Free Issues of BEA Show Daily: May 12

Here is the link for yesterday's issue.

Also you can go directly to the BEA page on the PW website for more up to the minute news.

I will be back later today with the June Library Reads post and a post about some of the better things I saw at BEA.

Free Issues of BEA Show Daily: May 11

Whether you are here in Chicago at BEA or not, Publisher's Weekly is offering copies of its daily show issues for free.

Here is the link for Wednesday May 11. Go straight to page 15 for the PW Presents BEA's Librarians' Lounge.

I'll post the others soon.

RA for All Roadshow @ BEA

This morning I will be presenting on the following panel:

Libraries Transform™: ALA@BEA, Embrace the Innovative Future of Readers’ Advisory

05/12/2016, 9:00 AM - 9:50 AM

Room W183

The question heard daily – “ Do you have anything else like this?” In public libraries, reference librarians are often called on to make recommendations to readers, sometimes in genres that they don’t personally read. Learning how to frame a discussion and articulate the appeal of a book, author, or genre marks the essence of a successful readers’ advisor. This session will track the latest trends in Readers’ Advisory. Focus will be on methods for delivering personalized, immediate and mobile-friendly recommendations, including input from Booklist!

Use this link to get all of the details including who else is on the panel with me.

After the presentation, I will gather everyone’s slides here in this post, but for now, here is the access to my slides. Please click on the images in the slide show. Most have links embedded in them. 

ADDED 5/19/16 Here is access to Polli Kenn’s slides.  She went before me.

I look forward to meeting some of you tomorrow. If it is anything like meeting many of you yesterday at LJ DOD and/or the Library Reads Dinner, it’s going to be a great day.

Click here for slide access

Goodbye and Thank You Reader's Advisor Online

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite resources, The Reader's Advisor Online announced that they were shutting their blog down.

I absolutely loved starting each week with the RA Rundown compiled and written by Sarah Statz Cords and Cindy Orr.  This weekly post is the only place you can go to find all the most important information for those of us who work with leisure readers, all in one place.  It was well organized into sections and had an easy to follow list structure.  I enjoyed that the information went from basic-- new and bestselling titles-- to more in depth-- essays and articles-- to training opportunities-- to author news and finally to some fun at the end.

The RA Rundown ran the gamut, but without being too long and cumbersome. It was only once a week, so it didn't have "breaking news" but that didn't matter. It was simply the perfect start to each week of helping leisure readers. It got me focused and kept me in the loop. I will miss it.

However, before the blog rides off into the sunset, they have two goodbye posts worth reading; posts that can serve as a resource going forward.

The first one ends with a list of blogs that they consulted each week. I am honored that my blog is on that list, but more importantly, you should all know about all of these blogs. Cindy and Sarah won't be checking them for you anymore. It's up to you. Here they are:

• Citizen Reader, http://www.citizenreader.com/

• Comic Book Resources, http://www.comicbookresources.com/ 

• Digital Book World, http://www.digitalbookworld.com/ 

• EarlyWord, http://www.earlyword.com/

• Fiction-L, a listserv for all librarians and readers’ advisors in particular,http://www.mgpl.org/read-listen-view/fl/flmenu/ 

• A Library Writer’s Blog, http://librarywriting.blogspot.com/ 

• Publishing Perspectives, http://publishingperspectives.com/ 

• RA for All, http://raforall.blogspot.com/ 

• Reading the Past, http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/ 

• Shelf Awareness, http://www.shelf-awareness.com/Teleread, http://www.teleread.com/

Speaking of it being up to you, they also had this excellent goodbye post about how and where they gathered their information for the Rundown each week. Entitled, "How We Compile the New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer Lists," this post is exactly what it says it is, a detailed list with instructions of how they use a plethora of free resources to create the lists. But more importantly, they have also thrown down the gauntlet, challenging someone out there to step up in their place:

"These are all free sources, so if you want to keep a comprehensive list going of forthcoming titles, it’s largely a matter of checking those sources and dumping the titles into a blog, Word document, spreadsheet, or any other way you may want to keep track."

If you are a library worker looking to start a new blog or revamp and old one, take a look at this post. The RA world needs you.

There is one more RA Rundown coming on May15th. Thanks Cindy and Sarah. You will be missed.

Attention Book Discussion Leaders: Picking Better Books for Your Group

Reading Group Choices is one of my favorite resources as a book discussion leader.

They just released the results of the 2015 Annual Survey of the most popular book discussion books according to their readers.  You can also click here to access the page with the results from every year's survey from 2002 to the present!

First a word about each annual survey. Take the current 2015 survey results as an example. Since they ask all of their readers to contribute their favorites the results are as varied as the book discussion groups themselves.  We have titles from middle grade chapter books (Wonder which does lead to an excellent discussion for any age group) to YA to adult fiction, nonfiction, and even graphic novels!

