This post originally appeared in my newsletter on 4/2/20. Sign up for my newsletter here to receive more content like this.

Your Questions, Answered
What platforms are you using?
I’m using a mix of YouTube and Zoom, primarily. I’d never even heard of Zoom until about two months ago, but now it’s all I hear about. The library got a Pro account ($15/mo) last week. If you’ve used Skype or webinar platforms, it’s pretty straight forward, but there are lots of interesting things to find once you start digging through all the possible settings. I am only using Zoom for programs that are interactive.

Should I do all of my programs live? Or should I avoid live programs?
This is dependent on what programs you want to offer. I’m using live programs for things that are interactive, like Great Decisions or a book club meeting. Everything else I’m asking staff or outside speakers to send me pre-recorded content I can edit and upload to the library’s YouTube channel. Why? The laws of time no longer exist. Or at least work and school schedules don’t. If the audience doesn’t need to be present, there’s no reason to tie it to a specific time. I want the content to be available to patrons whenever they have time to access it. Plus, that content will still exist after the library reopens. I already have plans to get some of our technology and makerspace video tutorials we’re making now onto library computers going forward.

How are you handling registration?
We’re only doing registration for live events and only doing them through Zoom. I’ve set a password for every program we do, to give some added security and prevent “zoombombing” during our programs. When patrons register for the program, they’re sent an email with the link and password to access the event, which feels safer than to post them publicly on our website or social media.
If it’s not live, the video is available for anyone to watch at any time, no passwords or logins necessary.

How do I let patrons know what we’re doing?
Create a page on your website specific to your virtual programs and make that page easy to find. Share the videos on social media. Make a schedule and advertise a week’s worth of programs in your eNews (same as you would if the library were open). Email patrons directly, when possible. If you are moving an existing program online, contact anyone who was registered for the original event. Explicitly ask your followers to share on their own pages or invite people who may be interested.
**Just a note not to overload your patrons. I follow a library that has sent out an eNews every. single. day. I have stopped opening their emails because it’s just too much, too often.

Have a question I didn’t answer? Read my tips below and if you still need help, please reply to this email or contact me through my website. I want to help as much as I can!

Tips for Moving Your Programs Online
Before I get too TL;DR with these answers, I want to start with the most important thing I’ve learned—something I will continue using after the library reopens. My department (Marketing) head helped me come up with a litmus test of sorts to determine which programs we should do and which we shouldn’t.
1. What value does this have for our patrons? (For the record, socializing is very valuable)
2. Why should the library be the one to do this? This is the important one. There are so many other organizations and businesses out there pushing similar content. So think about what you’re doing. Is it something someone else is already doing? What is it the library can offer that others can’t? Something I said no to was a Netflix Party, because people are already doing that; they don’t need the library to coordinate it for them. But book/movie/tv recommendations? Libraries do that better than anyone.

Set Some Boundaries
Keep in mind that virtual programming—especially right now—is not the same as the programs we do in the library. It may feel like anyone can do anything because we’re not tied to a specific location or time. You’ll avoid having two Zoom meetings at the same time, but time and space aren’t your deciding factors here: Marketing is. You can’t rely on your newsletter, in-library signage, or speaking directly to patrons right now. Everything will need to go through social media and your website, but the library needs to promote more than just programs right now. And, contrary to popular belief, we can’t create an infinite number of posts every day. The more you post, the less your patrons will see. Did you know Facebook actually stops pushing your updates to someone’s feed if you post a lot in one day? Not to mention the library isn’t the only one ramping up their online presence. Your patrons have digital fatigue. Let’s do what we can to cut down on that.

Be Kind to Your Marketer
As I mentioned above, everything goes through marketing right now. Anyone who has access to your library’s social media or website is completely overloaded right now. Every staff member has sent them at least one (or a dozen) emails making suggestions on things to share or promote online.

