New LJ #LibrarianRecs Column is Fun, Helpful, and a Great Conversation Starter To Jump Start Your RA Service

Kiera Parrott, the Reviews Editor at Library Journal and School Library Journal, decided to see what would happen if she asked a RA question on Twitter and crowdsourced the answer. Well what happened was that she received a landslide of suggestions.

Here was her initial question:

Kiera Parrott

@libraryvoice

Library friends, let's try something! I'm a patron who just walked into your library. I like sci-fi/horror. My favorite movies/shows are John Carpenter's The Thing, the Alien franchise, Stranger Things, & Black Mirror. What books would you recommend? #librarianrecs

I love this idea both to draw attention to how good we library workers are at matching a wide variety of titles for readers and because it is extremely interactive for us, the library workers. We need to be exposed to more questions and connect with each other more often. This is a fun way to do that virtually.

The response was so enormous that Parrott is going to turn this idea into a semi regular column; in fact, she has already posed the next question.

Click on #LibrarianRecs here [whether you are on Twitter or not] to see the questions and answers, or follow the column as it appears on the LJ website.

Click here for the first column. I have posted the intro below, but you will need to click through to see the suggestions.

Why not turn this idea into a display? In fact, you can do that with each and every column hereafter. And you can ask your patrons to add more suggestions of their own. Call it "RA Query of the Week." And then when Parrott doesn't have a column, use a question you have had form one of your patrons recently as the prompt. Or, use yourself. That's what Kiera did for her first column. Or use the #AskALibrarian weekly conversation to find more RA questions and crowdsourced answers that you can quickly turn into a display.

Doing a display like this will also solve one of the biggest problems RA Service providers tell me they have...that no one comes and ask them questions. Well, show them that you are there to answer their questions by turning really life RA questions into displays. I promise you, having a "RA Query of the Week" display will 100% cause at least a patron or two to approach you and ask for their own personalized recs.

Books for Fans of John Carpenter, "Black Mirror," & "Stranger Things" | #LibrarianRecs 

Welcome to the inaugural #LibrarianRecs column, where we pose a readers' advisory (RA) question and crowd-source recommendations from librarians and library workers. This week, I tweeted an RA question on behalf of myself: "I like sci-fi/horror. My favorite movies/shows are John Carpenter's The Thing, the Alien franchise, Stranger Things, & Black Mirror. What books would you recommend?" 

Librarians from around the country chimed in with more than 60 excellent reading suggestions spanning body horror, interstellar monster tales, technothrillers, and more. Here are their picks.

Click here to keep reading