Librarians lay it on the line every day. Every day we offer reference desk service where we try to answer any question on any subject from anybody who stops by, calls or emails. We try to provide an answer from a reputable, authoritative source or refer the customer to the next best place to try. It takes a good long while to become confident enough in one’s own skills and knowledge to handle reference desk duty with aplomb.
For many of us the most challenging question a customer can ask is, “can you recommend a good book to read?” We call it reader’s advisory. This has always been a tough one for me. Chances are I don’t know you or what you like. I can’t tell by looking at you what you like to read. I feel like I could undermine your confidence in the library with a dumb answer. I usually try to interview you just to have a shot at giving you a good recommendation. I might ask, “Tell me about the last good book you read” or “who is or your favorite author” and work from there. If we are communicating well I might take a chance and recommend a book I recently enjoyed (see previous posts in this blog tagged “What I’ve Been Reading”).
Where am I going with this? People seem to love recommendations. Consider the success of Oprah Winfrey’s book club. People are willing to give a book a chance if somebody they know or respect has recommended it. As soon as Oprah adds a new title to her book club list our phone starts ringing.
Here at the IPL we have collected all of our online reader’s resources and put them in one place called “For Readers”. Please feel free to explore the links there and, of course, tell us what you think. Please take special note of the IPL staff recommendations hosted on the web site librarything.com and our subscription to the book recommendation database NoveList.
Librarything is a wonderful place where book lovers and readers gather to exchange their views about books. Some represent libraries, some are just readers. If you love reading good books and want to share that enthusiasm with other like you, this is your place.
NoveList is an amazing product that helps you find books to read by determining what you liked about books you have already enjoyed and finding others like them. It also has lists of the winners of all the book awards and prizes and many other features. If you find something you like in NoveList, click on the “Check Library Catalog” button and you can find out if our library carries the item. If you visit from home you may need your library card to log in.
Remember, if you can’t find something you like using any of these online resources you can still stop at the library and talk to us about it. If you enjoy something we suggest, please come back and tell us. Reader’s advisory may be difficult but when we know you liked the book we recommended it is all worth it!
