How complicated can it be to take a photograph of a book cover for the purpose of posting it on Instagram? Fairly complicated, particularly for those trying to create an image in what has become known as “bookface” style.

Bookface involves strategically lining up your face or another body part alongside a book cover that features a matching body part so that there appears a melding of life and art. Librarians and other book lovers post these photos weekly on visual apps like Instagram, using the caption #BookfaceFriday. The minitrend is giving a boost to the digital presence of institutions that are, by definition, purveyors of analog information.

A particularly ambitious bookface endeavor can call for a team effort. Employees of the Burlingame Public Library in California enlisted six people to take 50 shots over 20 minutes for a triple bookface image featuring three mystery titles. The photo — showing people’s faces morphing into the covers of “Guilt by Association” by Marcia Clark, “Devious” by Lisa Jackson and Charlaine Harris’s “Dead Until Dark” — generated nearly 150 likes on Instagram, almost three times the library’s average post.