[Publib] Bookletters

[Joanne Herb]

I forwarded the question about BookLetters to my colleague who is the 
account administrator in our consortium. Here is his response.

----------------------------------------
From: "Anthony Fisher" <Anthony.Fisher at mainlib.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 1:55 PM
To: Joanne.Herb at mainlib.org
Subject: re: bookletters 

 Re: BookLetters...

Is it an effective tool to promote library resources, programs, etc.? Yes, 
absolutely, but only to the extent that the library and or library system 
promotes the product and all things being equal (depending on what the 
intended use is) there are other options available so if it's simply a 
matter of cost, I'd look for a cheaper alternative. In Morris County, NJ we 
have been using BookLetters for close to three (3) years and it is a fine 
product, but we could, quite frankly, get a lot more out of it if we 
actually promoted it which is made somewhat more difficult by the fact that 
we are a consortium, but that is not offered as an excuse. We simply have 
not made an organized effort to push the product and many of our member 
libraries have not taken advantage of the product. That being said, those 
libraries that do use it have steadily (but slowly) added users and you can 
see a real time total of subscribers at any time and can request a list of 
emails of your subscribers. The staff at BookLetters has been in my 
experience very helpful, friendly, and responsive to issues and problems 
so, in short, I would definitely recommend it if budgetary realities allow, 
but only if your library (system) is prepared to make the most of it. 

Anthony Fisher
Morris County Library
anthony.fisher at mainlib.org

Joanne Herb  
Morris County Library
joanne.herb at mainlib.org

****
<snip>

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:17:59 -0500
From: Jane Genzel 
Subject: [Publib] BookLetters
To: "publib at webjunction.org" 
Message-ID:
<1A862D8C53BBD649BC8343D10E084C14506F498681 at Exchange.city.ci.muskego.wi.us>



Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

We have been contacted by BookLetters about a subscription to their 
service, but the cost is substantial. If you have BookLetters, do you feel 
it promotes your resources and enhances your site and community presence? 
Is it possible to know if your patrons actually use it? Would you recommend 
it to other libraries? Sorry for the "20 Questions," but your thoughts and 
advice would be most gratefully received. Please excuse any cross-posting.
Jane Genzel
Muskego Public Library  

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20091103/1b4d1d64/attachment.htm>