Staying in the Know is Even Easier Thanks to a Brand New Daily RA Column Via Library Journal!!!!!

[Yes the extra exclamation points were necessary; thanks for noticing.]

Just launched by Library Journal and my long time editor Neal Wyatt-- Book Pulse. From LJ:

Book Pulse 

Welcome to Book Pulse, a daily update designed to help collection development and readers’ advisory librarians navigate the never-ending wave of new books and book news. 

Here you will find highlights of titles moving in the marketplace and getting buzz, bookish stories making news, and key items from the literary web. 

Book Pulse owes its existence to the legacy of Nora Rawlinson and EarlyWord as well as the work of Cindy Orr and Sarah Statz Cords at the RAOnline Blog. Book Pulse takes their vital work onward, continuing to nurture a community of librarians learning from and supporting each other and providing resources that help us excel at our jobs. 

I look forward to your input—what works, what does not, what helps, what is needed? Write me at nwyatt@mediasourceinc.com.

I can’t contain myself, I am so excited about this new daily column! And Neal is someone who I trust 100%. She edited my book, among other things I have written professionally. It would not be as good of a resource as it is without her work on it.

You can read every column here. But, before you ask, there is NOT a way to have it emailed to you yet, but they promise to work on it.

You need to read this column daily, along with a few others. I have laid this all out before in a post entitled, Stay In the Know With Minimal Effort.  The post is part of my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service. I have now added Book Pulse to that post. This is how important I think this new column is.

Read below for why spending 10 minutes each day, reading three columns will make you a better RA provider. rRemember you can pull up the post below at any time by visiting Rule 5 here.

MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 2017

Call to Action: Stay In the Know With Minimal Effort

Today’s Call to Action is less scolding and more of a pep talk.

One of the most important things every single one of you can do to be better at RA service is to stay on top of the book world news. Or as I say in Rule 5 of my Ten Rules of Basic RA Service:

Look, I know that reading widely is important for our job, but honestly, it is not as imperative these days as it used to be. Why? Well because you can learn a lot about many different types of books by speed reading “about” books.

Let me explain further. In my signature RA for All training, I still show people how to speed read a book for appeal; however, I am finding that I also give this advice-- “You can also replicate this speed reading for appeal with the physical book by fully reading the NoveList entry for that title.” It’s even better if you follow some of the links. And, if you also go to Goodreads and read the 5 star and  2 star reviews [1 star ones are sometimes too mean and petty to be useful for our purposes], you get a full picture of the appeal of the book with an example appeal  statement from the book’s target reader and those who also disliked it and why.

This is a great way to “read” books in genres that you dislike personally or just don’t have the time to stay on top of. You get objective information about who the book most appeals to on NoveList and then actual opinions from readers via Goodreads.

However, staying in the know on the general book world news is about more than speed reading select titles. We also need to be aware of trends in all of pop culture in general and still stay on top of the most pressing book news.

One thing I hear- frequently- from library workers all over the country is that they try so hard to stay up to date, but Twitter is too “noisy" (even when I show them how to make lists) and they get overwhelmed by their RSS feeds from all the blogs and book news sites they follow that way. I regularly get calls for help from people with thousands of posts to sort through in their RSS feeds.

Many of you are so inundated that you are sinking. I see it all of the time. Library workers who have the drive to stay in the know, but they cannot find the time to follow everything as it is happening quickly, in real time. So instead, they give up.

I get this response, I really do. But, it is not an option people. I will be your life jacket. It’s not that hard. Today, I will share my easy way to know the bare minimum about the most pertinent information.

First, I highly recommend everyone read Entertainment Weekly every week. Not online, the actual magazine. Seriously, you can write off your subscription to the magazine as a business expense. But also, if you work at a library you can spend 1 lunch break with the current issue each week [or read the digital copy if your library, work or home, subscribes]. A quick page through of the magazine will let you know what the current pop culture/mass media trends are. You will be alerted early to books being made into movies or tv shows. You will see what books are getting the most buzz. You will even see actual book reviews. But the biggest thing you will get out of it is a wide angle picture of what, in general, is popular right now-- week by week. Not only do these trends extend into all areas of leisure media consumption, but also, knowing what people like overall will help you craft book suggestions based on what is popular overall.

But that is just for general trends and very specific titles of interest. In order to stay on top of the deluge of daily news while making sure to filter out what doesn’t matter so you only spend time reading the "news you can use" take my second advice--

Sign up for 2 daily newsletters and read this one daily column [not a newsletter yet] and you will be good. That’s it. Just these three:

• Shelf Awareness for Book Trade Workers [That’s you]. This daily email covers all age levels of books and gives you a heads up on author media appearances. [Media appearances always lead to book requests from patrons]. 
• PW’s Daily newsletter, although if you click here you can see a full list of all of their free newsletters. You can pick the ones that are most relevant to you on top of the general “Daily.”
• Library Journal’s Book Pulse, a daily update designed to help collection development and readers’ advisory librarians navigate the never-ending wave of new books and book news. 

