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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Wrap-Up Class

Tonight I had my "wrap-up class." This is the last lecture of the semester in which I try to summarize everything we have learned in the past few months and tie up any loose ends.

We have a few exercises, but we also discuss the entire semester's worth of discussions happening on the listserv for Readers' Advisors, Fiction-L.

New for this semester, I have created a handout of the the 10 things you cannot leave leave this class without knowing. It is modified from a new 60-75 minute talk I have been giving at libraries focusing on how all staff can provide basic RA service, or as I like to call it RA for All. Catchy, no?

Anyway, here are Becky's Ten Rules of Basic RA Service:

1.) Betty Rosenberg: “Never apologize for your reading tastes.”
2.) Suggest don’t Recommend.
3.) Everyone reads a different version of the same book.
4.) Write down adjectives about what you read; plot you can find.
5.) Read widely (at least speed read widely).
6.) Read about books (RSS feeds).
7.) Share what you read- with staff and patrons.
8.) Never let a patron leave unsatisfied.
9.) Get out from behind the desk.
10.)Get involved in creating displays.
I also provided a list of the 5 RA resources you cannot live without. Here is the text from the handout:


Plot summaries, possible read alikes, but most importantly, customer comments! 5 star and 1 star reviews are the most helpful.
NoveList: EBSCO Database
Most helpful quickly-- Left Hand Menu: Recommended Reads; Right Hand Menu: Genre Outlines. Enter author or title and look for “Author Read Alike” or “Feature Articles” tabs.
Kent District Public Library’s What’s Next Database: http://ww2.kdl.org/libcat/WhatsNextNEW.asp
Easy to retrieve and print lists of books in series order. Makes patrons happy. Brings them back!
When you are desperate…distract them.
My blog which talks about all things Readers’ Advisory.

So this is the super quick version of what we have spent all semester talking about. I also go out to libraries and teach this extremely basic "RA for All" class, so contact me if you are interested in having me come to you.

1 comment:

  1. Becky, I don't know why I never thought of putting it that way - suggest rather than recommend. I love it and will totally be changing my vocabulary for RA!!

    ReplyDelete