RA For All Greatest Hits: The Best List of Books to Read Before You Die

This week, I updated my list of upcoming presentations because Fall is one of my busiest live presentation seasons. In fact, as I was updating, I realized I have at least a half dozen programs that are agreed to but not scheduled yet that I will also need to add those soon.

Whenever I get busy like this, I am reminded that there are many people out there who are not aware of the information that I lay out as foundational to all RA Service. I hear myself talking all the time, and I have presented all over the country, so it is easy to lose sight of the fact that I have barely made a dent in terms of who I have reached. 

This week was a great example. There was another one of those "Books to Read Before You Die" lists that someone sent me. (I am not sharing it. Read below as to why.)

I wanted to reply snarkily with "the only books you need to read before you die are the books you want to read, and don't let anyone tell you differently."

But, I stopped myself because this concept is not intuitive even to the most dedicated library workers or readers. I know this because it is part of my first rule of basic RA service. I start every presentation reminding people that we need to stop being judgmental about what books people should read-- both our patrons but more importantly, ourselves.

As I was thinking about this concept, I also remembered that I haven't done an RA for All Greatest Hits post in a while. So here you go. One of my favs, a post that originally appeared in 2021, but actually goes back much further through the links I included. 

For more of RA for All's Greatest Hits click here.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

The Best List of Books to Read Before You Die

I have long been a proponent of NOT making lists of the books you should read. In my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service and a few other places I have multiple links that address this issue. Yes, I train people who are helping leisure readers. Yes, my job is to know about all the books so I can help people find the best read for them. And yes, I want to read all the books. But here's the thing, I cannot read all the books and I never will. I have gotten over this, and it was not as hard as we make it.

Our job is to help people find books that are right for them. Most of us also like to read for fun. But, too many of us toxically combine these two truths and turn what we HAVE to read into an anxiety inducing problem that takes over our lives.

I say it over and over, but I know it needs to be repeated-- 1. You can read whatever you want and 2. you are not a better person to librarian if you read more than someone else. This is nonsense. Yes I believe in the work I do and I take it seriously, but it is work. It is not my life or reason for being. It does not define me.

Also, YOU WILL NEVER READ ALL THE BOOKS, SO STOP TRYING! You will never even read all the books you want to read. Get over it. I could go on and on, but below I have compiled a few of my best posts that address this issue from a variety of angles:

• Here is the link to my popular and helpful [so I've been told] post on handling TBR anxiety. I think this is the first step. Managing your personal stress about all the books you will never get to.
• The next step is understanding that you can help all the readers without reading all the books as long as you use resources to help you. This is a HUGE focus of my signature training program. The best way to start is to focus on reading ABOUT all the books, instead of trying to read all of them. You actually learn more about who would like the book and why if you read about a book. When you read it, it is easier to get caught up in your own opinions and experience. It takes a lot of practice to extricate yourself as a reader from the process. But, when you read multiple opinions, reviews, reader comments, and articles ABOUT a book, you get a fuller picture and can actually help more readers connect to it. Click here for one of my many posts on this topic. And also here for my 10 Rules of Basic RA, of which many delve into this more.
• There is also the issue of shaming others about how many more books you have read than them. It should be clear from the bullet points above that I don't care how many you read. And if I don't care, the leading provider of RA training in the country, who are you trying to impress? Seriously. Take a step back and check yourself. No one cares how many books you have read. And, furthermore, as I have established above, it doesn't make you better at your job.
• Click here for my post on how and why you should stop with the counting of books and shaming of others[because you are shaming others even if you don't do it on purpose].
• Click here for for a link to an article and podcast by others who are also top RA practitioners talking about how they are excellent at their jobs without being able to read many books.

But all of this work I have done over many years has never stopped the books you "should" read debate, and I am sick of it!

You should read whatever you want for whatever reason you want. And, just because you are a library worker or bookish person, you are not above others. We spend so much time shaming people for what they like to read-- especially genre readers-- and I am never here for this behavior. No matter what anyone wants to read, they should read it. End of sentence.

We are not the reading police. We should not be gatekeepers. We are simply guides, matching people with their best read. I explain it to library workers this way: your goal should be to have every single book in your collections checked out at the same time. Obviously this is impossible, but that is what you should be striving for. This means not only are you working to match people with books, but also that your collection is responsive to what they actually want to read. It is a whole library effort.

In my first rule of RA Service, I have long held up this excellent list of the books you "should" read. It is all about serendipity or based on what you want to read. It is 28 examples. But just the other day, I was alerted to this even better list of the Books Your Should Read Before You Die over on Twitter:

Click here to see the tweet

The image reads:

List of Books to Read Before You Die

1. Any book you want
2. Don't read books you don't want to read
3. That's it
4. Congratulations you did it

There is a comment: "I really like this list. All my favorite books are on it."

And a second comment: " Thanks! I worked really hard on it."

[Thanks to Twitter handle Library_Kevin for positing it and my colleague and LibraryReads Board Member, Joe Jones, for getting it into my timeline.] 

While this list is not perfect, the sentiment is EXACTLY what I have been trying to get across to all of us for years. Print this out, book mark it, whatever it takes to remind yourself  that we are not saving the world here, we are simply making it a more enjoyable experience for everyone. Read what you want. Stop making rules and judgments about what we should read. 

I hope all of the links here today will help you help yourself first, so that you can then pass this healthier attitude on to your colleagues and patrons. 

RA for All Greatest Hits: Make All of Your Lists and Displays Interactive (In Person and Online)

This post is part of my newly created RA for All "Greatest Hits Archive. You can click here to use the tag to pull up everything in the series or you can visit the newly created Greatest Hits page here.  

