Suggested Reading Lists on the Browser's Corner

While I was getting ready for this past week's class on Special Reading Interests, I remembered that Kathy had been working hard to get our annotated Suggested Reading Lists up on the Browser's Corner.

Two of our most popular lists at the physical corner in the library are this one I did on Graphic Novels for Grownups and this one Kathy did for Urban Fiction.

We also have annotated lists up on the blog for Historical Romance, If You Like Dan Brown, If You Like James Patterson..., and Suspense Fiction.

We have a few more that have yet to be converted from Publisher onto the blog. Also, I am working on one for fans of the TV show True Blood and/or the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. It will be up in time for the new season of the show in June. Each staff member is also working on a few lists of their own.

These lists serve 3 distinct purposes

1. They let patrons know what we have for a certain subgenre that is not pulled out or stickered within the larger mass of the collection. The lists serve as a guide to finding the books they want.
2. They show the patrons that we know what they like and have anticipated their queries. It basically shows we are paying attention to them. Case in point, readalikes for Patterson and Urban Fiction suggestions are among our most popular questions at the service desk.
3. And this may be the most important, creating these lists lets the staff take a long hard look at our offerings on a topic, in a subgenre, or in an interest area. We are evaluating our holdings as we are making the list. Not only does the staff member making the list learn more about said topic, but he or she is able to identify our collection's strengths and weaknesses. This is a huge help in collection development.

So we help the patrons and train ourselves. Check out our lists when you have a chance and use the comments field there or here to suggest new lists.