Article: Book Trailers

I wanted to learn more about book trailers and how other libraries are using this new trend in programming. One article I came across was "Flipped." This describes a summer contest through the library in which teens create book trailers. They were then watched by a panel of judges and winners and runners-up announced. One thing I liked about this article was that it pointed out that teens don't necessarily need help with the equipment and technology - which sort of echoes what I discovered in my experience with the book trailer program. In this case, the library purchased equipment and hosted video shoot times - which went unattended. Like I saw in our programs at Mooresville, the teens caught on very quickly with the technology involved. Perhaps hosting a longer workshop program to help teens find music and photos to use in their trailers or to provide optional help with shooting their own live footage. The thing I like most about this article comes at the end. One of the judges comments, "RFW [the name of their contest] makes teens examine the books they choose. Because they have to focus on creating the elements of a movie, such as scripts, sets, costumes, etc., they're forced to wrestle aspects of the story they may not otherwise consciously examine...." This is a great way of looking at book trailers as a valid form of keeping books at the forefront.

Wooten, J. (2009). Flipped! Want to get teens excited about summer reading? Just add video. School Library Journal, 55(5), p. 38-40. Accessed from Library Literature & Information Science Full Text database.