Personalized RA Service

Yesterday, I spent the day with Polli Kenn, Readers' Services Coordinator for the Lawrence [KS] Public Library. She was one of the presenters at our Adult Reading Round Table  Becoming the Face of RA program. She did a wonderful job, but selfishly, I was also glad I got to spend the entire day "squiring" her around.

She was part of this wonderful program which I will quickly recap here. Because we partnered with Booklist and NoveList as a part of their Live Events series, this entire program was videotaped and will be sent out to subscribers to The Corner Shelf newsletter on Septemeber 12th [free if you click here] complete with links and slide access.

While you wait for the video and resource links here are a few links and a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

• We always use #arrtreads to live Tweet our programs.  You can click here [Twitter user or not] to access that conversation. It will serve as a preview for what you will get by watching the 2 hour video.
• Book Squad page for Lawrence Public Library.
• Downers Grove Public Library's Bookology page.
• Signup for NoveList's Book Squad emails here.

More on September 12th, but this should hold you over.

Oh wait....

I bet you thought I forgot about the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.  I didn't, I am just building suspense. Also, if you clicked on the #arrtreads link above, you have already seen it:

You can see me make the announcement at the end of the video.

ARRT has been working on creating more lists from our collective brain of Northern Illinois RA library workers so that the titles we talk about in our meetings can be saved for future use as we work with readers. We have been gathering titles at every meeting and event.  We have also been revamping our newsletter to be more frequent and more useful to you as you help leisure readers. Basically, in 2016 we have focused on harnessing the energy and information from our programs and meetings so we can share them with as many people as possible.

One of the new things we tried is to use the LibraryAware account for the Naperville [IL] Public Library to create some lists in the notes for our genre study.  The more we were doing these LibraryAware lists, the more popular they became. We decided we should probably get an ARRT branded LibraryAware account.

So, I will be taking my personal LibraryAware account and turning it over to ARRT. We will work with the Library Aware team to create dynamic and helpful lists.  They will be available on our site and as part of our newsletter, which anyone can sign up for-- member or not. Just go here and enter you email address in the right gutter.

Then, look for ARRT LibraryAware materials to also appear on many NoveList platforms.  At ARRT we are "dedicated to developing readers’ advisory skills and promoting reading for pleasure through public libraries." So expect these lists to not only help you serve your patrons, but to also serve as a training tool for using Library Aware.

We will begin to have LibraryAware lists on our site in the next few weeks, but the partnership will begin in earnest in January. We are excited to begin this new venture, adding another way to help all of you help your readers.