Taking Back Readers' Advisory

"What should I read next?" asks a patron eagerly. "What should I tell her?" groans the librarian inwardly. In the best of times, readers' advisory can be a slippery thing; recommending the next good mystery to devour requires a lot more imagination than your standard reference question, which may be why more libraries boast signs saying "Information Desk" than "Ask Me What To Read."

Now, with budgets stretched thin and librarians busily helping users navigate the Internet, there is less time than ever to share the joy of reading with patrons, who must fall back on the "Readers Also Bought…" feature of Amazon and its kind. With the new technology, however, librarians might find the solution: remote-access readers' advisory.

In its annual book-buying survey (see "Serving More with Less ," LJ 2/15/03, p. 42–44), LJ found that fully half of its library respondents had some sort of presence on the web. And a quick tour of these sites proves them to be impressive indeed: often, they're loaded with best books lists, recommended titles, and links to everything from newspaper reviews to databases boasting good reads, with plenty of color, intriguing design elements, and a feel of openness and welcome.

Yet the promise is only partly fulfilled. Even as librarians clamber on the bandwagon (they packed the room for "Creating RA Web Sites," a preconference at this year's American Library Association gathering in Toronto), those already online with book talk concede that more can—and should—be done. Fortunately, a second generation of remote-access readers' advisors are already introducing innovations. These efforts, mostly in the early stages, point to the possibilities.

Readers' advisory is, of course, a unique service to the community that librarians, with their particular knowledge, training, and sensitivity to patron needs, can provide. Taking it online not only extends its reach but also offers exciting new approaches. It's also a terrific way to promote the library. Through remote-access readers' advisory, librarians can show off their resources in one easy-to-reach spot. They can build better relationships with patrons they already know, who may be less able in these busy times to visit the library itself. And they can serve a whole new crowd that has never managed—and may never bother—to get through the door.

So, librarians: unite. It's time to take back readers' advisory from the online behemoths, which can sell stacks of books at a click but can't necessarily say what's in them or why you might like them. After all, contends Terry Beck, adult and young adult services, Sno-Isle Regional Library, WA, "It's true that Amazon does a sort of canned product, but it's really just matching buying patterns. That's not readers' advisory!"

Indeed, the delicate act of connecting reader and book— "in some respects a type of counseling," observes Seattle PL librarian David Wright—cannot easily be mechanized, and librarians make a big mistake when they abandon it to Amazon.

It's not just that librarians can do it better: they've got the training, after all, and a strong sense of whether their patrons will opt for the latest blood-and-guts thriller or the new translation of Don Quixote. But librarians reluctant to hit the keyboard end up jeopardizing the future of the library itself. Observes Wright, "Reading an online recommendation from your librarian or a neighbor is a great angle for us. It's a way to remain viable in the community." Mary K. Chelton, doyenne of readers' advisory and currently a professor at Queens College, CUNY, is even blunter. "We can all buy from Barnes and Noble online," she warns, "but libraries have one very valuable thing going for them, which is local support and interest. If they don't establish a local identity, how are they ever going to ask for money?"

Search the average library web site for readers' tips, and you'll likely find lists—or means of finding them. They will include best sellers lists from the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and the local newspapers; links to databases like NoveList, Overbooked, and What Do I Read Next?; further links to sites from Booksense.com to libraries like Morton Grove PL, IL, that have exemplary readers' services; and some sort of recommended reading list.

That's good, but even librarians who themselves use these sites argue that they could be better. First, simply finding book information can be a challenge; often, it's buried under a heading like "Information." If you've got the goods, you should feature them prominently under a heading that the average patron can understand, like "Finding Good Books." Second, databases like NoveList can be rich resources for patron and librarian alike, but frequently they are lumped with electronic databases that have nothing to do with books and hence are lost to readers.

Finally, the reading lists offered on many sites are often neither original nor annotated. They simply aren't that useful to readers hungry for good books. In particular, generic lists can't address the wide range of reader interests in a community, and many of the titles offered will be familiar to bibliophiles anyway; an original list offers the charm of discovery. Certainly, librarians who don't make the effort to post even a few favorites are missing an outreach opportunity.

