources include U.S. retail data from The NPD Group’s DecisionKey® retail book sales tracking service (formerly Bookscan™), U.S. public library ebook circulation data provided by OverDrive, and U.S. sales and marketing data from the publisher. In addition to sales data we have aggregated and incorporated promotional activities known to have been undertaken independently by OverDrive and Sourcebooks.

This is the first of several library impact research projects that we are working on. The report demonstrates how we are using library and retail data to develop a better understanding of the impact of the country’s public libraries on book discovery, author/brand development, and retail sales. We believe that the publication of this first report will serve as a catalyst for others in the publishing community to engage with the project. We are grateful for the contributions and support of Sourcebooks and the members of our Advisory Council—all of whom have provided insightful and helpful feedback.

View/Download the Report

View/Download the Media Alert

Another Industry Leader Has Joined Our Advisory Council

We are delighted to announce another addition to our Advisory Council: Michele Cobb, Executive Director of the Audio Publishers Association (APA).

Michele has served on the Audio Publishers Association (APA) board as a director and officer since 2001, and is currently the association’s Executive Director. She is a frequent speaker at events worldwide on audio publishing. As a partner at Forte Business Consulting, she provides PR, Sales, Marketing and Business Development services for the publishing industry, and is Publisher of both AudioFile Magazine and MMB Media, as well as the Audio Publishing Director for L.A. Theatre Works.

Readers’ Advisory Impact Committee Now Forming

The Panorama Project is organizing a Readers’ Advisory Impact Committee to research and document the wide variety of Reader’s Advisory services, activities, and title recommendations  provided by public libraries and librarians. The committee is open to interested libraries and librarians, as well as other industry professionals.

The committee will be investigating all forms of book, genre, series, and author recommendations and merchandising services/activities. These will include programs and activities inside public libraries, public meeting spaces, and community buildings. It will also include a growing list of online channels that readers encounter via library catalogs, reading apps, reading clubs, and social media platforms.

The committee will document and research both direct (one-to-one recommendations) and indirect (one-to-many) Readers' Advisory activities. These include in-library table and shelf displays, library catalog and website displays, reading lists (distributed in print and electronically), newsletters, podcasts, blog posts, author events and visits, and more.

Once compiled, the committee will measure and analyze the impact library Readers’ Advisory activities have on title/author discovery, brand development, and book sales.

The Readers' Advisory Impact Committee will be facilitated by Bill Kelly, Cindy Orr, and Magan Szwarek. The committee will begin holding regular teleconference calls in October.

Click here to learn more about the committee and facilitators

Click here to join the Reader’s Advisory Impact Committee