Announcing a New 1 Day RA CODES Convo on Parenting with Authors, Publishers and Booksellers

Today I am appearing as part of Library Journal/School Library Journal's Library Con Live [click here for info on that event].

But while I am busy doing that, I didn't want to forget to remind you all about the next RUSA Codes Convo.  I am automatically subscribed, but I know not all of you are.  You do not need to be a member of CODES to participate, all you have to do is click the link provided below.

I was a part of this committee last year and have participated in these convos as a moderator and a participant.  I find them extremely valuable as a learning tool even if all you do is lurk. However, please go into this knowing that for an entire day you will be inundated with messages, but that is a good thing because they are filled with useful tips and conversation with your colleagues from all over the country. At this point every email system has a filtering option that allows you to send all of the Convo emails to one inbox, so please consider doing that rather than being upset that your inbox is very active.

While there are many other more "high-tech" ways to have a one day conversation [LibraryCon Live is one such example], I have to say, the email discussions work very well for what the CODES Convo is trying to do-- have a dynamic discussion for one 8 hr period about a very specific RA and Collection Development issue. Also, the committee is all volunteer and they sign up to take shifts being your moderators [again, I have done this so I know]. With no technical support, email is something the moderators can troubleshoot on their own [and we have had to....a lot].

I would highly suggest signing up and at the very least, read through the threads when you have a chance. Also, if you sign up now, you will also get the wrap up notes sent to you. I will post them on the blog too.

Here is the announcement with all of the details.

Building Book Communities – Partnering with Authors, Publishers, and Booksellers

Hello all! The next RUSA CODES Convo is scheduled for Tuesday, November 19th from 10am-6pm EST! Do you want to attract more authors to your library, but you’re not sure how? Do you want to help local or mid-list authors find their audience? Books are still the library’s brand and connecting readers with books is a core library mission. Topics covered will include how to plan an author event or speaker series at your library, how to use social media to publicize books and connect with authors, and how to frame your library as a destination point for book discovery and exploration. 

Guest moderators Kaite Stover (Kansas City Public Library) and Dena Heilik (Free Library of Philadelphia) will be joining our discussion. CODES Conversations are focused electronic conversations on issues facing collection development and readers’ advisory librarians—or anyone interested in those areas. 

The conversations are open to all who wish to participate (or lurk)! To subscribe or unsubscribe from the list, click http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/codes-convos and select subscribe or unsubscribe on the left side. We hope you will join us!

RUSA CODES RA Research & Trends Committee.

Victoria Caplinger Fredrick, Chair

Come See Me Moderate "Give Them What They Want: Reader-Focused Collection Development" at ALA Annual

We are getting close to ALA Annual in DC and I have some news for everyone reading this. I am moderating a panel for the RUSA CODES RA Research and Trends Committee. And....it is also going to be one of the panels that will be officially audio recorded by ALA and made available to all. This mean, every single one of you can attend virtually [at some point after the event at least].

First, here is the basic info:

Give Them What They Want: Reader-Focused Collection Development

Saturday, June 222:30 PM - 3:30 PM Location: Washington Convention Center, 143A 

Readers are flocking to library’s leisure collections. To make smart collection choices, we must look further than circulation statistics and learn what our entire community desires. Our presenters are using methods suitable at libraries of any size to incorporate patron wishes into collection development, making readers integral to the whole process. 
From complex patron-driven acquisitions plans at large library systems, to bite-size surveys at the smallest libraries, to prioritizing patron requests, to canny materials displays, all of these librarians are finding innovative ways to put what readers want front and center, and to ferret out even the hardest-to-discover reading desires.

This panel is a continuation of the Email Convo our committee had back at the end of April. You can click here to read the notes from that conversation. [Thanks to co-chair Magan Szwarek for getting those put together.]

We are very excited to continue the conversation in DC.  Here is the inside scoop [since I am the moderator] not only on the panelists [which obviously you can see on the website for the conference] but also on what they are going to specifically address.

I have asked each panelist to talk about how they put the reader first in their work at their libraries and within the context of their speciality. We have worked very hard to have an inclusive group who work across the full spectrum of public libraries.

First, will be our tag team of Polli Kenn, Readers' Services Coordinator and William Ottens Cataloging & Collection Development Coordinator both from Lawrence Public Library [KS]. Polli and William are from a mid-sized, single branch library. Their departments work very closely to make make sure that patrons' get what they want. Since many libraries have separation between the public who serve the readers and those who order the materials, we have asked them to talk about how their work informs the work of the other department and then how that work becomes a collection that serves their public.

