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For those unfamiliar with the Midwinter Bump, I thought I’d post a more thorough explanation of what this crazy project is all about.

Essentially, I’m looking to quantify the ways librarian efforts contribute to book sales.

What I need: I need a co-conspirator from each awards committee. In order to conspire properly, I’ll need you to provide two titles.

The first one is easy: simply the winner of said prize. If it’s a category that awards multiple titles, I’d prefer one or two titles that would gain the most from greater attention. (I’m guessing Gone Girl doesn’t need too much of an extra boost at this point.)

To demonstrate the impact of an Awards bump, I’d like to take a similar title and compare the sales going forward. Ideally, this title is fairly “close” to the winner – similar appeal factors, sales figures, and price points.

If it’s anything like last year, we can see both immediate effects – the award leading to a spike in sales –  as well as far-reaching benefits, where the prize-winning book enjoys a higher plateau for its ongoing sales. You can see how this worked with the Printz, the Newbery, and the Caldecott winners from last year:

Midwinter Bump 2012 - comparing Where Things Come Back with Everybody Sees the Ants

Newbery: Dead End in Norvelt, compared to Okay For Now

Caldecott: comparing A Ball For Daisy and Bring On the Birds

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Of course, this is only one part of the picture, and doesn’t do much to quantify the day-to-day effect of librarians handselling one particular book over another. But it provides us with a useful tool (along with things like Library Journal’s Patron Profiles) to help us advocate for the role libraries play in the bookselling ecosystem.

CATEGORIES I HAVE SO FAR:

(I’ll update this as I receive additional volunteers. Are you on an award committee? Would you like to pitch in? Drop me a line.)

Alex Awards
Printz
Stonewall
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction

The ALA Midwinter Meeting is quickly sneaking up on us. Some of you may be on their way to Seattle as we speak. This will be my first MW, as I’ve never been heavily involved in national committee work.

I’ve never been one to take half-steps into anything, so I’ll be hitting the Pacific Northwest with a lot on my plate. Here’s where you’ll find me:

LITA Happy Hour: I’ll be arriving in Seattle sometime Friday afternoon, so this seems like a good way to ease into Business Mode and touch base with all of you whom I haven’t seen (in person, at least) in a while.
Friday from 5 to 7 at Elephant and Castle.

Digital Literacy: Setting the Agenda:  I’m really excited to be a part of the Office of Technology Policy’s Digital Literacy Task Force. This is your opportunity to learn what we’ve been up to and ask questions about how libraries of all types should tackle the issue of digital literacy.
Saturday in the Convention Center (TCC 304) from 1 to 2:30.

Digital Learning Center: One of the measures that the Task Force is supporting is the PLA Digital Learning Center, a web resource-in-progress designed to provide curated resources for end-users and a community of practice for trainers, librarians, and other educators. Project manager Jamie Hollier has fantastic plans for the site, but to get there it’s going to need broad support – particularly from public libraries.
Saturday at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel (Eagle Hall), from 4:30 to 5:30.

PLA Program Subcommittee: Here’s the biggie on my agenda. I’m part of the group helping to assemble the program for the 2014 PLA Conference in Indianapolis. I’m eager to bring some new types of programming into the mix, working to include explorations practical library skills, change management, and other methods for ensuring the place of the public library in the cultural marketplace. Please send me your suggestions for program ideas, and get your proposals in by the March 28th deadline.
Sunday, 1-5:30 (closed meeting) 

Those are the big meeting I’m planning to attend. But there are a few big issues that I’d like to discuss with people  at the conference.

Metrics: Finding new ways to quantify library data has been a major bugaboo for me for at least a few years now. There’s a sea of data out there that we can use to get a better picture of how our communities make use of our services. It’s just a matter of finding the right questions. Do you fancy yourself the Nate Silver of the library world? Find me at MW. Let’s talk.

Participatory Librarianship: All my work with the Chicagoland Library Unconference has had me thinking a lot about…well, new ways of being a practicing librarian. How do we make the patron-library transaction more participatory? Is there room for entrepreneurial thinking in the public sphere? How do we usher in new roles for libraries while staying true to the “classic” concepts of the profession. There’s a lot of stuff going on here.

The Midwinter Bump: Once again, I’d like to take a look at some of the major book awards chosen by ALA committees, and see what kind of effects they’ve had on sales. There were some clear bumps on many titles, both in terms of immediate sales figures and raising the baseline that construes an average sales week. Can you help me out? Send me an email if you’re on an award committee, and I’ll explain further.

Outside of all those categories, I’m simply looking forward to talking shop with anyone and everyone. Want to say hi? Tweet me, and we’ll meet up.

I was given the opportunity to give two talks at Reaching Forward this year, in partnership with Tony Molaro of Prairie State College. For those of you outside of Illinois, Reaching Forward is the state’s annual conference for library support staff. This is the second time I’ve been to this conference, and I’ve always had a great time. Thanks to the fine folks at the Illinois Library Association for putting together a great event, and to Tony for being a fantastic co-presenter.
Here are the slides:

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