Book Tasting in the Library: A Recipe for Reading Webinar
Date Attended: 20 April 2025
Content Focus: Understanding why and how book tastings work to increase engagement with the library collection; How to identify target audience and purpose for book tastings; Develop skills to create a book tasting event; and Gaining access to book tasting materials and examples.
Type: Webinar Recording
Length: 1 Hour
Audience: Public, academic, and school librarians.
Organisers: Infopeople
Presenters:
Angela Maxwell (Teacher Librarian in the Beachwood City School District in Northeastern Ohio)
Reflection:
Book tasting events are a fun and adaptable program idea that librarians can develop and facilitate across a multitude of library settings. The Book Tasting in the Library: A Recipe for Reading Webinar was hosted by a secondary school librarian, originally recorded in October 2018, in which participants were able to gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities to engage library users with their collections through book tastings, as well as seeing examples of materials and resources needed in order to successfully host a book tasting program.
This unique format of a book tasting program intrigued me and captured my attention for this webinar. As a Program’s Library Assistant at Liverpool City Library, and an aspiring school librarian, I believe finding innovative ways to capture library users’ interests in the collection and library environment is extremely important to maintaining relationships with patrons and sharing new additions to the collection.
The webinar discussed the Four W’s of Book Tasting, which included the Why, What, When, and Where for developing a program proposal. The presenter highlighted the importance of finding a target audience for your program during this proposal stage, and determining why this audience may be enticed to participate. Some examples for hosting this type of program included introducing new genres or topics of research, building a reading community, engaging new readers, and providing reading choice.
As a food-themed program, I became inspired by many of the example photographs presented in the webinar, especially in relation to the flexible nature of Reading Menus, which can be used as note-taking tools for participants, as book review cards, or as a fun way to list all the book offerings within the event.
This webinar was highly beneficial in sparking my creativity and imagination for potential programs I could develop within my role as a Program’s Library Assistant. I will utilise the ideas and experiences of the webinar host to inform my own planning proposal, including my suggestion of materials and resources that would ensure the program flows easily with minimal oversights. This webinar demonstrated the multiple ways a book tasting event could elevate library users’ awareness of collection items, such as Author-themed book tastings, or format-themed tastings, in which e-books, audiobooks, graphic novels and magazines are all utilized to create each meal or course. By understanding the possibilities of this type of program, I will be able to modify the content of a book tasting event to suit the target audience at my library.
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