My library subscribes to NoveList Plus
which I have found to be a very powerful tool for RA, but it is buried so deep
on our website that I feel people rarely find it let alone use it. NoveList Plus is also a bit daunting with the
amount of information it provides. I
would love to see a very simple widget placed on our website with some natural
language saying, “Did you like …,” “You may want to try …” The first ellipses could have a search box
with shadow text saying “Enter last, best book you read here,” and the second
ellipses could have a field with shadow text saying “Read-Alikes” or something
along those lines. The widget could
could be powered by NoveList Plus but in a much more ready and simple format,
supplying 3-5 titles per title entered.
I really liked Saricks’ “Good Books You
May Have Missed cart” idea (2005). The
dynamic nature of the display, the immediacy of the titles displayed, and the
benefits to staff-training in familiarity with contemporary literature and the
“readers’ advisory lifeline” the cart provides seem like an efficient and
effective RA tactic for libraries to pursue (Saricks, 2005).
I wonder if my library could do more with social
media and RA. We have a large staff and
I think it might be quite effective to develop a “live-tweet” style of
communicating what staff is reading and what they think about what they’re
reading at any given moment. The feed
might be featured on the front page of our website and allow customers to
follow certain “tweeters.” Matsuzaki
writes, “In follower mode, Twitter provides me with book
recommendations, links to reviews … I can extend my promotion of books beyond
the patrons at my library, my family and friends … common interests (are
shared) across Twitter by using hashtags” (2013). This
dynamic quality of tweeting and the ease with which 140 characters can be
perused by customers strikes me as an efficient way to connect with our
community.
Works Cited:
Matsuzaki, T. (2013). Twitter is a Boon to Readers'
Advisory. Retrieved April 19, 2018, from https://whatareyoureadingblog.com/2013/01/04/twitter-is-a-boon-to-readers-advisory/
Saricks, J. (2005) Promoting and
marketing readers’ advisory collections and services. In Readers’ Advisory
Service in the Public Library. Chicago: ALA. 136-160.
Hi Craig!
ReplyDeleteYour point about Novelist is interesting. I am a bit confused on how to use that website myself, and you brought up a good point about how deep a patron has to go into the website before finding it. I wonder, too, how we can convince older patrons to use more technology? Not to be stereotypical, but a lot of patrons themselves tell me that they like reading actual books instead of E-Books, or they want their newspapers as opposed to reading the news online, and I can picture them having a hard time using new technology. Do you have any thoughts about how to encourage technology use among older patrons?
Good question. I don't really know how to encourage tech use. I guess one thing we can make sure is that we are up to date on stuff so that when folks have questions we make sure we can remove as many hurdles for them as possible.
DeleteHey Craig,
ReplyDeleteTo your point about Novelist, I agree that it is an amazing tool, but like you, I've often wondered if our patrons know it's there, and how to use it. We even have an iPad set to our Novelist page in our fiction stacks, there for patrons to use to find read-alikes or books by subject/genre (which could also be found in our catalog) - but there is no way that patrons could understand appeal terms without some training or additional information. I think maybe offering a session on how to use Novelist would be beneficial. If that isn't possible, this handy booklet on Novelist's appeal terms would be helpful. I may even suggest printing some and keeping them near our Novelist iPad. It's just a shame that this awesome tool is underused. I use it a lot, but I know that there are librarians on staff who rarely do.
https://www.ebscohost.com/novelist/our-products/novelist-appeals
DeleteHere's the Novelist booklet describing appeal terms.
Did you see the Book Graph from Barnes and Noble that Amanda Saia shared about? It seems like a really user-friendly way for users to get read-alike recommendations. It utilizes some extensive data about each title, like NoveList does, but it does it in the most seamless way.
DeleteExcellent response! Full points!
ReplyDelete