For success in the 2025 school year, you should:
- Build strong school relationships through classroom visits, and teacher engagement strategies.
- Get creative to excite students about using the library using STEM kits, social media, print promotions, and giving them special access to library resources.
- Turn students into lifelong readers using NoveList tools, curated book lists, and classroom support services.
- Consistently communicate with educators and families using LibraryAware and other promotional tools.
- Keep your own skills sharp by taking courses on readers’ advisory, email marketing, and youth engagement.
I saw an ad this week for back-to-school supplies (Walton Goggins of "Fallout" fame was pushing lunch boxes for Walmart). I was unprepared. Where I live, the ice on the lake finally melted away on the second day of May, so I’m really not ready to accept that summer is ending, OR nearing the start of the next school year.
But library staff are thinking about it! I know because I interviewed four amazing librarians who told me about what they do for the back-to-school season. Get inspired by their stellar work, and I’ll tell you how NoveList can help you get it done.
Meet the librarians who helped me write this year’s back-to-school guide:
- Rachel Martin, Senior Librarian, School Engagement, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado. Rachel enjoys nonfiction, especially history. She’s currently reading Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch.
- Christa Funke, Senior Librarian, Young Adults Programming, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado. She is currently reading Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood.
- Michelle Newcomb, Communications & Development Coordinator, Manhattan-Elwood Public Library District, Illinois. Michelle enjoys romantasy and is currently reading Fearless by Lauren Roberts.
- Liz Lugo, Youth Librarian, South Holland Public Library, Illinois. Liz loves realistic fiction, romance, and graphic novels. She’s currently reading Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Build relationships with schools and classrooms
Connecting with schools and individual classrooms is key to back-to-school success. “I work closely with schools and school districts to cultivate partnerships,” says Rachel. “I help provide training to the administrations of different districts, showcasing resources like NoveList and teaching educators how to use the digital resources to which their students have access.”
Michelle says, “In the fall, I try to woo teachers with snacks, giveaways, and praise. I leave treats in the school breakrooms with a little infographic of what we did last year, just in case someone missed out. FOMO (fear of missing out) works!”
In-person outreach plays a vital role in promoting the library during the back-to-school season. For school librarians and media specialists, this may look like visiting classrooms or holding programs within the library. For public librarians, in-person outreach to schools is a major undertaking, but the events are perfect opportunities to meet with teachers and students and talk about the programs and resources a library has to offer.
- Ask permission to talk to students about library resources at an assembly or event (such as a Back-to-School Night), or to speak to individual classrooms. Use these talking points to guide your conversations with teachers and students about NoveList and how they can use it to get great book recommendations.
- Bring a portable library resource to an outreach event or an individual classroom and showcase it. Have STEM kits like Liz? Bring one! LibraryAware customers can make a flyer with a QR code to your website, where more info can be found about the STEM kits available for checkout.
- Teachers are especially busy people. Email is a great way to communicate with them during times when you’re not around to visit. Use LibraryAware to send them a monthly, quarterly, or annual email. Remind them of the resources at their disposal and give them a way to reach you.
Rachel says she has one main measure that shows their outreaches were a success: “It’s when they ask me to come back again during the school year!”
Get kids excited about using the library
Kids who have positive experiences with the library (and library staff) will keep coming back. “I make sure to promote our year-round reading challenge, which helps create a lifelong love of reading,” says Liz. “And one of the most important resources we have started to offer is our ‘Inquisitive Sets’. They’re STEM kits for school-age kids that encourage learning and continue the lessons they receive in school.”
Christa says, “Many of our school districts have partnered with our library district to provide special online library access for all their students. We call this partnership PowerPass, and it provides students at those schools a just-for-students digital library card that allows them to use our databases and eBooks.”
Sometimes, kids just don’t know what the library provides for them, whether that’s a public library or a school library. Back-to-school time is a great lever to help you make sure they know. When libraries can show students what they have to offer, the students will be excited to come back on their own (especially when they realize how much it can help them with their homework).