And the titles for 2015 are not all the brand new and shiny titles that you see recommended by the publishers.  There are some titles that go back a few years on this 2015 list.

Which leads me to....

Second, a word about the BACKLIST goodness of the page with all of the annual favorite results. Many of the titles on the 2105 list were on the 2014 list and some were on the year before that too [and so on]. Comparing the backlist of survey results at one time gives you a sense of the books that have endured over time and resonated with many book groups.

Enduring favorites are a great choice for any group because they are proven winners, year after year.

But an even more fun way to use this backlist is to click on a really old list, like this 2002 one:

1. The Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Plume)
2. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (Picador USA)
3. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Little Brown)
4. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Vintage)
5. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (Grove)
6. Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (Ballantine)
7. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (HarperPerennial)
8. John Adams by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster)
9. Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland (Penguin)
10. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial)
11. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (Ballantine)
12. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Warner & HarperCollins)
13. Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani (Ballantine)
14. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (Ballantine)
15. Jim the Boy by Tony Earley (Back Bay)
16. The Jew Store by Stella Suberman (Algonquin)
17. Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund (HarperPerennial)
18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin)
19. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (Vintage)
20. Hanna’s Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson (Ballantine)

What makes something a good book for discussion has nothing to do with its publication date. In fact, I would argue that the older the title, the more there might be to discuss. Does it still ring true? Can it be read differently as time passes? Why is this book still worth reading? Why was it so popular in 2002?

These are all great questions for a group to consider before you even get to talk about the book itself. I would highly recommend giving one of these older favorites a try.

Listen Up! Audiobook Readers’ Advisory Program Slides

Earlier today I was honored to MC ARRT’s Audiobook RA panel. Thanks to everyone who attended in Downers Grove.

There was a very lively discussion.  Please use the hashtag #arrtreads to relive it. 

The slides (if applicable) are available below by clicking on the presenters name.

Michele Cobb, Executive Director of the Audio Publishers Association

Cheryl Herman, Marketing Director for Books on Tape/Penguin Random House

Dan Zitt, Vice President, Content Production for the Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group

Renee Young, Novelist and RUSA Listen List

Kate Rudd, Audie, Earphones & Odyssey winning narrator

Thanks to all our presenters for coming and bringing audiobook swag for all the attendees.

Free Comic Book Day!

Tomorrow is the day and many libraries, bookstores, and comic shops are participating.

Here is the link for the official website for the event which includes a place to search for participating stores. But don’t forget many libraries participate too.  Call your to see what they are doing. We have a comic book shop only 2 blocks from our library and the two work together to offer free comics at both locations.

There are also videos and interesting links on the site.

Here is also a link to every post, review, list of resources, etc... that I have tagged Graphic Novels on the blog over the years (over 70!). I read a lot of graphic novels, so there are many reviews.

Specifically, I want to point out this post where I listed my favorite graphic novel resources. It is a few years old at this point, but it is still useful.

One new resource that is not on there which I highly recommend is Panels.  I absolutely love their mission, which you can read in its entirety here, but it starts with this sentence: "Panels is a celebration of comics, the people who make them, and the people who love them.” I am 100% behind that!

Whether or not you are officially celebrating free comic book day at your library, remember it will be out there in the media. Patrons will be aware of it. Some may even have questions about it. Others, who are totally new to the idea of reading comics, may feel more comfortable coming to the library rather than entering a crowded comics shop. So put up some graphic novel displays or at the very least, keep this post handy so you can quickly pull up the resources and help people with comics related questions.

And finally, go find a place where you can grab your own free comic books tomorrow.

Shirley Jackson Awards Finalists Announced!

I have so much love for Shirley Jackson that it is hard to contain. But whether or not you enjoy her work, you cannot deny that her influence on today's fiction is HUGE. Two of fiction’s biggest trends are genre blending [see this post for details] and the current popularity of an increasingly more intense and terrifying kind of female driven psychological suspense best illustrated by Gillian Flynn.

Jackson is so unique that there is even an entire award named after her:

In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. 

The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories:  Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.

This award is a wonderful resource for anyone who likes these kind of stories. Below I have attached the brand new nominees. You can also read them here.

But remember, awards lists are a great RA tool, especially the backlist which is a treasure trove of readalike suggestions. Here is the link to past year's nominees and winners.