What I have found is that while some bigger news may break more quickly on Twitter, if it is important enough, it will make it through to these two newsletters that next morning. I have been monitoring this consciously for a few months now and I am confident in this advice.

Let them sort through all of the noise for you. That’s what these editors are paid to do. You have enough going on at your libraries to add this to your daily to-dos. Use the links I provided, give your email address to them, and start each day with a recap of what you need to know from book news, to upcoming titles, to reviews. Again, the beauty of this solution is that someone else is doing this work for you. You then only have to read a very short email with the most pressing information.

You need to stay in the know. You cannot avoid it. So instead of being overwhelmed by everything and/or just ignoring it-- both very bad ideas-- please take my advice here today. The outcome is that you are more informed, less stressed, and have happier patrons. See, you have nothing to lose.

For past Call to Action posts, click here.

Becky’s Favorite Resources: All Readers.com for Frank Sex and Violence Info

With yesterday’s post about the NPR Top 100 Romances I thought today was a good time for me to bring up my favorite site to find  frank discussions about the specific types and level of sex and violence in a book-- All Readers.com.

All Readers is not a pretty site; in fact it is fairly cumbersome and awkward, but it is THE ONLY place where you will find this information-- information readers care deeply about. And, even more importantly, they do not hold anything back..

Let me give you some examples.

All of the All Readers reviews include a analysis chart.  For each example, click and then scroll down to the chart.

Here is your example of sex level comparison of two best selling romance authors from opposite ends of the spectrum:

• It Had to be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips 
• One Night by Debbie Macomber

Here is your example of violence level comparison of two best selling crime authors from opposite ends of the spectrum:

• Kiss the Girls by James Patterson
• Sticks and Scones by Diane Mott Davidson

Compare the difference in their sex and violence levels for yourself. All Readers does a great job of really telling you what to expect. With honest lines like: "generic/vague references to death/punishment” vs "very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture,” [not to mention how frank they get about the sexual references], All Readers leaves nothing to the imagination.

Since we cannot read every book, this is a great way for the librarian to know what the reader can expect. It takes the awkwardness out of the RA conversation. Anytime there is a issue about sex and violence levels in a given title, I simply print the review from this resource and give it to the patron to decide for him or herself. Everyone wins!

That’s why All Readers.com is a Becky Favorite.

Introducing Becky's Favorite Resources-- First Up The Locus Recommended Reading List

I am starting a new feature on RA for All. I am calling it, “Becky's Favorite Resources.” Original, I know.

Why am I doing this? Besides the fact that it is my blog and I can do what I want. No, there is a real reason too.

As I close in on 2000 posts and my 8th anniversary, even I cannot remember everything I have posted, let alone expect you to be able to do it. For example, earlier today I spent some time searching for a post that I was sure I had written (it’s for tomorrow’s post), but I couldn’t find it. I think it is because it is something I use in lectures but have never put in a post, or it really is in here somewhere and I simply cannot find it.

*Sigh*

 Either way, I need a way to help you [and me] organize the information here on the blog in a way that you can use it to help patrons today, tomorrow, or 3 years from now.

So, much like how I am tagging all of the Library Reads lists so you can quickly pull all of them up with one click to browse and use as a resource in their entirety [something you still cannot do as fluidly on the Library Reads site as you can on RA for All], I am going to start tagging posts where I discuss my favorite resources with the easy to remember “Becky’s Favorite.”

Of course I have already had many of these types of posts over the years, but in the past I used only the “resources” tag. Except now I have 240 posts with that tag and most of them would not qualify as “favorites.” This helps no one!

That all changes right now with this post and the first “Becky’s Favorite”- The Locus Recommended Reading List. Why is it first? Simply because I was working on a review for tomorrow and I consulted this resource to identify a readalike option. In other words, I used it to answer a RA question because I knew it would help me.

What is it? Published each February, The Locus Recommended Reading List compiles the very best in speculative fiction for the previous year from the most trusted resource in the world of sf and fantasy.  So this past February [2015], this 2014 list was released.

Here is why I love this resource no matter the year:

1. It is a great collection development tool. You can use it to make sure your collection has the key titles from the past year.
2. It is a wonderful science fiction and fantasy training tool.  You can use the list to make sure that you and your staff are aware of who’s who in the genre today. 
3. All of the lists from the current one to those from years' past make for the perfect sure bet backlist reading list for speculative fiction fans. I recently showed the 2014 list to a friend who needed a suggestion for vacation, and she now thinks I am THE GREATEST LIBRARIAN EVER. [She checked out The Bees for her trip, by the way.] 

Look for more “Becky’s Favorite” posts going forward, and you too can be called the greatest librarian ever. Eventually, a simple click on the tag will pull all of these posts up on one screen for easier use by you as you help your patrons which is always my goal for everything I put here on RA for All-- making your life easier as you help your leisure readers.

Making you look like a rockstar is what I strive to do.