RA for All Roadshow Visits Las Vegas-Clark County Library District

I know many of you are off today. How do I know? Because I am never off on the second Monday in October [an American Federal holiday], as it is the most common Staff Day for public libraries.

Today I am at a casino in North Las Vegas for the annual Las Vegas-Clark County Library District's Staff Development Day. No, that was not an attempt at a bad joke, they actually do have their staff day at a casino. Contrary to popular belief, most of LVCC's patrons and staff don't live under the flashing lights of the strip. It is a large county serving 1.6 million people spread out over 8,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of CT!

In order to get staff, spread out at branches across that expanse, together once a year, they need a central location that can fit everyone. Hence, we are at a casino. It's brilliant really. And there is a hotel so some staff are staying overnight.

This will be one of my more memorable staff day appearances for sure. Too bad it is October and my schedule did not allow for me to stay a bit longer than the 23 hrs I will be in town.

Before we get to their schedule of 2 breakout sessions with me, this is your friendly reminder that if you would like me at your 2020 October staff day, you need to contact me soon. It will be scooped up before the end of the year.

Here are the links for today, accessible to those who are in attendance or anywhere.

 RA for All: Readers Advisory belongs in every library, no matter its budget. The implementation of this vital service is the responsibility of every staff member-- from pages to directors, from those behind the scenes to the ones on the front lines. This program will remove the mystery behind providing great RA service. Using her “Ten Rules of Basic RA Service” as a guide, Becky Spratford will use your own love of your favorite books to show you how to help any patron find their next great read. It's not as hard as you think. But more importantly, you will learn why a staff that can harness the power of sharing a great read will become a stronger team and improve service to all patrons. [60 Mins]

• Follows my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service

Booktalking Your Way to the Friendliest Library in Town: Booktalking is at the heart of what we do with patrons each and every day at the public library. Whether we are sharing books informally at the services desk, presenting a prepared list of books, or posting information online, talking about books is something we do each and every day. It is a core service, but it is also hard to teach. Booktalking is more of an art than a skill, but with the right guidance and some practice, it can go a long way toward engaging your patrons and re-energizing your staff. Join experienced Readers’ Advisory Becky Spratford as she shares the secret behind delivering great book talks, giving you tips and tricks you can begin using right away to hone your own skills. Rediscover the power and joy that comes from sharing books with patrons. [60 Mins]

• Slide access here

Free Book Buzz from HarperCollins-- Today-- Live From Your Computer

Today I wanted to pass on this great FREE live event happening later this afternoon OR, if you cannot make it, there is also a link to view the recording. [I will be using that link as it coincides with my volunteer time at the local elementary school library.]And it is from my FAVORITE Library Market Team- Library Love Fest from Harper Collins [well tied for favorite with Sourcebooks, but that is unfair because their head is a longtime friend and neighbor]. Also, what a fun way to spend a Friday, hearing all about the exciting titles that are coming soon and a talk by an author, all right on your computer screen! Thanks for doing this Library Love Fest. We could all use something positive to start our weekends off right.Links and details below. 

It's a Librarian Love Fest!

Hello, librarians!

Mark your calendars! This Friday, October 11th, Library Love Fest will be hosting a two-part book buzz and author talk. The event will be live streamed from the Library Love Fest Facebook page from 11:30AM-12:30PM EST and will resume from 1:00-2:00PM EST!

Please note: A Facebook account is not required in order to watch the live stream of our presentation! A recording of the presentation will also be available on the Library Love Fest Youtube channel immediately following the Facebook Live broadcast.

To watch live, visit www.facebook.com/librarylovefest

To watch the replay, visit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJA5wGbfkCzQ2OEVBFCgbbw
 

Schedule
11:30AM-12:30PM EST:
Title presentation begins

12:30-1:00PM EST:
Break

1:00-1:30PM EST:
Title presentation resumes

1:30-2:00PM EST:
Special guest speaker Jeffrey Colvin,
debut author of Africaville (on sale December 10th, 2019)
Click here to request an egalley on Edelweiss+
Click here to request an egalley on NetGalley

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!
-The LLF Team (Virginia, Chris, and Lainey)  

RA for All Virtual Roadshow Visits PCI Webinars for #OwnVoices for All Readers

Later today, I am back with PCI Webinars to present my no holds barred #OwnVoices for All Readers: Incorporating EDI Values into RA Service.

