LJ Series "Redefining RA": Reading Maps Remake RA

Re-create a book's entire universe online, and transform readers' advisory

By Neal Wyatt -- Library Journal, 11/1/2006

For years, readers' advisory (RA) librarians focused primarily on matching readers to books based upon the concept of appeal—traditionally considered pacing, character, story line, and frame (setting, tone, atmosphere, etc.). For example, readers who enjoy fast-paced action adventures with series characters may enjoy books by both Matthew Reilly and Clive Cussler. But appeal can take you only so far. The current RA renaissance gives us a chance to rethink this approach. Call it Whole Collection Readers' Advisory Service (see “Whole Collection RA,” p. 42), which involves the extension of RA work beyond fiction and appeal-only considerations—and the concept of reading maps.

There is more involved in the reading and the next-reading process than the fiction/appeal construct—the idea that, say, some readers want action-packed drama in straightforward prose, while others prefer lush writing focused on characters or ideas—that created the foundations for RA work. Books have internal lives of their own that readers want to reexperience, and they have additional elements or references that readers want to explore. For example, readers are sparked by the history and decor of Versailles, the causes of the French Revolution, and life in the court of Louis XVI when they read Sena Jeter Naslund's Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette.

The primary tool we have used in the fiction/appeal method of RA is the read-alike, a listing of titles based upon appeal. Read-alikes do not lend themselves well to experiencing the world of a book or exploring its references. But reading maps do.

Reading maps are web-based visual journeys through books that chart the myriad associations and themes of a title via other books, pictures, music, links to web sites, and additional material. Reading maps open up the world of the book for the reader by diagramming the internal life of the book, allowing readers to inhabit the text and its outward connections, and enabling readers to follow threads of interest that stem from any particular part of the work.

To illustrate how to create a reading map, we can look at Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Bloomsbury, 2004). This long book, perhaps inadequately described as a historical fantasy novel, features a steady but moderately paced narrative, well-developed characters, and beautifully constructed sentences; it has an interesting and inventive story line and a magical and mythic tone that is dark and intriguing. A wonderful book and a unique reading experience, it has few, if any, true read-alikes. For example, Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Sorcery and Cecelia; or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country (Harcourt Children's, 2003) (and its sequels) shares the everyday magic but not the tone, style, or density. Likewise, the Harry Potter books, which have even more magic, do not match in story line, character, mood, or point of view. Nonmagical books work even less well, and while Austen and Dickens might combine to create writing somewhat like Clarke's, neither is a read-alike for her.

The more distinctive a title is, the harder it is for appeal to capture why a reader enjoyed it in a way that can help lead to other positive reading experiences. There may indeed be other books that have the same pace, world building, and elegance of language, as well as an inventive story line, but that does not mean that the reader will enjoy them, or, more to the point, experience them in a way that he or she will associate with Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. The very lack of read-alikes is an indication that a different RA approach is required. This is a book in need of a map.

How to make a map

Reading maps can be elaborate and wide ranging; they can be simple and track a journey to one location; or they can be directly connected to one book but branch off in many different directions. Reading maps do not have to be intricate to be effective, but they offer the possibility for almost limitless exploration and, ultimately, for the connection of one map to another.

To create a reading map, you need a place to start. This can be a topic or a specific title (see “7 Reasons To Make Maps” for ideas). The first time you make a map, pick an area you know well and that holds your interest so that the elements will come readily to mind. Also, plan to build a simple map. The Strange & Norrell map (see p. 40 and www.overbooked.org/neal_wyatt_reading_maps) is structured in three segments. The opening page explores the book itself. The second and third segments link off of the main page to two more index pages that explore the world around the book and its references. This allows many aspects to be included without overwhelming the user, and it makes the actual creation of the map easier.

Use your first map as a trial run to establish guidelines for the future. Decide what elements you want to include in any map you make, e.g., annotations, read-alikes, book discussion questions, reviews, links into your catalog, links to e-resources, links to electronic texts, and interviews with the author.

Consider the book

Think about the internal world of the book and any major threads. Also consider appeal; although whole collection RA moves beyond appeal, it does not ignore it. Key appeal elements with regards to maps include:

Character Real-life and mythical characters lend themselves to all sorts of explorations, in both fiction and nonfiction. Made-up characters who have particular interests or connections, such as Will Cooper in Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons, can be linked to many different resources. In this case, they include the history of the Cherokee nation, the Trail of Tears, and the Civil War as well as real-life characters such as William Holland Thomas, Davy Crockett, Sen. John C. Calhoun, and President Andrew Jackson. Series characters have built-in opportunities for links, including the other titles in the series, occupations, hobbies, and connected fictional characters.

