Resource Reminder: Use the Resources Our Readers Use

Too often we library workers who help leisure readers get too caught up in the weeds of the book world, only reading and checking the most bookish of resources as we try to stay up to date on the newest books and trends.

But here's the thing we need to remember, our readers are not looking at book specific sites for book info, rather, most of them are identifying titles from the places where they already are visiting and/or reading that also happen to have book coverage.

So listening to NPR, reading their local papers, watching morning news shows, and places like People Magazine-- which just had this list of their Best Books of June 2024.

Actually, People Magazine is the best example of today's reminder post. They have solid book coverage on their site and in their print magazine-- both of which are very popular with a wide swath of American readers. 

I liken it as similar to how I used to rely on Entertainment Weekly. From a post I did in 2019 about that:

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.

Entertainment Weekly still has a a decent online Books section as well, however it has definitely lost its standing as a go-to general entertainment place for Books.

And maybe you have a better general entrainment resource that your patrons look to for ideas on their leisure reading and watching, but the point here is we cannot bury our heads in the bookish world sand and expect to understand what our patrons are looking for.

This important point is why I am always reminding people to consult the USA Today's Bestseller list as it is the only bestseller list that lists books in order by sales data without separating them out based on genre or intended audience or hardcover vs paperback or traditionally published vs self published.... You get the point. This is the literal list of what books are being bought int he highest number....period!

Go look at it because it differs GREATLY from other bestsellers lists, most of which carry more prestige. And yet, it is the most accurate. Please always remember this. You want to see what books people are spending their money on, The USA Today Bestseller list is your top resource. And you can peruse the back list easily by toggling the date at the top.

And what books people are spending their money on not only translate into what you should spend your money on, but it also let's us see an unfiltered snapshot of the entire book industry, from the READER perspective.

Look, I am going to keep posting the bookish world resources for you because they do still matter, and they always will. But as more readers come through our doors in the summer, it is important to realize what books they are hearing about more than others. We won't have the most popular titles, but if we are looking at the book resources that our readers are encountering, we will be better prepared to meet demand with targeted displays and lists that offer readalikes while also being able to anticipate trends.

Just remember to stay grounded and "Think Like a Reader."

My Annual Roundup of the Bram Stoker Award Winners with Readalikes via The Lineup

I write 4 columns (at least) a year for The Lineup and because their focus is on the backlist, these columns are a resource of evergreen Horror recommendations for you to use. I have a permanent link to every column I have written for them over on the Horror Blog in one of that site's best resource pages-- Archives of Becky's Lists, Articles, and Presentations. 

However, you can always just head to The Lineup and use this link to pull up every column I have written in reverse chronological order.

And that link is especially useful as my most recent article went up recently-- my annual look at the 5 major fiction categories for the Bram Stoker Awards. I take the winners and offer you readlaikes. And because of this link, you can see the past few years of these article with one click.

Below is the article or you can click here to see it on the site. On the site it is prettier and has links.

From the Haunted Stacks: 2023 Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ Wrap Up

Each year, the Horror Writers Association presents the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ for Superior Achievement in thirteen categories. There are a few interesting things about these, the most prestigious awards in the Horror genre. 

One, the award itself is very cool, an eight-inch replica of a haunted house, designed specifically for HWA by sculptor Steven Kirk. The door of the house opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of the winning work and its author. 

Two, the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ are not for the “best” works of the year, rather they are “for superior achievement” which leaves room for more titles to be considered in a broader context. And three, the awards are chosen by a hybrid system of juries (one for each category) and member input.  

When you put all of this together, the results are always a cause for celebration. And that is exactly what happened on June 1, 2024, when the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ  for books published in 2023 were presented live in San Diego, CA as part of StokerCon.  

Visit the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ  official website for a full list of winners here. Or you can watch the entire ceremony for yourself in the YouTube video here.  

In Haunted Stacks style though, I am not here to simply list the winners for you. Rather I am going to focus on the titles that won in five of the categories, and offer you two read-alikes to continue your superior reading adventure.  