The biggest change in how RA Service is delivered in this century has been the shift from making all RA transactional based-- meaning we sit at the desk and wait for questions from leisure readers much like we do with reference-- to conversational based-- meaning we create spaces and situations where we actively engage our readers in conversation about their [and our] leisure reading without a question.

Back in 2017, I began to plant my flag on the conversational side of RA. I was among the first to do this because I had been traveling the country full time for 2 years at that point doing only RA training. In my travels I did a lot of listening, listening that revealed to me one of the largest impediments to libraries committing to RA Service-- no one was coming up to ask their leisure reading questions.

As a result, I started talking about focusing our services on showing people we wanted to talk about their wants as much as their needs. And how do we begin to show them-- make all of our lists and displays interactive. 

Here is the very first post on the topic entitled: "Make All of Your Displays Interactive" from November of 2017. I will also repost it below to keep with the format that I have set up for this "Greatest Hits" series. 

That was the first time. Since, I have had 2 dozen more posts tagged "Interactive RA" which build off of this original post. It has quickly become one of my most important lessons when I train libraries to help leisure readers. 

In fact, making all of your displays interactive is now fully entrenched into RA for All cannon as part of my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service.

Today, let's go back to where it all began. Unfortunately, not every library has gotten the message that good RA is about creating conversations, not just tallying transactions. I hope adding this post to the Greatest Hits archive will help library workers near and far, whether they hire me or not, to start being interactive with their service. 

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2017

Make All of Your Displays Interactive-- Both for Staff and Patrons

Today's post is inspired by one of my new favorite tips to share with the staff I work with in person. I often say these things so much to the people I actually come into contact with that I worry I am repeating myself. And then, I remember that the vast majority of you interact with me here and not in person. So, today I am passing on my love of building a patron friendly library where conversation is not only encouraged, but runs rampant, and it all starts with making sure every single staff member and patron/user at your library has a chance to participate in your service to leisure readers.

That is my overall goal for all of you in your service to leisure readers. It is the thesis statement behind everything I say, do, and teach.

Displays are one of the easiest ways to get this participation bonanza going, and the end of the year is the best time to start. Why? Well it’s because everyone has an opinion on what THE BEST thing they read or watched this year was. And these opinions are varied and different. And that is AWESOME for a display.

Let’s start with the concept first and then a specific example second.

You need to make every single display you do participatory in some way. Patrons are used to seeing displays, they are used to browsing them, they are used to taking books from them, but they are never asked to help build them.

Likewise, while specific staff members or departments are responsible putting up and taking down displays, why aren’t all staff members asked to help with ideas or to fill the display?

The more voices and opinions we include in building the displays, the better our displays are because they represent a wider view of the “topic.” You cannot and will not think of every possible book that could work on any given display. But the collective brain-- you, staff, patrons-- working together will by default have a wider view of the topic at hand, thus creating a better and more responsive display.

Here is a specific example that works very well at this time of the year and can be a great starting point to creating more participatory displays all year long.

Take an empty display shelf, one near a service desk and put a sign on the top-- WHAT IS THE BEST THING YOU CHECKED OUT OF THE LIBRARY THIS YEAR? Send an email to staff and ask them to put a few things that answers this question for them in the display.  Then sit back and watch patrons and staff fill it for you!

Now, a couple of problems right off the back that I will address.  One, yes, you might get kids filling it with sex, poop, and fart books. But, if it is in a high traffic area you can monitor it. Two, if you ask people to take books off the shelf and put them in a display that means the item may not be where the catalog says it is. This is valid, but to answer it I always say, “Has there every been a day when everything you looked for was exactly where it was supposed to be?” The answer is always NO. So take a deep breath and get over it. If you are doing this type of display, you will know to check the interactive display if an item is not on the shelf before declaring it “missing."

Here’s why this display is awesome:

• This display becomes a community created best lists where everyone’s voice and opinion counts. As the organizer of this display make sure you are keeping a record of the items that show up in the display. You can then release the community best list-- in print, online, heck even let the newspaper know. I know my local paper would LOVE this as an article. And you did nothing. You simply asked them to tell you what was “best."
• A display of this kind allows ANY ITEM you carry to be considered best. From book to video to Go Pro camera-- whatever that patron thinks was the best thing they checked out this year is included.
• This best list is not dependent upon the items released in the current year. At the library, the year something came out is not as relevant as other places. But every other outlet will be focused on the best of 2017. 
• You get a real time sense of what in your collection is deemed the most useful by your patrons. If they are telling you they loved it, you should probably get more of that “it.” Also, you should probably get readalikes for that “it.” When do we get such honest and useful feedback? Um, never.
• Don’t overestimate how much fun patrons will have adding books to a library display shelf. You seriously might never get them to stop. And I would argue that you shouldn’t even ask them to stop. They should always feel free to add to our displays. In fact, it is weird that this is NOT a thing. [Side note: in 2018, I am going to make this a thing so that in the future people will think it was weird that we never let patrons add to our displays. Stay tuned.]
• People now know that you care what they think. You might be the nicest most helpful library in the world, but patrons think of the library workers as experts who don’t want their regular person opinions. I know we do want them, but they don’t know we do. And who can blame them? It’s not like we ever asked. 

Now to keep this going all year long----

Every display should have an interactive element. Sometimes it will be big like the above example, but other times, it may be smaller and more subtle.

To include staff going forward, let them know ahead of time your upcoming topics. Ask them to contribute [if they want] titles to that display. Not only will you get a title you might not have thought of, but also, you may find out that a staff member really likes a genre or type of book and you had no idea. That not only helps you to identify another resource when you get a reader with similar tastes, but it builds camaraderie between staff members. It helps to remind us that while we all work in a specific department, we have likes across all departments and we are all a single team working together to help all patrons. As we stay in our specific departments, this team attitude often gets forgotten.

