My special topics paper was on how we can better equip support staff at libraries to do Readers' Advisory. Often times those that spend the most time at the front desk have the least amount of training in RA. So what can we do to fix this?
Here is a basic rundown of what I came up with.
1) The first and possibly most obvious sources of training are webinars and there is a wealth of free webinars that staff can view. Some of these include the following:
LibraryReads Readers' Advisory 101 (Libraryreads.org)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUIneNLttRg (Indiana state library)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaSBhxZwE3g (Readers Advisory Basics by Kimberly)
2) One option would be creating bookmarks, pamphlets, or flyers, with genre, author, or even specific book read-a-likes and info. Novelist’s genre guides could be helpful in creating some of these. Choose authors that are particularly popular at your library or books/authors that are especially popular in the book world in general at the moment. See example in Figures 1.1 & 1.2.
Read-a-like bookmarks (front)
Read-a-like bookmarks (back)
3) Another helpful tool could be a Readers’ Advisory cheat sheet. The sheet could include a number of different things. Sample questions to ask patrons could be listed and helpful resources could also be listed such as Novelist (if the library has access to it), Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, Bookseriesinorder.com, whatshouldireadnext.com, storygraph.com, etc...
4) Another way to tackle getting all staff involved in readers’ advisory is through in-direct training. In-direct training involves taking steps to foster a cultural change in the staff that promotes enthusiastic discussion and sharing of books. There are many suggestions on how to make this happen throughout the internet. Betha Gutsche, suggests a language shift from “readers’ advisory” to “reading conversations.” “Taking the intimidation out of “advisory” and promoting the informality of friendly conversations. (Gutsche, 2016) Her suggestions for how to achieve this cultural change include introducing all of the staff to Novelist, encouraging them to read titles out of their comfort zone, and having the staff practice talking about what they were reading with each other. Her exemplar, the Whatcom County Library System (WCLS), took this training a step further and introduced a year-long BINGO contest for the staff to encourage them to read different books and different formats. To learn more about see Bertha Gutsche’s article here:
https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/reading-conversations-RA-for-all-library-staff.html
5) My final thought/suggestion combines several of these ideas into a single resource. At the library where I work, we have a circulation binder that contains basic instructions and information that Circulation Assistants might need all in one place. I am proposing that a similar resource could be helpful to collect readers’ advisory resources in one easily accessible place for all desk staff.
Somethings that could be included in this binder:
- Reading profiles for each staff member
- Pages of read-a-likes for authors popular at a given library
- The RA Cheat sheet mentioned earlier.
Different departments could have binders geared toward their specific demographic; adults, children, and even youth/YA. See example in Figure 3.Figure 3 Sample Conversation Cheat Sheet/ Binder Information
Thank you so much for putting all of this together! I also work at a public library and I definitely feel like RA is something that intimidates most of my colleagues (myself included). I've been with my library for five years, and in that time, there has only been a single, two-part RA class that was actually required for circulation desk staff. Every now and then, our reference department will offer optional RA webinars for staff, but many opt not to participate for one reason or another. It's a shame, too, because especially since the pandemic, we've seen more requests for RA than ever. Thankfully by now my colleagues and I have a better idea of each others' strengths, and a display of staff picks with broad reader profiles has been helpful, too, but the resources and ideas you've pulled together here could do a lot of good for our library and many others! I especially love the combination of having a physical binder for folks behind the desk and the premade bookmarks with recs based on popular authors/books. Bookmarks are always a hot commodity at my library, and now that I'm much more familiar with RA resources thanks to this class, I might just have to give this a go and pitch it to my manager.
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia,
DeleteI'm glad you found this information useful. As a circulation assistant I've noticed the lack of training we part-time staff have and it seemed like a gross oversight given how much time we spend at the desk and with patrons. I basically did readers advisory for a gentlemen yesterday. I was shelving books in our new fiction section and he started asking me what I recommend. So I just started pulling books off the shelf that I knew were popular with our patrons and in the book world in general. Based on his feedback and our continued conversation I was eventually able to find something he seemed happy with. I'm fortunate that I've been there 1.5+ years and I'm in this program. Our other part timer's don't have the same experience or education and I just think we can do better at supporting them. And even if you have experience it can be tricky especially if it's a genre you're not familiar with. I mean no one can be an expert it every genre! :)