The nominees for the 2015 Shirley Jackson Awards are:

NOVEL

Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press)

Experimental Film, Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications)

The Glittering World, Robert Levy (Gallery)

Lord Byron’s Prophecy, Sean Eads (Lethe Press)

When We Were Animals, Joshua Gaylord (Mulholland Books)

NOVELLA

The Box Jumper, Lisa Mannetti (Smart Rhino)

In the Lovecraft Museum, Steve Tem (PS Publishing)

Unusual Concentrations, S.J. Spurrier (Simon Spurrier)

The Visible Filth, Nathan Ballingrud (This Is Horror)

Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing-UK/Open Road Media-US)

NOVELETTE

“The Briskwater Mare,” Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)

“The Deepwater Bride,” Tamsyn Muir (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July-August 2015)

“Even Clean Hands Can Do Damage,” Steve Duffy (Supernatural Tales #30, Autumn)

“Fabulous Beasts,” Priya Sharma (Tor.com, July 2015)

“The Thyme Fiend,” Jeffrey Ford (Tor.com, March 2015)

SHORT FICTION

“A Beautiful Memory,” Shannon Peavey (Apex Magazine)

“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” Alyssa Wong (Nightmare)

“Seven Minutes in Heaven,” Nadia Bulkin (Aickman’s Heirs)

“The Dying Season,” Lynda E. Rucker (Aickman’s Heirs)

“Wilderness,” Letitia Trent (Exigencies)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Stephen King (Scribner)

The End of the End of Everything, Dale Bailey (Arche Press)

Get in Trouble, Kelly Link (Random House)

Gutshot, Amelia Gray (FSG Originals)

The Nameless Dark – A Collection, T.E. Grau (Lethe Press)

You Have Never Been Here, Mary Rickert (Small Beer Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

Aickman’s Heirs, edited by Simon Strantzas (Undertow Publications)

Black Wings IV, edited by S.T. Joshi (PS Publishing)

The Doll Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)

Exigencies, edited by Richard Thomas (Dark House Press)

Seize the Night, edited by Christopher Golden (Gallery)

BEA is Coming to Chicago and You Can See Me At the Conference or On STAGE!

Next week the entire book world will be centered on Chicago. I wanted to post here on the blog a few things about where I will be during the week for those of you who want to meet up with me, what to expect here on the blog during BEA, AND a few suggestions on RA related programs to attend.

This also gives me an excuse to finally put my schedule together. Seriously, I will be using this post to figure out where I am supposed to be as much as you will use it to find me.

First, I have had many questions about meeting up IRL. Besides the schedule I will outline below [which is very broad], the best way to reach out during the week is to DM me on Twitter @RAforAll. I have changed my DM settings so anyone, whether I follow you or not, can DM me. OR go to my About page. It has my cell number and email address.  Either is fine.  Feel free to use them.

When I am staying in one place for awhile, I will also Tweet my location. Since those Tweets run here on the blog in the side bar, anyone, Twitter person or not, can see them. If you see me, please come up to me. I do not bite [usually] and would love to meet you.

Second, here is my very broad schedule for BEA events:

Wednesday May 11th: I will be at Library Journal's Day of Dialog from 8am to 6pm. Click here for the schedule. That one is easy because we are all together.

I will then be attending the Adult Librarian's Dinner sponsored by Library Reads and the Association of American Publishers at 6:30 at the Palmer Place Hilton. I promised MC Rebecca Vnuk that I would sit up front to heckle, I mean support, her. So if you want to sit with me, you gotta sit in the front row.

Thursday May 12th: I will be at BEA proper at McCormick Place ALL DAY. But it all begins bright and early with the best event of the conference, the one that is most relevant to all of my readers, oh, and it also happens to be the one that features me:

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

Libraries Transform™: ALA@BEA, Embrace the Innovative Future of Readers’ Advisory

05/12/2016, 9:00 AM - 9:50 AM

Room W183

The question heard daily – “ Do you have anything else like this?” In public libraries, reference librarians are often called on to make recommendations to readers, sometimes in genres that they don’t personally read. Learning how to frame a discussion and articulate the appeal of a book, author, or genre marks the essence of a successful readers’ advisor. This session will track the latest trends in Readers’ Advisory. Focus will be on methods for delivering personalized, immediate and mobile-friendly recommendations, including input from Booklist!

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

Use this link to get all of the details including who else is on the panel with me.

When I am done, I will be staying in Room W183 to see the other two parts to the ALA @BEA Libraries Transform programming.  Click here to see all three programs on one page.

From 12-1:30 I will be in room W185 for the Library Reads and Association of American Publishers Adult Librarian's Lunch.

After lunch I'm going to see Horror writer Amy Lukavics, whose first book was awesome and who I have worked with previously. She will be signing copies of her new book, The Women in the Walls, from 1-2:30 at Booth 2240 and 2241.

I will probably stick around the exhibit hall the rest of the day. I have to meet up with a few specific horror publishers, but I'll be around. I am also not interested in getting any autographs, so if you want to wander the Hall with me I figured you should know that upfront.

