We had a wonderful meeting last week with 14 people in attendance!
Holley took us through the basics of Reader's Advisory and gave us tips and tools for giving good RA and covering the gaps in our knowledge/reading interests.
“Extra
is our ordinary.” – Regions commercial
Remember that we are aiming to be community partners rather than an
‘institution.’ One is friendly and collaborative, the other can be imposing or
intimidating. ~ Holley
General tips and rules of thumb:
1.
Track your reading and write reviews of books.
It will help you remember books you’ve read more easily and give you practice
in “selling” a book to a patron. See the RA toolkit for some options for book
tracking! (See the Book Blurb Madlib worksheet for a quick and easy way to
write a summary or recommendation).
2.
Read at least one thing in each popular
genre/author – enough to know what people are getting out of it. Skimming
is ok too!
3.
If you are not an expert in a genre/subject, but
a coworker is (and isn’t swamped with their own stuff) it is OK to ask them to
help or take over from you!
4.
Most patrons are not really looking for your
personal opinion, even if they say so. Patrons really want you to help them
figure out what they want.
- Customer service / situational awareness: Some patrons need help and some just want to be left alone to browse. Do they look lost? Do they look like they know what they’re doing? Does that situation change? Be aware of your patrons / surroundings.
5.
The “Shoe Store Method:” When recommending, it
can be helpful to give the patron one thing that is exactly what they asked
for, something that is similar, and then something that is a “reach” –
something different!
Good questions to ask during the RA Interview:
- What have you read that you really enjoyed recently?
- Who are some of your favorite authors?
- What have you read more than once?
- Do you want something similar or different to what you usually read?
- How do you want to feel?
- What TV shows/movies/videogames do you like? (if they’re not big readers)
- What are your deal-breakers: sex, violence, language?
Genre specific questions can be helpful, especially on more
subjective topics / readers who are focused on how a book makes them FEEL:
- Romance: What do you find romantic?
- Horror: What scares you?
- Mystery: Do you like your mysteries more cozy or more hard-boiled/noir?
Holley took us through Nancy Pearl’s “Doorways” for books: PLOT, CHARACTER, SETTING, and LANGUAGE. Check here for more information.
After reading through the article linked above, try practicing by answering these questions:
- Three of my favorite books and their biggest doorway (in your opinion)
- Three books with PLOT as the biggest doorway.
- Three books with CHARACTER as the biggest doorway.
- Three books with SETTING as the biggest doorway.
- Three books with LANGUAGE as the biggest doorway.
- Five ways to finish the sentence "I'm in the mood for..."
- Five reasons why someone may want to read a particular type of book.
We also practiced creating “Book Blurb Madlibs,” which can be a quick and easy way to recommend a book!
Displays & Flyers:
·
Remember when creating displays that you can mix
media! A thriller display can include books, music, tv, audiobooks, etc.
·
Remember that when you mark display items in
Sierra, they won’t show up on the paging list.
·
The 650 field in Sierra is for topics/subjects.
You can create lists based on this!
·
A “While You’re Waiting” read-a-like for popular
books/high demand holds display can be really helpful when the latest Kristin
Hannah/Freida McFadden/Sarah J Maas/etc. comes out.
·
Genre list flyers can be a great passive
recommendation method. You can recycle them by adding them to a “Book Menu”
binder when you’re ready to swap out displays. Great for patrons to browse
through on their own or for you to reference when you’re stuck!
·
You can create displays/shelves in Vega, and
through OverDrive if you have back-end access.
Other notes:
Shadow Mountain Publishing is a great resource for clean,
secular romances.
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