The problem is pervasive. Notes Barry Trott, head, adult services, Williamsburg Regional Library, VA, and a panelist at the "Creating RA Web Sites" preconference, "In his 2000 MSLS thesis for UNC-SILS, James Kelly looked at readers' advisory web sites and discovered that only ten percent offered 'original' readers' advisory services, that is, content beyond links to other sites. From my quick look at readers' advisory sites out there, I would say that Kelly's statistics are still consistent."

Of course, providing links to a range of sites is yet another admirable way that librarians serve the community. Patrons can be assured that the sites are carefully vetted and hence reliable, and directing them to a site tailored to their interests saves them a lot of stumbling around on the Internet. As Cleveland PL's Tracy Strobel observes, such links "are just another thing to give the patrons. Why deprive them just because we haven't had the time to make a list?"

Given the time constraints of the typical librarian's job, especially in smaller libraries, pulling together one's own list is no small challenge. Still, librarians might stop and think that they are better situated than the folks at Amazon or the New York Times to suggest what their patrons will like. Such suggestions "address community needs because they are done by the people who know the community really well," affirms Rivkah Sass, director, Omaha PL. And members of the community also know their librarians, which can make their hot picks more trustworthy than a reading list furnished by an anonymous critic. Routinely posting those picks on the library's web site brings them to the greatest number of readers, pulls interested patrons into the library (especially when there's an option to reserve), and helps give the library a strong community profile.

While librarians are drafting those lists, they might also consider embellishing them with a few comments—or a full-blown review. Otherwise, patrons can't make sense of the books and will have to go elsewhere for the information they need to make any choices. In particular, "fiction titles are evocative, not descriptive," insists Chelton. As Sass sums it up, "What's the point of a book list if you don't know what a book is about?"

Some librarians might protest that it takes a lot of work to craft even a few choice words for an online book list. But not Ruth Held. "It really doesn't take much time after you set it up," insists Held, reader's club coordinator, Charlotte and Mecklenberg County PL, NC. Her library boasts an exemplary web site, which includes a "Reader's Club" section featuring staff- and some patron-written reviews on a wide range of books. It does help that several people work on the site, plus a web manager, a position a smaller library couldn't afford.

But a form on the intranet helps staff members write their reviews, and perks like online reviewers' spotlights and prizes during Reader's Club Month in January (how about two days off work?) encourage participation. In fact, once bitten by the review-writing bug, many librarians swell with pride. "They really love to see themselves on the Internet," chuckles Held.

In some cases, the decision to post annotated lists has truly helped librarians, especially in large systems where each branch has been generating its own readers' advisory material. "It is labor intensive," confirms Sharon McGlinn, adult services librarian, eLibrary, Hennepin County PL, MN, "and my next project is to go back to staff and come up with an organized way of producing new lists. But for a large system like ours, the advantage of doing readers' advisory online is that the 26 branches that have in the past really done a lot of this work on their own now have it a lot more centralized. We're working toward sharing the work and the information, and having it online has really inspired us."

Posting original, annotated lists may help book-crazy patrons, but they do have to come to the web site. Some libraries make the extra effort and rely on email to get the information to them. Such efforts are just beginning to blossom. Some libraries, for instance, have started online newsletters that drop book lists right into patrons' laptops while offering updates on important library events. Hennepin County PL sends out its newsletter once a month to a list of 150 interested patrons.

Other libraries, like Columbus Metropolitan Library and King County Library, WA, ask patrons to complete a reading profile and then send email alerts winging their way whenever a book of interest arrives. In some regards, this service recalls Morton Grove PL's fabled Matchbook program, which used to mail lists of compatible new reads to its profiled patrons but has itself chosen email. Columbus calls this service Just for You, while King County prefers Book Alert. In Seattle, Washington Center for the Book's Nancy Pearl opts for awareness services, to which Seattle PL's Wright retorts, "I would call it current awareness services. It's really more book promotion than readers' advisory, but it's equally important."

Whatever its name and whatever you consider it, this service promises to be an exciting and effective new way to connect readers and books. "It's the spam you want," concludes Sno-Isle's Beck.

