Call to Action: Participate!

Last week's Call to Action asked you to Listen. This week, we move forward a step as I ask you to Participate.

When I first entered the world of RA Service in the summer of 2000, it was very hard to participate in the larger world of serving leisure readers.  I could not get to conferences unless they were local, there were no webinars, and networking resources like Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter were not there for RA focused librarians to use to help patrons or even each other.

Sixteen years later, being able to communicate with our fellow library workers is so easy that the number of choices at our disposal are overwhelming. This is also problematic because the noise coming from hundreds of different inputs (social media, email newsletters, webinars...) makes it hard to focus on what we really need to know to help the patrons in our communities.

So I am going to try to help today. I want to encourage you to find a way...just 1 way...that you want to participate in the larger RA community. Oh, and saying you will read this blog doesn't count because you are already doing that. Plus, reading my blog is great to help you focus on your skills and learn about trends and resources, but you are passive in that endeavor. I am the active one in this relationship.  I am asking you all to take ONE new active role in adding to our shared community.

If each person who read this commits to participating in 1 small way, ALL of us benefit because once we take an active role in participating together as a community to help all of our leisure readers, we have created even more resources for all of use to use and share.

I love that many of you read this blog and share with me how it has helped you to serve your leisure readers better, but I should not be the only one hearing about your successes. Get out there and spread your knowledge with others. Find a way to share the fantastic things you are doing with everyone else. We all benefit when we hear from as many voices as possible, when we see examples of wonderful RA service from libraries big and small, rural and city, and when we share our successes and failures with each other because all of us share the same goal-- serving our leisure readers.

When we actively participate in our profession we help ourselves and each other.

Feeling overwhelmed about starting still? Don't worry, I have a suggestion that every single one of you can do to begin. It comes from Katelyn Patterson. I will let her explain first and then I will add a few more thoughts to encourage you. Take it away Katelyn:

Thanks to Becky for letting us share about our upcoming #publibchat!  

#Publibchat is a brand new monthly Twitter chat for folks in public libraries. Current moderators are Katelyn Patterson (@radicalibrarian) and Elizabeth McKinstry (@wrk2lib). Our first chat in October was about inclusive holiday programming and you can find the storify for that here. 

Our second chat is coming up on Thursday, November 17th and we are going to be discussing our favorite resources for readers' advisory. We hope that Becky and her readership will join and share their expertise with others!  

#Publibchat is a forum for us to come together and share ideas. Though Elizabeth and I may not be experts in RA or any of the topics that we may discuss during #publibchat, we will have a round up of resources to share. And we hope to learn from others, too. 
Please join us next Thursday, November 17th for by following the hashtag #publibchat!  

Thursday Nov 179pm ET / 8 CT / 7 MT / 6 PT

You can follow our @publibchat twitter account for updates on scheduled chats. 

You can also see the questions in advance, and prior topic chat logs here at www.publibchat.org

We look forward to chatting with you!

Thanks for the invite Katelyn. 

Now, RA for All readers, what I want out of you whether you are on Twitter or not is to use her links above to follow the hashtag and see what resources come up in the conversation, see what people are sharing and find a place where you can begin participating. 

If you are on Twitter, you can start by joining the live chat as it happens. Unfortunately my son has a volleyball game during that time, so I will not be there, but I will check out the conversation after the fact. So no excuses from any of you that you are busy. As Katelyn mentions they also put it all on their website so you never even have to go to Twitter. 

The key is to identify 1 way you can share what you are doing with others as well as for you learn from everyone else. Maybe this Twitter chat will help you, maybe not. But at least you are exploring options.

Find a way to be on both sides of the conversation about serving leisure readers. We all stand to benefit from everyone's active participation.

Resource Alert: The Hawaii Project

Last month I had this "Resource Alert" post touting YourNextRead for visual book discovery. I received a lot of positive feedback from people who gave it a try.

