RA FOR ALL...THE ROAD SHOW!

I can come to your library, book club meeting, or conference to talk about how to help your readers find their next good read. Click here for more information including RA for All's EDI Statement.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

RUSA CODES RA 101 Conversation Summary

As I mentioned here, RUSA's RA Research and Trends Committee hosted a 1 day RA conversation:
CODES Conversations: RA 101April 24, 2018 10am-6pm EST 
What are the key ideas, practices and sources everyone should be learningabout as they begin to do readers' advisory work? Join us and special guestmoderators Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt and bring your questions, suggestionsand advice! 
CODES Conversations are focused electronic conversations on issues facingcollection development and readers’ advisory librarians—or anyone interestedin those areas. The conversations are open to all who wish to participate (orlurk)! 
Use this link to join us! http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/codes-convos
I had a lot of fun participating and lurking in this one.  But don't worry if you missed it because yesterday committee Chair, Magan Szwarek, sent out the following message:
On behalf of the RA Research & Trends Committee we'd like to thank everyone for participating in last week's conversation. A big thank you to committee members Gloria Drake and Daryl Maxwell for putting together the attached summary 
Thank you again for a lively and thoughtful discussion! 
Magan SzwarekAlicia AhlversRobin BradfordKristi ChadwickGloria A. DrakeWilliam KellyDaryl A. MaxwellMichael P. SantangeloStephen M. SposatoHana Zittel
And here is that attached summary [with Magan's permission].

What a wonderful resource for library workers who provide RA Service both newbies and grizzled veterans, those that do RA all the time, or only occasionally. It is also a great "train the trainer" resource too because there are many beginner topics here that can be used to spark a renewed interest in RA at your library. These examples will allow you to offer training from a different perspective. For example, Robin Bradford, committee member and RA expert made the following statement in her presentation to NJ librarians, which I linked here on Monday:
"You're not 100% when you're picking books for yourself, so release the pressure when you're picking books for other people!" -Robin Bradford
She credited the Convo for making her think about this and pass it on to others.

My point is, none of you are too advanced to read this summary of the RA 101 Convo.

Finally, Magan wanted me to offer this teaser: the committee is also hard at work putting together an online learning activity.

That's all she gave me people. I want to know more too. Stay tuned!

1 comment:

Robin Bradford said...

Just wanted to give credit to Angie Strathman, of Mid-Continent library, for that quote. I will forever think about that now when it comes to RA. The amount of books I take home and either don't finish (DNF) or finish but feel rather "meh" about varies, but I can say there has never been a year when it NEVER happened. It happens all the time. And it's perfectly natural. The covers and blurbs are "teasers" are meant to draw us in both as readers and as reader advisory staff. When the rest of the book fails to live up to the promise, that is okay! We put it aside and move on. The trailer isn't always as good as the movie. The single is sometimes the best song on the entire album. I want us to stop putting perfection pressure on ourselves and just try to match our recommendations as best we can to what we've learned from, and about, our patrons. If they don't like something, that's another data point, not a complete system failure.