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Tananarive Due became the first Black person to win the Bram Stoker AwardⓇ in the novel category. Due had been nominated in this category before, but The Reformatory was her first win. Set in Jim Crow Florida, this novel is based on a real and notorious reformatory school, a place where many children, especially those who were poor and/or Black were sent, some never to return, including a relative of Due’s. As I wrote about this masterpiece on this very site in my 2023 Horror Book Highlights article: The timeline may be short but the history of the horror that imprisons Robbie is long and the ghosts who live on the school’s grounds are unwilling to wait any longer for justice. An engrossing and heartbreakingly beautiful story that speaks to all situations where injustice occurs and compels its readers to act. 

If you like The Reformatory try….

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Whitehead’s historical novel about systemic racism is based on the true events at the Dozier School for Boys when bodies were dug up; the same school and notorious history that Due used in her novel. While it does not have any of the supernatural ghosts that appear in Due’s novel, it is just as menacing and disturbing. Told in layers, readers follow Elwood during his childhood before he got sent to the school through when he is out as an adult and living his life in NYC. The story bounces back and forth, but it is not confusing, in fact, this narrative choice adds suspense and quickens the pacing. It also prepares readers for the ending, guaranteed to leave all speechless.

The Trees by Percival Everett

Everett’s uncanny, terrifying, and stunning story is framed as a police procedural set in Mississippi, where Black law enforcement officers are called in to investigate a series of strange murders, all committed by Black men against white people. The killings are tied to lynchings from the past and the killers are found dead at the scene, but then they "disappear." This highly sardonic novel quickly transforms into a revenge driven zombie story, but one that draws heavily on the rules established by the Afro-Caribbean zombie tradition. This book expresses the anger, sadness, frustration, and victimization of our country's violent history of White people killing people of color just because they are Black or Asian, or Indigenous, LGBTQ etc… with raw and honest emotion and page turning suspense. 

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Once again the First Novel category revealed a plethora of exciting new voices, and this year, Christa Carmen took home the haunted house statue for her meta exploration of the Gothic genre. The Daughters of Block Island opens with Blake, as she heads to the titular island, 14 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, to confront her birth mother and untangle her family’s complicated history. However, she is quickly murdered, but not before getting a letter off to the sister she never knew. That sister, Thalia, returns to the island after a ten year absence to finish what Blake started. A compelling debut about grief, trauma, and the pain caused by secrets that also consciously contemplates the act of storytelling within a Gothic framework, past and present.

If you like The Daughers of Block Island try….

Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste

A finalist in the novel category last year, Kiste’s book shares with Carmen’s an interest in probing Horror’s classic storytelling tropes and characters from a 21st Century perspective and the results in both cases make for a great reading experience. Here the setting is 1967, the Summer of Love, and our main characters are ripped from the pages of classic novels– Lucy, from Dracula and Bee, the first wife from Jane Eyre. Together these women, who were the victims of evil men whom history has turned into romantic heroes, are cursed to protect the world from Dracula’s return. A serious but fun adventure that honors its source material while injecting something new into the canon.

The Spite House by Johnny Compton

Fellow nominee on the 2023 ballot, Compton is also a voice on the rise. Like Carmen, his novel uses the lens of grief to take a fresh look at an established Horror trope, in this case, the Haunted House. Eric is running away from his past, trying to protect his two daughters, when he sees an ad to be the caretaker of one of the most haunted places in Texas, he jumps on the opportunity. If he can stay there long enough to prove the paranormal activity, without being driven mad, not only will Eric get a huge pile of money, but he may save his family from what has kept them running scared all these years. Sounds easy, right?  But many have failed in the past, and Eric must fight with everything he has in order to survive. 

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Ai Jiang has received just about every possible nomination for her novella, Linghun, and it came as no surprised that the Chinese-Canadian took home her first haunted house trophy at the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ ceremony. Jiang’s original and unique tale is set in the town of HOME, a place where the dead live on as spirits and the relatives of the dead, filled with intense grief, do whatever they can to be close to their deceased loved ones. However, what is the cost of living in a town that worships the dead but has no respect for the living? This thought-provoking and confident novella will make you excited to read what Jiang publishes next.

