Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Where do you obtain your reading suggestions from?

I was thinking about this recently, because of the work I do with readers advisory people.  I decided to think about where my reading suggestions come from, to see what is in the mix.

The following list, not in any order, shows some of the places ideas for reading come from for me:
  • public library - staff at my local library will sometimes (proactively) suggest something to read or watch based on my borrowing.  I like this.  It is active without being obtrusive, and is a nice way of demonstrating skills, so that if I want to ask I can.  It also lets people know that you can ask library staff of reading suggestions
  • friends - although most of my friends read very differently to me, this is still an area where ideas come from
  • specific blogs/tumblr I follow. Some of these will be written by authors, and some not. 
  • people I follow on goodreads. There are some people I follow on Goodreads that I will probably not read anything they do, but it is still interesting seeing their reading. There are a few people I follow where I have found that if they give a book a high star rating/excellent review I am really likely to enjoy it. I have tried some titles I would not have thought of this way.
  • twitter - this is different people I follow talking about what they have read, and some time authors tweeting links to free or low cost ebooks as a way of discovering content. I have had some lovely reads this way, as well as a few which I did not finish. I always receive ideas for new reading from the Read watch play twitter reading group as well. Have a look for #rwpchat.  Also have a looks at the different social media channels being used for this discussion - links available from here.
  • Television - I don't watch a lot of television, but it can lead to reading for example I am reading a work by Brian Cox after watching Wonders of life. I am reading a history of the Vikings by Neil Oliver because I have watched some of his documentaries. 
I was thinking about this as I think these are tools to let library clients know about as well, as some may not be aware of how many ways to find out about reading suggestions, but also, some readers may be able to train library staff in some genre specific ways (so learning from the clients).

Does your library use a rang of online tools as part of the readers advisory service? Novelist can be very helpful, and has increasing Australian content, as well as connection with Goodreads.

There are a few libraries on Goodreads, like OCLS and Scottsdale. This could be an option to consider for your community. You may want to introduce it with providing sessions about it to your reading groups, as well as other groups of readers in your library. With anything you are doing online make sure you have day to find links on your website. Don't assume people will see the home page, include links on all pages, including the catalogue. Make sure you tell people about it in the library, and through the community as well. It might draw people into use these services, but you have to tell them about it in spaces they are already in.

Think about how you obtain reading suggestions. Are there ways to inform the readers in you community about some of them.  Are there genre specific options you could connect clients with? Don't forget you can learn from your clients as well. 

No comments:

Post a Comment