Webcast Report: 24/7 Readers' Advisory
By Dodie Ownes Jun 14, 2010How can you reach those 77 percent of your users who want reading recommendations, but never make it past the hold shelf? And how about those virtual visitors looking for suggestions in the online catalog, on the library's website, or even emailed to them?
Moderator and NoveList creator Duncan Smith led a panel of readers' advisory (RA) experts who addressed these questions and offered several solutions for providing reading recommendations to library patrons (and staff!).The webcast, held on May 18, was sponsored by NoveList/EBSCO and Library Journal, and is now available.
Form-based RA
Panelist Barry Trott, adult services director at Williamsburg Regional Library (WRL), VA, began with a discussion of two areas of readers' advisory being used at his library: form-based RA and blogs. Form-based RA gives library patrons an alternate way to get reading suggestions. An online form helps librarians create a reader profile. Because patrons often are reluctant to ask for help in person, form-based RA presents a less-threatening process.
Through its Looking for a Good Book? service, Williamsburg Regional Library (WRL) has been offering form-based RA service since 2003. The turnaround time for such personalized requests is about one week, and patrons receive a list of ten to 12 annotated titles in return. Among the benefits of form-based RA are enhanced interactions with patrons and enhanced circulation of the collection.
Because all readers' advisory results are documented and archived, WRL has built an additional resource for future RA work. Over the last seven years, more than 700 reader profiles have been created and, though a paper form is available, 81 percent of the patrons using the service have submitted an electronic form.
Trott further discussed reader reactions to the service (all positive!) outlined WRL's internal process for handing requests, and noted how the library uses complementary RA services such as NoveList in fulfilling reading recommendation requests.
A book blog
WRL's Blogging for a Good Book blog won last year's Louis Shores Award from the American Library Association and has been described as "the future of book reviewing." Established in 2007, the blog recently has been getting about 15,000 hits each month.
Beyond the outreach the blog provides to patrons, Trott finds there has been great value in "building and reinforcing an institutional culture of readers' advisory" at WRL. By sticking to the key elements of a successful blog-focus, frequency, fortitude, flavor, flexibility-Trott believes that any library can produce content that will attract and keep readers. Success can be measured in various ways, including tracking the circulation of titles that have been mentioned in the blog.
Collaboration in Denver
Tara Bannon, a librarian at the Schlessman Family Branch Library, Denver Public Library (DPL), explained how staffers at her library collaborate on readers' advisory. StaffWeb, the DPL intranet, provides the base for internal information sharing and supports both a Staff Forum discussion board and a merchandising and display database.
Staffers can use these resources on an as-needed basis, or can sign up for an RSS feed that will notify them any time content is updated or added. All book marketing collateral such as bookmarks-called 'infomarks' by Bannon because lists often include non-print material- is accessible online for staff at all times.
The merchandising and display database, brainchild of DPL's merchandising guru Jenny LaPerriere, features booklists and promotional ideas and has become a valuable resource for time-strapped staffers who need a jumpstart on creating book, music, and movie displays.
Into the catalog
To address the need for 24/7 RA service, DPL has integrated bookmarks and reading lists into its new online catalog, making reading suggestions more accessible. Staff recommendations are also shown in the redesigned catalog through a list of suggested subject and author links as are ratings, user lists, and tags. Readers can even share their own experiences via links to Facebook and other social media.
DPL also uses blogs to address RA needs in specific media, such as movies, music and books, and popular subject areas like cookbooks or Western history. RSS feeds also enable DPL to push information to its patrons, such as alerts to new DVDs or a just-released book from a favorite author.
Bannon also briefly addressed the ADEPT (Author Data Enhancement Project Tool) project she is currently working on with NoveList, which brings author-specific read-alikes and rationale behind recommendations to NoveList products, and the advantages it will bring to readers. Fewer clicks will be required to access reading lists, book discussion guides, and other RA resources.
The NoveList perspective
Rebecca Sigmon, team lead for the Reading Recommendations work group at NoveList, continued with an overview of methods being used by libraries to offer reading suggestions to their patrons, including the use of NoveList.
In response to requests to make reading recommendations more accessible, NoveList will be releasing a new version in Summer 2010 that puts author, title, and series recommendations "right at the fingertips of librarians and readers." The ADEPT project will bring together one-to-one recommendations from readers' advisory experts for authors, titles and series and integrate these suggestions into reading lists and title records accessible through NoveList.
Sigmon then gave examples from the redesigned NoveList database illustrating how recommendations will be presented to users and staffers, noting the greatly reduced number of clicks needed to access this content. The panel fielded a number of questions from the audience, including use of WRL's form for teen RA and DPL's use of a ColdFusion database and Aquabrowser in integrating reading recommendations into their catalog.
The archived webcast is now available for on-demand viewing, and features a downloadable continuing education credit certificate.