Make a Schedule
My goal is to have one program a day, Monday-Saturday, and no more than two programs a day. There are already days where we will have more than that, unfortunately. My best advice is to put one person in charge of making the schedule—for all departments. That way you don’t have four different staff members move forward with their plans and then you can’t facilitate or market all of them.
Something my library has done that I really like is we’re making a mini schedule to post each week. We’re also keeping all of our programs and other efforts in a single place. To do this, especially with the weekly schedule, we need to have the week planned in advance. This is not easy when the rules are changing every hour, but do your best.

Make Recurring Events or Theme Days
For me, I’m (unofficially) making Tuesdays DIY and crafts and I have two (official) series: What We’re Enjoying Wednesday and New Skill Saturday. Other libraries are doing “Fun Fridays” or something similar. Having a specific idea for each day (Mondays are catch-all but mostly Technology, Thursdays is youth) has really helped me plan things out and space out similarly themed programs so we get a good variety on our feeds.

Involve Staff from Other Departments
Libraries have a bad habit of making departments into silos, but staff is the library’s greatest resource right now (and always). When I started this new program initiative, I put out a call to any library worker to send me a short clip about what media they’re enjoying while we’re closed, show off a skill they have, or send me a program idea—and not holding them to actually doing that idea themselves, if they didn’t want to. I wasn’t sure I’d get any responses, but everyone has been very supportive and right now especially, people want to do something to help, in whatever way they can. And honestly, the best content I received was from a part-time circulation clerk I’m not sure I’ve ever even met.

Delegate
Whenever possible, pass something on to someone else. If you’re handling a lot of programs with very little prep time, there will be quite a bit of your to-do list that can’t be done. It’s okay to ask for help. All of our jobs were affected differently and the workload is likely to be a bit unbalanced, which means some of your coworkers don’t feel like they’re doing enough or are being asked by management to “fill their hours.” Are there some items you can put on someone else’s plate? I’m someone who likes to be involved and have a lot of control, so I’ve worked for a long time to learn that when someone offers help, it’s okay to take it. In the last week, some of the things I’ve let others handle (at least in part) are: canceling programs on the online calendar, troubleshooting a video issue, hosting our Great Decisions group on Zoom, and contacting local businesses to see if there is interest in partnering with us for a future video. All of those things have saved me time that I can dedicate to video editing and coordinating with speakers and other staff. That last one is something I’ll need to take over soon, but I didn’t have to spend time getting the ball rolling and playing phone tag with businesses. I can start at the point when I’m needed, and not before.

Thank you to everyone who came out to Painless Promotion at the Illinois Library Association annual conference today! I presented a (very) condensed version of my “Whole Library Promotion” talk that I do at library staff trainings, Becky Spratford did her RA for All presentation to get all staff booktalking, and Arcadia McCauley gave great information on promoting to community partners and getting them involved in the library’s promotional efforts.

"Painless Promotion: Encouraging All Staff to Hype the Whole Library:"
Grow beyond the traditional marketing model and embrace a whole library philosophy where promotion is everyone's job. Informing the public of programs, services, and materials that will interest or help them solve a problem is at the core of what we already provide. But why do most library staff think marketing isn’t part of their job? None of these presenters are traditional marketers, but it is a part of how they serve patrons every day. Join them as they share practical tips to engage staff, inform the community, increase return on investment, and create a more positive experience for all.Click here to see our slides, my printable brochure with ready-to-use ideas for getting staff involved, and information on Becky, Arcadia, and myself.

Having bibliographies available both in print and on your library's website are an excellent resource for patrons and staff. They make recommendations easy, make staff more confident in suggestions, give patrons something to take home for future reading, and allow you to fill displays faster.

Here are some of the bibliographies I've created for my library. All of them include covers, a synopsis, and a link to the catalog. At the top of the page, there's a printer friendly version complete with call numbers. All of these have been made into beautiful bookmarks found on all audiobook end caps and on displays.

