Tips for a successful Dial-A-Story service

Dial-A-Story works best when families know the number and have a reason to call again. These ideas come from libraries that run Dial-A-Story with LibraryCall, and from our own team.

Promote it where families are

The people who need Dial-A-Story most are often the ones who aren’t online, so a post on your website or social media won’t reach them on its own. Printed reminders around town will.

• Put flyers up where people wait: laundromats, doctors’ offices, grocery stores, the post office.
• Send flyers home through preschools and elementary schools, and hand them out at story times, outreach events and Summer Reading sign-ups.
• Tuck small cards or bookmarks into grab-and-go bags and holds.
• Print your Dial-A-Story number and this month’s stories in your library’s events calendar.
• Ask local radio stations to run a public service announcement. They’re free.
• Offer an article to school, community and local government newsletters. Their editors are usually glad to have one.

Our outreach templates include a press release, a letter to educators and a newsletter article, ready to copy.

Make the number easy to find

• List your Dial-A-Story number on your website’s phone and contact list, right beside the library’s main number.
• Add the story widget to your homepage or your children’s page, so people can listen online too. It comes with Storytime Direct and Dial-A-Story Studio, and it updates itself.
• Post your story calendar on social media. Now Playing has printable monthly calendars and ready-to-post images in English and Spanish.
• Mention it at the desk, at story times and at community events. Word of mouth goes a long way, especially in smaller communities.

Give callers a reason to call again

• Change your story at least once a week. The more often it changes, the more often families come back. Storytime Direct does this for you.
• If recording a new story every week is too much, mix in recordings from the Storytime Commons while you build your own collection.
• Plan stories around holidays, heritage months and your Summer Reading theme. The Storytime Commons themes Seasons and holidays and History are a good place to start.
• Try a weekly trivia question or secret code on the line to turn listening into a game.

Bring in voices your community knows

• Invite staff, teachers, volunteers and local guests to record stories. Children love hearing a voice they recognize. Our recording guide shows how to get a clean recording.
• Ask teens to record stories for younger children. It’s a volunteer opportunity for them and an early-literacy resource for everyone else.
• If many families in your community speak another language, give them a line of their own. LibraryCall stories come in English and Spanish, and Dial-A-Story Studio can have several phone numbers and caller menu options.
• Ask families what they’d like to hear, and plan your story calendar around it. If fairy tales circulate well at your library, schedule more of them.

Share the work

A small Dial-A-Story team, even two or three people, keeps the line fresh. Share out the scheduling, recording and promotion, and patrons and staff always have someone to ask.

Give it a few months

Dial-A-Story grows slowly. It usually takes a few months, with some ups and downs, before word spreads and calls pick up, so keep promoting and keep changing stories even while the numbers are small. One library went from 18 calls a month when it started to more than 100 a month by doing the things on this page.

Has something worked well at your library? Tell us. We’d love to share it.