If you like Linghun try….

Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman

When her best friend, Silas, dies of a drug overdose, Erin learns that he had discovered a pill that allowed him to see the dead. Wanting one more chance to see Silas, Erin takes the pill and begins a descent into a terrifying world of wandering ghosts and addiction. This is a poignant, immersive, and visceral tale about the power grief has to pull us out of the real world and into a nightmare, all to spend just a few more precious moments with the ones we love. LIke Linghun, Chapman’s story provides a new  twist on the haunting trope.

The Perfectly Fine House by Stephen Kozeniewski and Wile E. Young’s

Kozeniewski and Young’s novel is one of the best overlooked books of the past few years. Imagine a world where ghosts not only exist, but they live openly, alongside the living as functioning members of society and the economy. After Donna has a panic attack at work, her dead twin brother finds her the perfect getaway, a house so far off the grid, it isn’t even haunted. But when Donna arrives, she unknowingly unleashes a force that may alter their world forever. A compelling and intriguing novel set in an expertly crafted world, featuring great characters, that will fill readers with existential dread even as they are racing to the finish to find out what happens.

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

With no nomination for Ellen Datlow and a strong field, the anthology category was up for grabs this year, and the competition was astounding with some of the strongest anthologies I have seen on a single ballot ever. Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele, featuring stories by titans of Black Horror today such as  Erin E. Adams, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor and more, walked away with the award. These are stories that actively grapple with the Black experience and its notable absence in anthologies of the past and all are a terrifying joy to experience.

If you like Out there Screaming try….

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst

Hawk and Van Alst were also nominated this year for their identity based anthology, this one featuring original, dark fiction stories by authors from across the literary landscape such as Cherie Dimaline, Tommy Orange, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Morgan Talty. They use the fact that many Indigenous cultures share a belief that one should never whistle at night as the unsettling springboard to introduce the reader to chilling tales steeped in each author’s personal history. The resulting volume is not only a stupendous achievement as a themed Horror anthology, but it also serves as a celebration of Indigenous people and their survival despite history’s aggressive attempts to silence them.

Beyond the Bounds of Infinity edited by Vaughan A. Jackson and Stephanie Pearre

This brand new anthology could very well be a contender in this category next year, and it makes a great readalike for this year’s winner as well. Centered around the popularity of Cosmic Horror but openly acknowledging the trope’s racist progenitor– Lovecraft– debut editors Jackson and Pearre set out to share brand new tales of Cosmic Horror from the perspective of marginalized the voices Lovecraft himself despised. Well known authors like S.A. Cosby, Mary SanGiovannni, and L. Marie Wood anchor the volume, sitting alongside 15 authors chosen from an open call. The result, an anthology bursting with existential dread that would make Lovecraft himself shudder with fear as he spun in his grave.

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Gemma Files nabbed her second win in this category in the last two years with Blood From the Air. Showcasing her expertise in the scary short story format, Files once again explores common tropes in new ways, using lyrical prose and presenting an ethereal and immersive reading experience, featuring characters that readers will follow even when they know they shouldn’t always trust them. One uniting feature of this particular collection is the appearance of angels throughout many of the stories. Like any collection by FIles, this one was a not to miss read even before she took home yet another Bram Stoker Award.Ⓡ Two other nominees in the category this year are also worth checking out.

If you like Blood From the Air try….

Cold, Black, & Infinite by Todd Keisling

A previous nominee in the Novel category for Devil’s Creek, this year marked Keisling’s first appearance in the Collection category. His stories have already appeared in critically acclaimed anthologies alongside such established names as Josh Malerman, Gabino Iglesias, and Linda Addison, but here his work is gathered into one tome with 13 previously published stories and 3 new to this book. This is a thought provoking collection of immersive and uneasy stories that look into terrifying topics such as insatiable corporate greed, bullying, and mental health struggles. Also of interest here, many of the stories are part of the Devil’s Creek universe, adding an extra layer of enjoyment for readers even as the stories stand strongly on their own.