You can also move on to soliciting topics of future displays from all staff too. Having been part of a team that did multiple displays a month for 15 years, I know that we all run out of new ideas. Why aren’t we asking staff from other parts of the library for ideas too?  For that matter, why aren’t we asking patrons what topic of displays they want to see?

Which leads me to an easy way to make a display interactive for patrons. You don’t always have to invite them to add books to the displays to include them [but in general, I think this is a great idea for every display, every time, as I mention above]. But, you can always have a question to go with every display, a small pile of paper, and a box for them to leave the answers. So if you have a display of historical fiction, for example, you could have a sign with a question like-- What is Your Favorite Time Period to Read About? or What Time Would You Travel To If You Could? or even, What Historical Eras Do You Want Us To Have More Books About?

All of these questions will help you to serve your readers better. You can put these out with the physical display and on your social media channels. People get to express their opinions and we find out what truly interest them. The result is that we can develop our collections to better suit their wants AND our displays go from ho-hum to must visit by patrons. They will want to come back to see what we are asking them.

Again, staff should be encouraged to participate too.

When we ask people-- staff or patrons-- to participate in our service they feel like they are important. And they always have been, but we do not show them that we believe this nearly often enough . We can’t do our jobs of helping leisure readers without our fellow staff members or the patrons. All are vital to our success. They have value and can truly help us elevate our service-- but we have to ask.

Interactive displays are fun. They are a slight twist to a core service. And the results both physical and psychological are priceless.

RA for All Greatest Hits: Use the Words of Others

This post is part of my newly created RA for All "Greatest Hits Archive. You can click here to use the tag to pull up everything in the series or you can visit the newly created Greatest Hits page here. 

Today's post is a rerun of one of the MOST IMPORTANT things I teach when I teach RA Service-- you can and should use the words of others.

As we are assisting out patrons to find a good read, theys do not care if we read the book we are suggesting or not. What they do care about though is that someone has read the book and enjoyed it. 

So stop worrying so much about reading all the books and only using your experience to help readers and start using resources to book talk any title. More below, and honestly, anytime you hear me talking about RA Service to anyone anywhere.

TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2018

You Can Use The Words of Others to Booktalk

Starting tomorrow and a half dozen times over the next 45 days, I am going to be promoting the idea of booktalking-- all over the library-- to many different organizations across a few different states.

I love talking about booktalking as much as I love booktalking. My booktalking training is one of my favorite and most popular programs. You know why? Because every single person on staff at your library can booktalk. Everyone. From the maintenance crew to the Director.
In my program I share stories about specific libraries who have cultivated a culture of booktalking at their library. But the basic idea is, anyone on staff can and should talk about what they are reading, watching, and listening to with each other or with patrons-- out loud for others to hear. As long as the things you are talking about are something that can be checked out from the library. Even new movies are good to talk about at work because they will be available at some point and you can use them to start a conversation about other movies or books.
The point is that booktalking is not only about hand selling a title to a specific patron based on their likes and dislikes. Rather, booktalking is a way to start conversations at the library. When you talk about leisure items at the library freely, openly, and often, you are both demonstrating that you care about leisure items AND advertising that you are qualified to help patrons find some themselves.
This is a concept I spend a a good 30 minutes developing in this program, but today on the blog I want to point out something I have learned after presenting a version of this program for three years now. I have found that many library workers don’t want to talk about what they are reading or watching. There reasons are valid and fair for sure. Some cite privacy concerns, especially those whose job is not at a public desk; they don’t want to have to share what they do in their free time. Others rightly comment that they are reading, for example, erotic romance, and work at the Children's’ desk most of the day [this has come up enough that I think you might want to ask your youth staff if they have any suggestions here]. Still others say, I want to talk about the book I just read, but I am not comfortable finding the right words.
For all of these reasons, and just so you can share books you haven’t read, I have what I thought was common sense advice, but through training after training I am learning is quite a revolutionary idea--

I hope my sharing this advice encourages all of you to get out there and talk about more books with patrons, especially those you haven’t read yourself.

Use the words of others when you booktalk!

I just assumed people knew that a “book talk” didn’t need to also be written by them. I was wrong to assume.

Yes, you heard me. You don’t have to write the words about the book you are talking about, heck you don’t even have to have read it. The point of the booktalk isn’t to prove you have a great way with words. The point is to talk about an item...period.

One of my 10 Rules of RA Service is “Use Resources.” We have trained patrons for over 100 years that librarians do not know the answers to every question, rather we know how to find the answers. We use resources. Guess what, we can use them for leisure reading too. As long as we are honest that the words are not ours, it’s fine. In fact, it is better than fine. It is what we are best at. Its what our patrons expect us to do.

That’s right. Many of you think your patrons will be disappointed in you if you “read” a booktalk. Why do you think that? You read them answers about reference questions. They don’t expect you to pull facts about North Korea out of thin air. Here’s the truth, we put this pressure on ourselves. Our patrons expect us to use resources. So stop giving yourself more stress and more work to do. Use resources!

So where can you find booktalk material? Reviews, professional or from Goodreads, blurbs from other authors [check Fantastic Fiction for those], other libraries’ websites, book lists, etc.... Heck, I ever pull books of the shelf and read the blurbs and summary off the back with the patron. You can read all of these to a patron and say, “Wow, this book looks so interesting. Here’s what someone who enjoyed it says.” This is a book talk! You are starting a conversation about books by using the words of others.

I often keep the conversation going with the patron here by adding, “Well I will put that on my mountain of a TBR pile. What about you? What are you reading?”

Using resources for your booktalking material means you can talk about ANY BOOK AT ANY TIME. You have no limits now.

