Stock Your RA Pantry: Library Goodreads Updates

During the quarantine of 2020, I began a series of posts entitled, Stock Your RA Pantry. These posts address the things you can do from home to enhance your RA Services and Resources both now and going forward. And, these are all things any library worker can do, no matter what their official job title at the library happens to be.

One of my very first suggestions was to "Get Busy on Goodreads." To be fair, I have told library workers too do this for years, but most did not have the time to devote to really setting themselves up as a library. And then, people were sent home, buildings were shut down, and libraries needed a reason to pay them. Finally, libraries started allowing all staff to add to their library Goodreads pages.

You can go to the original post for detailed information on how to get started, but the key is to have any staff who are interested to get a new Goodreads account with their work email and then link them all on your Libraries page. 

This is an easy way to give your staff--  all staff from the custodial staff to the Director-- a way to serve your organization's mission. Anyone who wants, should be encourages to share their  3-5 star reads on Goodreads in a way that other staff can capture them to use to make suggestions or patrons can see to enhance their socially distant browsing experience. 

I have be actively sharing one of my success stories in all of my presentations-- Des Moines Public Library-- who started a robust RA Service from scratch during the pandemic, across multiple buildings, involving staff who didn't work together, for in some cases, hadn't ever met. Here is their "DMPL Book Chat" Good reads page.

Recently, someone asked me for more success stories of libraries who stock their RA Pantry with reviews and info on Goodreads. If you use this link you can get a full list.

Or, just use the search bar and type in "public library." It defaults to a title search, but you  can click on "groups" and you will see libraries.

Every library uses the page differently, but the key is to attach your staff and their work shelves to the account so you have access to everyone's reading in one place. Allow your patrons to join and they can be part of your "community" book shelf too.

Finally, as we all begin to open up more over the next few months, do not forget about your virtual services, especially Goodreads. Any "normal" we return to MUST continue to include virtual RA options going forward. We cannot go back to saying it is not possible because under the hardest of circumstances, we proved it was. 

For more Stock Your RA Pantry posts, click here.