reading wildly

I just read (what I considered to be) a great reader's advisory article in the March/April 2014 issue of American Libraries magazine, "Reading Wildly: One library staff's journey toward excellent readers' advisory" by Abby Johnson.

Ms. Johnson is a children's services/outreach manager at New Albany-Floyd County (Ind.) Public Library and you may read more of her writing at www.abbythelibrarian.com.

Her article explores RA work for the non-voracious reader.  By that, I don't necessarily mean someone who doesn't like to read (and really, what a profession to pick if you don't like to read), but more along the lines of having to do RA work in a genre/department in which you don't feel comfortable.  For my part, this is YA.  I do like the YA that I read, but I haven't explored widely OR deeply since my YA lit class in library school and the kids who benefited from my experience then are seniors in college now.  It's embarrassing.

She does point out that this "reading wildly" approach works particularly well in children's departments, or just younger readers in general.  Here is a small excerpt from the article:

In January 2013, I developed the Reading Wildly program to inspire my staff to read different genres and improve their reader's advisory skills.  Each month we discuss a genre or subject, based on patron demand, and each staff member is required to read one book in that genre and booktalk it to the group at our meeting.  They may use work time to read only if date-sensitive projects are completed.  We meet once a month, separate from our monthly department meeting , to share these books with one another.  (You can find our book review form and monthly reading lists at www.abbythelibrarian.com)

She mentions more ideas, and just generally has some good things to say about RA work, in the rest of the article, which you may find on the American Libraries website in an online version on page 58.