Second, we have Jennifer Rothschild, Collection Engagement Librarian, Arlington Public Library [VA]. Jennie comes from a large, multi-branch library system. She is going to talk about floating collections and how they put the reader first. Jennie has experience in Children's and Adult collection development also.

Third, immediately following Jennie we have a representative from our smallest library, Rebecca Bartlett, the Collection Services Manager at the La Grange Public Library [IL] which serves just over 15,000 people in the suburbs outside of Chicago. Despite the small size of her library, Rebecca has become a national expert in crafting collection development plans that put the reader first. She will talk about her process and how everyone can do it, no matter the size of their library.

And finally, Annabelle Mortensen, the Access Services Manager at Skokie Public Library [IL], will be speaking about how Skokie consciously crafts diverse and inclusive collections and how their patrons love it.

Each presenter will have 10 minutes for their topic, but then we have taken the 2 biggest issues that came out of the email convo, which are not being explicitly covered above, and I currently have the committee working on answers. Those issues are:

1. Clearly the thing people want to know about the most from our last email convo is adding independent presses and self published titles [especially with no professional reviews]. Also e-only and audible only. How do we handle these less traditional items? 
2. What about the collection needs of people who don’t routinely use the library -- do we think they might come if we had more resources to meet their needs? Any suggestions for strategies to find what these needs might be? 

This plan also leaves time for audience questions, so if you have some and will be there, please ask. But only questions please; I will not allow comments about what you do at your library in this Q & A section of the panel. However, we will all be available after to have those conversations. Also, if you are not going to make it to ALA, please leave a question in the comments here and I will get to them if we can. Since it is being recorded, you will be able to hear your question and answer. 

If I cannot get to every question, I will bring them up with the entire committee, we will craft a response for you, and I will post it on the blog with the recording, which by the way could take a bit of time as history has shown.

Finally, the committee, RUSA CODES Readers' Advisory Research and Trends is looking for new members. My term is coming to an end and I am not re-upping due to other work commitments [like writing a new edition of the horror book], but if you are interested in volunteering for this committee, or any other RUSA CODES committees, click here for details.

It's a wonderful committee that meets virtually once a month. And I can tell you that while I am moderating this panel, we all worked on this program together. In fact, I am the back-up moderator because our first moderator isn't coming to ALA Annual. There will be a few other committee members in the audience helping me out. Please come say hi to us after.

Brand New RUSA CODES Convo Tomorrow and It's a Preview of Our ALA Annual Panel

So much RA programming and training news today and the best part of it is.....everyone can participate in some way. Yes, even if you aren't going to ALA Annual.

Let me back up a bit and explain. I am on the RUSA CODES RA Research & Trends Committee this year and two of the things we do is host email conversations throughout the year and have a panel at ALA.

The email convos are free and very easy to participate in or just lurk. Our next one is coming up tomorrow. Here are the details:

CODES Conversations: Reader-Focused Collection Development Tuesday, April 30, 10am-6pm EST 

Readers are flocking to library’s leisure collections. To make smart collection choices, we must look further than circulation statistics and learn what our entire community desires. Join us and special guest moderator Content Curation Manager for the Chicago Public Library, Stephan Sposato, to discuss how libraries can incorporate patron wishes into collection development. Bring your questions, suggestions, and advice! 

CODES Conversations are focused electronic conversations on issues facing collection development and readers’ advisory librarians—or anyone interested in those areas. The conversations are open to all who wish to participate (or lurk)! Use the link below to join us. 

RUSA CODES RA Research & Trends Committee 

Magan Szwarek & Alicia Ahlvers, Co-Chairs

I will be busy helping to moderate our discussion all day. I hope to see you there.

But if not, that's okay because not only will I link the notes of the entire convo here on the blog after the fact, but we will also be using some of your questions and comments during the convo in our ALA panel because it is on the same topic and I am the moderator. Details:

Give Them What They Want: Reader-Focused Collection DevelopmentSaturday, June 222:30 PM - 3:30 PMLocation: Washington Convention Center, 143A 

 

Readers are flocking to library’s leisure collections. To make smart collection choices, we must look further than circulation statistics and learn what our entire community desires. Our presenters are using methods suitable at libraries of any size to incorporate patron wishes into collection development, making readers integral to the whole process. 
From complex patron-driven acquisitions plans at large library systems, to bite-size surveys at the smallest libraries, to prioritizing patron requests, to canny materials displays, all of these librarians are finding innovative ways to put what readers want front and center, and to ferret out even the hardest-to-discover reading desires. 

