Tip for February 19, 2019

Last week, Darla asked if you could recommend books to read over spring break. Yesterday, Anton asked you what he should read now that he's finished all the Warriors books (yay!). You love answering these kinds of questions, but how do you recommend items to patrons who are looking through the online catalog at home? Do you have a list set up for the "Top 10 Must Read" books in your library?

Create a List

1. Log in to Search. 
   
   
2. Create a new Saved list. 
   
   • v7 Go to My Lists and choose Create Saved List. 
     
   • v6 Next to Lists on the left, tap +. 
     
     
3. Give the list a descriptive name, like "Top 10 Must Read" or "Spring Break Favorites". 
   
   • v7 Change Sharing to Public.
     
     
4. Share it! 
   
   • v7 Click the Share icon and copy the URL, so you can send it to your patrons or link to it with an Explore button.
     
   • v6 Your list cannot be made public, but you can print it to distribute in the library. You can also link an Explore button to a PDF version of your list.
     

Find Items for the List

How do you decide what's a "Must Read" item anyway? You could try using the Top Circulated report. It shows call number, title, author, number of copies, and number of checkouts for the top circulated items in your library.

1. In Reports, go to Titles > Usage and select the report to the right. 
   
   1. v7 Top Circulated Titles
   2. v6 Top Circulated Items
      
      
2. If you want to include a particular kind of item, select by Policy or Medium.
   
   
3. Pick how many titles you want to see. The report will sort by top usage, so you could run it for 60 items and still only take the top 10. 
   
   1. v7 Options tab > Number of Titles to Include
   2. v6 Number of Titles
      
      
4. Narrow it down to a time frame (required), perhaps within the last year. 
   
   1. v7 Usage Starting In and Ending In
   2. v6 Starting Month and Ending Month
      
      
5. Run the report.

Some librarians keep bestsellers or current "hot" items under a different policy so they can limit checkout times for popular items that are frequently on hold. If this describes you, run the Top Circulated report and select by that policy. Or maybe you want to promote some unloved books. Run a Weeding List report to find some good candidates for recommendations. Perhaps you want to build a list of YA books for 5th graders that were really popular last year. Get creative!

How do you give your patrons recommendations? Comment and tell us about it!