2020: A Clear Vision for a Bright Future Together
Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe this first month of 2020 is nearly behind us. As the SVP and General Manager of Junior Library Guild, I wanted to take a moment during these first weeks of the New Year to express my deepest gratitude to the JLG community and to share some of the highlights from 2019 that we will be building on even more this year!
First and foremost, thank you for being part of the JLG family. And, when I say family, I mean it. We approach every member relationship individually, with the goal of providing one-on-one support and service to each of you—knowing that no one library, community, or educator is identical. Among our 24,000 members, no one subscription box is identical either, and each month we hand-pack your selections to ensure you get exactly what you and your readers want!
In 2020, we have exciting plans to build on the enhancements we rolled out in 2019 to provide an even greater amount of personalized service and support. Here's a quick list of highlights.
In 2019, we
- Surveyed our customers, formally and anecdotally, on what we could do to improve your experience.
- Improved our website-based, convenient swap feature, which allows you to swap out any book in your upcoming shipment with any other book from any other category.
- Implemented a Member Benefits Program which rewards member loyalty and offers member-specific pricing, SLJ and LJ discounts, online training discounts and more.
- Launched chat functionality on our website so you can access a sales or customer-service rep in a quick and convenient manner.
Here are just a few enhancements coming your way in 2020:
- Regular and consistent monthly swap schedules: On the 10th of every month, we will send you a preview of your next monthly delivery—and you’ll have 7 days to make your swap decisions before we begin packing your box. This consistency will help you plan each month and stay on top of the books coming in your shipments!
- New monthly emails will add serious convenience: You’ve got your hands full, so we’ve developed a new monthly email that will show you everything you need to know about your upcoming shipments, including cover art, book details and convenient links to manage your account. If you love what you see, great! If you’d like to make changes, you’ll be able to do that in a snap.
- A members-only Collection Advisor and Budget Maximizer tool: Upload your MARC records to this handy online platform to see an analysis of your collection and get budget-appropriate recommendations for categories or books that fill gaps in your collection. These tools help you stretch your dollars by identifying exactly what you need and directing you to the categories and online warehouse of recent titles to get the maximum number of books using our current discounts!
- A Librarian of the Month award, which includes a blog write-up, a feature in our monthly newsletter, recognition on social media and a special certificate and gift from JLG.
At JLG, we believe it is our honor and our obligation to help you, by partnering with you to develop a generation of students who love to read because they are being presented outstanding material that has been chosen for them by their educators and by us. What a humbling opportunity we have, together.
Please reach out to us if there are other ways we can improve your JLG experience or further support you in your collection development efforts. And, we will continue to drive advancements and enhancements to our service every day!
Sincerely,
Sean Lockwood
SVP/General Manager
Junior Library Guild
