Monthly Archives: October 2021

Hoopla Holiday Collection Promotion

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The thing about holiday collections in libraries is that for the one month of the year that they are featured, they are in such high-demand that our shelves clear out. (An excellent problem to have!) So how do we supplement our physical collections with available holiday content? Answer: hoopla!

Unlike other digital collections, hoopla materials are always available. When staff direct patrons to the resource, we can rest assured that the suggested title we recommend will be there. And fortunately, hoopla makes it even easier to recommend titles with curated holiday collections!

From Halloween to Christmas, hoopla supplies curated content to fit the needs and whims of library patrons of all ages. Not only does hoopla provide quality content in convenient collections, but they also offer marketing tools & social media assets to make it easy to promote to your patrons!

hoopla holiday marketing tools

The holiday promo tools include flyers, social media images, and links to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas & holiday Bonus Borrows collections. There is even a link to examples of library social media posts to make your library’s promotions that much easier!

Find the links for posters, Facebook, Instagram & Twitter graphics next to each collection.
Go ahead and stick printed flyers out with your physical holiday collections to promote these always available collections!

I personally enjoy the digital catalog of holiday collections on hoopla. Brings me back to flipping through holiday store catalogs as a child and circling all of the toys I wanted, but now it’s all the books and movies I want to check out. It even links directly to the content in hoopla, making it a one-stop-shop! You can share the link to the catalog directly with your patrons in your social posts or on your website.

Need more promo ideas? Head to the hoopla resources page for additional marketing tools & assets. They provide a vast array of promo materials for any time of year. And don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the page because there is a ton of info there, too! I find the Quarter Assets to be especially helpful because they highlight timely themes (e.g. Cookbook Month in October, National Native American Heritage Month in November, etc.)

hoopla resources page

So when your holiday shelves are looking bare, know that the hoopla holiday collection is there for you & your patrons!

Richelle – Sewickley Public Library

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IMDB.com – My Favorite Website

True confession time…my favorite website is IMDB. I can lose all track of time clicking from movie to movie and list to list.

I love it that after a search and a click, I can see what other movies a particular actor or actress was in that is currently driving me bonkers.

I love it that I can see the entire list of Halloween films in order with summaries when another one comes out and I need a refresher of the franchise.

I love it that I can quickly see what is playing at my favorite theater, buy tickets, and be on my way to two hours of losing myself in a film.

I also love it that it is super helpful when patrons call with similar questions and a healthy obsession with their favorites.

Down the rabbit hole I go…

Lisa Akenhead
Northland Public Library

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Expanding on Squid Game’s Popularity

Rarely has a show captured the zeitgeist like Squid Game has the last few weeks. Rarer still is for this popularity to be attained by a foreign language series.

Squid Game is a dark and hyper-violent series on Netflix that has topped the streamer’s top 10 list since its premier. Its dystopian take on present day South Korean society, where debtors with no other prospects are corralled together to play childhood games with a deadly twist, has garnered comparisons to The Hunger Games and Battle Royale.

While libraries can’t offer Squid Game on DVD for patrons, we can use its popularity to highlight some of our resources. Many fans of the show may not be familiar with South Korean entertainment and culture and will become curious about exploring what’s out there.

Hoopla, for instance, has a nice selection of Korean films, including popular titles that would appeal to fans of Squid Game like Train to Busan. Hoopla also includes many K-pop albums, including BTS, who have already topped the charts in America.

Libraries can also highlight books in their collection that will appeal to those looking for a similar experience to Squid Game.

New York Public Library put together a read-alike list that you can jump off from.

While Squid Game has become popular worldwide, this has also caused more of a social media conversation around translation and whether some of the meaning and characterization of the show is lost to translation (whether viewing the series with subtitles or dubbed).

Salon has an article on the subject which outlines a bit of where the conversation around this issue is. Users across platforms are showing non-Korean speakers how some of the translation used for the show is not necessarily coming across and where that can change how a viewer is engaging with the show.

While non-Korean speaking fans can’t quickly learn the language to a high proficiency, this is an opportunity to highlight learning language options like Mango and duolingo.

Also, CIA World Fact Book‘s page on South Korea can provide some basic information on South Korea that viewers may not already know. CIA World Fact Book is a nice resource for this type of need–just to provide scaffolding for future understanding.

These are just a few ways to capitalize on Squid Game‘s popularity while providing a nice way to highlight some of our resources!

Jeff, South Park

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