Perhaps the best way to do remote-access readers' advisory is to be interactive, which most closely recalls the face-to-face encounters that define traditional advisory. In fact, many librarians do chat online with patrons—to answer reference questions. In some libraries, they field questions about books as well but aren't willing to declare themselves. "We haven't marketed our live chats as a readers' advisory service, although we do get such questions," observes Hennepin's McGlinn. Librarians who don't go for live chat may still use email to handle one-on-one requests. "I have learned that if the web site says Ask a Librarian, people will ask anything," observes Beck.

In this busy world, is 24/7 live chat about books really possible? Ask Cleveland PL, which has just taken the plunge. "We've had online reference for a couple of years now and thought readers' advisory would be a natural fit," observes Strobel, Cleveland's web applications supervisor. "So we put together a committee and got some project help." The project started with the idea of live chat, then quickly expanded to include the so-called genre geniuses. These are experts throughout the system who help edit the web pages as well as contribute booklists (called "Readers' Resources") and backup advice to the online advisors. In addition, the committee thought up the idea of a Book Tracker to help patrons remember what they're reading and forward lists to friends. The entire service is called ReadThisNow.

The service uses the same software as the library's live reference service, and responsibility for answering incoming emails rotates regularly. "We cover daytime and evening hours on a schedule, and in the middle of the night the service is outsourced to LSSI, which hires insomniac freelance librarians," explains Cynthia Orr, Cleveland's collection manager. (For more on Cleveland's new e-initiatives, see "The Virtual Gets Real" in the next issue of LJ, Sept. 15th.) Some of those who volunteered for the front lines had ample readers' advisory experience, while others were relative newcomers. But all had intensive training in both the advisory and technical aspects of their new assignment, and all declare themselves thrilled to be a part of something that is making library history.

Cleveland is going gently, holding back on full-scale promotion until the system has been fully tested. But Strobel affirms the value of splitting online readers' advisory from its reference cousin. "We can market it as a specific product to specific people and get different groups of people in the library," she explains. "The beautiful thing is the possibility of follow-up; the patron can email back and build a trusting relationship."

So, how are librarians across the country responding to Cleveland's bold experiment? With an understandable mix of caution and envy. "I can imagine abuses," muses Seattle PL's Wright, "like snap judgments and on-the-fly recommendations. But this service has some good potential, especially the initial interview. A lot of readers' advisory involves drawing out the reader, and chat is an effective way of doing that. Ultimately, it depends on how well you do readers' advisory, period."

Plenty of librarians would like to try remote-access readers' advisory or expand the services they have, but they're not up to even a few hours of live chat. An alternative is online book discussion groups, the virtual version of the popular phenomenon. There are several approaches. Columbus Metropolitan Library posts a monthly book choice and solicits comments, much like Amazon. Williamsburg Regional Library offers an online free-for-all, which, says Trott, "I modeled after a music bulletin board where I lurk." Participants, who can read comments unannounced but must register to post, chat amiably about favorite titles instead of focusing on a selected title.

Hennepin County PL takes yet another approach, choosing a title and then formulating the discussion as an electronic discussion. "When we revised our web site, we really wanted to increase the visibility of the readers' advisory features," explains McGlinn. "We wanted to offer not only the more traditional book lists but also have it interactive. Book groups just seemed like a natural." The online discussion reaches over 200 people, with a new book selected for focus each month. Though it may not seem that busy, a recent survey flushed out some hidden users. "I wish I had more time to write," volunteers one patron, "but I always read the comments. Thanks for the service."

Online book discussion groups are still struggling to find their place in the readers' advisory universe, and no one says that managing them is easy. "It's not the same kind of feeling as a book group with eight people you know," concedes McGlinn, whose experience has taught her a whole new way to moderate book discussions.

In some ways, such groups mirror the problems of remote-access readers' advisory generally. It's new to users, who may be traditionalists not altogether comfortable with the technology. It's not quite the same as a face-to-face talk in the stacks. It can be time-consuming to set up and manage, though sharing the workload with nearby libraries can ease the burden and double the fun. But remote-access readers' advisory has tremendous potential. Ours is a virtual world, and libraries are very much a part of it. Let's not leave readers' advisory to Amazon.