Click here for slide access whether you are attending or not.

Because this is such an important topic, I have included many of my notes in the Google Slides, so even if you are not part of the webinar, you can learn more. The link to the slides also allows you to click on the links within the presentation and get access to a lot more content by me on equity, diversity and inclusion.

I have already given this brand new program 3 times since its debut a month ago, and I am scheduled to give it just about everywhere I go in the coming months. Every time I post the slides, it is the most up to date version as I am constantly tweaking and adding to it.

Click here to see the links to my past programs going back 6 months and the upcoming ones I have scheduled.

See some of you later today.

Slide Access Here

What I'm Reading: Becky Suggest Horror to Non-Horror Readers

As you can imagine, I get inundated with requests during the month of October from people who normally don't read horror but want to try something "creepy" for the haunting season.

These requests are tricky because while these readers make it clear that they do not want a lot of blood and gore, they are usually not too clear about anything else they want from their token annual horror book.

So below are three titles that I have had the best luck suggesting to a general adult audience who are looking for a "creepy" book to get into the Halloween spirit. The links go to a longer review by me for each title, but I have included a small sound bite book talk you can use to suggest these titles.

Slade House by David Mitchell is the most recently published novel reach "classic" haunted house status. Set over 5 Halloween weekends, spaced nine years apart, and told in 5 episodic bursts, this is a creepy tale of nefarious twins, but told through the eyes of their victims who are unknowingly summoned to the house. This is a great choice for fans of Gothic horror, atmospheric tales of dark corners, ghosts, and ghost stories.

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon is a historical thriller about the bonds between mothers and daughter  set "off the grid" in VT but told in two time frames, 1908 and the present. A mysterious death in the past is still literally and figuratively haunting the present. This is a great choice for fans of historical thrillers who want a little supernatural edge during this time of year.

The Caretaker of Lorne Field by Dave Zeltersman is a, short but intense and unsettling psychological suspense story of the 300 year line of Durkin mean whose lives are dedicated to pulling the weeds that grown in Lorne Field. Why? Because the weeds are vicious monsters, and if not weeded, they will grow to their full form, leave the ground, and destroy the world! Then again…they might just be weeds. The only way to know for sure is to stop taking care of the field. This is a great choice for all of your many fans of psychological suspense.

RA for Cookbooks via Booklist

When I first started out in RA Service, one of the requests I was completely unprepared for was helping readers who liked to read cookbooks for fun to find more they would also enjoy. I knew about reading travel guides for fun more than to prep for a trip because it was something I have always enjoyed. But the idea of reading a cookbook for more than the recipes was foreign to me.

Well, I quickly learned that there was a sizable group of patrons for whom cookbooks was their go-to leisure reading genre.

Booklist has had a spotlight issue on cookbooks for many years, and this month along with lists of the top cookbooks and core collection articles on Foundational Cookbooks and YA for Foodies there is also this excellent piece by Susan Maguire [my fabulous editor] on Cookbook Advisory. Past Becky could have used this, but all of us can use it now.

Susan breaks down what a reader wants from a cookbook. She includes a discussion of the main areas of appeal and how to discuss these with a patron to help them find the best cookbook for them. This is a "how-to" RA article you need to read.

This article also reminded me on the enduring popularity of cookbook book clubs. Many more libraries than I could ever list host these. I have included this example of some of the ones hosted at branches of the Chicago Public Library.

If you are unfamiliar with cookbook book clubs or want some advice on how to start one at your library, click here to read a Book Riot article on the topic.

Why not consider suggesting a cookbook to a reader yourself? At the very least, use the information in Susan's article to put together a book display that pairs cookbooks with a fiction title. I think it would be a fresh and inviting display for your patrons. One they might not expect. And it is when we surprise them that they notice us more.

NYCC 2019 Recap and Harvey Award Winners

Over the weekend, NYCC wrapped up. Here is a report on the east coast's largest comic con via PW.

You can go to the NYCC site to see more wrap up info, but for our purposes here in the library world, I wanted to point out the Harvey Awards.

Most library workers know about the Eisner Awards for Graphic Novels, but the Harvey's, while not given out in as many categories, are equally prestigious, and in many ways, since they are whole book focused, more useful to us in our day to day work.