Root Rot & Other Grim Tales by Sarah Read

A former nominee in this same category and winner of the Bram Stoker AwardⓇ  for Superior Achievement in a First Novel in 2019, Read’s collection more than lives up to its promise of providing “grim tales.” The 18 stories contained here use both fairy tale frames of yore like dark woods and wishes granted, and familiar tropes from science fiction and fantasy such as parallel worlds or uninhabitable cities. Read sustains a compelling pace, encouraging readers to experience each utterly original, immersively terrifying, and extremely sinister tale, repeatedly stabbing the reader in their most tender places. It won’t be long before Read is nominated again in this category.

ALA Annual Galley Guide via Library Journal and Sourcebooks

I am not headed to San Diego for ALA Annual this year. A combination of having gone to PLA in April and an exhausting May and June with happy life events is keeping me home.

But today, I want to focus on one of my favorite resources that comes out before every major Library conference and it is one that is useful to all, especially those who are not in attendance-- the Library Journal PLA Galley Guide (Sponsored by Sourcebooks). This resource is a list of all of the ARCs that attendees can get in the exhibit hall. 

This is a resource I post about every time there is a ALA or PLA conference, and I always talk about how you can use it as a resource even if you are NOT going to said conference. It is important to remember that the LJ Galley Guide for any conference is a wonderful resource for everyone, but it may be even more valuable for those staying home.

First, and most obvious, every single one of the ARCs listed here is also going to be super easy to download from NetGalley or Edelweiss. The publishers are prioritizing that.  If you get the Library marketing emails, you have probably already seen that. They want everyone to have access to these books.

Second, those of us who are back at home, you have more time to go through the Galley Guide, taking note of which books the publishers are pushing the hardest. What do they think will take off? What should we be pre-ordering? We should all be using it as a resource to help our patrons and craft our collections, but unfortunately, those who are there, they mostly use it to be greedy and go around and grab books. [I am on the record here saying that running around trying to get free books and wait in long lines is not a good use of your time.] You should take your time and use it for collection development. I will be using it as resource not for a treasure hunt.

Third, everyone, whether they are attending or not, should look through the
guide and note trends or authors who you already have in your collections who are going to have a new book, etc... Across the entire guide, what are you seeing that is similar? Where are the trends? Promote these upcoming titles and start taking holds. You could even make a few lists based off trends you find that would most interest your patrons and call them, "Hot Upcoming Titles from the American Library Association Conference." 

Fourth, after noting trends in the guide, you should also be making displays of titles that fit those trends you are noticing at the same time. Reminding people of what you already have that they may like while you are letting them know what is coming soon is very important to do in tandem. Those buzzy titles coming soon can be supplemented by readalikes from your backlist. You are anticipating what they want to read by giving your readers targeted displays now. You get them excited about a trend or some readalikes of the titles you know are coming soon, and then when they see those titles promoted in the books news, they feel like you "get them," because you promoted books just like the ones they already like. Trust me it works and you look brilliant and even a bit clairvoyant. 

So that is my push for the ALA Galley Guide for those left behind.  I hope those of you who are going, go back to this post and do the same thing after you return.

Here is the introduction to the Galley Guide which is organized by booth number.

Summery San Diego offers sea, sand, and balmy days to attendees of this year’s ALA conference. Readers looking forward to those delights might want to pack an extra beach bag to fi ll with the abundance of ARCs also on offer. Library Journal’s galley guide charts the picks and includes an in-booth signing schedule to keep up with the conference’s biblio happenings. Thank you to Sourcebooks (booth 1748) for sponsoring this catalogue of the great books available in San Diego.

Click here to explore the full Galley Guide.

What I'm Reading: Hose of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

In the June issue of Booklist I have a STAR review for one of the best books I have read all year, in any genre. 