• Celebrity Memoirs Read by the Author
• For Podcast Fans
• For Quick Trips
• For the Whole Family
• Nonfiction Audiobooks
• Stories for Your Road Trip
• To Listen with Teens

I want to bring special attention to the "For Podcast Fans" list. If a patron asks for a suggestion and doesn't have an answer for what they want to read, ask them what kind of podcasts they enjoy! Podcasts have been an excellent gateway drug to audiobooks in the last few years and have acclimated listeners to long form audio content. Many podcasts have books connected to them, such as Welcome to Night Vale or My Favorite Murder's new Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered​.
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Another major factor (in my opinion), at least in the US, is a culture that prides itself on multitasking, leaving no minute unaccounted. This is the kind of culture that pushes us to read while we workout, clean, garden, and buy groceries. Admittedly, I myself fall into this group, and if I can’t listen to a book while driving or biking, there’s a good chance I’ll never read it (RIP my TBR). In a 2014 article, Forbes called listening to audiobooks “the ultimate in multitasking.” Books on Tape had a whole marketing campaign around this idea—one I found both charming and largely successful—which handed out colored pencils, seed packets, and headphones. Because of this, audiobooks have reached out to completely new readers who may not have had time before or simply retain information better when they’re listening than when they read something on a printed page. Aside from the Harry Potter series, my own mother finished maybe two books in the last twenty years—right up until I got her to try audiobooks last year. Now she goes through about five or six a month and never stops pestering me for new recommendations.

Personally, I’ve been saying for years that the growth of audiobooks is closely linked to the explosion of podcast listening, and finally the APA agrees with me! It makes perfect sense: the hype around podcasts gets people in the habit of listening to stories—fiction or non-fiction—and working them into their everyday routine. In this way, podcasts have become the gateway drug to audiobooks, with podcast listeners listening to twice as many audiobooks as other listeners, especially among the under-35 crowd.

Finally, the big change that’s driven the current audiobook market: digital formats. When you want to listen to an audiobook on a run, out in the garden, or on the train, a streaming app or downloadable file makes perfect sense. You can carry multiple titles in your phone and smoothly transition from one chapter or book to the next without having to switch out CDs. In 2016, downloadable and streaming audiobooks accounted for 38% of all audiobook titles offered by libraries, which is expected to grow to 51% in 2019, making it the majority.

In light of this change, many publishers are starting to release new audiobooks that are only available in a digital format, slowly phasing out CDs. While this makes sense from a commercial standpoint, as a listener and especially as a librarian, it frustrates me. There are few moments in my career as frequently disappointing as hearing about a great title or receiving a request from a patron, only to find out the library can’t acquire it in either the preferred format (CD) or at all. When I first took over my library’s audiobook collection in 2015, this was incredibly rare, now it happens about once a week.

Before I get into the publishing side of things, let’s take a moment to consider the reasons someone might want CD over download. Perhaps they listen primarily while driving and their car isn’t new enough to support a bluetooth connection or have an aux cord to hook up a phone. Maybe the patron doesn’t own a smartphone or the phone they do have doesn’t have enough space to store an audiobook or enough data to stream it. Maybe the person just isn’t all that technologically skilled. Maybe the patron is blind, but prefers the larger selection the public library offers to services like Talking Books, as my most voracious listening patron does. Age also plays a key role here because while most audiobook listeners (52%) are under age 45 (and another 15% under 65), we still need to recognize that the digital divide often comes with the generational gap. Smart phones, tablets, and ereaders are becoming more common among seniors, but many are being left behind by these digital trends. Isn’t it the library’s job to serve these users, too?