This also goes hand in hand with yesterday’s post when I talked about owning up to us not doing everything we can to curate and promote diverse collections. Another excuse some library workers make as a reason for their failure in this is that they don’t have time to read all the diverse titles, and that is why they don’t promote them. While I think this excuse is BS, this concept of using reviews and book talks by others counters this excuse. Now you can freely talk about any title in the world. 

RA for All Greatest Hits: Attack of the Best Lists

I am currently working on two major best lists and one award....and it is early October. Soon, we will be inundated with "best" lists created by experts telling us what we should have read this year, but didn't.

So in honor of what I like to call, "Attack of the Best Lists," today's Greatest Hits post is a flashback to back in 2015 when I wrote about using the glut of best lists this time of year to your advantage. That post, "Attack of the "Best" Lists-- Becky's Advice to Stay Ready and Look Smart," is below, but you can also use this link to read more posts in that "Attack of the Best Lists" series.

For more of RA for All's Greatest Hits click here.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2015

Attack of the "Best" Lists-- Becky's Advice to Stay Ready and Look Smart

This time of year is exciting with the holidays approaching and “Best of the Year” lists coming fast and furious.  Best lists are both one of the best things about our job and one of the most frustrating; however, if you listen to me, I will help you to turn all of the frustration into a success story-- one that will make you and your library look like book super stars.

Let me start with how Best Lists help us, library workers who help leisure readers.

1. We love books and get excited about what is deemed the best.  As cool as we try to play it, we are like kids in a candy store when best lists come out. We are all comparing our reading lists to see which we have already read, which are on our to-read lists, which books we feel didn’t deserve to be deemed best, and most importantly, which books we feel were snubbed. This is pure fun for us since our job involves leisure reading.
2. Best lists get our patrons psyched up too.  They start coming back into the library to look for these great books that they may have missed. We are relevant to them [for the moment], which makes us feel good.
3. Since best lists get patrons more excited about books and reading, they are also more willing to engage us in a conversation about what they are reading. This is the best time of year to practice our book talking and RA conversation skills.

Now the frustrations.

1. There are so many lists and they start coming at us before Halloween. It is a lot to handle.
2. All of those patrons coming in are only interested in the “best” books and of course, many of those are checked out.
3. We often feel like we have lost the opportunity to shine because of their disappointment. The best list barrage can make us feel like failures. :(

These are real frustrations, but I have helpful answers.

First, take advantage of the huge number of best lists and don’t see them as overwhelming, rather use them to your advantage.  There are SO many of them, you should be able to find a book that someone deemed best this year.  Often, patrons aren’t looking for a specific “best book” even though they come in asking for a specific title. They actually are just looking for a book that someone said was good enough for them to spend their time reading.

So take a step back and think about that last statement.  The patrons are all clamoring for Fates and Furies or Between the World and Me and you know it will be 2016 before a copy is available, but what they actually want is something good to read. They figure a “best” book is a safe bet.

Do not think of this as a lost opportunity or failure because the specific title has a long holds queue.  Instead, engage the patron in conversation about finding them a “best” book that is both ready right now AND is tailor fit to their reading tastes.  9 times out of 10, the patron in front of you has NO IDEA that you will provide this level of customized service for them. They will be so happy for your help.

But how do you do it> Remember frustration #1, so many lists to keep track of.  Well that’s where I come in, to give you 1 easy link to all of the best lists.

Since 2008, the website Largehearted Boy has kept the best and most comprehensive list of all of the best books lists.  All can be easily access here. The 2015 one is already well underway. 

So you start with this year’s lists, but as I said above, that often is limiting because they are checked out. But, as I have said before on this blog, the fact that the library has the BACKLIST is what makes us look like superheroes. We still have most of the past 10 year’s “best” books in our stacks [at least that far back].

One click to Largehearted Boy’s archive and you have many years of best lists at your finger tips.  I have had tons of luck moving patrons coming in for the top books for the current year to the previous year’s best lists.  Just a few simple reminders-- that these were last year’s best and often, they are still on the paperback best seller list, and offering to put this year’s best on hold while they are reading a book from last year’s list that I can place in their hand right this second-- can go a long way toward creating happy, satisfied patrons.

Again, you need to remember that they just want a “best” book. Most of them do not care when it was “best.” Trust me. I have done this switcharoo dozens of times over the last 15 years.  People love it. They often feel like they got a “secret” best book when it is one I found from a previous year’s list. Even the grumpy lady who insists she will only read Fates and Furies or Between the World and Me, will love being in on a secret best list [as long as her hold is also placed for this year’s titles].

Try this advice and you will have an awesome end to the year at your library. You will have helped your adult leisure readers brilliantly.  They will tell their friends how nice and smart you were. And you will have handled the attack of the best lists with grace and skill.

RA for All Greatest Hits: Share Why Someone Would Enjoy a Book NOT What Happens

Today's entry in the RA for All Greatest Hits series is one of  the tenants of RA Service, "Share Why Someone Would Enjoy a Book, Not The Plot." When we share book suggestions with readers we don't want to spend our time sharing the plot. What happens in a story is something that the reader will experience on their own. You can frame the story for them to prime them for how it begins, but when we are trying to match books with readers, the key is in the appeal-- how the story is told.

The post below not only reminds people of this foundational RA concept, but it also explains how you can easily articulate the appeal of a book by using both professional and reader based resources-- without every reading said book.

More below, but I would also like to add this exercise to the post. Take the last book you finished that you greatly enjoyed-- or an all time favorite-- and then look it up in NoveList and Goodreads as I mention below. Compare the professional reviews, appeal factors, and readalikes from NoveList with the "shelves" and reviews from 5 stars to 2 stars on Goodreads. Get a sense of why you and other like [or don't like] this book.

Now do the same thing but with a book you know about, but haven't read yet. Even better if you pick a favorite of a coworker and ask them why they like it first and then do the exercise described above second. You can compare their experience to what the resources teach you. 