Yes, Iglesias won the Stoker Award AND the Shirley Jackson Award for The Devil Takes You Home, and yes, it was amazing, but House of Bone and Rain is BETTER, in every way. I only had 200 words to officially share how great it is in Booklist, but thankfully, I have this blog post to share my draft review and talk about it some more.

Also, heads up, over on the Horror blog, I am giving away a SIGNED arc of this book this week courtesy of Iglesias himself.

Here is the review and bonus notes.

STAR
House of Bones and Rain 
by Gabino Iglesias
Aug. 2024. 352p. Little, Brown/Mulholland, $29 (9780316427012). 
REVIEW. First published June 1, 2024 (Booklist).

“All stories are ghost stories,” repeats Gabe (until all truly feel its meaning), the narrator of Iglesias’ stellar Horror-Thriller hybrid set in Puerto Rico amidst 2017’s devastating Hurricane Maria. When his mother is gunned down at work, best friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, and Paul join Bimbo in his quest for revenge, attempting to take out the biggest drug lord on the island under cover of the storm’s aftermath. The unsettling tone, high tension, and brisk pace are enhanced by striking free verse poems at the start of each chapter that foreshadow what is coming without giving anything away. However, it is Gabe’s engaging narration that will hook readers. He is honest and conflicted, but bursting with love despite the real life horrors that surround him. Intricately plotted, with a strong sense of place, told with awe inspiringly lyrical language and brutal violence, this is a remarkable novel that beams its hope into the darkness; a story that stands on its own as wholly original while confidently inserting itself into a conversation with Horror’s complicated past. A story that will introduce readers to a new favorite author while they wait for the next S.A. Cosby or Stephen Graham Jones.

Three Words That Describe This Book: revenge, lyrical and brutal, engaging narration

Further Appeal: so many notes.

• A sense of place so strong that you are immersed in it, doused with the rain and the heat and the wind.
• Well paced. It moves quickly even though Iglesias takes his time to develop the characters-- all of them, not just the best friends-- and the place and its history. OMG the history. It is perfect. We understand how everyone got to where they are and how the "bad guys" created their empire. And the reason is tied to Horror's history as well. That part is PERFECT!
• Lots of beautiful language to stop and read again but the pacing stays brisk. The chapters are not too long and with a free verse poem at the open which summarizes the chapter you are about to read, as a reader, you fell that poem pulling you to the end of the chapter. Then you read the next chapter's header and you are ready to dive in for more. It is very satisfying.
• So many underlined lines but one refrain-- All Stories Are Ghost Stories. This one is the novel in 5 words.
• THIS BOOK! Okay just like everything Iglesias writes this is a book that perfectly balances some of the most lyrical language you will read with some of the most gritty and dark violence. But in this book, he has improved in every way in terms of storytelling. Yes even improved from the Bram Stoker Award and Shirley Jackson Award winning The Devil Takes You Home. Why because the writing is even stronger and the thriller-horror combo works even better together.
• The tensions from the start is HIGH. Hurricane Maria ia about to hit Puerto Rico and as readers, we know that it is going to be bad. Very bad. But also, a character's mom is killed and they are vowing revenge so also TENSE.
• The characters are great. All of them, good, bad, monsters. The storytelling through characters is elite. The main characters are a group of 5 friends. They are more like brothers. All are just out of high school. They always stand up for each other no matter what. Gabe is the only one of the group who narrates and he narrates 95% of the chapters. You can count on one hand the times someone or something else takes a narration turn. But the characters themselves-- best friends who all live in Puerto Rico-- Iglesias challenges US mainland readers to confront their own racism about people from PR because each of the 5 guys is diverse in every way, even a range of skin color which I loved that he called out. They represent the diversity of who lives in this US colony and how they got there. There is even a character who doesn't know Spanish. Iglesias adds in some important Dominican characters which is also important group of immigrants on the island.
• The twists-- there is a big one and I will not give it away because that is unfair to Igelsias and the reader but what this twist does is plant a flag for this book as something wholly original but also a story that is in an active conversation with the genre's past. It forces a love for the that past but also with a clear, strong statement that the white men aren't in charge anymore. I loved that about this book. It makes the book better. And then as the last third plays out (post twist) it continues to get better and everything is explained in a way that is clear and makes sense within the parameters of the world Iglesias has set up. And like all the best books, every detail Iglesias included in the book matters in the end. So satisfying as a reader.
• The place. Iglesias' love for his home of Puerto Rico shines through on every page-- even admits his criticism of its worst parts. He evokes the place with all 5 senses and especially captures what life is like post hurricane. 
• The free verse poems that start each chapter. I mentioned them above. They are beautiful, chilling, unsettling, upsetting, and just perfect. This elevated and already stellar book.
• Despite the violence and despair, this book is full of love and hope. Just like a S.A. Cosby and Stephen Graham Jones. This book nestles right in between the two. Every one of your patrons who likes Cosby needs to read this book. And vice versa for Jones. They are hugging this book.

