School Library Uses Books Trailers to Boost Interest in Reading

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Coming soon to a library near you! Book trailers increase students’ interest in reading. (Cedar Rapids Gazette, 3/25/2011)

Excerpt: The music is eerie, the words forbidding.

“Thirteen years ago, a plane appeared out of nowhere … no pilot, no crew. The only passengers were 36 babies.”

It sounds like the introduction to television’s next “Lost,” but it’s a book trailer for Margaret Peterson Haddix’s newest series, “Found” – one of several trailers played in the library at Solon Middle School.

“This is all about marketing,” Kathy Kaldenberg, Solon’s media specialist, said. “Kids are just so drawn to multimedia. Any way that we can catch them, to keep them reading, is something we’re going to try.”

Not that book trailers are new. Book publishers have used them for years. However, it’s only recently that Solon’s middle and high school libraries have played the trailers continuously throughout the school day.

And students are taking note.

“The kids stop all the time because they are running on a loop,” said Karen Clingerman, media associate at Solon High School. “They see different things every time they are in the library.”

“Anything with music in it catches their attention,” Jennifer Bishop, the media associate at the middle school, said. “They will just stand there and watch.”

Then they go to the shelves and grab the books. Both Bishop and Clingerman said they have seen increased circulation of the books featured in the trailers.