Adding this exercise to the post will help you to practice and see the concept in "action."

For more of RA for All's Greatest Hits click here.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2020

Share Why Someone Would Enjoy a Book, Not The Plot

Sometimes I feel like a broken record, but then I remember that many of you encounter this blog at different points in your careers  so today I just want to post a quick reminder about how and why we do this job of helping leisure readers.

When we talk about books with patrons we do not need to spend more than a single sentence on the "plot," and that sentence, or even just phrase, is more to frame the book within the vast of universe of the entirety of the publishing world.

What we need to all focus on is WHY someone would want to read it. That is the information you need to  share. The plot they can read on the back of the book, but how the story is told, that is why they will like it or not.

And here is the best news for you-- articulating how the story is told is super easy to find via resources. Bonus: if you haven't read the book yourself it is even easier! That is mostly because you will only use resources to articulate appeal rather than introduce your version of the book.

In terms of the best resources to do this, I have a two pronged attack-- Professional Book World resources and Reader Driven resources. This insures you get the book world opinion and actual reader comments. Using them in combination is both efficient and effective.

For the Professional opinion, the best place to go is NoveList because they have multiple resources in one place. You can find the professional reviews from the major journals and the appeal terms and themes assigned by NoveList. Pairing the main entry for a title with the reviews is one of the best ways to get a sense of why someone would enjoy the book. You can even read the appeal terms and some of the key points from the review right from the database to your patron.

For the Reader Driven option, I like Goodreads. Look, there are issues with Goodreads, it is not perfect, but it is where the largest number of reviews, from actual readers, are available. I always suggest checking 4 star and 2 star reviews to get a sense of why a book really worked or didn't work for a particular reader. This gives you a 360 degree view of the appeal of the book to a casual leisure reader. The only better resource for this is chatting with a patron at the desk.

Goodreads also has another one of my favorite reader driven resources-- the "shelves" people place a book on. Go on, look up a recent favorite read. Here is the entry for Plan Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth [I just gave it a star in LJ and it is out next week]. I picked this book because it has wide appeal. Toward the top of the right gutter you will find a "Genre" chart for every book. Here is a screen shot of the one for Plain Bad Heroines.

As you can see in the image, you can also click on "See top shelves..."for more. These shelves are the terms real readers use to classify their books. Let's use this example to show how you use these. This novel is a Gothic, historical, horror novel with a mystery at its heart and a strong lesbian frame. Those  things are all reflected in those terms above, but which is the most important to your reader?

If  someone mentions they like this book because it is historical, you are looking in different places for a readalike than those who identify the mystery as their biggest appeal. But because Goodreads crowdsources all of  the data, you can simply click on those terms that real readers use to find more similar titles.

This resource does not always make as much sense as NoveList but that is because it a product  of real readers' brains. Think about yourself. We all have books we enjoy  equally that on paper seem to not have anything in common. And yet, to us they do. Goodreads replicates the randomness of  people and their opinions in a way no professional resource can. I am not exaggerating when I say that there have been numerous times when I clicked n a user generated adjective like "spooky," to help a patron and got better results than using the controlled NoveList language-- because people don't always make algorithmic sense.

But I never have matched a book based on its plot. Maybe its frame, which many might consider plot [it's not], but never on what actually happens. It is always about how the story unfolds, the narrative choices the author makes, and if the reader likes how it all comes together to tell that plot that matters.

Stop focusing on what happens and start sharing why the reader might enjoy it. Use the resources, not your personal experience to share that. Trust me, you will have less stress and happier readers. 

RA for All Greatest Hits: Library Books Are Not Free, They Are Pre-Paid

Today's entry in the RA for All Greatest Hits series is one of my most popular posts, something I remind people of as often as I can, and something that I have gotten others to adopt-- the reminder that we should NEVER tell patrons that the items and services we offer are free. They are NEVER free. Every single person pre-pays for library service in the form of some type of taxation. And yes, renters pay too because those costs are worked into rent. 

Long time readers knew this one was coming soon.

For more of RA for All's Greatest Hits click here.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2019

Call to Action: Stop Spreading the Fake News That Library Books Are Free

Today I have a quick Call to Action, one that is very easy for all of you to start doing right now. It is a small language change, but it can make a huge difference for our entire profession. Here it is:

You need to stop telling people that our services are free and instead say they are PRE-PAID.

First, "free" is NOT accurate. People do not pay to check out the books and movies as they borrow them, but everyone does pay for the library and its services through their tax dollars. Yes, even renters pay because their rent pays for the taxes for the owner of the building.

We are a profession which is all about accuracy, about combatting "fake news," and yet we perpetuate our own fake news by telling people our services are free.

Reminding people that for example, they can take more than 1 book because they are free is NOT TRUE. They have paid for them, just earlier, as part of their taxes. We need to be more accurate on principle, yes but there is more to it.

Second, when we aren't being honest about the cost of our services, when we dismiss them as "free," we lull our patrons into a false sense that these services will always be there no matter what. If they forget that they have paid for these services as taxes, when the talk of tax freezes or tax cuts comes around, it will be much easier for the public to argue for cutting the library's tax line because they forget that they pay for it. All that "free" talk means they aren't reminded about the actual cost.

We need to be advocates for the good feels that the library gives people and equate that as a cost benefit. I live in a high tax area. I get it. But when my friends and neighbors complain about their taxes, I remind them what a great deal they are getting through the library [and the schools]. I tell people to think what it would actually cost them to check out those materials, stream those shows, buy audio books, go to great programs, etc.... Now look at your library tax line. It is a steal.

We have to talk about the money openly, honestly, and accurately or we will loose the financial support we need to survive.