Readalikes: As I have already said, Stephen Graham Jones and SA Cosby are perfect readalikes. You have so many people who love both of those authors. Hand this out freely to them. Also David Joy is a writer who captures his place-- Appalachia-- with a critical eye but intense love much like Iglesias does. 

Get a few copies of this book on order ASAP. 

Summer Scares Live on Stage and On Goodreads

The entire concept of Summer Scares is really catching on and I cannot be happier.

After years of doing Summer Scares on their web platforms and promoting our titles Chicago Public Library is having us do Summer Scares Live on Stage AND online for FREE, 1 week from today. Click here or on the images below for the details.

On 6/26 at 6pm Central you can join us at Harold Washington Library Center or on CPL's Facebook page or on their YouTube Channel. All of the details are here. Please click through for details so you can join us. They will take questions for the authors from the online participants as well.

But it is not just me and my colleagues on the Summer Scares Committee who are out there promoting Horror as a great option in the Summer, Goodreads knows it is too. 

Recently, they had this post where they asked the authors of this summer's scariest books for their Horror picks (see graphic below for a preview of who those authors are). This list, alongside Summer Scares is a great vetted list of awesome reads for you to add to your collections and suggest to a wide range of readers.

Keep this Goodreads list and use it to make a display. Feel free to grab our Summer Scares Graphic to use to promote Summer Scares to all ages of readers at your library and then put out all your Horror books! Starting with our Summer Scares titles from this year, using the archive from past years, and the readalikes in the programming guides on the linked pages, plus this Goodreads list is a great place to start.

And don't forget to make it interactive. You should have a way for readers to leave a note about what their favorite scary summer read is in person or as a comment online. Also why not make this your conversation starter question for the next few weeks. Put a book mark in every book of the hold shelf, asking people to return their book with their favorite "scary" book. Reminder, I have a full post about how to encourage answers to conversation starter questions and turn them into displays here.

Embrace the scares this Summer. Horror is hot and people want to read as much of it as possible. And of course, I am here to help with that every single day of the year.

Why Libraries Need to Stop Saying “More Than Books”: a Guest Post by Misha Stone

I start every single one of my signature "RA For All: Flip the Script and Think Like a Reader" training programs with this slide:

Click on the image to enlarge it

It is also embedded on my 10 Rules Page.

The key point of sharing it is that while the world wants to talk about how the library is more than books-- which it is-- books are the heart of everything we do. When we focus on the "More Than Books" and double down on it as our brand, we are hurting ourselves. 

My colleague and friend Misha Stone, librarian and library school instructor, recently wrote me an essay to help explain why this "dismissive" phrase is hurting us and what we can do and say instead.

Take it away Misha.

Why Libraries Need to Stop Saying “More Than Books” by Misha Stone

For years now, I have been noticing a pernicious and dismissive phrase being used in relation to libraries. The phrase “more than books” continues to crop up when someone in leadership or on staff is asked to talk about all of the amazing and varied services and programs that libraries provide. While I understand why it is said, and how many people have no clue how much libraries have changed over the years, it irks me deeply that we use a phrase that plays into the rhetoric of library detractors that simultaneously dismisses how much the “books” invoked still do to serve our diverse communities.

