Here are five ways to make sure your lending-library books are in constant circulation.

1. Display Books Face Out

No matter how the saying goes, we still judge books by their covers. So why keep the covers hidden? Instead of shelving books with the spine out, try turning a few face out. Watch how quickly those books fly off the shelves. Publishers pay big bucks to have their books face out at local bookstores because it increases sales. You can use the same technique to increase circulation in your lending library.

2. Display Books at Eye Level

Another marketing technique is to shelve books at your customers eye level. Food manufacturers pay a lot of money to rent prime real estate on your local grocers shelves. If your RIF kids (your customers) are five years old, books should be shelved much closer to the floor than if you are serving teenagers.

3. Make Your Library User Friendly

Your lending library should be easy to navigate. Organizing your books logically will help kids find their way around. Consider grouping books by theme, reading level, series, genre, author, and so on. Use colored labels to indicate the type of books located on each shelf or each section.

4. Talk It Up

Enthusiasm is contagious: If you are enthusiastic about a book, children are sure to catch it. Highlight two, three, or 10 books in your library that children are less likely to choose on their own. Read them aloud, read parts of them aloud, or just talk about them in an animated way. Your infomercials will remind children that the books you are holding are available for them to read. Notice how popular the titles you advertise become, compared with equally interesting shelf-bound books.

If your lending library cannot meet the high demand of your advertised books, and popular books are frequently unavailable to would-be readers, suggest children borrow books by the same author, or that are about a similar topic.

5. Review It

Each week, invite children to read and write reviews of seldom-read books, or books recently added to the collection. Post the positive reviews on a bulletin board near your library. Remind children that opinions are personal; negative book reviews may discourage other children from choosing a book that may be perfect for them.

Space Saving Ideas:

• Revolving wire racks offer room to display dozens of books at a time with limited space.
• Rain gutters are used in classrooms around the country as an inexpensive alternative to book shelves. They can be purchased at local hardware stores and cut to any size. Plastic brackets can be affixed to any wall, including concrete blocks. Classrooms have been lined from floor to ceiling with these shelves. To learn more, visit www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah_chpt6_p4.html#rain-gutter.
• If displaying books face out is not an option, turn a bulletin board into your librarys advertising corner. Post the dust jacketsor color copies of front and back covers, and the first pageto interest kids in the books.