“A decade-plus of Seattle library checkouts. Last month, the Seattle Public Library released a dataset tracking the total number of checkouts for each title by year and month from April 2005 to December 2016 (so far). The dataset isn’t limited to physical books; it also includes e-books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, and more. Last year, the three most popular physical books were Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train (2,355 checkouts), Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies (2,151 checkouts), and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me (2,134 checkouts).”
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I know some of our CMLE members are already circulating games in your libraries; and it’s a topic brought up fairly often when we are talking about materials and services to reach out to communities.
Games are great, and very engaging ways to encourage patrons to come to the library! They can be somewhat troublesome to circulate, as everyone wants to be sure they have the materials to share with the next patron – and small pieces or cards can be easy to lose. You can usually buy replacements for missing parts to games, but it is another step to consider when you are including them in your collection development plan.
CMLE members: some of you already have unusual items you are circulating, and some of you are considering them. Everyone might enjoy this webinar on these items from the Association of Specialized & Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA)!
Join in on Tuesday, February 7!
There is a growing trend of adding “unusual items” to libraries’ circulating collections. Circulating cake pans, post- hole diggers, ukuleles, soil testers, bread machines and more is exciting and impactful, but challenging. This talk introduces and contextualizes the trend, discusses best practices, addresses common questions, and suggests a plan for adding unusual items to your own library. Continue reading Circulating Unusual Items: A Webinar→
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