Book Recommendation Form
Move past a suggestion scrawled on a comment card or emailed to whoever happens to check the inbox. Route requests through one consistent process, apply the same criteria to every title, and keep a record of what was requested, considered, and decided.
A patron's book recommendation, whether it's a purchase suggestion for the collection or a request for a personalized read, deserves the same thing every other title in your collection gets: a documented, consistent process rather than an ad hoc yes or no. The American Library Association's own guidance on selection policies makes the case directly: a written, consistently applied process removes arbitrary decision-making, gives staff something to point to besides personal judgment, and shows that a decision followed predetermined standards rather than an individual reaction to a specific title.
That matters more than it used to. ALA's preliminary count for the first eight months of 2024 recorded 414 documented attempts to censor library materials covering 1,128 unique titles, down from the year before but still far above pre-2020 levels. Most of that activity is about removing titles, not adding them, but it's the same underlying principle: a library that can point to a consistent, criteria-based process for every title it handles is in a stronger position than one making case-by-case calls with no paper trail.
Typeform's book recommendation form captures the title, format, and reason for the request alongside whatever your library or bookstore actually uses to evaluate it, budget, demand, or fit with your collection policy, so every suggestion runs through the same criteria instead of depending on who happened to read the email first. Every submitted request becomes a timestamped record of what was asked for, by whom, and what happened next, the file you want if a patron follows up months later or a purchase decision gets questioned.
A book recommendation form is how a patron or reader submits a book they'd like a library, bookstore, or book club to consider, either as a purchase suggestion for the collection or as a request for a personalized recommendation. It typically captures the title, author, format, and why the person is asking for it.
Because consistency is what protects the decision later. ALA's guidance on collection development policies notes that a documented, criteria-based process removes arbitrary decision-making and gives staff something to point to when a purchase, or a decision not to purchase, gets questioned. A form that captures the same information for every request makes it easier to apply the same standard to all of them.
No. The form is the intake mechanism; the policy is what actually decides how a request gets evaluated, budget, demand, format, fit with the collection. The form works best when it feeds directly into whatever criteria your policy already lays out, rather than existing as a separate, informal side channel.
Capture enough to evaluate the request consistently and follow up later:
- Requester name and contact information, if a response is expected
- Title, author, and format requested
- Reason for the request or intended use
- Any relevant criteria your policy uses, such as budget category, audience, or urgency
- Space to record the decision and follow-up
Yes. Typeform can send an automatic confirmation when someone submits a request, and if you want a record of a specific commitment, such as a bookstore confirming a special order, its signature question lets someone sign by typing, drawing, or uploading their signature, time-stamped and locked once submitted. It's available on Typeform's Growth Flow, Growth Custom, and Enterprise plans.
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