But, I also received an email from Mark, a developer of a different book discovery site, The Hawaii Project. From that email:

"I've always been frustrated by online book discovery services as they are so unpersonalized, recommending me books that have nothing to do with my interests or reading habits. I built something called The Hawaii Project, a personalized book discovery engine. It scans about 1000 high quality sources that write about books (everything from something like The New York Times or The Guardian down to niche blogs about medieval history or espionage fiction), figures out what books the tastemakers are writing about, then personalizes it to each reader based on their interests and reading history. Since it is scanning the web, it can also bring interesting articles and content to your attention as well as just recommending books, and it always topical because it’s keeping track of what’s going on *now*. Kind of like a personalized Google News for books."

You can go here to learn more about The Hawaii Project and how they donate 10% of their proceeds to literary charities. But here are two screen shots to give you an idea of what you will find there.

I have played around with it a bit and a few of my favorite things so far are:

• Being able to make lists of types of books. Here is an example of books which feature circuses. I have patrons who love everything with dragons or featuring the Tudors no matter the genre. This feature is perfect to help them.
• Access to a scrolling "books" newsfeed.
• The ability to follow specific genres easily. Here is the page for horror. It's news, authors, and books all on one page.
• The site even generates readalike lists. For example, here is the Joe Hill Channel for "similar reads. It's not too bad in terms of giving suggestions. 

I suggest you use it three ways.  First, just click through and start looking around without even signing up. Second, sign up to follow some of your library's most popular authors and see how it helps you serve your patrons. And third, get some of your super patrons to give it a try, use it, and come back to you with their honest thoughts

In general, I love assigning my super patrons with jobs to read books for me or check out a resource. They are always so flattered to be asked, they have no problem being brutally honest with you, and it gives me a different, non professional perspective on whatever I assigned them.  Plus, let's be honest, they have more time to do a more comprehensive job.

If you want to contact Mark, he has been doing research into RA service and is fascinated by it. Click here and scroll down to drop him a line. He really wants to hear from us.

We cannot have to many places to look for book suggestions and this one has a unique focus, so give it a try.

ARRT Book Club Study January 2017 Announcement

From the ARRT Book Club Study website:

Please join us for a discussion of Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi led by Emily Vinci:

From the prizewinning author of Mr. Fox, the Snow White fairy tale brilliantly recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity.

In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman.

A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold.

Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time. (From the publisher.)

Awards

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist: 2014

New York Times Notable Book: 2014

International Dublin Literary Award Nominee: 2016

The discussion will be held:

Thursday, January 12, 2017

2-4 pm

Schaumburg Township District Library

RSVP to Emily Vinci: evinci@stdl.org

Please arrange to obtain your own copy of the book for the discussion

As always, discussion of the book includes a nuts-and-bolts session devoted to sharing practical solutions to the problems and concerns of book discussion leaders.

The Leadership Topic, led by Becky Spratford, will be about managing the group dynamic during book discussions. Becky will present some tips and tricks for making the experience of the discussion better. Please come ready to share your group dynamic issues, successes, and failures.

Please visit the Book Club Study page for more details.

And don't forget, while the discussion itself is only open to members of ARRT, the notes on both the discussion of the book, and the leadership topic will be available freely and openly on the web page shortly after the discussion date.

We have an archive of past discussion notes here and you can access notes for every discussion I have ever led [since 2007!] using the book discussion books link here on RA for All.

On a side note, those posts are my most accessed posts, by far, on this site. I am always happy to see that my older notes are helping library workers lead a discussion of that book now. Honestly, being there to help you have better book discussions makes all of the work I put into this blog worth it. 

Reading Without Walls Challenge

The above screen shot is from author and graphic novelist, Gene Luen Yang’s site where he has been challenging everyone to Read Without Walls.  Click here to read the full post.

Now readers of this blog know that I have been advocating to read this way for years- even requiring my library school students to read a “multicultural" or LGBTQ every single semester as far back as 2004. But as I have also commented on here and here recently, not everyone agrees with me.