Third, and this one is just human nature, people don't value things that are free as much as they value things they pay for. Reminding people, frequently, that they have pre-paid for the library and all of its services, elevates the value of the institution.

Every time you remind patrons that the services and items they are so please with are PRE-PAID you are advocating for your public library, actually for every public library. You are advocating for the institution itself. You are advocating for equal service to all, everywhere, all of the time.

But every time you tell people the service is free, you are undermining everything. I know you think you are trying to help by letting people know there is no charge at the time of service, but there is a charge. We have budgets, budgets that are shrinking. We do a lot with very little already, any less and we will disappear. People need to know that. They need to realize that their tax dollars are key to our survival.

So please, consider using PRE-PAID when you talk about user costs of our services. And remind them often so that if a time comes when people in your town start talking about budget cuts, they won't even consider the library's tax line. Why? Because that line is one they respect, one they use, one they know has monetary value, one that isn't free, one that requires dollars to survive. And it is our responsibility to stop the fake news of free and accurately proclaim...PRE-PAID!

RA for All Greatest Hits: Listening to Audio Books is Reading

Today's entry in the RA for All Greatest Hits series is something I have been writing about since the very first months as a blogger, 15 years ago. What is sad is that I still NEED to post this reminder regularly. In fact, for today's entry, I am going to point you to a 2020 post that references that 2007 post and ones from 2016 and 2019. Clearly, this topic deserve the Greatest Hits treatment.

But before we get to those posts I wanted to share this Tweet by Horror author and performance artist, Kathe Koja:

I use this in the intro to my signature RA programs to remind everyone, before we even begin, that if they do not count reading audio books and graphic novels as reading, they are wrong...full stop. I tell those who disagree to get over it and move on.

For all of the posts I have tagged audio books over the years click here.

For more of RA for All's Greatest Hits click here.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

Evergreen Reminder: If You Don't Count Audiobooks As Reading....You Are Wrong [period, end of discussion]

Thanks to the Book Riot "Check Your Shelf" newsletter geared toward libraries, I was alerted to this Popsugar article with the very click bait title, "Those Who Don't Count Audiobooks as Reading Can Kindly GTFO."

While the title may make you cringe a bit, the article itself is well worth your time. It also reminded me that I have been writing about this topic and defending audio books since the very first year, actually, the very first MONTH of this blog [August, 2007]. 

After reading the Popsugar piece,  I went through my own archives and realized that I have not ranted about this to all of you for a little over a year now. How dare I go so long without a post on this topic?!?!

Seriously though. The statement that I have made in the title of today's post-- that if you do not count audiobooks [or graphic novels for that matter] as reading, you need to know you are wrong and there is no argument, just admit you are wrong and move on-- is something I try to work into every single one of my presentations because it is still an argument many library workers need help making. 

The fact that Popsugar is posting about it, a for profit, click driven site, means it is still an argument worth repeating.

So below is my August 2019 post on the topic to enhance the Popsugar essay. My post has even more links to posts by me and others, including actual neuroscience that proves the fact that listening to audiobooks is reading.

I am not going to tell you to GTFO, but those who disagree here are flat out wrong. Please read on to open your mind and be more inclusive about what you count as "reading."

********************

TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019

If You Don't Count Audiobooks as Reading You Are Wrong

The title of this post is something I say at every library which I present. I find a way to work this statement in no matter what. I actually include Graphic Novels in the statement too, but today is about audio books specifically because while I knew I was correct, actual SCIENCE has proved me right!

Yes I am going to gloat about this to everyone who has ever disagreed with me. And long time readers know that this is not a new issue for me [That 2016 post includes a link to a 2007 post where I took a stand on this issue].

Here is the link to a summary of the study which appears in the Journal of Neuroscience. This post includes links to further information including some upcoming brain mapping. They also talk about the findings previous to the new study and where they want to expand their research.

Also, I am linking to a summary from a popular science site instead of the direct study because, well, it is easier to understand for lay people [myself included]. But again, the link to the actual study is there too.

I am hopeful this is the beginning of the end of me having to fight people over this issue.

But, seriously for a moment, because I am not a mean person and I really want to help everyone improve their service, if you are someone struggling with the idea that audiobooks are reading, I don't just want to dismiss you. I want to educate you both from this scientific standpoint, and from a RA Service point of view. So besides looking at the proof, please also read my Call to Action where I talk about why audiobooks are reading from the reader's standpoint.

Consuming a story is consuming a story, whether we do it by reading words [or words with pictures], listening to someone read to us, or watching a movie. Our brain is doing the same work. Look at it that way, and you will be less judgmental and more willing to meet your patrons where they want to begin their leisure "reading" adventure, not just where you think the starting line has to be.

Open your ears and your mind.

RA for All Greatest Hits: Handling TBR Anxiety

As I mentioned last week, at the request of readers, I have started a Greatest Hits series. You can click here for the tag to pull up everything in the series or you can visit the newly created Greatest Hits page here. 

[Well, to be fair, it is not that "new." I have had it in a draft mode for a few months.]

This post [and the times I have reposted it] has been viewed thousands of times. It still comes up in conversations and training programs. People have written me emails thanking me for this post. 

Handling our anxiety as we manage all the books we want to read is a real problem. Below you can read a post with helpful tips on Handling TBR Anxiety including this RA for All classic:

YOU WILL NEVER READ ALL OF THE BOOKS!

I would also like to point people to this follow up post I did 12/23/19 entitled "How I Have Come to Terms With All the Books I Will Never Read."

Click here for the Greatest Hits Archive

Finally, if you have any posts you want to nominate for the "Greatest Hits" series and page, contact me.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2017

Handling TBR Anxiety

Today I am going to tackle a topic that probably causes library workers the most personal anxiety-- the "To Be Read" [TBR] list.

