When you’ve been curating a collection for a long time, it can begin to feel like you’re in a rut. The same actors, the same genre of films that are popular among patrons, the kid's movies that are constantly checked out. The catalogs you receive become a blur of pages and you get a headache reading one synopsis after another. You may begin to wonder if you are ordering in a wide enough spread across genres to have a really diversified collection.
The other potential problem is making sure you are keeping up with the latest films. The best way to make sure you are hitting all different genres of film, across a number of years and countries is to diversify how you find films. Here, you will find six different ways to keep film ordering fresh and exciting.
Ways to Systemize the Diversification of Your Order:
1. Use as many awards lists as you can find.
A simple search for “film awards” gives you many award options from around the world. Here are just the top ten to get you started:
The Academy Awards or, the Oscars
British Academy Film Awards, or the BAFTAs
European Film Awards
Independent Spirit Awards
The Critics’ Choice Awards
Directors Guild of America Awards
National Film Awards
MTV Movie & TV Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
David di Donatello
Just these options cover movies aimed at teens and twenty-somethings, European movies, movies chosen by viewers, fans, and more. It’s a great cross-section right here.
2. Listen to the people.
Box office numbers reflect what audiences were willing to spend their money on that week, month, or year. Popular movies are viewed more than once and talked up to friends and family who then also go see the movie. The bottom line is: this is the popular vote.
Maybe a distasteful way to select a movie for a true film connoisseur, but a great way to appeal to your patrons across the board. These films often fill the gap in the audience’s viewing history as titles that they always wanted to see because everyone was talking about it, but they never did.
A reputable place to get accurate information on box office numbers is Box Office Mojo. Every single film produced for a year can be found here, in order of top-grossing to least grossing. For the year 2020, there are 438 films listed so far. As a matter of course, you could decide to only add the top ten or 20 films from the year so you aren’t totally overwhelmed. But you can also make sure you have the top-grossing films from years as well.
3. Book award lists.
Believe it or not, these lists can be a great place to find ideas for films to purchase. These lists are more of a jumping-off point and take a bit of research. You will have to use a search engine to see if the book is available as a film. This can also be a great way to stay ahead of the curve if you find a book that will be coming to film in the future. Movies may be available for pre-order or you could start a pre-order list by release month, giving you a reference for easy future ordering.
On the other hand, some of the book awards have been around for decades, giving you loads of films to choose from. Some of them will be new content for a young audience. Many will invoke nostalgia in adults, who will want to borrow it to share with kids and grandkids. There might even be recently made films from books that have never been translated to film. Or a remake, such as the Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s a good idea to have both versions of the film on the shelf as well.
Display tip: These films are great to display beside the book they were inspired by and maybe both will get checked out.
4. Check the highest-circulating film stats of other locations.
If you check circulation numbers of a nearby location and see that one movie is on its second renewal and there are 20 people in the hold queue, a copy for your own location would clearly be in demand.
5. Check the highest-circulating films from your own location.
What do these films have in common? An actor? A genre? Same production company? If you see on your stats that Stephen King-based movies are the most checked out films of your collection, you should make sure all of his films are on your shelf. If you notice the top five most circulated films are all A24 Studios productions, check out their website catalog and see what else they have available for purchase.
6. Give the people what they want.
Spending some time at the circulation desk is often the best way to find out what you should include in your collection. Patrons will definitely ask for certain titles. Ask your coworkers what patrons have been asking for lately. Encourage them to start a list of requests from patrons at the front desk, which you can grab every time you order and check off those most requested items as you order.
Ordering is part investigative, part data entry. Both things can wear out a curator after awhile. It’s good to have a variety of techniques for ordering so you don’t burn out or get tunnel vision. You don’t want to go out and check the shelves to find that you have every Tom Cruise movie known to man but not one independent foreign film. Check out film and book award lists, check circulation stats, and talk to patrons to curate a varied and interesting film collection.