Tweak #082: The Shelves in the Middle - Part III

We're wrapping up the three-part series on shelving standards with a look in the middle of the floor, where we may see a lot of white paper edges from face-up books. We can do better. Waist high still counts, and so do all the visuals. 

Listen now to continue the Shelving Standards exploration!

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
This is part three of shelving standards two
minutes at a time in this case we began with some i benchmarked for
excellence in brookline booksmith moved to some
notes last time that i've gleaned and today we're ready
to think about the same kind of standards for floor displays seriously y'all
this is fun hi i'm lisa yurik and this is your two-minute tweak small ideas
for big impact so let's take that beautiful floor display a table a three-tier

(00:27):
display an octagon are people Are people drawn to it like cicadas on a white shirt?
Or are they missing it like I missed that aurora a few weeks ago?
They're not going to fall in love with the book if they don't see the book.
So here are a few shelving standards, combining more of Lisa Gazachity's notes with my own.
For table display, waist high counts.

(00:47):
We've talked about that before. It's a pattern language as old as studies of
people that says if you put things at a waist height, where human elbows can
bend and easily make contact, things move better.
So if you have a table that's 30 inches and you add four one-inch books,
you'll be close at 34 inches. 36, I think, is about the ideal.

(01:07):
Depends on the height of the person, obviously. The things that are there at
that waist high and up to eye level, prime real estate.
So you want to be really thoughtful about what books make it into that space.
What shelf talkers or scintillating signs do you put in that space between the waist and the eyes?
And whatever you do you don't want stacks of a
dozen books in a curated book space

(01:28):
three or four will do it just takes away
that feeling of specialness and scarcity I think of selection other standards
including include having the spine on at least one of the planes in a flat surface
display sometimes when you approach a flat display all you see are the edges
whites of pages That's a no-no.

(01:50):
Isn't it much nicer to approach with colorful and informative spines?
At least Lisa Ghazashdi thinks so, and she's got me convinced too.
So the added standards today, build to waist high and think carefully about
what hits the eye at eye height.
Keep the stacks of books to three or four to maintain specialness.
And when placing books on a table, minimize those white pages visible from approach.

(02:15):
There are more standards in part one and part two of these shelving display standard podcasts.
I hope they're helpful to you as you help your community connect with their books.