- A good ol’ printed flyer can draw a lot of attention. Leverage kid’s love of social media with “Seen on #BookTok” flyers or a book jacket flyer filled with titles for kids who love Minecraft or Roblox. LibraryAware customers can use the pre-made professional templates to get started, or you can make your own from scratch!
- Does your library or school have one of those big digital display monitors? That’s good “real estate” for promotions. Plan a series of slides displaying homework help resources, fun program times, or a friendly Welcome Back! message. Use the 16:9 widget templates in LibraryAware to make them. This is a great way to make all your communications have a cohesive look.
- Kids are on social media. You gotta spread the word there. If you work for a school library, post funny, engaging book content on your school’s social media platforms. If you work for a public library, post funny, engaging back-to-school content on your platforms.
Turn students into readers
Keep that summer reading program momentum going! Christa says, “Our library has special Educator Cards that give teachers extended check-out periods and give them access to Classroom Sets. These are collections of 25 or more copies of a single title that teachers can check out to use in their classrooms.”
Michelle’s library has a classroom courier service. “It’s extremely popular. Teachers can reach out to us via email or website form to schedule a delivery of relevant titles. We then deliver and pick up. As a former teacher, I will do anything to make teachers’ lives easier!”
Sometimes you just have to get the RIGHT book into the RIGHT hands. A single great read can tip a reluctant reader to a regular reader. We know that’s not as easy as it sounds, so here are some tips:
- Make sure your collection is up to scratch for your readers! Core Collections subscribers have an edge, where you can do quick searches by Dewey range, reading level, and page count.
- The new NoveList is here! If you missed it, the experience of searching for a book in NoveList looks a whole lot different now, but it’s still the top-notch book recommendation tool you know and love. Watch the recording of Introducing the New NoveList Experience here.
- NoveList Search Strategies present common book recommendation situations faced by librarians, educators, and readers and provide multiple ways to use NoveList to find the perfect books. Use these tailored searches to meet your needs, especially those for working with youth.
- Graphic novels are A Big Deal for young readers and are still vaguely mysterious to many of us. If you want some help searching for graphic novels in NoveList, this search strategy is for you.
Plan to communicate regularly
Successful promotion of your library is not a one-and-done thing, as you know. It’s important to communicate consistently. “I promote to my teachers all year long,” says Michelle. “I use LibraryAware to send monthly eBlasts to teachers. I include monthly highlights of my school outreach, links and examples of things our online resources can help them with month-to-month, and book picks. I make sure to link back to my dedicated teacher webpage so that we are easy to reach.”
Liz says, “We promote our resources on our website, newsletter, and social media. This year, I plan on sending emails to all the schools explaining the resources we have that are beneficial to students, such as NoveList, and how they can access them. We’ve created a flyer for this, and we create QR codes that link to our website.”
Rachel uses printed flyers and bookmarks to help her promote her library’s resources. “I also send newsletters in LibraryAware to educators in our county to let them know about upcoming events, resources, and tools. Things students can use at home and things parents want to know about.”
- The tips in this blog about consistent email marketing practices apply to more than just the back-to-school season, but the info is especially helpful right now.
- Want some help with email marketing? We wrote this just for you: Library Newsletters: Best Practices.
- If you’re a data nerd, you’ll enjoy the first-ever benchmark report on email marketing in libraries. The 2025 report will come out later in the fall, so keep an eye out for that!
Let’s send YOU back to school, too
Don’t forget to offer yourself time for learning, too. With a subscription to Learn with NoveList Plus, library staff get quality, expert training in readers’ advisory and library promotions.
If you’re working with kids, these are some of the courses you might find particularly useful:
- Matching Children with Books
- Graphic Novels for Teens and Tweens
- Historical Fiction for Teens and Tweens
- Horror for Tweens and Teens
- How to Find Terrific Books for Toddlers
- From the Children’s Room: Staff Stories on Recommending Books for Toddlers
Leigh Gaddy is the Marketing Specialist at NoveList and a former employee at Pikes Peak Library District. She is currently reading Silverborn by Jessica Townsend.