So let’s move away from why you need to to this to improve your skills. Let’s talk about how we can promote this challenge for our patrons. Libraries are a safe space where the entire community can gather and express themselves.  We need to be there to help our patrons through tough days.

No matter how you feel today, or tomorrow, or next week, we are still here to provide answers, clarity, or even just distraction to our patrons. This challenge can do all of that at once.

Post the challenge in your buildings, put it on your websites, and encourage everyone to participate.

That’s all I have for today.

Book Discussion Info for Book Club Leaders

I have a few odds and ends pertaining to book discussions that have been piling up, so I thought today was a good day to gather them into a post.

I am going to start with news pertaining to the 2017 ARRT Literary Book Discussion and Leadership Training program mostly because I have received a few questions about it in the last few days.

First the news I am the happiest about. After soliciting suggestions, ARRT has officially voted to change the mouthful of a name we had for this wonderful, vibrant, and useful program to...ARRT Book Club Study. All I can say is, thank goodness. Do you know how many times I have had to say and or type that long name as the Coordinator? Yikes.

But seriously, thank you to everyone who submitted suggestions via Facebook and Twitter to us. We had a number of excellent names suggested, and last week we voted for the winner as mentioned above-- Book Club Study. This made the most sense as our two members-only branded events that we run all year long are the Genre Study and the Book Discussion Leadership program.  Making the names more symmetrical makes sense from a branding standpoint.  Also, we realized that the program we have created for book discussion leaders is very comparable to what we do for our work with the genres. Now we will be getting new logos for each set of programs too.

I am proud to have led the charge on the evolution of this wonderful 4x a year program and am excited for the year to come.

Speaking of the year to come, I have updated the website with as much information as I have, but there is still no set date or time for the first discussion.  Here is what I have posted:

Click here for the full page

As the coordinator, I now know who is leading each discussion, in which quarter, and a few of the titles.  We are just working on scheduling dates right now.

I will have the entire 2017 schedule up before the end of the year, but as a teaser I know in April we will be discussing The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon and it will not be held at a public library [the host will offer tours of her library with this program] AND in the summer we will be doing a nonfiction title. So I can guarantee we are going to have some great experiences planned for all book discussion leaders, not to mention the camaraderie and support we all provide each other at these meetings.

Please do not forget, if you are not a member of ARRT, you can still follow along with all of the notes from these meetings by signing up for our newsletter or checking the Book Club Study site [Oh, my fingers were so happy to not type the old name].

Now onto other book club information that is not ARRT centered.

October was National Reading Group Month. I can never give it the time it deserves because of my 31 Days of Horror blog-a-thon; however, the resources this celebration creates are a great resource all year long, specifically, the Great Groups Reads list for this year and all past years. This one of my favorite resources for identifying dynamic book discussion titles. Click here for the current list and scroll to the bottom for links to the lists going back to 2009! Pick a year and print the list for your group to choose from-- they are all chosen by experts and annotated for you. And new or old, a good book discussion book is a good book discussion book no matter when you discuss it.

Finally, over on Booklist Reader, they had two posts [here and here] about the pleasures of reading plays with many modern choices. If your group is in a bit of a rut, I suggest you try a play. These are proven winners AND just the discussion you can have about reading a play versus watching it performed alone will make for a great discussion.

RA for All: Call to Action-- LISTEN!

The Call to Action is back after the October hiatus, and today’s post while not about the election tomorrow at all, is actually inspired by it. Today, I want to firmly remind everyone out there to LISTEN. Of course I mean as we are helping patrons, but I think it is a good reminder to all of us, for all of our interactions, with everyone we meet.

But, this is a blog about library workers helping leisure readers find materials in our buildings, so I will leave the bigger picture implications to the side for now and move into our specifics.

