Why Readers’ Advisory Matters via Molly Wetta

As I mentioned in this post earlier this week when congratulating and celebrating Robin Bradford for being named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker:

This is also one of the few times that the excellent work done by library workers for leisure readers is acknowledged as important enough to be deemed at “Mover & Shaker” level. No, Robin is not the only one who focuses on providing “fun” items to be honored ever, but it is important to note that the work she does, that all of you reading this do, is usually held to a lower standard of importance in the greater library world. This is so counter intuitive though because what we do is at the heart of the entire library.

I have been telling you why RA matters for over 10 years. Seeing friends like Robin being honored makes me hopeful that helping Adult find things for fun through the public library will be valued as the essential service it is.

As I said on Twitter here:

In this very brief thread and the post celebrating Robin, I am trying to make the larger world argument for why RA matters. However, recently, my colleague Molly Wetta made this argument more eloquently than I just have with this post on her blog, “Why Readers’ Advisory Maters.” I asked her if I could share her wisdom with all of you. She agreed.

Molly posted this argument as part of a staff training for basic RA skills she was tasked to do at her library. While Part 2  gets more into the nitty gritty of providing RA, this first piece, as Molly writes is essential:

 "Before diving into training and spending time honing your readers’ advisory skills, it’s important to establish why this is even something that’s needed and why libraries should be in the business of readers’ advisory."

Molly lays out 7 reasons as to why RA matters and every single one is vital to the work we do at libraries.  Read her post. Pass it on, especially to your administrators. Make helping adult find items that they want for FUN a key part of your library service. As Molly explains, there are real reasons beyond just being the matchmaker between all the books and the readers. Reading has some huge benefits for the people who engage in this activity, and those benefits extrapolate out into society as a whole.

Click here to read Molly’s post right now, and start using her arguments to advocate for the important work we do. Don’t let others belittle you anymore.

Thank you to Molly for sharing her arguments with us. And thank you to everyone out there who is advocating for RA service. We are helping to make the world a better place.