The King County Library System (KCLS), Issaquah, WA, has developed a new way to encourage recreational reading among its patrons and art lovers alike.
On March 1, KCLS kicked off its Take Time To Read Book Cover Walking Tours, a series of self-guided interactive urban walking tours showcasing cover art from over 100 books. Since mid-February, 120 4' x 6' poster-sized book covers have been put up on local buildings across eight participating cities, turning community spaces into virtual open-air galleries.
"We're aiming to interest people in reading-without forcing them to the library, a website, or a bookstore. On-the-spot readers' advisories should help 'sell' the idea-and the titles-as desirable reading," Julie Brand, KCLS communications and marketing director, told LJ.
As visitors discover titles spanning a range of genres, age groups, and eye-catching designs, they are encouraged to use their mobile phones to call the audio tour phone number. Each book cover comes with a unique code listed on the poster that tour-goers can enter to listen to a prerecorded description of the book or leave feedback for KCLS.
Calling the number sends an automatic text message with a link to the smartphone tour, where readers can navigate through the mobile version of the KCLS website and see the walking tour map. Full-color guidebooks are also available at participating businesses and libraries.
| One of the book covers from the King County Library's walking tour. |
Elizabeth "Ellie" Smith, a library technician in KCLS collection management services, suggested the concept after she was inspired by a London-based outdoor exhibition featuring masterpieces from the National Museum.
Planning took about one year, with funding for signage costing the KCLS Foundation $12,000. King County staff developed the program details, in-house graphics staff prepared the posters, giveaways, and the walking tour guide, and KCLS Buildings and Grounds staff installed the book covers.
The response to the installations will be measured by circulation statistics from participating libraries, which have additional copies of book cover titles, monitoring the number of full-color guidebooks picked up and tracking user visits and MP3 downloads from the audio tour website.
The tours are the final phase in the Take Time To Read program, an annual initiative of KCLS launched in October 2010 that is designed to encourage reading and to provide opportunities to encounter books and reading in unexpected ways.
"We're excited about this whole campaign and from the responses we're hearing from patrons, staff, participating cities, and other cities in our service area. This promises to be a winning mix of ways to increase visibility for the library system. But our most important goal is to get people to read," Brand told LJ.
The tours run through May 11. Participating locations include Bellevue, Burien, Issaquah, Kent, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Renton, and Vashon. The entire audio walking tour guide can be downloaded by visiting the myoncell website.