Click through to see the full panel of speakers from across a variety of library experiences. I am not listed there as the moderator, but I promise you I am.

I have been working with the panelists to have them each prepare a very short presentation on different topics under the large umbrella of reader focused collection development, but the bulk of the presentation will be more conversational and we will incorporate some of the more popular topics and questions from the email convo tomorrow.

But, Becky, didn't you promise we didn't need to be at ALA Annual in DC in order for us to participate?

Yes, I did. And I can confirm that the above program will be one of the ones recorded by ALA to be put up on the website for virtual access after the conference. YAY!

So doesn't this make you more excited to participate [or at least lurk] in our email convo tomorrow?

Yes. The correct answer here is...yes.

Click here to sign up now and I'll see you in the convo tomorrow.

Finally, because it always comes up on convo days, we know the convo means that your email box gets flooded with a ton of messages. Please use your email's sort function to move them all to a folder to read later. It is only for 8 hours, and I promise you, it is worth being inundated. The email convos are a great way to connect with other readers' advisors form all over the country, to see what other libraries are doing on a single topic, and to collaborate. I have learned so much from these convos over the years. It is worth the small annoyance for 1 day. Please join us. Also, the link will take you to the archives of past convos. Or you can use this link to read the notes of convos past here on my blog.

Start Your Week Off With Some Crowdsourced Display Ideas, Tips, Tricks and Resources

Back in November, I was part of the RUSA CODES Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Committee that conducted an email conversation about Collection Merchandising-- aka Displays.

Below are the details and here is the link to the committee notes. The notes are Kick off your week with help from your peers.

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

RUSA CODES Readers' Advisory Research and Trends Committee.

Convo Topic: CollectionMerchandising

November 13, 2018

Book displays are a great way to draw attention to overlooked materials, increase overall circulation, and to encourage patrons to discover new authors, genres, ideas, or interests while browsing in your library.

Committee:

Alicia Ahlvers 

Daryl Maxwell 

Magan Szwarek 

Jackie Parker 

Robin Bradford 

Victoria Caplinger 

Gloria Drake 

Shanna Speer 

Becky Spratford 

Hana Zittel

Committee Charge: To consider issues, concerns, and trends relative to the development of readers' advisory services in all types of libraries; to be a forum for discussion about popular materials and readers' advisory services in libraries; to create/gather resources for RA librarians; to create standards and guidelines; to encourage and disseminate research on popular materials collections and their use in libraries; to identify continuing education needs of librarians and library support staff and create/disseminate information to assist with this need.

Collection Merchandising Discussion: Special Guest Moderator Lila Denning (St. Petersburg Library System, FL)

Click here to read the notes for yourself. I promise that these notes will be both useful for ideas and inspiration for the future.

New RUSA CODES Convo and Now I'm Part of the Team

This past July I joined the RUSA CODES RA Research & Trends Committee. One of our main jobs is to run the email conversations.

I am very excited to announce our newest one coming next week is all about DISPLAYS. This is a topic near and dear to my heart as readers of this blog know. If you are new to this blog, or didn't know click here to see all of my posts about displays.

But I am getting ahead of myself, first here are the details:

CODES Conversations: Collection Merchandising

November 13th 10am-6pm EST 

Book displays are a great way to draw attention to overlooked materials, increase overall circulation, and to encourage patrons to discover new authors, genres, ideas, or interests while browsing in your library. Join us and special guest moderator Lila Denning and bring your questions, suggestions, and advice. 

CODES Conversations are focused electronic conversations on issues facing collection development and readers’ advisory librarians—or anyone interestedin those areas. The conversations are open to all who wish to participate (or lurk)! 

If you would like to join us you don't have to do anything at all as you are already subscribed. 

If you don't want to join us you will need to unsubscribe by clicking the link below and selecting unsubscribe on the left side. 

http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/codes-convos 

But we hope you will join us! 

RUSA CODES RA Research & Trends CommitteeMagan Szwarek & Alicia Ahlvers, Co-Chairs

I am also excited to share that I will be hosting Lila Denning during her hour. She is a display expert [also an awesome person] and will be sharing her knowledge and answering your questions.