Story line How the book is constructed (including superstructure issues, e.g., Is it action oriented, cinematic, episodic, issue based?) can be pulled apart to set up directions to explore in a reading map. The plot and subplots can be used to inform map content.

Setting Readers often want to read more about a time and/or location they find intriguing. Use the settings of the book to begin to structure a map. Once the settings are in place, many different elements can be added to each locale—starting a domino effect of maps within maps.

Detail When readers are hooked on one aspect, such as the art of Leonardo da Vinci in The Da Vinci Code, they will naturally seek more information on the topic, therefore including links about detail elements is critical in reading maps.

The subjects of a book also often drive the interest of readers and allow for a wide range of branching off (side trips) for a map to trace. Even though subject is not traditionally part of appeal, it is an important element to consider.

For the Strange & Mr. Norrell map, character was very important. The book is peopled with historical characters such as King George III, John Murray, Wellington, and Byron, as well as imagined mythical characters such as the Raven King. For instance, part of the Faerie page includes explorations of the mythical characters, and the Napoleonic Wars and Wellington page includes works on Wellington. The early 19th-century setting is also a vital element in the novel, as the Regency considerations of manner, dress, and Austen-esque style affect the reading experience and the Napoleonic War directs much of the plot. Setting thus became the foundational structure of the map.

Explore the book's associations

Once you have considered the book's appeal, brainstorm about the book (with colleagues if possible). List all the associations from the book—places, historical figures and events, themes, key appeal aspects, read-alikes, ideas—and anything that strikes you and captures your interest. Brainstorm ideas for the elements of the map and directions you wish to follow. Be as free and as wide ranging in your thinking as possible. The goal is to map the landscape of the book as completely as you can. (See the brainstorming session for this map, and the complete map.)

Break the list of associations into working groups and start expanding each group with titles, authors, and ideas. Use the entries in each group to brainstorm other elements to include. Keep expanding the group until you feel you have fleshed out its idea or theme and then move on to the next group. Keep moving through all the elements of what amounts to the book's story board until you feel you have represented the scope of the title.

Now, stand back and look at what you have done. What groups are fundamental to the book? What groups are the most fully fleshed out? Those areas with the richest content, as well as the elements that will be standard in any reading map, should be what you initially include. Focus on these aspects first. Then go back and decide whether to include the areas with less content.

Find the unifying theme

Decide on your opening element. This choice determines what kind of map you will make. All the other elements flow from this first step, so consider it carefully. Find a unifying theme to all the groups you identified and make that your opening element.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a book ordered by time and place, thus their prominence in the map. However, the experience of the book is also critical, and therefore the map begins with links to further aspects of the novel.

You can build the map in any manner you like, but try to match the journey to the form of the map. For instance, if you are creating a meandering path through lots of disparate aspects, consider placing the starting title in the center and working outward to represent visually the many directions a reader could choose to follow. However, if you are creating a linear progression through time—the development of the mystery novel or tracing the chain of events of World War II—you might want to subscribe to a more linear arrangement.

Since reading maps are web based, you either need to know how to create a web page or you need to work with someone who does. Once you have a method of production, consider how patrons will access the map. Link the maps from your readers' advisory web page and also link to and from them with the catalog record of each item mentioned in the map. You never know what will lead a reader from one item to another. You want your maps to be available at any point along a reader's journey.

Try to include as much texture and varied elements as you can. Play with font, color, mouse movements, jacket images, pictures, sound files, and video files. Also explore deeper resources such as recipes, excerpts from key works, quotes, and other items you feel will bring visual interest to the page. As you find these elements, ask for permission to use them from the owner and credit sources in your map or use what your library already owns or licenses in terms of clip art and photo databases, jacket covers, annotations, etc. Also consider digital image web sites that allow use of content as long as it is credited, your own (and your friends) photos, local history collections, links to images, and other copyright-free ways of getting visual content for your map.

Reading maps offer librarians a new way to help readers and make our rich collections both more visual and more accessible. They bring form to the theory of whole collection RA and, like that new approach, foster connections between readers and librarians and between one item in our collection and dozens more.