Lizzo is a lot of things—singer, songwriter, classically trained flutist—but a “bookstagrammer” she is not. So how did she end up at the Library of Congress (LC) in 2022? LC staff told the story at “Bookstagrammers are People Too: Boosting Library Engagement with Influencer Marketing,” a June 28 session of the American Library Association’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia.
A tweeted invitation from then-Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, teasing the world’s largest collection of a single instrument, did the trick. Lizzo’s scheduled tour turned into a three-hour visit as she sampled centuries-old flutes; the viral moment involved an impromptu performance with a crystal model made for James Madison in 1813.
Then there was the press release, the media coverage, the website hits, the social media follows, and the onstage callout—the kind of quantifiable impact that speaks to elected officials and library boards. “No library marketing budget in the history of the world is going to be able to get you these kinds of results,” said Nicholas Brown-Cáceres, assistant chief of LC’s music division. “If you do influencer marketing right, it’s an opportunity get the voices that people trust and follow in your communities to help amplify the good work that you’re doing.”
“It’s always fun to have a celebrity or an athlete at your library, but the most important part is to make sure you stay focused and connect them to your collection or a program that goes back to your community,” said Roswell Encina, LC’s chief communications officer. He highlighted other examples of influencer marketing, like Keanu Reeves posing with his Los Angeles Public Library card and ALA’s iconic READ poster series (conceived before “influencer marketing” was even a thing).
Hawa Jalloh, librarian at Prince George’s County (Md.) Memorial Library System, pulled off a similarly impressive feat in 2023 with former-President Barack Obama, who appeared in a video as part of the library’s Rock Banned campaign.
Jalloh was a bookstagrammer before she became a librarian, and in both roles she focuses on amplifying Black voices and creators of color across channels and keeping her recommendations fresh. “I’m always grateful for the bookstagrammers I follow, because they give me inspiration every day when I’m looking for suggestions of books that go on display within my library,” she said. “Google’s great, but when you have people whose opinion you trust, you go to them.”