We will be chatting via email all day about displays which sounds like a dream day to me, but if for any reason you are feeling overwhelmed, please don't reply all to tell us. I get it. There will be a lot of emails. But there is a procedure to unsubscribe in the information above. Also, you can use your email systems filter feature and get all of the emails to go into their own folder so you can read them later.

I will also be posting the summary that our committee will be compiling after Thanksgiving, but if you want to be a part of the conversation in its entirety as it is unfolding, there is plenty of time to join us. Just go to this link and enter your email. We don't care if you participate or just lurk. The more the merrier.

Also, you might want to join just to see me get flustered by the technology. Seriously, that could happen, and it will be entertaining when it does.

In the meantime, sign up to join us and start thinking about what you want to ask your colleagues about their displays. Or, better yet, think about what display successes you have had that you want to share.

This is a time for RA Service focused library workers all over the country to literally put our heads together and share as much knowledge as possible with each other. Yes, it is a long day with many emails back and forth, but from experience I can tell you, it can be even more rewarding from a networking and learning standpoint than traveling to an out of state conference.

Hope to see you in the convo on 11/13.

RUSA CODES RA 101 Conversation Summary

As I mentioned here, RUSA's RA Research and Trends Committee hosted a 1 day RA conversation:

CODES Conversations: RA 101April 24, 2018 10am-6pm EST 

What are the key ideas, practices and sources everyone should be learningabout as they begin to do readers' advisory work? Join us and special guestmoderators Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt and bring your questions, suggestionsand advice! 

CODES Conversations are focused electronic conversations on issues facingcollection development and readers’ advisory librarians—or anyone interestedin those areas. The conversations are open to all who wish to participate (orlurk)! 

Use this link to join us! http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/codes-convos

I had a lot of fun participating and lurking in this one.  But don't worry if you missed it because yesterday committee Chair, Magan Szwarek, sent out the following message:

On behalf of the RA Research & Trends Committee we'd like to thank everyone for participating in last week's conversation. A big thank you to committee members Gloria Drake and Daryl Maxwell for putting together the attached summary.  

Thank you again for a lively and thoughtful discussion! 

Magan SzwarekAlicia AhlversRobin BradfordKristi ChadwickGloria A. DrakeWilliam KellyDaryl A. MaxwellMichael P. SantangeloStephen M. SposatoHana Zittel

And here is that attached summary [with Magan's permission].

What a wonderful resource for library workers who provide RA Service both newbies and grizzled veterans, those that do RA all the time, or only occasionally. It is also a great "train the trainer" resource too because there are many beginner topics here that can be used to spark a renewed interest in RA at your library. These examples will allow you to offer training from a different perspective. For example, Robin Bradford, committee member and RA expert made the following statement in her presentation to NJ librarians, which I linked here on Monday:

"You're not 100% when you're picking books for yourself, so release the pressure when you're picking books for other people!" -Robin Bradford

She credited the Convo for making her think about this and pass it on to others.

My point is, none of you are too advanced to read this summary of the RA 101 Convo.

Finally, Magan wanted me to offer this teaser: the committee is also hard at work putting together an online learning activity.

That's all she gave me people. I want to know more too. Stay tuned!

RUSA CODES Conversation-- RA 101 With my Editors and Friends Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt

So one thing I have learned being a RA trainer is that library staff are clamoring for the basics. Libraries are realizing that getting their entire staff on board behind promoting patrons’ leisure needs is imperative. Creating conversations around books, movies, audio books, all the things we circulate for patrons’ wants, this is an activity that is key to our mission and one that all staff can participate in at some level.

When I started doing this RA training thing full time, I thought that I would be doing all second level RA training. I wrongly thought that everyone knew the basics. Nope. What I found is my basics classes are the most requested-- for current practitioners to get a refresher and to recruit new staff to provide basic RA-- still 3 full years later.

The RUSA CODES Research and Trends Committee also noticed this and asked Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt to help them answer people’s questions in the next CODES Convo.  

The details on this one day, email event are below. I normally only lurk on these, but since this is my specialty, I am scheduling time to participate too.

Please consider joining us and getting some of your co-workers subscribed too. Even if all you do is follow along [live or after the fact], it would make for a great conversation in a staff meeting later.

I will also post the notes here on the blog when they are available a few days after the event. Below are the details on how you can subscribe.  I hope to “see” you there.

