You’ll often see book trailers on an author’s website and the publisher’s youtube channel. But did you know that your public library’s catalog is another easy place to view book trailers? It’s also a great place to put a book trailer, whether you’re an author, a teacher, a parent, a young reader (or any age reader). All you need is a library card and you can add content — ratings, reviews, lists of favorites, tags, videos — to a book’s record in the public catalog.
My hometown library is Seattle Public Library, and we share catalog content with our nearby neighbors at King County Library System and our far away friends at Boston Public Library, and dozens of other libraries in between. When I uploaded this book trailer for The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox to Seattle’s catalog, it also shows up here at Boston Public Library.
And when I added the book trailer for Sarah Albee’s wonderful nonfiction book Why’d They Wear That? to Seattle’s catalog, it shows up here at San Francisco Public Library as well.
Here are a few other book trailers from recent middle-grade books I’ve loved — all uploaded via my local library’s website (I’ve listed a sampling of libraries where they show up, too):
- Magnificent Mya Tibbs: Spirit Week Showdown book trailer (Author: Crystal Allen; video in the Multnomah County Library; Portland, Oregon)
- The Jumbies book trailer (Author: Tracey Baptiste; video in the San Francisco Public Library catalog)
- House Arrest book trailer (Author: K.A. Holt; video in the Seattle Public Library catalog)
- The Tiara on the Terrace book trailer (Author: Kristen Kittscher; video in the San Diego Public Library catalog)
- Fish in a Tree book trailer (Author: Lynda Mullaly Hunt; video in the Edmonton Public Library catalog)
- Nanny X Returns book trailer (Author: Madelyn Rosenberg; video in the Seattle Public Library catalog)
- The Girl in the Tower book trailer (Author: Lisa Schroeder; video in the Seattle Public Library catalog)
- Ever After High series and Next Top Villain book trailer (Author: Suzanne Selfors; video in the Chicago Public Library catalog)
- The Trouble with Half a Moon book trailer (Author: Danette Vigilante; paperback release 2015; video in the Seattle Public Library catalog)
Not every library has the ability (or has chosen to) include videos in their catalogs. But I encourage you to check to see if yours does. And if it does, you can start playing around with rating books, making lists, and tagging local authors (here’s what comes up under the tag “Seattle authors“).
Video interviews, book reviews and book talks also make great content to enhance a library catalog. If your students are working on book-related videos, consider broadening their viewership by adding their work to a library catalog. If you’re an author and one of your presentations or interviews is filmed, consider uploading the video to your book’s catalog record.