One of the biggest problems library workers have as they help leisure patrons look for their next good read is that we don’t actually hear what is being asked for because none of us are being active listeners.

We ask patrons to tell us about a good book they have read recently and as soon as they mention the title, our brains run off to start thinking of readalike options. We stop listening when they utter a title and don’t continue to have a CONVERSATION where we listen to the patrons explain WHY they enjoyed the book. We run off to make connection based on our version of that title, or even another patron’s [who we may have helped at a previous point in time] version. But that reader, in front of you, talking to you, has so much to teach you about their version of the book-- what it meant to them, why it was a good fit, and what else they would enjoy. When you stop actively listening at the mention of a title, you stop doing your job.

I see this happen all of the time. Someone says they liked The Girl on the Train. If you stop listening, you might run off to find this reader as many female driven psychological suspense stories as possible. But if instead, you had stopped to listen to this specific reader [as I discuss here], you will see that it is the compelling narration that the reader really enjoyed. In fact, this example reader loved that she didn’t even think about solving the mystery in the novel while she was reading it because she was having so much fun following Rachel. She even described this dark, gritty book as beautiful [again, click here for more details on this patron interaction].

Now this added information is a huge clue as to what titles the reader may also enjoy that goes much deeper into her specific reasons for enjoying the book, but I would have missed this clue if I had stopped actively listening after she uttered “The Girl on the Train,” and assumed I knew what she wanted.

How can we get better as listening during the RA Conversation? Well, I like to focus on the words the patron is using and then repeat those words back to him or her. This shows that I am understanding what he or she is saying to me. It also helps me to actively listen because I have a job to do-- repeat key words back.

Once I think I have a handle on it, I try a suggestion I am pretty sure this person has read, to gauge how I am doing.  In this case, I did NOT ask if she had read Gone Girl because that does not have a likable, unreliable narrator; Flynn's are unreliable, yes, but not likable at all.

Instead I asked if she had read Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson- another compelling, narrator driven suspense story where the narrator herself is unreliable but extremely likable. [Click here for details on that title.] She had read it and loved it.

Now you may think I just struck out there by suggestion a book she has already read, but I am here today to tell you the opposite is true. I just won big time! I gained this patron’s trust immediately because I just proved to her that I “got her.” I truly listened to her and understood why she like The Girl on the Train. Now that I had gained her trust and proved that I cared enough to listen, we were able to have a deeper conversation about what she was truly looking for in a good book. We were able to move beyond simply throwing titles back and forth and talked about what she was looking for. It turned out she was also interested in how The Girl on the Train also makes a statement about how people today get wrapped up in, even obsessed with, the tragedy of others.

So, I took all of the knowledge I gained by listening and I eventually suggested two books that are mentioned in this post, The Bones of You by Debbie Howells and The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker. You can click through to read more details, but the point here is that neither of these titles is one that you would normally find on the standard The Girl on the Train cookie cutter readalike lists.

Don’t get me wrong, those lists are great for passive RA or for when we are in a hurry. But when we are engaging our patrons in a face to face RA conversation, they deserve more. We need to listen.

ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study Tackles Character

The next meeting of the ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study is less than a month away.

I am so sad that I am going to miss it because I love all of the authors on this list. Why do I love them all, despite the fact that they span 3 genres? Because we are talking about speculative fiction authors who excel at character, and character is my number one entry point to any book.

You can click here to follow the entire genre study, see the assignments, and read the notes-- from anywhere in the world. The only thing that is only open to our members is attending the meetings and being part of the actual discussion [which is quite a huge benefit actually, as I will see when I have to miss this meeting]. I have also attached the “Character" assignment below.

And remember, we do not mind at all if your group uses our assignments and notes to run your own genre study, just please make sure you give us credit. 

Doorway: Character
Dec. 1, 2016
Glenview Public Library

Featured resource: Listen to a speculative fiction podcast (see some suggestions at bottom of page).

Assignment:

1) Read a book from two different authors from the list below (two books total). Preferably, both authors will be new to you.