Click here for the Harvey Awards website where you can learn about the award, view past winners by category, and see this year's nominees. 

They have not updated the site with the winners yet, but that's okay because the Hollywood reporter was on it:

Book of the Year: Hey Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka 

Digital Book of the Year: Check, Please by Ngozi Ukazu 

Best Children’s or Young Adult Book: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (First Second) 

Best Manga: My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi (VIZ Media) 

Best European Book: Waves by Ingrid Chabbert and Carole Maurel (Archaia) 

Best Comics Adaptation: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, based on Spider-Man (Marvel Entertainment) 

Hall of Fame Inductees: Will Elder, Jack Davis, John Severin, Marie Severin, Ben Oda, Alison Bechdel, Mike Mignola 

Comics Industry Pioneer Award: Maggie Thompson

Please, though, go see the past winners and, especially, the full list of nominees here. The nominees list for "Book of the Year" [image below]-- all of those titles should be in your collections.

Finally, here is my reminder of how to use awards lists as a RA Tool.

Click here for the full list of 2019 Nominees
and here for the winners

ARRTCon 2019 is filling up Faster Than Expected

I was going to post about something else today, but a meeting with my ARRTCon co-organizer yesterday made me realize I should remind people to register for this event because well, we are over 60% sold and we still have 6 weeks to go.

So, if you have been thinking about joining us, register now.

Here is the repost:

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

ARRTCon 2019-- A Full Day RA Conference-- Registration is Now Live!

I am so happy to announce ARRTCon 2019 coming November 14, 2019. Days like today are wonderful because this is something I have been working on for months and finally, the rest of you can register for this AMAZING full day program we have organized for you. It includes breakfast and lunch, and you get to choose your break out sessions.

We often have people come in from out of town for this event and it usually sells out, so now is the time to jump on this amazing opportunity.

See the details below including information about our 2 keynote speakers and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Register now for ARRTCon 2019! Here are all the details…

ARRTCon

Thursday, November 14, 9 am – 4:40 pm 

Naperville Public Library | 95th Street Library 

Registration: $60 for ARRT members / $75 for non-members

Register here

Join ARRT for an all-day conference covering a wide variety of RA Topics!

After a continental breakfast, Rebecca Vnuk, Executive Director of LibraryReads, will kick off the day discussing Librarians as Influencers.

Each attendee will be able to attend three breakout sessions from the list of eight topics. You’ll be prompted to rank the breakouts you are most interested in when you register!

• #OwnVoices for All Readers: Incorporating EDI Values into RA Service
• Developing Inclusive Reading Challenges
• Genre 101: Using Your New Workbook
• Genre Study Success: Hosting Your Own — Big or Small
• Large Scale Book Based Programming: From Idea to Event Day & Everything In-Between
• New Way RA
• NoveList: Unlocking Themes
• Working with LibraryReads Panel

Lunch is included, and preceded by a “Book Buzz” by Sourcebooks. 

Author, reviewer, and educator Gabino Iglesias will speak on I Don’t See Race, I Only Care About the Story and Other Polite Microagressions sponsored by NoveList.

All participants will receive a digital copy of The ARRT Popular Fiction List, 5th edition, ARCs from Sourcebooks, and new ideas to share!

If you are a 2019 member, you can also renew your membership for 2020 now! If you aren’t a member, your registration fee will include a 2020 membership.

Practice Resource Just Got Even Better: The Get Booked Recs Spreadsheet

One of my favorite resources to direct people to if they want to practice their RA skills is the Get Booked Podcast by BookRiot.

Here are all of the reasons why I love this podcast as a practice tool:

1. Just listening to the questions gives you a broader sense of what types of books people are looking for.
2. The questions also illustrate how readers don't connect books in as straight a line as we think. We can hear from actual readers why they like the books they do in plain language, and often in their questions alone we learn so much about why someone likes the books they do.
3. You can use the podcast to actively practice your skills of suggesting books. Listen to the question. Pause the podcast. Work on the question. Come up with a few suggestions and why on your own. You can even write in with feedback as to more suggestions and they may include them in a future episode.
4. You can use Amanda and Jenn's suggestions as examples of how you take a reader query and turn it into a suggestion, both in how they match the reader with a title and in how to book talk based on appeal [not plot]. 