Friday May 13th: Honestly, I am not sure if I will be driving in on Friday or not. If I do, I have to leave after lunch for a late afternoon appointment. But, if I am there, I will 100% be at this program:

Demystifying How Librarians Buy  

05/13/2016, 11:00 PM - 11:50 PM   Room W179a

According to Library Journal’s 2014 Budget Survey U.S. Public Libraries materials budgets total approximately $1.8 billion. In this session, hear what librarians Stephen Sposato of the Chicago Public Library, Wendy Bartlett of the Cuyahoga Public Library and Charlene Rue of BookOps, are buying and how they make decisions. Get the inside track to help better market to the library channel and understand the ins and outs of how librarians buy, what they buy and when they make their decisions.

Okay, that's the schedule.

Now, third, the blogging schedule. There will definitely be posts every day during the conference, but they may be shorter than normal. Please check back frequently though, especially if you are not on Twitter, as I will be live Tweeting quite a bit. Those run in the right gutter of the blog. 

I can't wait to see many of you next week. And whether or not you are here in person, I will have you covered with the most important RA info from BEA here on RA for All.

Successful Readers' Advisory Techniques in Academic Libraries is Coming to ILA this Fall

At the start of 2016 I made this resolution:

Explore working with the academic library community more: This is a personal goal. I have been very interested in how academic libraries are serving leisure readers and why they should be putting more effort into this service. I submitted a program for IACRL [with a co-presenter who is an academic librarian] but it was not accepted. I am not going to give up on this topic. You may not see a lot here on the blog right away because I need to do a little more research, but I am making this a priority.

Well, recently that same program, with that same academic librarian, Carolyn Ciesla [mention above as being rejected by IACRL ]was accepted for the Illinois Library Association Annual Conference.  Here is what we submitted, so you can get a sense of what to expect:

Title: I Want To Read a Book for Fun!: Successful Readers' Advisory Techniques in Academic Libraries

Abstract: Academic libraries function as the closest library for two sets of patrons-- the students and the employees. As circulation and reference stats decrease, libraries are increasingly looking for ways to bring users into the building. One way to increase library is use is by reminding library patrons that on top of fulfilling the traditional, educational role, the library offers leisure reading options as well. This presentation will highlight ways academic libraries can enhance their popular materials collection and increase patron use and involvement, including marketing and outreach opportunities.

Session attendees will:

• learn the benefits of creating a leisure collection in their library
• learn how to build a successful leisure collection, OR reinvigorate an older collection
• learn best practices for marketing and outreach for their leisure collection

The conference isn’t until October, but I am starting to gather many of the articles and thoughts I had found over the last few months into one place, when I realized that it would be worth it to share them with all of you:

• Here is a very interesting case study where a popular romance collection was created for an academic library.
• This blog post on the PA Library Association’s College and Research Division’s blog sums up why the lack of RA in academic libraries is so troubling.
• Here is another case study, this time from the University of British Columbia on how they established a popular reading collection. By the way, this one has a great bibliography if you want to look into this topic some more.
• Here is an ALA report from 2009 ALA which examines the role of recreational reading in academic libraries.
• Here is a 2011 Readers’ Advisory column from RUSQ on the topic of leisure reading and academic libraries.
• From Public Services Quarterly: Popular Reading Collections in PublicUniversity Libraries: A Survey ofThree Southeastern States [2009]

What I am learning from my research and the dozen or so visits I have made to academic libraries [both in IL and other states over the last 2 years] is that many academic libraries are beginning to have popular reading collection but they have NO plans on how to serve leisure readers.  In other words, they have the books but no RA service to go with it.

I think this is recipe for failure in the long run and that is why Carolyn and I plan to step in and help. It is on the patron service side of this equation where our program will focus. An “if you build it, they will come” attitude may work in the movies, but in real life, we need staff that can promote and encourage use of a popular reading collection, as well as be trained in how to help patrons navigate the wide array of choices available for their leisure reading needs and match each reader with his or her best book for that moment in time.

I have also found that as someone who is devoted to helping leisure readers from the public library perspective, I have a lot to learn from my academic peers. They look at the issue of serving leisure readers from a completely different angle than I am used to. I love looking at the things I am comfortable doing in a new light; that is a place from which deeper understand and possible new ideas can come. I hope you look at some of these articles too, especially those of you, the vast majority of my readers, who function in a public library environment. We have a lot to learn from each other.

I am sure I will have more to say on this topic in the coming months. This is just a start. In fact, as I gather my thoughts and ideas I will probably try them out here on the blog first. And of course, our complete program including slides and any handouts will be up on RA for All during the conference.