Thinking About Subscription Boxes for Teens?

Today's guest post is from Elisha Sheffer, Teen Specialist at the Rhinelander District Library. She has had great success adding a very popular monthly subscription box program for teens. As described in this local news report,, Elisha "created the 'Teen Subscription Boxes' program in hopes everyone can catch the reading bug. Each month teens will receive a box filled with goodies and a checked-out library book. They can go online to the Library website and click the tab "Young Adults" to access a google doc link form. Where they can fill out their information to be part of the program. The library program asks if teens are using an adult card to specify their age on the form so they are giving a book that is appropriate for their age group. Readers need to re-subscribe each month to participate. And will have around three weeks to return the book." 

Here are some questions from Elisha to help you set up your own program if you are thinking of trying these with your teens!

Duh! That was my first thought when I heard of Barrett Memorial Library giving out subscription boxes for teens. Subscription boxes are all the rage right now, but who can afford them? After a summer filled with failed programs (thanks COVID), I decided to give subscription boxes a try. Ho boy did they go over well! The program has been going on just under a month and we have already gotten 30 requests. Additionally, almost all of the requests came from teens who hadn’t been in the library in years, if ever!

If you are looking at starting a subscription box program at your library, here’s a few questions to consider:

How will patrons sign up? I put a Google form on our website that is always open for requests. However, this means requests are constantly coming in and I need to stay on top of managing them. You may want to find a way to limit when/how many people sign up for the boxes each month. Will there be a deadline for your patrons to submit forms each month? A limit to how many boxes you will give out? How will you know if patrons want another box next month?

How will you decide what book to put in each patron’s box? Reader’s advisory is an everyday part of our job, but how are you going to translate that into a request form? I based my form off of the one Barrett Memorial Library uses, but I have already made repeated edits to our form to help get a better understanding of what my patrons were looking for. I also added a line on the request form for teens to ask for a specific book. It saves me time and makes sure teens can read what they want without sacrificing a goody box.

Do you want a theme? Themes are eye catching and fun, but how will you make sure you have enough of each item, but not too much? Having a submission deadline or a limit would be a good idea if you are considering themes.

What will go into your box? How long will assembly take? I include a letter to each patron explaining why I chose that book for them, along with some other recommendations. I felt this was a good way to connect to the teens as well as add a personalized touch. However, this adds on another 30+ minutes to assembling each box. Also, purchasing goodies started to burn through budget faster than I thought. It was great to have a successful program, but it was starting to get too successful. Luckily, our community got wind of the program and started donating goodies and sponsoring the boxes. If you are comfortable, asking local businesses for donations is a great way to save your budget and give them a little advertising!

Will you keep track of what each patron gets in their box? If so, how? I created a simple excel spreadsheet to make sure I don’t give teens the same book/recommendations twice! Additionally, I keep track of what goodies I put in their box. Since I do not theme my boxes, I purchase a bulk variety pack of goodies to help cut down on costs. Then I can use the goodies over multiple months, but I keep track of who gets which goody to make sure they don’t get the same thing twice.

How will you evaluate the program? The number of boxes going out isn’t the only way to measure the success of the program. In each box I include a review bookmark that recipients can fill out and return so I know if they liked/didn’t like the book. I also include an option to request a similar book for next month, this way they don’t have to fill out the form again next month!

Of course, there are so many more questions about the program, but these are a great place to start!

For more information on her subscription boxes, feel free to contact Elisha Sheffer at esheffer@rhinelanderlibrary.org