CODES Conversations: RA 101April 24, 2018 10am-6pm EST 

What are the key ideas, practices and sources everyone should be learningabout as they begin to do readers' advisory work? Join us and special guestmoderators Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt and bring your questions, suggestionsand advice! 

CODES Conversations are focused electronic conversations on issues facingcollection development and readers’ advisory librarians—or anyone interestedin those areas. The conversations are open to all who wish to participate (orlurk)! 

Use this link to join us! http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/codes-convos

Call to Action: RA Service is Just As Important as Reference

Today’s Call to Action is a reminder, for you, for your colleagues, or for the world at large. We may work with leisure readers-- people who are looking for items to fill their free time-- and we may deal in “popular materials," but that does not make the work we do any less important than our friends and colleagues over in reference.

This needs to be said out loud-- by me, by you who do this work, and by those who we work for. And it needs to be said to our entire profession.

Why?

Because I still get librarians coming to me to argue that what I do is nice and good for PR or customer service, but that it isn’t “important.”

Well, you’re wrong. It actually is very important. The public library is one of the only places in our world where everyone is accepted for who they are, and it is a place where we give people what they want to enrich their lives, lives that are sometimes harder than even those who work with these patrons can imagine. The work we do with popular materials does spread not only enrich the lives of our patrons, but it can teach them the skills they need to survive in today’s crazy world.

Leisure reading and viewing allows escape [everyone needs a break]. Leisure reading and viewing allows people to learn about the world around them in a non threatening way, and for many at a reading/comprehension level that is accessible to them too. Leisure reading and viewing opens the world up in a way many people would never be able to experience- be it by introducing them to people and places they would not be able to encounter or ideas and opinions they have never seen or heard. Leisure reading and viewing offer comfort to people. These are just a few of the ways our work with popular, leisure items IS important and vital to our patrons.

RA Service and the real world are colliding. People are turning to books and media to soothe, question, challenge, explore, or just look for answers in this crazy time we are all living through. What you are doing is important to your patrons’ daily existence. It is important to the mission of the institution of the Public Library, and it deserves the respect of all staff. This importance is becoming impossible for us to ignore any longer.

Recently, RUSA CODES hosted an email conversation that proved this point as library workers from all over the country gathered together to share how their work with readers is intersecting with other real world issues. I talked about it beforehand in this post.

Now that conversation’s main point have been gathered into notes that every single one of you can access here. 

What I noticed both by following the conversation AND looking over the notes now after the fact is how much we are all realizing that the work we do does have quite a bit of overlap with issues and discussions that used to be deemed as outside of our “popular materials” scope. We cannot and should not stay out of the fray anymore.

So the Call to Action today is two fold. First, as I said above, RA work is vital and important to the lives of our patrons. Scream it from the rooftops for everyone to hear--

DO NOT SELL THE WORK YOU DO SHORT. YOU MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE’S LIVES.

I saw this in action each and every day I worked at the service desk and I see it each and every place I go to help other library workers provide the RA Service their communities’ deserve. But, we have to believe this ourselves before we can convince everyone else.

And second, read the RUSA CODES Convo notes to see how library workers are already bridging the divide between popular materials and serious real world issues. Get inspired. Think about what you are already doing. Think about what more you could be doing. And then, get to work.

For past Call to Action posts, click here.

Recap of ARRT Dealing in Diversity and Announcement of Part 2 With a Bestselling Author!

To start off the week I wanted to recap the ARRT program that I helped to coordinate this past Friday and promote Part 2 of the program coming this October.

Friday morning, we had over 60 library workers join us for a very honest and blunt conversation about diversity in our libraries, but unlike many of these types of programs we went beyond service to children, we focused on serving our adult patrons AND dealing with creating a welcoming atmosphere for all-- including staff. 

All four presenters not only shared their expertise in the world of libraries and writing- of which they have A LOT- but each was also very honest about being a POC themselves and how that complicates the issue. 

Below, and at this link, ARRT has made some resources available, including a Storify I compiled of all of the Tweets during the presentation, slides from Skokie, and documents from the other presenters. The links for the Tweets does NOT require you log into Twitter and serves as extensive notes of what was said during the 2 hour program. Please take some time to look through those if you work with adults in any library...anywhere.

June 2017: Dealing in Diversity: Proactively Serving Communities Through Authentic Representation  

Thank you to Robin Bradford, Mikki Kendall, Annabelle Mortensen and Mimosa Shah for presenting and to Skokie Public Library for hosting this event. 

