RA for All: RA for All Virtual Roadshow Visits PCLS for a BRAND NEW Booktalking Program

Thursday, February 3, 2022

RA for All Virtual Roadshow Visits PCLS for a BRAND NEW Booktalking Program

Last month I wrote about my multi-month training plan with Pierce County Library System in Washington State in this post. As we enter month two, I will tell you, I was optimistic, but it is going even better than I could have imagined. I am especially excited about the assignments we are working on and the conversations this work is creating across the system, already.

Interestingly, some of the feedback is clearly noticing that the values of the organization's approach to serving leisure readers is changing. It is! That is the point. It is a staff driven priority, not an edict from upon high. And we are working together-- myself and the training team-- to make sure this change sticks.

Month 2 begins today with my BRAND NEW booktalking program. In this program I challenge everyone to rethink that term "book talk" and realize any conversation we have with each other or users is a book talk. It is not a term reserved solely for formal presentations.

The focus here is on those conversations, yes, but also it is about getting everyone on staff involved in some way because the more staff we have engaged in the process, the more patrons we can reach and help. And the benefit of being a library that prioritizing having conversations centered around books--your brand-- is that your users are more satisfied. Hence the title-- Booktalking Your Way to the Friendliest Library in Town.

[ed note: I know you are probably the only library in town, but this sounds better than friendliest library in your region; you get the idea I'm going for.]

I have not done more than a surface edit to this program in years. While I have kept the slide format the same, please know, the presentation is almost all new new material.

I am very excited to share this with a system [over two days- today and next week] that is committed to using this action oriented talk to instill change both at the system level and in each branch.

And that excitement is leading me to sharing the slides with you today. Please watch the slides in presentation mode as slide 8 has animation and the main bullet points are behind the "conversation" starters.

Contact me with questions or if you want to set up training with your library or system. Click here to see my recent and upcoming presentation schedule as well.