The Librarian as a bookseller: empowering the profession to take their knowledge to the reader presented by John McIntyre

John McIntyre began The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington in August 1992. A former primary school teacher in New Zealand and the UK, he saw the need for a dedicated children’s bookshop. John was a judge of the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards in 1998 and convener of judges in 1999. He reviews children’s books every fortnight on Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan on Radio NZ and is on the board of Booksellers NZ.

Here is a summary of what I got out of John’s presentation.

When you strip it down, libraries and bookshops are about sharing, sharing information and sharing a passion librarians and booksellers have. We need to like people, relate to people and have the ability to share our passion.

The three ‘C’s John works from when in his shop are communication, control (what happens in your libraries) and conversation (have some with your customers!). As Librarians we need to get out from behind our counters and talk to our customers more, find out who they are, what they want and do our best to provide it. Working from the angle of a salesperson, approach our public with the view to get “yes” replies rather than “no” replies. The reason for this, “yes” replies lead onto conversations. Ask your customer “Are you happy browsing”, not “Can I help you?” or ask “Are you finding what you are looking for?” not “Can I help you?”.

Libraries don’t promote themselves enough. Anything you do in your libraries write up an article yourself and get it delivered to your local newspaper for inclusion, the editor often has a wee gap that needs filling. Take it late in the afternoon to the local radio station as they have gaps they need to fill also. You will be surprised at how well this can work. Offer to do a regular slot of bookreivews that a staff member reads live on air, this is the best kind of advertising you can get and if you do it free of charge for them, during difficult economic times your slot isn’t looked at first for cutting as it is costing them nothing. John has been doing this for seven years himself and said he couldn’t buy that kind of publicity.

A way to help increase issue statistics (if you need to do this) is to put a book in your customers hand. A person is 40% more likely to take an item if they physically have it in their hand.

Stop stressing about what our clients read, especially the children/young adults. There is literacy and literature, it is our role to get literacy first, then guide into literature.

Angela