Program live tweets from Becky Spratford (@RAforAll) 

Robin Bradford’s Librarians in the 21st Century: The Power of Our Choices 

Mikki Kendall’s How to Write About Black Women 

Skokie Public Library EDI: Equity Diversity and Inclusion 

Resources and links from 2016 RUSA CODES Convo on Diversity

And ARRT is also happy to announce that we will be presenting PART TWO of this frank discussion at the ILA Annual Conference in Tinley Park, IL on 10/12/17. 

The conversation, moderated by Heather Booth and myself will feature:

• Annabelle Mortensen giving an update on how things are progressing with the EDI committee at Skokie. She will talk about successes, failures, obstacles, and goals
• Todd Stocke, VP and Editorial Director at Sourcebooks who will talk about how the publisher has seen financial success by looking to diverse authors and audiences
• And... bestselling romance author, and crowd pleasing presenter Sonali Dev talking about her insanely popular stories with a decidedly Bollywood Beat. Ms Dev will stay after to sign books. We will have some for purchase, but she will also sign your personal or library copies.

This is a not to miss program. It is at 1:45 on the final day of the conference, so don’t leave early or you will miss it. If you are a fan of Ms. Dev you must register for the entire day of the conference if you would like to see her.

ARRT is happy to provide these links to you for free. Please consider signing up for our newsletter in the right gutter of our homepage. You do not need to live in Northern IL to follow us. We provide notes for all of our programming, especially our popular Genre Study and Book Club Study, for free. Click here for more details.

Links, Tips and Takeaways from the March 15-16, 2016 CODES CONVO on Diversity With Bonus Comments by Becky

Right before I left on vacation, RUSA CODES hosted one of their email conversations for members. This time the topic was on Diversity in RA. You can click here to see the details about the topic itself.

Cindy Orr, the chairperson of the committee sent out the notes from the conversation to those  of usnsubscribed to list-serv and she gave me permission to share and highlight them here on RA for All. Thank you Cindy; in fact, thanks to everyone on the committee and those who participated for taking the time to have such an honest and open discussion about a sensitive topic.

You can click here to view a copy of the notes which include 9 pages of VERY useful information for anyone who works at any library helping any leisure readers. There is so much here that any library worker can use in the day to day work. Please click through.

Now on to my thoughts and opinions on the topic.  Warning, BEGIN RANT...

My overuse of the word any just above is on purpose. As someone who has blogged about “multicultural” books since I started this blog AND as a straight, white, suburban lady who reads and promotes books featuring characters who are nothing like me all the time, the problem I have had with discussions of diversity in literature and our role as RA library workers in it is that I was shocked by how many librarians thought they could not suggest diverse books to white patrons.

I guess I have more faith in humanity than I should have, but honestly, this part of the problem was shocking to me.

Heck the book I was the biggest evangelist for in 2015 was Delicious Foods by James Hannaham. I never once thought, “Hmmm maybe I should think about the fact that I am giving a book about African American crack addicts who are victims of modern slavery to that little old white lady.” I never thought this because the book is AMAZING. It is a book anyone who appreciates an original, heart-wrenching, and haunting story-- PERIOD. The fact that some librarians worry that a white lady in Nebraska won’t enjoy a good story about a black, crack addict, stuns me.

Click here for my full review. In it, I also make readalike suggestions that do not only care about race.

I have many more examples I could share with you, but that is not important here. What is important is that this RUSA moderated conversation allowed library people to honestly express their concern for promoting diverse books to all audiences.

As I told my neighbors in college who chose the women’s colleges over my co-ed one down the street-- the world is filled with both sexes. If I want to excel in the world, I need to be able to excel over men AND women. (And I did by the way, winning both prizes in my major). But why would I chose to eliminate one experience? Why would I not challenge myself to beat the guys at their own game? I needed to know them to work with them. Heck I am even happily married to one of them.

Same thing goes with reading and books. Books are a great way to experience the entire world and as many different viewpoints as possible without leaving your chair. We are very lucky to have so many diverse book options, but we need to make sure they are being promoted to the right reader.

