Lindy Liedl from the Rice Lake Public Library returns with her monthly column on all things virtual to help you connect with your teen patrons!
A very fun addition to our services since lockdown has been Book Boxes. They work like a subscription, but patrons have to sign up and specify their reading preferences each month through our website.
We offer these for adults and teens, but all include 2 books based on their genre, content, or theme specifications, a personalized letter from staff with more reading recommendations based on their preferences, some stickers, upcoming event flyers, and teens get the choice of a sweet or salty snack.
Supplies and tools we use (which are of course optional or exchangeable) :
Stickers/labels for patron names printed on sticker paper
Personalized letter template for staff to edit (kept in Google docs for staff to access)
Snacks, stickers, pins, or other small goodies
A patron-accessible form to sign up
Review bookmarks to get feedback
A shared spreadsheet to store past Book Box books lent to patrons
Sign Up Forms:
Our signup forms, made with Google Forms, can be seen on our website here by selecting the Adult or Teen Book Box. This service is regularly advertised on our socials and in the library. Once a patron fills out a form, multiple staff members are notified by email. Whichever staff member is in the building next then goes into the form spreadsheet, which is automatically generated by Google Forms, to view the patron’s answers. When staff have filled a box, we simply highlight and change the color of that patron’s spreadsheet answers so that staff knows that the box has been completed.
Patrons can sign up for another Book Box once every month. We don’t have a way to make this an automatic subscription at this time, but having them fill out our forms again works well and hasn’t gotten complaints yet!
Filling Boxes:
Library books are chosen based on the patron’s preferences on what they're in the mood for that month. This is a great way to toss in something unexpected for your patron to try that they might not have chosen themselves, like a graphic novel! I try to aim for something they would probably choose themselves alongside an unexpected read that still fits their preference choices. You could mix a larger book with a lighter read, or something humorous with something heavier–always trying to stay true to what they’ve asked for. The library books chosen for a Book Box are checked out to the patron so that they can grab their box without having to pause for an extra checkout step. (They will have entered their library card into their signup form answers.)
Our Book Box letters come from a shared template in a Google Doc that we edit to personalize for each patron. Starting with a brief greeting, we list the chosen books and authors, and in one short sentence, why we chose that book–referencing their survey choices to explain ourselves. Haha! After each book, we include further title recommendations just in case they’d like more–or in case there were great books in our system, but not on our shelf at the time.
Boxes are then stocked with stickers, a snack for teens, and any small event flyers that might be of interest. Based on the patron’s contact preference, we then call or email them to say that their box is ready on our Holds shelf for them to grab.
Getting Feedback / How to Avoid Repeating Books for Patons:
A couple of helpful additions are review bookmarks, and spreadsheets of patrons and their past Book Box titles. Review bookmarks are made on Canva.com (along with everything else) with just a few questions asking how the patron liked their book. We store this info and the titles that we gave each patron in another spreadsheet. Because we have multiple staff filling boxes, it’s super helpful to know what a patron has been given before, and how they felt about certain content. Do they avoid swearing in their books? Would they rather not get any graphic novels? We can find out by going to their name tab within a Google Spreadsheet.
Reach out!
Feel free to reach out to myself or Claire here at RLPL if you have any questions on how to set up Book Boxes for your patrons! They’ve been a hit and your patrons will love them too.
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Automated Google Form Responses Spreadsheet. Questions in white at the top. Patron answers are made blue, meaning their Book Box has been filled by staff. |
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| Teen Book Box letter example. Edited, printed, and included in each Book Box. |
Adult Book Box letter example. Edited, printed, and included in each Book Box.
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| Adult Book lid sticker example. Teen Box is the same but different colors. |
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