For some of you there is a TBR list in the hundreds [or even thousands] on Goodreads or in a spreadsheet. For others the virtual list is also accompanied by a teetering pile of precariously stacked physical books, a pile that can collapse at any moment, tall enough to possibly cause physical injury.

Library workers talk all the time about their anxiety over how many books are on their TBR or about how they keeping meaning to read a book but can’t get it it or something about never getting to all the books they want to read. It is a never ending cycle, but it’s also a job hazard. We know about all of the books that we would love personally; we know about all of the books we would want to read; and we know backlist gems are still great reads. While our patrons might forget about the newest, hottest, shiniest books after a few months, we never forget. We brood over it. We feel actual pain that the book will not be read by us.

I know this is not an exaggeration because I have been this person, I have felt these feelings. I have had an actual panic attack and anxiety dreams over the books I wanted to read but couldn’t get to.  This is not a joke. This time of year it is even worse. With all the best lists coming out, the number of books on your TBR will grow and grow. All those best books you never got to.

Well, I have a treatment for TBR anxiety that has worked for me and today I am going to share it with you. And while what follows may sound a bit snarky, I assure you I am totally serious. It’s funny, yes, but the humor is there to help conquer the true and real anxiety.

The first step begins with some tough love/an intervention by me. Brace yourself though, because it is harsh....

YOU WILL NEVER READ ALL OF THE BOOKS! Not all the ones on your TBR pile, not all the books you want to read, not all the books in the world. It is impossible; you cannot and will not do it.

Take some breaths and let that sink in. Seriously telling myself this- out loud- in ALL CAPS was my first step toward tackling my book problem.

Now this is the first step toward acceptance that the TBR itself, the list or pile or both, needs to be addressed.

Step two is to take your TBR and sort it into a few categories.

• “Read About”-- Books you could take off the shelf and leaf through- read the summary, the first chapter or so to get a feel for how it is written. Also look those titles up on NoveList or Goodreads while you are physically holding them and read about them. Read reviews- both professional and reader reviews. On NoveList click around and look at the readalikes, other books with similar appeal, etc... Take your TBR and mark 4-5 books in this new “Read About” category. Now make an effort to do those 4-5 in a month. Set up a Goodreads shelf just for your “Read About” books so you can even take some notes on appeal and readalikes; if you take them directly from NoveList note that. Once you get through the 4-5 you designated and have now removed from the list, go back to your TBR and pick 4-5 more. You may not get to read these books cover to cover, but you will know a lot more about them.
• “Suggestion to a Patron”-- These are books that you want to read but you can also think of a few patrons who might like them too. Mark these as “Suggest to Patrons” in your TBR list. Give them out to patrons and tell them that you don’t have time to read it, but you think they will like it. Encourage that patron to come back and tell you all about it. This is my favorite category because not only does it allow someone to have the joy of reading the book, but in also creates a situation where patrons are giving me feedback. And bonus-- I get to hear a patron book talk a book. Hearing someone else opinion is fun and a great training tool. You can now remove this book from your TBR because it has been read (just not by you). 
• You can get a lot of books off of your TBR this way. This is my biggest TBR thinning trick. Handing them out to readers who could love these books is sometimes more enjoyable than reading them myself. Seriously. When someone comes back and tells me they loved a book I suggested but didn’t get to read myself, I feel like a proud momma. It is an all encompassing joy and pride that literally warms you from the inside. Again, I am not being snarky. I have truly felt this MANY times and it feels a whole lot better than the anxiety I get from staring at the book title on my TBR.
• “Read over the Holidays”-- Every year for the last 3 years I have taken two of the “Best” books from that year, books I know I won’t get to but really want to read, and I read them over the holiday break. So last year, I read Underground Railroad and News of the World to start 2017. Both made many top lists by both critics and readers to end 2016. I gave myself the holiday present of reading them to start 2017. This year I have chosen The Leavers and Sing, Unburied, Sing. I have no anxiety as they keep being mentioned as among the year’s best because I know I will get to them, and I am looking forward to reading them when I have more time.

This is the plan that worked for me. Look, it doesn’t magically get better overnight, but I can say after three years of consciously doing this- I have eliminated my TBR anxiety without eliminating the list.  In fact, you can keep freely adding to the list because as I have found, not keeping the list is the biggest anxiety maker. And in the end, I have actually learned much more about the books I will never get to read cover to cover than I would have by just keeping them on the list and being anxious about it

I have gotten even better at my job as a result of tackling my anxiety-- and my TBR list is now too short. I need to keep adding titles to it for the “Suggestion” category. I now actively seek out titles to add to my TBR so I can spread the joy of reading them to others. What a turn around.

Now since this is partly a psychological issue, I know my advice won’t work for every person out there reading this. All of our brains handle anxiety differently; however, I have shared this with a few dozen people and many have said it has helped them feel better about their TBR so I feel like it is worth passing on in the hopes that it will help others.

Give it a try. You have nothing to lose except a whole lot of unnecessary anxiety. And if it works for you, let me know.

RA for All: Greatest Hits: Make Your Own Bestseller Lists

I have been getting more emails in the last year from new readers to RA for All who have asked for me to gather up a few of my "greatest hits" posts to share again. Yes, people know they can search the archives and use my extensive tags to pull things up, but I get it. Some of the most evergreen advice should be easier to access.

So starting today, I am going to be more conscious of doing a series of "greatest hits" posts and tagging them as such. I will try to do one a week, but we will see. I will also create a page for easier access as well. I have had a draft of that page ready for months but haven't acted on it yet. I have even set a weekly reminder to do these posts. I am committed to finally making this happen.

And until I get that Greatest Hits page up and running, you can use the "greatest hits" tag.

Let's begin with a popular Call to Action post from 2017 that is easy to implement immediately. 