I do not “warn” white people I am giving them a diverse book. Rather, I suggest a book that is the best match for that reader. I book talk it in a way that gives them an idea of what to expect which will probably get at the diversity if it is there. It is then up to the patron to take the book or not.  But give people a choice.  Some of my best hand selling successes are from booktalking Sally Hemmings by Barbara Chase-Ribould and The Round House by Louise Erdrich -- books about a black, slave woman and Native Americans to white and hispanic patrons.

But I also do not go out of my way to purposely suggest a diverse book to make a point. I am noticing some people are doing that now and I get upset about that too. But that is a whole different issue I am not touching right now.

What I do is make sure I am exposed to as many voices and authors as possible and then, if the story is right for the reader in front of me, I will suggest the best book for them.

END RANT

I want to be clear I am not judging anyone who has had a hard time with suggesting diverse books. I am just working through my own shock at the scope of the problem.  I always thought it was more an issue of the diverse books not being promoted by publishers and/or not being reviewed, but it is so much deeper.

I am so thankful that we are having these difficult and complex conversations in an honest and open way as a profession.

Let’s keep it up.

If you don’t know where to get started in your promotion, personal reading, or collection development of diverse books, the notes from the convo are a great place to start.

RUSA CODES Diversity in RA Convo Announcement

The RUSA CODES Readers' Advisory and Trends Committee considers issues, concerns, and trends relative to the development of readers' advisory services in all types of libraries. Our Spring 2016 CODES CONVO, happening online March 15/16, from 9 am ET - 8 pm ET, will be addressing the topic of Diversity in Reader's Advisory.

When #WeNeedDiverseBooks came on the scene in May 2014, publishers and librarians were asked to carefully consider the policies and decisions about the books and authors they choose to publish, and those which are chosen for purchase and library circulation. Publisher Lee and Low recently published the results of The 2015 Diversity Baseline Survey, revealing that diversity is not only needed in books, it is needed in staff across the publishing industry.

New Twists to the CONVO

The Spring CODES CONVO will be offering two new twists. In the week prior to the online conversation, RUSA CODES RATC will be hosting a podcast by YA and adult fiction author, Daniel Jose Older, on the topic of diversity in fiction, the cause of #WNDB, and the need for multicultural reading experiences. This will serve as a launch pad for our discussions on March 15 and 16.

In addition, we are excited to have a guest poster joining us online on March 15, from 2-4 pm ET. Robin Bradford has worked in academic and public libraries, as a page, library assistant and librarian, in circ, and reference, and tech services, in big cities and small towns. Since 2001, she has done fiction collection development, in a variety of formats. Other areas have come and gone, but fiction has always remained. Currently, she is working in the state of Washington for the Timberland Regional Library system, and is active in the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement.

This two day conversation will examine Diversity in Readers' Advisory from every angle, from how to provide RA service to a patron from an unfamiliar culture to how we can encourage greater diversity in library and publishing professions.

To subscribe to the conversation, click here.

Tomorrow: New CODES Readers' Advisory Convo Coming (November 17-18)

In case you are not signed up, I will be participating...well at least lurking and reading, but this is worth all of the emails you will receive.  This is free way to participate in a Nationwide conversation on RA issues at your own pace.

I NEVER have time to reply when the conversation is going on, but I always make time to read all of the emails.  I have learned a lot by participating in these email conversations. And seriously people, if I get a lot out of it, and you turn to me as someone to help you be better at providing RA Service, I am sure you will get something out of them too.

Please see the official notice from CODES below:

My name is Cindy Orr, and I am this year’s chair of ALA’s RUSA Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Committee. The other committee members are:

Kristi Chadwick – Massachusetts Library System

Bill Kelly – Cuyahoga County Public Library

Dodie Ownes – Mediasource, Inc.

Michael Santangelo – BookOps

Steve Sposato – Chicago Public Library

Barry Trott – Williamsburg Regional Library

David Wright – Seattle Public Library

Our committee will sponsor another CODES email conversation on:

Tuesday November 17 and Wednesday November 18, 9am-9pm EDT 

The topic this time is Watch, Listen, Read: Whole Collection Advisory.

Expect a high volume of messages throughout the day. If you’re worried about email volume you can set up a folder and filter the conversation to that folder to keep from cluttering up your regular inbox. In the alternative, you could set up a free email account and then re-subscribe to the conversation using that account. To subscribe or unsubscribe, go here: http:///lists.ala.org/sympa/info/codes-convos

To post, use http://lists.ala.org/sympa/compose_mail/codes-convos or simply send the message to codes-convos@lists.ala.org