Thanks for your help in promoting this blog! As an introduction to this project, please read this letter from Jan Walsh, our State Librarian, which describes the main features of this project, and our reasons for undertaking it. The following are some ways you can use and promote the Book Blog:

• Send a press release to your local newspaper. This template gives you all the relevant information. Just fill in your local contact information and a quote from someone in your library.
• Order free bookmarks that you can distribute to middle school students at your library. Keep them at the circulation desk or in the youth services area. There’s no cost for the bookmarks and buttons themselves, and there’s no cost for shipping either. Order as many bookmarks as you think you’ll need, but please limit your order to 100 buttons per branch. Orders are subject to availability.
• You can also Print the Bookmarks out yourself! They’re five to a page, so you’ll need a paper cutter.
• Here’s a flyer you can print out and put up anyplace where middle school patrons might see it. Also, you might use this flyer as a handout when you visit schools to promote Summer Reading.
• We also have the flyer in Word format so that you can make changes to it, such as including your library’s name and/or logo.
• Put the Book Blog logo on your Youth Services website and use it to link to this blog. We also have a smaller version of the logo.
  If you want a little promotional blurb for your site, along with the necessary html tags, we have that also.
• Promote the blog at school and community outreach events.
• Promote the blog in person to the middle-schoolers who come into the library.
• Encourage your middle-school age patrons to write and post book reviews. You might consider using the blog as part of your Summer Reading incentive program. In other words, if students earn a prize for writing book reviews, encourage them to post those reviews on the blog. Tell them to write down the title of their blog post (most likely it’s the title of book they’ve reviewed). Then search the blog for that title if you want to verify that they actually posted.
• If you’d like to help us out by moderating student reviews and comments, please send an email to with your name, the library you work for, and your role in the library.
• If you have any other questions or comments, you can get in touch with us at . We especially welcome your input about ways that we can help you market the blog.
• If you’re trying to get buyin from co-workers or library board members, the Pew report on Teens as Content Creators and Pew report on Teens and Technology are great sources of information.