Entertainment Weekly is the Pop Culture Resource You Need to Read and Talk About at Work

I say it in my in-person appearances but it bears repeating here, especially the day after a HUGE pop culture viewing event. [Don't worry, you will find no Game of Thrones spoilers in this post.]

The best thing you can do to be better at your job of helping people with their leisure reads and watches is to page through Entertainment Weekly every week or at least check the website once a day.

In our jobs the most important thing we can do to help our patrons as they come to the library for their leisure needs is to know what is popular and why. This is the entire mission of EW. Who knows better than a company that sells a product to connect with the public through their entrainment choices, what people want to know about?

Yes you need to know what is popular, but EW also delves into the why. They pay writers to write about the things that are popular in our country from TV to movies to books. And they cover it all really well. Since there is money involved, we can be confident that the topics they are covering are large scale enough that we should know about them.

None of us will be fans of everything that is popular, nor should we have to be. But, we do need to know what is popular and why at all times if we want to help people with their leisure needs, and following EW online and in print gives you a sense of that. It keeps you in the know without having to put in a lot of extra effort.

During times of huge media events like the GoT finale is the perfect for reminding people about this. You do not have to have viewed or even like GoT, but you [1] absolutely cannot disparage it to others [first rule of RA Service] and [2] need to know why others do love it. I had this post on GoT and its appeal, but I am one person. Now look at EW's coverage: Even if you don't watch the show, you can go online and find this portal of every piece they have written on the show, from summaries of every episode to think pieces on the series and everything in between. There it all is for you to see. The print magazine will have the highlights but online you can fall down the GoT rabbit hole and begin to understand why many of our patrons love it, again, without ever watching any of it.

But here is the thing, they do this to scale for everything. From large events to small things that take over the pop culture consciousness. You do not have to be "cool" or even stay on top of everything yourself. Let EW do it for you.

However, and here is the part I am publishing for you to show your supervisors, you should be able to read EW at the desk at work. In fact, I would argue that your library should be adding a copy for staff along with the one that circulates for patrons. Even better, my library has EW offered on the Flipster app so every employee has free access to every issue with their library card.

The key here isn't the paying for another subscription, it is the understanding that reading EW by ALL library staff, but especially those who work with the public is a key resource to being as helpful as possible to the widest range of patrons.

So if you are an administrator or supervisor, encourage your staff to bookmark EW.com and look at it during work time. And, this next step is important, encourage staff to talk about what they read on the site out loud to each other, at the desk. Obviously, only in a positive way. Have them talk about what they see there, why it is so popular, and what we have in our collections that would appeal to fans of these popular things.

Again, it is that last step that is key. Allowing staff to talk about pop culture things and relate them to our collections is an advertisement for the fact that we know about what is popular and promotes that we are willing to help our patrons make those connections though our collections. This is what we do and EW is a resource that can help us do it better.

I have had mixed results with this message as I travel the country. I have had some administrators tell me that staff should never look at entertainment sites at work. Obviously this is completely misguided since we circulate all of the things they talk about in EW. But I have also had libraries report that they have added print copies of EW for all service desks-- and everything in between.

No matter the culture or rules at your library, figure out a way to read EW and start being a pop culture wiz even if you think you aren't cool enough. Let them do the work for you. And like with all of our Readers' Advisory work, if it is something you consume and like yourself, make sure you pay closer attention because you need to know the larger picture view of everything.

Now go off and focus on some pop culture as part of your job. It is imperative.