2 Best Lists With Their Own Unique Twists and How We Can Use Them To Improve Our Own RA Service

Today I want to highlight two just released best lists. Both are among my favorites of the year because they clearly know that everyone does year end best lists and so, they go out of their way to make their list worth your time. And, they both provide a teaching moment for me because you can learn how to be better at your RA service to your patrons by analyzing what these lists are doing.

Also they both make backlist access a priority, which readers of this blog know I feel strongly about. Just in case you have missed the 500 other times I have mentioned it, just because a book was great 2, 3, 4, 5 years ago, doesn't make it any less "best" now that a new crop of books have "come of age." Seriously, best is best. Patrons just want to know that someone thought this books was a great read at some time. All your 2018 "best books" are checked out? No problem. These resources can help you find recent year's "best books" with one click.

The first best list I want to recommend today is from Chicago Public Library and their annual Best of the Best Books 2018. I want every library to take note of this list, because we all [libraries big and small] can learn a lot from what CPL does with their annual list.

First, they make it all about Chicago. They make it about the staff and the patrons more than the books. From the site:

Chicago Public Library recommends the Best of the Best, our selections of the very best books published in 2018. Every year, our librarians evaluate the year’s new books and select the very best for Chicagoans—making these the only booklists for Chicago, by Chicago. Happy reading!

I love the uber local focus on the list. It makes the list about the community and highlights the expertise of the staff who serve them. They also choose titles that may not have made national best lists, but are well written titles with high interest for Chicago area readers. Any library, no matter their size can do this. Make a list of your area's best books. For those with really small staffs, you can do this by simply making a list of the favorite books of your staff from the year and combine it with highest circulating titles in each genre. And then like CPL, you can have the only booklist for your community, by your community. The library is perfectly suited to provide this in every town across America and your patrons will LOVE the personalized service.

Second, while it may seem like a huge undertaking for any library to make such a wide sweeping year end list, CPL simplifies the process by making best lists all year long. Every single month, they have staff picks lists. This narrows down the list of books they need to choose from greatly. By doing the work of identifying "best" titles throughout the year, you eliminate the rush to make the entire year end lists all at once. It is also a way to get as many voices into the selection process as possible because you are asking for input all year long and not just choosing a year end list committee.

Many of you might reflexively say, well they have dozens of staff members to work on this; my little library can't do that. Well, maybe not on this large a scale, but if you make a resolution to start best of the month lists in January 2019, you can have a smaller list of books to choose from when go to make your 2019 year end best list too. It's not that hard if you start in January. Identify top titles both ones your staff has enjoyed and are excited about and make a list every month. Posting them on your website or in your catalog gives patrons a "best books" option all year long too.

Third, and I know this because I know people behind the scenes, not only do the staff at CPL go out of their way to make sure the list of "best of the best" titles are inclusive and diverse but they also make sure genre fiction is well represented. This is a public library list. Public library patrons reads plenty of genre titles. Your NYT or similar "best" lists tend to put a premium on literary titles. Not so at the public library. We need to provide the best titles for every reader, representing all walks of life, all points of view, and all ages.

And fourth, as I mentioned above, they make previous year's list available on the main page with this year's list. You get to a page with past lists for Adults, Teens, or Kids with one click.

I hope the CPL Best of the Best Books list inspires you to try to do a similar, uber local list for your community.

But, if you just don't have time to put something together before the end of the year, may I recommend another unique best list-- NPR's Best Books Concierge.

The NPR Book Concierge turns the process of finding a "best" option into an app with a gamified feel. Users can play along and pick a book that fits their reading tastes with natural language like an eye opening read, about identity and culture that is also rather short [4 choices] or a book club book with a love story and seriously great writing [5 choices].

What makes the NPR Book Concierge so unique is the fact that the user builds their own best list from the database of available options. At the library we need to learn from this. Putting the reader first should alway be our goal. Now, we all do not have IT staff who can build this app for us, but there are a few things we can take away from this interactive list.

1. Remember to think more like a reader and less like a library worker when helping patrons find their next good read. Don't use jargon when talking to patrons. Ask natural language questions when you help people.
2. Ask for feedback more often. Don't underestimate how much data NPR is collecting with this app. What filters are most popular? What types of books are people most looking for? They will use all the clicks to help identify what books they will cover in 2019. You can also ask for feedback more often. One of the easiest ways is to make your displays more interactive, a topic I talk about a lot here on RA for All. But in general, we need to make our RA service more interactive, all of the time. Click here for my interactive RA tag.
3. If you can't beat them, join them. Provide a link to the NPR Book Concierge on your website and let your patrons explore. Many of them will credit you with helping them find a great read and all you did was point them to a fun and interactive resource. But isn't that at the heart of what we do-- help connect people with resources? This is not cheating, even though I know some of you are thinking it is. Using resources for RA service is as vital as it is for a reference question. Whether we match them with the book ourselves or we direct them to a resource which connects them with the book-- both are us helping them find their next great read. Please don't forget this. We don't have to be the one to hand the person a book that we pulled out of our own brain to be successful. In fact, that is a recipe for failure because we can only keep so many books in our own heads. Instead, be a library worker and use resources all the time. 

Final note, the NPR Book Concierge displays the links all of their back list options [back to 2007] clearly in the top left corner of the main page.

I hope by highlighting these best lists I have helped you to rethink how you present and suggest books to your patrons, both now at the year's end, but also throughout the year too.