For more than 40 years, book supplier Children’s Plus, Inc. has been helping librarians do their jobs more effectively by providing personal touches such as shelf-ready processing and complimentary collection development services—and its customers have appreciated this extra attention. Now, Children’s Plus has rebranded as Libraria and launched a new website that will make getting the right books into the hands of readers even easier.

Finding the time to do their jobs effectively is one of the biggest challenges facing school and public librarians today, says Mike Beechin, chief operations officer for Libraria. Librarians must continually do more with less, and they don’t have a lot of time to build and maintain their collections.

“When trying to build a collection that meets their curriculum goals and reflects the diversity of their community, librarians need tools that can help them,” Beechin says. “Giving them the tools to do this quickly and efficiently is one of our main goals in launching the new site.”

Leveling the playing field

The new Libraria website went live in August 2024 in conjunction with the company’s new name and tagline, “Booksellers for the Modern Librarian.” Founder and President Kevin Walsh explains that the name Children’s Plus suggested a children’s book company, when in reality “we are so much more.”

Although the company has a new name, its focus on the core values that made it successful remains unchanged: to provide the highest quality materials in the best bindings to readers across the country, while offering unparalleled customer service that helps librarians be more effective.

Walsh’s goal in starting the business was to get books into the hands of children and young adults who needed them the most. “I genuinely believe that literacy is the only way to level the playing field for children who are disenfranchised,” he says.

His company would sell books in poverty-stricken urban areas and small rural communities where many salespeople wouldn’t go at the time. “Our mission was to bring the best binding and materials to those kids and provide not only materials they would see themselves in and relate to, but also books that would open new opportunities for them to grow and foster their imaginations,” he notes.

The company distinguished itself from the competition through its relentless focus on customer service. “In addition to offering the same high-quality materials as our competitors, we provide shelf-ready processing and complimentary collection development services,” Walsh says, “ensuring our clients receive exceptional value and support.”

Helping librarians curate their collections by suggesting new titles that meet their community’s unique requirements is something Libraria does at no extra cost.

Personalized support

Regional Sales Manager Yolanda Murray says she enjoys helping librarians spend their limited budgets effectively, getting the highest return for their investment while also meeting the needs of their community.

It’s this one-on-one relationship that customers value the most, she says, adding: “That’s something we see as very important.”

Caroline Carr, the librarian at Keller High School in Texas, has been working with the company for about eight years now, and Murray is her sales rep. “Yolanda goes above and beyond,” she says. “She puts together collections for me, and she offers suggestions on titles.”

As the only librarian for a school with more than 3,300 students, “I don’t have a lot of time,” Carr observes. Having Libraria as a key partner has made her life much easier.

Susan Wray, assistant director and chief operating officer for the Mid-Continent Public Library in Missouri, has worked with the company for more than 25 years. In fact, Libraria has supported Mid-Continent’s summer learning program by working with librarians to curate lists of summer reading books with broad appeal.

The librarians at each of the system’s 34 branch locations can choose and order titles from this master list, and the company ships the books pre-processed. “It has been a tremendous help for us,” Wray says.

Christine Cannata, the librarian for a K–8 school district in suburban Chicago, says her district has also relied on Libraria for help with content curation.

“Our middle school has taken on a multiyear task of replacing 80 percent of our very aged nonfiction,” she notes. “I have worked really closely with our sales rep to get suggestions I might not have thought about. It’s been a great experience.”

Embarking on a project of this scope has been “very daunting,” Cannata says, “but having a partner organization to assist with this task has been very helpful.”

Cannata describes her district’s relationship with Libraria as highly collaborative. “We’ve been together for so long that our sales rep actually knows what’s going on with our collections,” she says, “and we continue to have conversations about how they can best support our needs.”

Libraria has even been willing to accommodate some unusual requests from Cannata. For instance, “we made a pretty radical decision to change the layout of our spine labels, so they run vertically instead of horizontally—and we’ve shortened the barcode,” she explains. “Our kids come into the library for only a very short time, and we want to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for.” Libraria has worked with the district to satisfy this request.

Carr, the Keller High librarian, was an early user of Libraria’s new website. She has used the site to curate book lists and order titles, and she’s thrilled with the new design.

“This is exactly what I wanted,” she says. “It’s more intuitive and easy to use. I feel empowered.”
 

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