The Problem of Telling the Story of the Many Things Libraries Do

Libraries have long provided a variety of services to better respond to the community’s changing needs. The plethora of what libraries offer and the ways in which libraries need to proactively and reactively adapt to a busy and networked world is constantly evolving. Libraries operate in a world with growing wealth disparity and increasingly global concerns and this adds complexity and layered concentric circles to our need to grow beyond our core services. 

Telling the story of what libraries do and how they have evolved to provide services and programs beyond what libraries are most well known for–services and programs like rich collections, story times, book clubs, reference, readers’ advisory and mobile services–is important. Not everyone knows how creative and responsive library services have become, but too often libraries themselves adopt the language of detractors in order to tell this story.

When libraries use the rhetoric of those who do not see the relevance of libraries in the age of search engines and high speed internet or give credence to the adage that no one reads anymore, we are giving into a binary rhetoric that pits core services against new or emergent services and programs. In telling the story of what libraries offer, we too often denigrate the gateway and core services that are both our brand and central to all of our other work.

“Books and More”

Collections are not always appreciated in libraries, even though the books on our shelves form the foundation of a lot of our work. Reference and leisure reading collections work hand in hand in our work with community members of all ages to meet their information and emotional and social learning needs throughout the many phases of their lives. Library collections meet the diverse needs of the public, and also create nodes of exploration, discoverability, and critical inquiry.

When leadership and even library workers say we are “books and more” or “more than books” a binary is imposed that denotes a lack of respect or valuation of the myriad ways our collections and readers’ advisory serves our communities. Books help people get jobs, educate themselves, learn about history, learn about their ancestors, and they also connect people to stories that can meet them in times of emotional turmoil or offer solace as well as comfort. Books connect people to themselves and others.

Books sometimes save lives. There is a reason that concerted efforts are afoot to challenge collections and access to the stories that represent BIPOC and queer lives; these stories were hard to find for so long and now that representation is only starting to be felt in publishing and on library shelves, there are those who see their power and want to thwart it.

Books are our brand. At some point, it became commonly adopted that books and reading are somehow unsexy or uncool, and that we somehow need to distance ourselves from our brand. Libraries started describing themselves via apology rather than enthusiastic exclamation, but why?

Reading has been perceived as boring, sure, and some of that is due to the way education assigns reading at a formative time in people’s lives. Libraries, which serve leisure readers and help match readers with books they may enjoy based on appeal and interest, can heal and repair that perception and experience. Reading can also be subversive, expansive, and revelatory. Libraries do not need to devalue the power of reading in order to say that books are the foundation from which all of our other services and programs originate. We should not give in to detractors that want to shame us about our brand.

Additionally, we should not make racist assumptions about who reads. In the recent Netflix documentary, “Butterfly in the Sky,” about “Reading Rainbow” and Levar Burton’s influence on generations of young readers, Black children’s and teen author Jason Reynolds, who was also the 2020-2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, shared how having an authentic Black role model like Burton helped him see himself as a reader and later as a writer. 

While publishing has upheld white cis heteronormative voices and socialized those voices as the norm, libraries have countered the norm by offering collections that offer plurality to a public we believe can inform themselves. Our collections are robust, rich, contradictory, and bursting with numerous voices, accounts, lived experiences, perspectives, and counter-narratives. Books remain our brand because they offer perspectives beyond the scrolling screens in people’s lives. 

