@Cynthia: I’m happy to hear it does work – people at my library are still skeptical.

@Erin: I have been limiting it to one empty stand per display (but it’s honestly still difficult to check my automatic response to pull a book to fill the open slot). So far so good – we only have three displays in the reference area, so upkeep is manageable. And no, dollar bills would not go over well, but if we do use bookmarks, I’d like them to have some kind of “value” – they could list readalikes, advertise library book groups, etc – something in addition to the “check me out!”

@Emily: That’s a good point – we could even encourage communication by having the little signs read something like, “This book can be checked out – ask at the desk for more on this subject.” Hopefully that would be enough prompt for people to feel okay in approaching us.

We have a similar problem at my library, but on a somewhat larger scale. We’re an unusual venue, so people often don’t even understand that they can check out the books on the shelves, much less the books on display.
Just to play devil’s advocate though, sometimes it’s nice to have an opener like “Can I check this book out?” before getting into weightier things like “where are the books on embarrassing topic X?”

@Abby: That’s actually the consensus staff is coming to in my library – many of us are bothered by the empty stands. We also are leaning towards trying bookmarks, too, except for a few things:

• We’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of stuff we print, just to conserve paper
• Everything we’ve thought of to print on the bookmarks all sounds slightly perverted and suggestive:
  • Check me out!
  • Pick me up and take me home!
  • Curl up in bed with me!

I’m sure there is some happy medium, so we’ll keep experimenting.

At my previous library, we stuck in little slips that said “Please check us out!”. Not for every book on the display, necessarily, but in a few of them.