But probably the best thing I take away from this podcast is how just by listening to Amanda and Jenn book talk the titles they are suggesting, I have added hundreds of titles I will never get around to reading myself to my suggestion arsenal.  

I regularly use the titles they suggest and the reasons why they suggested them to suggest to other readers. They have helped me to build a broader list of possible suggestions, a list much longer than anything I could even compile along.

However, until now, there was no single place to go to get a list of everything that has been suggested on the show. But thanks to a librarian listener named Stephanie, we now all have access to this wonderful spreadsheet. It lists every title and the author in reverse chronological order of when they were mentioned, and includes the link to the episode so you can go in and hear the hosts talk about the book and why it may appeal to the reader in question.

Thanks to Stephanie and her Get Booked Recommendations Spreadsheet, Get Booked as a RA practice tool just got even better! Check it out for yourself.

Click here to see the spreadsheet

Recharge Your Book Club Idea: Nonfiction

Recently, I was talking to my father about his all male, mostly nonfiction book club. They recently went through a slump of a few disappointing book in a row before picking more of a crowd-pleaser to  recharge themselves.

There were a variety of reasons the books and the ensuing discussions had been disappointing, but one specific point that came up was that one of the books was a title based on a longer, engaging magazine piece and the person suggesting it loved the long article but, like everyone else in the group, was very disappointed in the book length version. [I'm not calling out the title on purpose.]

This led them to talking about picking an article or 2 to read some other month.

I love this idea because there is an amazing amount of long form journalism being produced these days, and its proliferation is one of the wonderful and positive things about the internet. But where to find the best articles for the group, and also, where to find articles from different outlets that can be combined for 1 discussion?

The answer--- Longreads! From their "About" page:

Longreads, founded in 2009, is dedicated to helping people find and share the best storytelling in the world. We feature and produce in-depth investigative pieces, profiles, interviews, commentary, book reviews, audio stories, and personal essays.

Longreads has indexes by "Editor's Picks" or "Best of" the year which will help you identify single articles of note, but for the book club that would like to tackle a topic or issue from multiple perspectives [which will lead to a better discussion meeting experience], the Longreads topics index is the best place to begin.

If you really want to give your book club a shot in the arm and inspire dynamic discussions, I would consider pair a piece from Longreads with a podcast or Ted Talk.

So, for example, I used the Longreads topic index to identify essays on "Science and Nature" and found "Why Bugs Deserve Our Respect." Then I did a simple Google search for "podcasts on bugs" and found this Radiolab episode entitled "Damn Bugs." Finally, I searched "Bugs" on the TED Talks site and found this 11 video playlist entitled "Insects are Awesome!"

All of these pieces can be read, listened to, and watched for 1 book club meeting. Consuming this information will take a fraction of the time it would have taken your members to read an entire book, but the discussion itself will not be scarified. In fact, I would argue the mixing up of formats in how the information is taken in itself combined with the shorter lengths of each piece will actually lead to a more dynamic discussion.

Not only will this idea recharge your tried and true members, but also, it could lead to you attracting a whole new group of book club participants. And everyone will learn something new and interesting in the process. Seems like wins all around from my perspective.

31 Days of Horror Begins....

Today is the first day of October and that means while I will still be posting here 5 days a week, my main attention will be shifting to the Horror blog where I will post every single day for 31 days straight.

Occasionally throughout this month, I will be inserting some of the horror content here on the main site, more to make sure everyone sees some of my original content and rememberers to poke on over to the dark side.

Click here to see day 1, which is a recording of the NoveList Crash Course on Horror.

All month long, I will have a slew of guest posts lined up-- all of which are meant to help you understand horror better and provide you with suggestions for your patrons. I will also be creating a few brand new book lists for everyone including a best horror debuts for libraries, modern under the radar horror classics, and more. I even have a special 6 day event revolving around my Library Journal take over of the Readers' Shelf column in the October issue. But that is what is to come.

You can go here to see the horror blog anytime, or use the tag 31 Days of horror to see what has come before and pull up the 8 [!] previous years of this annual event.

Finally, while you wait for the 31 Days to get into full swing, it is also Horror Week on Goodreads. So head on over there too.

In the meantime, please remember, especially if you don't like horror personally-- Your horror readers are not monsters, they just like to read about them.