World Book Night is on April 23–a super-cool night when people who love books get a bunch of books they love to give away to people who aren’t necessarily big readers. It’s a way to share the book love, and a great outreach opportunity for librarians! You can register to give away books (not just to regular library patrons, though) as an individual, or your library can sign up to be a pick-up site for other individuals who want to participate. Deadline to sign up is October 23!
Cole from St. Croix Falls did this last year–here’s her account of what their library did.
Last year we called April 23 “New User Day” and did a little extra publicity– we already had a good assortment of kids’ books here to give away anyway. Anyone who signed up for a new card during our open hours (10-7) got a free book.
We had David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day as our book (you give your top choices [a book that YOU have read] and they send you a box with about 2 dozen of one title). At the end of the day, I went around downtown St. Croix Falls and gave some out to bar patrons, a restaurant owner, the gas station workers. People were really excited to have them. Our director brought a nice big stack to the high school and distributed during a volleyball game to people who were going in/out. We put a bit of literature in each book too.
I know that at the Osceola Library, more than one staff member registered to be a “book giver” and they had 2-3 titles that they were giving away!
It was fun/easy/a good promotion. Libraries can sign up to be pick up locations, too. Anybody can be a book giver, but they will only ship to registered pick up points– this might be a good opportunity for teen patrons who are super readers to get out in the community too!