Connie Willis
Lois McMaster Bujold
Orson Scott Card
Naomi Novik
Jim Butcher
Kevin Hearne
Brian Keene
Ann Leckie

2) As you read, think about the genre/subgenre of the book, and write down three additional appeal factors for the book besides character.

3) Come ready to talk about other character-driven speculative fiction books you may enjoy and why.

Podcast suggestions:

Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy
Science Fiction and Politics
Sword and Laser
Speculate
SF Signal
SFF Audio
This is Horror
Drinking With Jason
Three Guys with Beards
Horror Show with Brian Keene

RA for All Roadshow Visits the Illinois School Library Media Association Conference

This morning I am running a three hour seminar for all levels of IL School Librarians as part of their annual conference.

Here is a screen shot from the full conference program describing my presentation:

For the first 90 minutes I am going to do a customized version of my signature RA for All talk. This is an interactive presentation and it follows Becky’s 10 Basic Rules of RA Service. [That means you need to be ready to participate.]

Then we will take a break where I will be giving away brand new books courtesy of the Library Marketing Team over at SourceBooks. I have 2 picture books, 2 middle grade, and 2 YA titles for 6 lucky winners. [Thank you Margaret Coffee]

After our break I will be talking to you about practical rethinks for your RA service in school libraries. This presentation is based on my experience with a school library and its neighboring public library. We will talk about how public library RA techniques can be used to the school library's benefit.

Click here or below for slide access.

Slide Access

Can't wait to meet you all and start working together to improve your student's leisure reading experience.

Webinar Recording on YA Crossovers-- Both Ways!

Recently, Booklist and NoveList teamed up for another one of their RA Conversations led by Rebecca Vnuk, Editor Collection Development and Library Outreach for Booklist to present YA Crossovers: Adult Books for Teen Readers, Teen Books That Appeal to Adults.

Here is the official description:

Many reference and readers' advisory (RA) library staff are more comfortable working with adult patrons based on their training or experience. This session will present some basic readers' advisory geared towards working with teen patrons and teen titles. Attendees will come away with more confidence in their ability to suggest both teen titles to adult readers and adult titles to teen readers. 

Agenda:* Basic readers' advisory for both Adult and Teen patron/titles* Recommended Adult titles for Teens* Recommended Teen titles for Adults* Resources* Q&A 

Desired Outcomes:Adult Reference and Readers' Advisory library staff feel more comfortable working with teens as well as how to incorporate teen titles into their readers' advisory work with adult patrons. 

The entire webinar is now available on the Reaching Across Illinois Library System's YouTube page here.

But before you decided to click through or not I wanted to let you know why I this webinar is worth your time.

First, YA cross over programs usually only go one way-- giving adult books for teen readers OR teen books for adults. This one covers both sides of the equation. This is good for obvious reasons in that you are getting way more titles discussed, but also, by discussing both sides, you are also gaining a deeper understanding of the appeal similarities and differences. You actually learn a lot more about helping a wider range of readers when you compare and contrasts these two leisure reading groups at the same time.

Second, Rebecca leaves the slides for a time and goes into Booklist AND Novelist to show you, in real time, how these resources [that most of my readers have access to] can help you help readers. I also incorporate using the resources in real time in my presentations. It is much more instructive than simply telling my audience what to do. I have even started having groups come to my training with real life questions [that I don't have ahead of time] so we can work through them together. So I whole heartedly endorse this move. It makes this webinar more useful.

Three, Rebecca knows her stuff. She worked many years in Adult Services, RA, and Collection Development. She has seen it all. She has much to share that is worth your time.

Finally, a disclaimer, she is my friend but also my editor at Booklist. I am not lying when I say I only write for that publication because she is there and I trust her judgement. If she weren't there, you probably wouldn't see my name in the magazine.

Click here to watch the video and learn.

