Insta Novels: Is the Future of Reading on Social?

The New York Public Library serves NYC, but has a global mission to eradicate illiteracy. To do this, the institution did the last thing expected of a century-plus old building lined with dusty bookshelves: inventive social media.

While the New York Public Library is not new to social media, this past year they did something different. The New York Public Library launched an Instagram campaign called Insta Novels. The campaign operated through Instagram’s Stories feature. Partnering with the agency Mother, Insta Novels converted classic reads into a visually pleasing format with the books’ (full) text accompanied by animation and illustrations by Magoz—which provided an immersive experience for young readers.

The first Insta Novel released was Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (in two parts). Charlotte Perkins’ The Yellow Wallpaper, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven followed.

“We’re always looking for ways to inspire people to read more, using unlikely places to reach new audiences,” said Richert Schnorr, Director of Digital Media at the library. “For a while, Instagram was seen as a younger platform, but I think that is changing dramatically. Our social media base has a lot of New York people, but it’s also national and global.” The campaign also advertised the library’s SimplyE app, which let readers borrow books from anywhere using a library card.

The New York Public Library’s Insta Novels won three 2019 Webby Awards, including Best Use of Social Media. Could this be more than an inventive campaign? Could this be the future of reading?