A Missed Opportunity? - How libraries could use YouTube to increase visibility - Beth Wolf Blog Post #1

After my undergraduate degree, I am ashamed to say that I fell into a huge book slump for years. If you don't know what a book slump is, I am very jealous of you. Personally, I didn't have a term for what I was going through until I became an avid consumer on, what I affectionately call, BookTube. I was an English major during my undergrad degree and, while I loved most of the books that we were reading, consuming so many books that I did not personally choose for myself, the opposite of what the BookTubers I now regularly watch call "mood reading," really burned me out on reading for a while.

Stack of banned books

Flash forward to a couple years ago. I was facilitating the book club of a (now previous) job and looking for books to recommend to my book club. In my Google search, I found some videos on YouTube of book recommendations for book clubs. This was pretty interesting but hold that thought. I wasn't obsessed yet. I was still falling into the same traps of reading books that aren't really for me; it was for my book club. But it started something very important: my want to read list, or To Be Read (TBR for short).

These videos had opened me up to all of these books that had come out in the years since I had forgotten how much I loved to read. And it seemed like anyone could make these videos: a young 20-something in New Jersey (her TBR videos are so fun); a couple in Utah who each have their own distinct accounts and book tastes for different audiences (she reads more romance and fantasy and he reads a lot of Stephen King and similar but then sometimes they do book swaps and that is also fun!); and a guy in England that has the hugest home library I've ever seen! 

And this is just a sampling of the BookTube that I have watched over the past couple of years. What really sucked me in was wanting to learn more about books that I was obsessed with! After I left that job with the book club, I didn't really have anyone to talk to about the books I was reading. So I turned to YouTube and the participatory culture it provided me to learn more. Specifically, I believe it was after I read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. 

Book Cover The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games universe is one that started while I was still in high school, with the first book releasing in September of 2008. It gained huge traction while I was attending college when the first movie came out in March of 2012. In case you were wondering, the following 4 movies were big events in my life and they all came out around (or in one case, on) my birthday in November. I loved the original trilogy of books and the movies were huge for me. So when I found out that I had missed a prequel coming out, I knew I had to make it a priority.

Imagine my surprise when the book and the movie did not live up to the hype that the original trilogy had left me with. I was devastated! I needed to know what other readers thought. I sought the validation that I was not alone in not enjoying this book! I wanted an explanation for what was going on with the plot and why this was how Suzanne Collins left the narrative! And I was not disappointed. There are tons of videos on YouTube explaining the plot of the book and comparing the book to the movie. I spent hours watching these videos to get the validation I felt I deserved.

Now, naturally, once you watch a video from a creator, you tend to get more suggestions like that content on your home feed so this is how I found a majority of the book YouTubing content I now regularly consume. And I am wondering if this is a missed opportunity for libraries? I haven't seen any libraries post content before that just come across my feed so I did a purposeful search and when searching just "library," most of the content (for me anyway, I am not sure if this is a targeted search based on items I have clicked before) that shows up is what I call a "vibe video." I put these on in the background sometimes when I am reading or doing homework and it usually has a calming image on the screen and some sort of no singing music attached to it that you can easily focus on something else while you fill the silence.

A screenshot from another "vibe video" called Cozy Hobbit Library.

So I narrowed the search by instead searching for "public library." I got some interesting results but still not what I was looking for. Lots of documentaries about how amazing public libraries are or a very interesting video about the architecture of the New York Public Library. However no content from actual public libraries. Could public libraries be using YouTube to cross-post their video content? Could they post longer content, like book recommendation videos, and get views from patrons? I'm not sure how low the barrier is to entry on YouTube as a participatory culture. But it seems to me that if all these people can figure it out, if it will help increase visibility, maybe libraries could benefit from posting on YouTube as well?

Comments

  1. Lauren FowlerSeptember 14, 2025 at 11:40 AM

    I loved reading about your BookTube journey, because me too! I also think you're really spot on about YouTube being kind of a missed opportunity for libraries. We put so much energy into Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook, but YouTube could reach patrons in a totally different way, especially for folks who want longer-form content.

    The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes conversation really resonated with me. I felt the same way, I was the first hold in all of Nassau County for TBOSAS, and when I finished two days later, my world came crashing down when I realized there was NO ONE to talk to about it. I found myself down a rabbit hole of social media posts, looking for someone to talk to about it. By the way, I used to write Hunger Games fanfic, so I totally understand the importance, haha. The craving for validation and discussion after finishing a book is exactly where libraries could step in--almost like a virtual book club. I can picture librarians posting reaction or discussion-style videos, or even patrons sharing their own takes. It would make the library feel like part of the conversation that’s already happening online.

    And you are right, we already have content (author talks, booklists, tutorials) but it usually gets stuck in reels, hidden folders, or buried on our website. Putting it on YouTube would extend the life and the reach of the content.

    I totally agree, if individual creators can figure it out, libraries can too. Now you’ve got me wondering what it would look like if every library had even a small YouTube presence. It feels like such a fun way to connect with people where they already are.

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