Cuyahoga County Public Library has long recognized that books are our brand and reading is our business. There are more ways than ever for our customers to spend their leisure time. We are competing with TV and movies and lots of convenient new ways to discover and enjoy them. What are we doing to win the hearts and minds of would be readers? How are we making finding a book as easy as finding a movie? How are we creating a buzz around new books that rivals the buzz around popular television shows? CCPL believes it’s all about connecting book experts with book lovers. New titles are discovered today (regardless of media format) through online exploration and social media. CCPL is employing these tools to connect our customers with our collections.

The 5 innovative reader services all leverage technology to conveniently make the connection directly with the reader but that’s where the technology ends and the personal service begins. Two title recommendation services, 3-FOR-3 and Read Intuit offer the expert advice of CCPLs most passionate readers/librarians to give personalized advice. 3-FOR-3 prompts readers to share the titles and authors of the last 3 books they enjoyed and offers 3 recommendations. ReadIntuit invites readers to spend a bit more time and fill out a questionnaire to tell us about what they like to read. Our experts analyze the reading profile and email a list of recommendations personalized to the readers’ tastes and preferences. Readintuit is the ‘deep dive’ while 3-FOR-3 shares quick suggestions. What to Read Live sessions are held periodically and are essentially a live and interactive version of 3-FOR-3. We use Facebook to solicit favorite titles and provide an immediate response of suggested titles. Speaking of Facebook, Night Owls is a weekly after hours book chat on Facebook hosted and facilitated by a librarian. On any given Thursday night you’ll find a lively conversation about great books with other passionate readers. Finally, Book Bundles is a modern take on the old fashioned “Book of the Month Club”. For a small fee that covers postage, Staff will analyze a Readintuit profile and provide a packaged selection of three titles delivered to your home once per month. What could be more fun and convenient? Customers can even purchase a subscription for a book loving friend as a gift. With services like these there’s no excuse for not reading!

By offering these unique and innovative ways to help satisfy our customers’ reading appetites, we are enhancing their library experience and bringing additional value to their investment in us. Customers are often surprised that we’ll go to such great lengths to meet their needs. In fact, they express surprise that there is a ‘real, live’ person behind the scenes and not an Amazon like recommendation engine. Let’s face it, finding a great book can be daunting. When our customers become overwhelmed by the thought of browsing the stacks we could loose them to the many other ways to spend their leisure time. By creating ‘trusted advisor’ relationships with our customers we have preserved their commitment to us and validated their support of us.