Week 6 Prompt Response

 Romantic Spice and Recipe Kits with Movie Read-alikes

“Romances are novels of courtship, love, mutual respect, and appreciation” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2018, p. 216). Unfortunately, romance novels are not respected like the other genres, even though they are some of the best circulating books in a public library. Despite this, it does not take away from this genre collection to promote this books creatively.

My library has done both of the common romance book displays. The first is some version of “blind date with a book”. We would cover romance books with brown paper, and patrons would have to pick them without seeing the cover or title. We would write a few details about the book on the paper. My library has RFID, so the book does not even have to be opened to check it out. The second is a book display that has a sign at the top that says something to the effect of “Where’s my shirt?” This display includes romance books with covers including men without shirts on.

I have heard librarians talk about it not being their job to recommend movies or relate movies to books, but I just disagree. It can be especially helpful to talk about a show they enjoy watching if a patron asks for a good book but has not read anything they liked recently. Donohue (2015) said “introducing integrated advisory in our libraries does not detract from our important role as readers’ advisors; rather, it’s a function of serving our patrons by connecting them with the materials that best meet their needs” (para. 2).

For my romance promotion, I would like to make a kit. In the name of integrated advisory, there would be three tote boxes or tubs to pick from, each relating back to a movie title. Each tote would contain kits, and would have its own sign. The kit would contain one book, one recipe card, and one spice packet.

The first tote would have a sign that says “If you liked the movie Singin' in the Rain (1952)…” This tote would include timeless classic and comedy romance novels, each bound to a recipe for a romantic meal and a packet of spice that could be used for that meal. For this tote, the books would be bound to a chicken dinner recipe card, and the spice packet would have rosemary in it.

  

The second tote would have a sign that says “If you liked the movie What Dreams May Come (1998)…” The books in this tote would have a fantasy romance theme, especially with plots where one partner went through hell or to another world to find the other. Books in this tote will come with a packet of oregano and a recipe to make tomato risotto.

The third tote would have a sign that says “If you liked the movie Silver Linings Playbook…” The books in this tote would include complicated romances and "situationships" between people working on their mental health. The books in this tote will come with a packet of peppercorns and a recipe to make a peppercorn crusted pork chop romantic meal.

The idea is that we are using integrated reference to take a movie that patrons like to help offer them romance novel choices. We might circulate a few movies out of this promotion as well. Maybe patrons will say that they do not like any of the offered movies, and we can ask what movies they do like in order to offer more reading options. 

The kit would be checked out as if it was just the book. The spice packet and recipe card do not have to be returned. The kit would be joined by a thicker rubber band with a tag on it that relays the same information as the sign above and that the spices do not have to be returned. I would double check that we had at least 3 copies of each movie mentioned on the signs as well. 

References

Donohue, N. (2015). From serials to serial: Integrated readers’ advisory. 33:4. https://www.ila.org/publications/ila-reporter/article/13/from-serials-to-serial-integrated-readers-advisory

Wyatt, N., & Saricks, J. G. (2018). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction: Third edition. American Library Association.