What I'm Reading: Behind Her Eyes and Otherworld Chills

Today I have two new reviews [by me] that have recently been published in Booklist. The first is the most hotly anticipated title of January 2017. As usual, these are the draft versions of the reviews with added information.

 Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
 Jan. 2017. 320p. Flatiron, hardcover, $25.99 (9781250111173). 
First published November 1, 2016 (Booklist).

Pinborough was already an accomplished author of horror, mysteries, dark fantasy, psychological suspense, and science fiction [for TV], but she has drawn on all of her gifts and expertise to tell her latest story, a masterpiece of suspense centered around a bad marriage that makes Gone Girl look quaint. We are in London where we meet Adele and Louise, our alternating narrators. Adele is a troubled young heiress married to successful psychologist, David. Louise is David’s secretary, and mistress, oh, and she is also Adele’s new best friend. With alternating points of view between Adele and Louise, short chapters, a few key flashbacks, and anxiety and unease beginning on the first page and permeating every word thereafter, the story creates a sense of disorientation and dread that is highly satisfying. But it is with the plot, so tight and yet also intricate, where Pinborough’s prose shines. Not a detail or character appearing in this novel is extraneous. Every single word comes back into play and matters as the story moves to the disturbing conclusion that everyone is talking about [it has it’s own hashtag #wtfThatEnding]. But even knowing this in advance, the ending will still shock you. You will never see it coming, you think you do, but you don’t, and that is a rare joy for readers. You will not be able to look anyone, especially your loved ones, in the eye for a few days after you turn the final page. Give this intense book to patrons freely, but especially target those who have fatigue with the current spate of female driven psychological suspense. While this will be one of the first books you read in 2017, and it could easily remain the best one you experience all year.

More comments: This review was hard to write because I wanted to give all of you enough information to book talk it, but I also could not give away any of the plot twists or the ending but it's an ending that opens up a whole new world of suggestions. It's frustrating yet the frustration is because the book is so well executed. It's hard to be mad at that.

I am not exaggerating above when I say reading this book is an amazing experience.

Three Words That Describe This Book: unreliable narrator, intense, disturbing

Readalikes: Anyone who has been binging on the "Girl" books of psychological suspense but is not finding the satisfaction they did previously should read this book.

If you want a tiny spoiler readalike, click here. That review doesn't have the spoiler, but if you have read that book, you will know a little about what is coming at the end-- not all, but more than anyone else.

Otherworld Chills by Kelley Armstrong

Oct. 2016. 464p. Plume, paperback, $16 (9780452298361). 
First published October 6, 2016 (Booklist Online).

Back in 2001, Armstrong burst onto the horror scene with Bitten, a smart, sexy, female driven werewolf tale. In the intervening years, Armstrong, and others, popularized a new genre residing somewhere between horror, fantasy, and romance which we now call Paranormal. Thirteen novels and four anthologies set in the Otherworld later, Armstrong is back with what is billed as the final word in the series, a fifth story collection. Containing tales both brand new and those only available on the author’s website, this volume features a wide range of characters from throughout the series. As a result, the tales will appeal to readers differently depending on which characters they most enjoy following. For example, the first entry, “Brazen” is the longest, taking place six months after the final novel in the series, Thirteen, tying up many loose ends. Overall, expect strong female characters, steamy situations, threatening violence, a fast pace, and thought provoking plots. This is obviously a great collection for fans who will love returning to old favorites and having some of their lingering questions answered, but now that the series is complete, it can also serve as an introduction for new readers to dip their toes into the Otherworld to see if they want to dive in fully.

Three Words That Describe This Book: strong female protagonists, fast pace, shared world

Readalikes: As I mention above, Armstrong is one of the innovators of paranormal as it moved out from under the shadows of fantasy and horror into it's own bestselling status. Armstrong's brand of paranormal is closer to horror than romance, meaning her books are more like those of Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs rather than Sherrilyn Kenyon and Christine Feehan.