Another big reason listeners and libraries might avoid digital-only audiobooks is that they simply can’t afford them. When other librarians cover for me when I’m on vacation, I always come back to surprise and complaints over just now damn expensive audiobooks can be, especially in comparison to their print counterparts. An unabridged CD audiobook (for a library) generally costs in the range of $35-$65, with some titles landing in the triple digits. Libraries can often subsidize these costs slightly with standing order plan discounts, but if your library (like mine) buys extra copies to keep up with hold lists, you could be looking at spending hundreds of dollars on the latest bestseller. Downloadable costs are even more outrageous, averaging $60-95 per copy. The cheaper of these physical editions can be found at pretty comparable prices on the retail side of things and the more expensive can often be picked up at a good discount, maybe even 60% less than the library pays, but, like with print books, the more books a listener buys, the larger their investment. Using libraries to save money is not a secret, in fact, it’s probably our biggest selling point to get people to visit us and check out items. Checking out audiobooks, especially ones you’re not sure you’ll love and want to own, is an excellent way to help readers save money.

The other financial aspect to consider is one I’ve already touched upon: many users don’t have access to the devices necessary to listen to these digital-only audiobooks.  Public librarians know dozens, if not hundreds of patrons who frequent the library primarily because they don’t have a computer, smartphone, internet, or any combination of the three. We need to keep these users in mind when ordering for our collection. It’s far too easy to look at statistics like the ones I’ve been linking and decide to get ahead of the trend and buy only digital copies, but I want to remind libraries that we’re not retailers or publishers, we’re here to serve people, and by and large the people using libraries are not the ones paying for streaming access through Audible.

All of that said, my problem is not with digital audiobooks. I love them! I do keep CDs in my car, but I always have a digital title on my phone through Hoopla or Overdrive, which I play on bike rides, while working out, or cooking (I’m one of the aforementioned multi-taskers). No, my problem is with digital-only audiobooks and how they affect our ability to not only acquire them, but provide access to our patrons. I’ve already laid out some of the barriers of access digital has, so let’s look at the publishing side of things. It makes perfect sense when looking at the data for publishers to go digital and phase out CDs. The market is moving that way, younger customers are the priority, and honestly, digital is considerably cheaper to produce. You pay for the recording and editing, but you cut all production, retail, and shipping costs by cutting physical copies. To top execs at companies like Blackstone, RecordedBooks, and Books on Tape, this would be a no-brainer. The problem gets even worse with Amazon, whose Audible service holds exclusive rights to many popular titles, making it impossible for libraries to buy copies in CD or digital.

Audible isn’t the only publisher to do this, either. Even when working with one of our regular vendors, Books on Tape, I’ll often run into titles that are not only digital-only, but only in digital and only through the vendor’s website. That means we can’t buy these audiobooks on our existing platforms like Overdrive. While some libraries have the problem of offering too many similar e-services, LibraryJournal’s 2016 report shows that almost half of public libraries are limited to one platform, essentially making these popular and often requested audiobooks impossible to provide to our patrons.

On top of all this, the completist in me goes crazy when a publisher switches from CD to digital only in the middle of a series. This is becoming more and more common and yet every time I run into it, it still fills me with rage. Libraries have hooked readers with CDs and bought the first two, maybe even ten, in a series, and suddenly we can’t do anything. We’re sorry, but you can’t figure out what happens to your favorite characters. Go buy a smartphone and an Audible account if you can afford it, I guess? There’s nothing else we can do. These are the calls I hate making the most at my job.

What can we, as librarians and listeners, do to help provide access to digital exclusive audiobooks? First, get the word out. Let librarians, readers, listeners, everyone know why this is a problem. Far too often do people get trapped inside their own world and privilege and wonder why other people don’t just get an Audible account. Second, talk to the audiobook publishers and any vendors you use to acquire audiobooks. You will likely get the same canned answers I did, but the more of us who speak up, the more seriously they’ll take our complaints. Let them know our concerns and advocate for your patrons. Explain that not everyone has a compatible device, not everyone is technologically savvy, not every library can afford digital titles, not every title is available through reasonable paths, and, above all, not everyone is served by digital only titles. Remember that when something is marketed as “exclusive,” it often means exactly that: it is excluding somebody. It’s our job as librarians to try to include everybody.