Reading and Literacy

“Read everything you can.” That is the advice I received from a senior librarian when I received my MLS a few years ago. She explained that if you read magazines, newspaper articles, and anything else in print, even if they are on topics that do not interest you, you will have a smattering of knowledge on many subjects and be able to better help patrons in their research.

http://www.ala.org/pla/sites/ala.org.pla/files/content/publications/publiclibraries/pastissues/janfeb2005.pdf

This week we began talking about reader recommendations based on book preferences.

We talked about asking useful questions like 'What was the last book you really enjoyed?'  and then expanding on that question further with other questions like, "What was it about book x that you really enjoyed?  Was is the characters or the plot?  Was it the setting?  Was is the tone?"

We watched a video clip that explored some of the concepts in reader recommendations:

Genre 

Appeal characteristics

- Storyline
- Characters
- Tone
- Pace

Characterisation

- how do characters develop ?
- are the characters the plot?
- do you immerse self in characters?

Pacing

- tempo or style of writing
- rick character development tend to be slower paced

Storyline

- does the story emphasise people pf events

- is it serious or soap opera

Resources

Fiction _L   Some great booklists by genre, setting, character - very very cool.

I also subscribe to their email list and I enjoy reading the requests that are stumping librarians and the recommendations found by their peers.  Some of the recommendations also give a little detail on how or where they found the recommendation.

Reader Recommendation resources for patrons NYPL

I listen to The Librarian is In podcast by the librarians from the reader rec department at NYPL.  I use the notes on my phone to write down books that the librarians say have been really popular and with whom.  I am interested in children's books and young adult books and have an idea in my mind of books I have liked and books my children have like. The hosts talk about books they have read, books that have been recommended to them, trending books, interviews, this is a great resource if for nothing but to bask in the positivity of the presenters.  I am usually listening for books that I would not be personally interested in, but am interested to learn about.

NoveList is a pay for service reader recommendation product from ebsco.  I really like the concept of this services but without being able to access it, I continue to be interested but can't evaluate.

There are some great free articles that delve further into the concepts discussed in the video.
Appeal
Genre

NoveList also publishes really interesting videos aimed at improving reader recommendations.

Lithub is a great site for getting a broad picture of how a book is being received.  It's reviews pages are cumulative and collect reviews from other sites and total them.  They also have great genre lists and for example. one can view current fiction fantasy novels.

Lithub also publishes, in a blog like format, small reading lists of topical books.  Examples include 5 crime must reads this December, the high drama and epic violence of small rural towns, Cold war noir: 10 novels that defined an anxious era.

Lithub reviews are considered but are also followed by a group of similar reads.  I find this type of feature particularly useful.