In How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell invokes libraries as a space of resistance:

"I feel the same way about libraries, another place where you go with the intention of finding information. In the process of writing this book, I realized that the experience of research is exactly opposite to the way I usually encounter information online. When you research a subject, you make a series of important decisions, not least what it is you want to research, and you make a commitment to spend time finding information that doesn't immediately present itself. You seek our different sources that you understand may be biased for various reasons. ...Nothing could be more different than the news feed, where these aspects of information--provenance, trustworthiness, or what the hell it's even about--are neither internally coherent nor subject to my judgment. Instead this information throws itself at me in no particular order, auto-playing videos and grabbing me with headlines. And behind the scenes, it's me who's being researched." (175)

Reference versus RA

Reference and readers’ advisory are often framed in library programs and libraries themselves as somehow opposed or in hierarchical relationship. Why do we pit them against each other? Reference and readers’ advisory encompass a continuum and sometimes serve the same patrons at the same time or at different points of their information seeking? Because leisure reading and fiction in particular have been snobbishly dismissed as fluff or for the privileged, we, again, center tired narratives that support dismissive paternalism and competitive thinking that should have no place in how libraries operate or describe themselves to the public. 

Library services are not a zero sum game. While some audiences, services, and programs will get prioritized differently over time, libraries can and should try to embrace a yes/and approach as staff capacities allow. Reference, readers’ advisory, social services, outreach, economic development, community engagement, and community-led initiatives all have important places in libraries and need not be placed in conflict or in hierarchical relationship.

My colleague Genesee Rickel noted that libraries are one of the few institutions where additional services and programs can get “slotted in.” Some of what gets slotted in is due to a critical divestment in social services and a divestment in systems of collective care. Just because libraries have been rising to the occasion, does not mean (hopefully) that we will always have to do so. Should society’s commitment to the vulnerable and marginalized become more robust and compassionate, libraries may become one more part of the puzzle of community and collective care. Books and reading will remain core to our mission and values, and, yes, our brand.

Readers’ advisory remains an undervalued and misunderstood service that receives little investment in library school programs, research, or dedicated staff and training in public libraries. The assumption that RA is easy or already being done without sustained commitment and training by institutions also persists.

The assumption that RA is “traditional” or passé also lends to the adoption of belittling notions about core services centering books and reading. There is little acknowledgement that anti-racist and critical approaches to RA are moving this work into innovative and interrogatory spaces that libraries should embrace and find exciting. RA does more than just promote collections–it moves the library beyond the transactional by creating relationships and connections with community to foster a love of reading that feels personalized, affirming, and expansive.

We choose a binary narrative when we discard books as our brand. Somehow even when “books and more” gets invoked it feels less like a yes/and and more like a distancing tactic. This rhetoric gives into the detractors when libraries should, more than ever, be embracing the power of books and reading and defending the freedom to read as an intrinsic part of a healthy democracy. We do not get to the “more” without books. 

In Books for Living, Will Schwalbe had this to say about the power of books and reading:

“Books remain one of the strongest bulwarks we have against tyranny–but only so long as people are free to read all different kinds of books, and only so long as they actually do so. The right to read whatever you want and whenever you want is one of the fundamental rights that helps preserve all the other rights. It’s a right we need to guard with unwavering diligence. But it’s also a right we can guard with pleasure. Reading isn’t just a strike against narrowness, mind control, and domination; it’s one of the world’s great joys.”

What can we say instead?
Well, for one, we can start by saying that books and reading and our collections are still vital to ALL of the work we do. Libraries offer more programs and services than people realize. Libraries are committed to innovative and evolving approaches to our work and collections remain core to all of the work we do. Starting with stating that people may not know just how much libraries do now can be framed in a more affirming way by sharing that we still are deeply committed to incredible collections, reference and readers’ advisory, and have built enriching services and programs from that foundation.

Libraries create community and connection, and books will remain the center of a wheel with many spokes. You don’t get to the “more” without the books, and it’s time for libraries to center a more enthusiastic reclamation of how books inform and undergird the “more.” Let’s all keep thinking about narratives that embrace our multi-faceted approach to service; we do not need to renounce or reduce any of our rich and varied services to show just how remarkable libraries really are and how growth is also central to our mission. 

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Misha Stone (she/her) is a readers' advisory librarian in Seattle. Misha was a 2022 World Fantasy Award judge and serves on the Clarion West Writers Workshop board. Misha appears on local media to talk about books and reading regularly and teaches readers' advisory courses for the University of Washington's Information School.