Oulu City Library Book Metro: a visual way to recommend reading

Abstract

The Book Metro is used in Oulu City Library as a fun way to inspire and encourage reading enthusiasm. Book Metro has three different maps: one for adults’ fiction books, one for comic books and one for teenagers’ fiction books. The maps are visual guides to the world of literature. By following the themed lines, readers will experience new worlds and concepts. Each station is named after a book title, and the stations connected by a themed line present different views on the same theme or subject. Readers can use the metro maps by themselves or together in book clubs. The metro maps can also be used by the librarians as recommendation lists. Using the Book Metro is easy: users choose a metro line according to a theme and read the book pinned as a metro station. Users can follow the same line if they want to read similar books, or just travel around reading and change lines as they like. Book Metro has been used also as a reading recommendation for students. The Book Metro has gained a lot of positive feedback, and it has slightly increased loaning of the books included in the metro maps. This can also be seen in the loaning statistics. The users have been interested in adding in their own metro lines, and have also asked for a digital application for the Book Metro. This gives our library many possibilities to further and expand the recommendation system.