VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) reviewed my book Making the Most of Digital Collections Through Training and Outreach in their February issue. The review is below:
Tanzi has written a very practical approach to increasing the visibility and use of digital collections. According to 2014 studies quoted by Tanzi, 60% of patrons did not know their libraries offered ebooks, but 95% of libraries do offer this service. It seems there is plenty of marketing to be done. Tanzi is the head of digital services at the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library. This book draws heavily on his experiences there and is aimed primarily at public libraries. He covers staff training, patron classes on device use and digital services, even setting up a gadget petting zoo to let patrons try out various devices. In other chapters, he covers marketing library services in print, online, and via social media. Additionally, he addresses how to minimize and justify expenses for the various activities and devices. This detailed approach even includes optimal classroom set up and creating an area in a bookmobile to showcase your digital collection. Any library that is expanding their digital collection or that feels their digital collection is not getting enough use could benefit from the suggestions in this book. Although many of the suggestions do not translate exactly to academic or school libraries, these librarians could benefit from Tanzi’s ideas about how to market their digital collection. Even libraries that feel their digital collection is being well used could find ideas to further improve service by browsing this book. Reviewer: Suzanne Libra; Ages adult professional.
