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How Books Are Discovered Online

By: Jake Handy (@jakehandy) and Margaret Harrison (@NerdInNashville) 

(Excerpt from Metadata Essentials)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to success in today’s market, and metadata is the key to making your book discoverable to consumers. In this blog, we’ll help you understand how Amazon’s search algorithm works in particular and which metadata elements are essential to help place your book among top search results for relevant queries. We’ll also examine the potential for exploiting smart searching at other online bookstores. 

When the Wall Came Tumbling Down: 30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

By Laura Barkema, MLIS, Collection Development Librarian
On November 9, 1989, in Germany, a monumental shift in world politics occurred by the bringing down of not only a physical barrier, but a division among families, friends, and humanity. Thirty years ago, citizens from both East and West Germany worked together to tear down that physical barrier, the Berlin Wall. This act came to signify the beginning of the end of communism’s hold over the eastern half of Europe. As we celebrate the anniversary of this pivotal day, we’ll walk through the history of the Iron Curtain and the division between East and West Germany during the latter half of the 20thcentury. 

Surviving Disasters

by Gina Molter, MLIS, Collection Development Librarian
According to the book Under Pressure: The Science of Stress by Tanya Lloyd Kyi, adolescents are faced with a wide variety of stressors in their lives, but knowledge is power—specifically the power to reduce stress to a more manageable level. With that in mind, the following series are recommended to help children and teens reduce their stress levels through knowledge—not the knowledge of how to achieve inner peace through deep breathing or guided meditation—but the knowledge that even in the worst of disasters, people can and do survive. 

Metadata for Books: The Current Landscape

By: Jake Handy (@jakehandy) and Margaret Harrison (@NerdInNashville)

(Excerpt from Metadata Essentials)
Whether you’re an author or a publisher, metadata—that is, the data that describes and differentiates your book—should be one of your biggest considerations. It’s of huge importance to your customers because it brings a book to life for the buyer and provides important details on what he or she should expect. According to a survey conducted by The Nielson Company, titles with incomplete or nonspecific metadata result in higher returns and, generally, lower sales. 

What I Wish I Learned in Library School

By: Briá Woods
August and September are the two months across-the-country during which we prepare for Back-to-School. What does Back-to-School mean for librarians? Specifically, our librarians in training headed back to graduate school. One of the messages we pride ourselves with here at Ingram Library Services is that we understand, “The Library Life Changes, Our Commitment Does Not.”  We chatted with Wendy, Becky, and Debbie, some of (Y)Our MLS- Degreed Librarians, to dive deep into the mind of librarians. Grab your index cards, red pens, and highlighters to take some notes on what they wished they had learned in library school. 

Classics to Graphics

By Ann Cox, MLS, Collection Development Librarian, and Debbie Davenport, MLS, Collection Development Librarian 

I Love My Hair! (Hair Diversity in Picture Books)

By Wendy Rancier, MLS, Collection Development Librarian
Creating diverse and inclusive collections is a goal of every public librarian. Recently, many library professionals have viewed or attended informational sessions or seminars to help make our content more representative of the communities we serve. A recent study by The Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education exposes a thought-provoking and discouraging statistic in the publishing world: Even after years of work in the areas of diversity and inclusiveness, just 10% of Children’s titles published in 2018 featured characters who were African or African American, 7% Asian Pacific, 5% Latinx, and only 1% Native American. Most characters in children’s literature are white/Caucasian (50%) and nonhuman/animals (27%).  Although there is still much work to do, demand for titles with diverse casts is on the rise. 

Successful Publishers’ Hat Trick

By Eric Johnson, Advanced Publishing LLC 
As a publisher, of all the different hats you wear, which is the most important? Sometimes the answer is dictated by circumstances. Any given day may bring technical, logistical, personnel, or client-relation challenges that demand your attention. In these situations, the most important one is the Problem Solver hat. Regardless the size of your publishing operation, this hat—aka the Buck Stops Here hat—will always have your name on it. It reveals your ability to identify what needs immediate attention, prioritize actions to deal with problems, and handle multiple challenges simultaneously. 

Don’t let Life Sidetrack Literacy

By: Briá Woods 
School supplies are at the cash wraps, vacationing is winding down, and weekday routines are slowly repositioning. While summer is still here, schools will be back in session soon and summer Fridays at work are ending. After their regular life of extracurricular activities, late-night meetings, and binge-watching of Netflix, how do we keep literacy at the forefront?   

For the Love of Country Music

By Beth Reinker, MSLS, Manager, Collection Development Adult Materials
This September, filmmaker Ken Burns will bring audiences Country Music, a new eight-part documentary series airing on PBS. Here at Ingram, country music is especially near and dear to our hearts because our headquarters offices are in La Vergne, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville. 

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