Library Guides: June Madness: A Month of Book Bracketology: About

Components

Book List: We divided the list of titles into four regions based on geographies on the UD campus. Each region represented a category of books--Mysteries/Thrillers, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Non-Fiction, and Modern Classics. Each book in the list was linked to the item either in our catalog or that of our regional statewide consortium catalog, OhioLINK.
Week One Voting: Using the images populated through the LibGuides “Book from the Catalog” feature, we created four LibWizard surveys with eight questions each, representing the first-round matchups in all four regions. As each week’s voting concluded, it was simple to identify winners and pull forward the HTML for each new pairing in the bracket.
Bracket Visualization: We used a Google Sheet exported to PNG and PDF for screen readers to visualize the whole bracket.
Predictions: An embedded Qualtrics survey powered the predictions and bracket submission portion of the event. Through this, we determined who had a correct prediction for the champion book and who had the best overall bracket (a co-author on this poster and the Dean of University Libraries, respectively).

Engagement

A blog post was written in coordination with the Marketing and Outreach Team to announce the beginning of June Madness. A plan was devised for a future blog post to close the loop, announcing the winner and indicating plans for future uses of bracketology.
Social media reminders were planned with the University Libraries’ Coordinator of Marketing and Engagement to keep the community invested in the project as the tournament progressed. Internal emails were sent to library faculty and staff, and an announcement was made on a university-wide internal platform.
The goal of the project was to create a passive program which allowed faculty, staff, students, and the community to interact with the library while exploring the library’s Leisure Reads collection, and also learning about library borrowing services like OhioLINK and SearchOhio.

LibWizard Implementation

LibWizard Survey Layout

A sample survey layout, with dividers between each pairing. Using "Reuse Questions" option, you can pull HTML and formatting forward from previous surveys.

Note: the "errors" that show up next to three of the questions have to do with the lack of question text. It's uncertain why some of the questions have this and others do not, but it does not impact the display or function of the survey.

Screenshot of individual survey question, displaying placement of HTML.

LibWizard Survey Question Layout

By leaving the question space blank, you can use simple HTML in the answer field to great a more visually-engaging poll. The image URL is retrieved from the "Book from the Catalog" content type.

Sample HTML:

<img alt="Heavy : an American memoir by Kiese Laymon" loading="lazy" src="https://syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=1501125656/LC.GIF&client=springshare" style="width:90px" /><br /> HEAVY by Kiese Laymon

Screenshot of LibWizard voting results in tabular form

LibWizard Survey Results

Survey results appear in tabular format by default, with all HTML automatically stripped out for easy viewing. Good for at-a-glance overviews of an ongoing poll.

Exported CSVs also strip out HTML if there is interest in deeper statistical analysis of voting trends.

LibWizard column chart representation of voting between two books.

LibWizard Field Analysis

Using LibWizard Field Analysis, it's helpful to generate a chart to quickly visualize winners of each pairing. Switching between the different questions is also simple, using the drop-down box containing the different questions included in the survey.

Future Considerations

This year will serve as a benchmark in terms of participation. The effectiveness of the marketing and promotion of future brackets can be measured in part by comparing participation to this year. We hope to see greater participation in the future when there is more time to plan the project, and when on-campus promotion is possible.
There is potential for cross-campus collaboration with this program. Because we had books representing four different areas on campus, it’s possible to see participation from the four distinct departments. This could include allowing faculty and staff from those areas to pick their books, aid in the promotion of materials, or contribute towards a prize for the winning bracket.
There were only three people responsible for picking all 64 books, and while we strove to create a diverse list, we are certain we could have provided wider representation and fewer titles in the “old white dude” canon. For future events, we may involve a poll of the campus population for suggestions, then filter that list with input from the library’s Diversity & Inclusion team.
64 books is a lot! The intended scope of the project--a full bracket recreation of the March Madness tournament--may not have been the most practical for participants. Other libraries, such as RCCC, have used smaller formats to good effect.
COVID-19 limitations. While this project arose from the need for engaging remote programming, we couldn’t help but think how much more we could have done with in-person components: prizes, physical displays, copies of the books for checkout, alternate voting methods, and on and on. Ideally the smaller activities ahead of time would lead nicely into the main event and stoke enthusiasm for the web component, and the online guide portion would direct patrons back into the building throughout the event.

June Madness: A Month of Book Bracketology

Introduction