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017

RA for All: Call to Action-- Make Your Own Best "Seller “ Lists

Readers of this blog know that at the end of 2016 I was focusing on challenging the perceived notion of what is “best” in a series of webinars and posts which you can pull up here. But for new readers here is a quick synopsis of that argument from my notes for the PLA Webinar I delivered on the topic:

We are going to rethink the entire concept of BEST lists are and repurpose them as sure bets lists. And we are going to get EVERYONE in on the action. Do not underestimate how much fun it is for staff from all over the building, public service and behind the scenes, professional librarians, clerk, HR people, AND PATRONS to share what they love with everyone. And don’t underestimate how useful collecting these “best” books is for you as you help leisure readers all the year through, 

That is from the intro to my hour long talk on how to crowdsource and collect your library’s “best” lists. During that webinar, one of the tips that I gave very quickly has stuck with me and I wanted to elaborate on it today because I think it is not only easy to do, but it could become one of your best RA  and marketing tools.

And so I am calling you to action to CREATE YOUR LIBRARY’S HYPER-LOCAL BESTSELLER LIST.

I was reminded of this suggestion last week when the New York Times announced that it was going to get rid of a number of their more specific best seller lists. Like many of you I loved those lists. I was able to get an idea of well received titles in a variety of less popular genres and formats like graphic novels.

But this is not a post to complain about The NYT cutting bestseller lists. No, I am not about complaining, I am about offering solutions.

Which leads me back to today's call-- CREATE YOUR LIBRARY’S HYPER-LOCAL BESTSELLER LIST.

The NYT lists were great but they are national and very limited in scope. What you need to help you figure out what is most popular at your library is a variety of best seller list, and I suggest you use the way the NYT used to do it as your model. Plus, it is very easy to do AND it is great way to engage some of your nonprofessional staff in doing next level RA.

Let me explain. By now every public library has some kind of ILS that can easily be mined for useful circulation data. Running reports on materials is something that is done regularly by most public libraries. But generally these reports are run by the tech services and or circ staff for very specific purposes: missing reports, overdue materials, billed, clearing the hold shelf, identifying titles for potential weeding, etc....

But, we could just as easily be running reports on more positive things like the items that are most checked out, or as we need to rebrand them as-- THE LIBRARY’S BEST SELLERS LIST!

Patrons know what best sellers lists are; they already use them to help identify potential books to read. Best sellers are implicitly deemed as “good” by patrons because why else would they be best sellers? I know this logic is not always true, but it is how people think and we need to use that to our advantage.

So, let’s make our own lists about what is “best selling” at the library, especially now that the news is saying there will be fewer best seller lists available. Jump in and fill the void, even if that void is only a perceived one and not an actual one [because seriously, how many patrons actually looked at all of those lists online; we did, sure, but mostly they were used by us and the publishers for marketing purposes, so they could call something a "NYT Best Seller.”] And we can make as many as we want by running quick and easy weekly/monthly reports using our ILS.

Here are some easy to pull up lists in most ILS:

• General Best Sellers-- most checkout out of the week overall or broken down by each service area; so Adult, teen, kids, fiction, nonfiction.
• Format Best Sellers-- most checked out videos, audio books, streamed, download, Large Print.
• Genre Best Sellers-- as long as you have the genre noted somewhere in the item record be it in a subject heading or in it’s own field, you can easily do this.
• Want to promote the non-traditional things you check out like technology items [Go Pro cameras, Rokus] or maker items like sewing machine, art kits; some libraries do fishing poles and art. Whatever. Do a Best Seller lists of unexpected items. People might not even know that you have them.
• And my favorite.... Make some Backlist Best Seller Lists. For example, the most popular adult items checked out this week which were published before 2000. Or whatever your parameters. These are great to remind people that it is not only the newest 3 James Patterson books that are being checked out.

Who cares that there is no “selling” here. Don’t say most checked-out. Patrons know you are not selling the books, but calling the most checked out titles “Best Sellers” lends them more cache, it makes them cooler, and makes the library seem more like the rest of the book world.

Post them in the building and online. Change them out weekly or monthly, but change them regularly. Post them next to other, more well known best seller lists on one bulletin board. Put them at the applicable service desks. Hey, even put them at a desk that isn’t for those items, like the adult Best Seller list at the children’s desk so busy parents can get some popular reading ideas for themselves quickly.

You will draw interest not only to titles that may not make the more traditional best seller lists, but you will be engaging the community by allowing them to see what is most popular without sacrificing anyone’s identity or personal information. When people see what is popular in their library, you will be providing the content for opening lines in conversation amongst people in the community. And isn’t that one of our main goals-- engaging the community.

From a selfish standpoint, collecting and creating these lists will serve you well too. You will have a frequent snapshot of what is circulating the most which means you can work on more targeted displays and “while you wait” lists to help patrons. And if you do collection development too-- you will have more helpful information as you work of adding and deleting items.

Plus, the marketing potential is enormous. People will see how much you actually provide for them, especially if you make a variety of lists. Who cares if number 10 on one of your best seller lists only circulated 1x that week or month? No one needs to know the details. They just need to know that you have it and people have wanted it.

Finally, pulling the reports and sorting through the data to create these lists is a great way to engage staff who don’t normally get to work with leisure readers in person, like tech services. They can now be a part of a vital RA activity that actively assists patrons. They will also be more cognizant of what needs to be included in bibliographic records; for example, diverse books information or specific genres that are popular and are not tagged.

You can also have non-professional staff who want to do more to help readers, but still need more training and experience work on this activity. May be they can’t run the reports, but they can use the data to update lists, make signs and displays of the lists, and then use them to provide suggestions. It will help to create a RA culture throughout the library.

So get out there and start creating you library’s “Best Seller” Lists.

For past Call to Action posts, click here.