Libraries try all kinds of ways to attract new visitors and retain existing members. Think of large alliterative advertisements in Rotterdam's public spaces ("from bakkie pleur to baby book") and savings campaigns for young people. Which means do you deploy for which target group?

"From drag queen to DigiD. In the Bieb you experience more". A large poster in a Rotterdam metro station calls on travellers to come to the library. Libraries are buzzing with life. That they now offer much more than access to books is, of course, long known to readers of Bibliotheekblad and recent library visitors. But how do you get this message across to people who have not recently stepped across the threshold of a library? And as a library, how do you not only engage new visitors, but also retain them? Libraries can use all kinds of practical means for this purpose, such as posters, stickers and certificates.

"Top secret - don't tell. The public library hereby declares that Rianne van Melik has unravelled many secrets and has therefore been inducted into the Secret Readers' Society." My tiny fingerprint acts as the 'secret code' on the plasticised charter, which I have kept in a box of important documents for more than 30 years. Even as a young girl, I used to visit the library every week. Here I would go through the cuttings folders looking for information for my talk on animal testing. Here I begged the librarian until I could borrow adult books earlier than my age allowed. And here I participated in every action organised for young people, such as solving riddles.

The latter still happens frequently. Scavenger hunts and sticker campaigns attract many children to my own library. Every time they have borrowed books, they can get a sticker for their savings card. With eight stickers, that savings card is full and children can choose a present, or continue saving for an even nicer gadget with a second savings card. It seems to be working: lending figures among this target group have increased in recent years. It is difficult to determine whether this is specifically due to the sticker campaign, or (also) to other initiatives such as reading aloud activities and the increasing use of reading consultants in schools and pre- and after-school clubs. Also, the rising lending figures could simply be a recovery after the corona dip. Despite this disclaimer, the sticker campaign is a success anyway in terms of the fun contact we have with young readers when they come to the counter to collect their sticker. 

Yet, as staff and volunteers, we are especially critical of the sticker campaign. Our work is interrupted every time a child comes asking for a sticker every few minutes. The presents are often plastic trinkets that sometimes have little to do with reading or writing. It is also unclear whether children actually start reading more because of the stickers. In some cases, they do not come to the library themselves, but their parent collects the sticker. Doesn't the campaign then somewhat overshoot its goal?

Finally, one might wonder whether it makes sense to spend limited library budgets on young children with free membership, who, together with their parents, already know how to find the library reasonably well. Why not focus primarily on retaining paying members or attracting new members? From that point of view, a poster in a metro station might yield more results than a sticker campaign for youngsters. Either way, posters, stickers and certificates are tools that can bind people to the library. But how can you do this in a more sustainable and inclusive way?