One of our system's signature events has been a large Local Author book sale which allowed the public to meet local authors and purchase their books. Because of the pandemic, such an event was impossible, but staff did not want to neglect their important relationship with local authors or miss the opportunity to highlight their work for our patrons. The virtual program was devised to give local authors a platform and maintain engagement with the community while we were closed to public, in-person events.

The key element of innovation was providing a virtual opportunity for connection. While some authors were initially hesitant to send videos, once snippets of the first program aired, the increase in response and participation was exponential. We found that public response was also very positive and plan to continue this series even after large scale events are sanctioned. We have also been able to use parts of the original programs in other virtual offerings.

The goal of the program was to maintain the library's support of local authors by making sure they still had a platform to reach library patrons and the local community. The authors' response was overwhelmingly positive and we had more submissions than we could use by the end of the program. Public response was also positive — we heard from patrons on our social media that they enjoyed the profiles we aired and intended to read the books they'd heard about. This series helped the library build our virtual presence.