NSW Readers' Advisory Working Group meeting minutes via Zoom, 10 August 2021

Chair: Natalie Funston (Bayside)
Minutes: Eric Dodson (Lane Cove)

Acknowledgement of Country

The meeting started by Acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the Land from which all participants joined the meeting.
Participants attending were on the country of various indigenous peoples including Dharug, Gadigal, Wangal, Wiradjuri, Darrawal, Cameraygal, Darkinjung & Bidjigal.

Indyreads Lists Demonstration:

Ellen from the State Library addressed & encouraged library staff to investigate creating & editing reading lists in the Indyreads platform. The creation of book lists that are public and open for maintenance by all library staff (using a library instead of personal account) allows for easy sharing of RA tools. Very useful for form-based Reader’s Advisory.
See instructions for creating & editing here. Some of these lists will be used on a carousel on Indyreads later this year.

Please name your list [name of library] staff picks.

For the blurb you could say Here is a list of the reading/listening suggestions of [name of library].

Thanks to Aaron the the wording on the blurb.

Join & Edit Readers’ Advisory wiki:

Library staff are encouraged to join and edit the Reader’s Advisory wiki: https://wiki.libraries.nsw.gov.au/doku.php?id=readers_advisory_working_group

There is a coding summary to follow and if errors occur in editing the moderators are able repair or revert pages to previous versions.

What Have You Been Reading Breakout Discussion

Some people talked about being more focussed on audiobooks and electronic books & audio during lockdown. In some part due to accessibility and also to try the formats. As part of working from home there is focus at Canterbury-Bankstown on Reader’s Advisory training and developing an RA training plan.

Sharlene Louey (Collections & Content Manager at City of Sydney) presenting about gaming in libraries & game collections

Sharlene presented about City of Sydney’s electronic retro gaming collection. Consisting of borrowable kits containing classic retro platforms including PlayStation, Nintendo Classic & Super Nintendo, Atari, Commodore 64 & Sega Megadrive. The kits are boxed ready to play with a checklist for staff & borrowers to ensure parts are intact.
In relation to Reader’s Advisory, Sharlene highlighted the variety of collections which are developed and highlighted in conjunction with the reto gaming collection. Non-Fiction books on gaming history & design, fiction books with game tie-in storylines or settings, gaming magazines, film & television tie-ins, online collections as well as graphic novels & comics are all considered holistically to create a vibrant collections for patrons to delve into and diversify their interest and engage with the library.

Sharlene also highlighted the use of appeal characteristics in gaming. Using a similar structure but with different terminology, the gaming world may be considered through the same advisory lens. This allows library staff to more easily consider the gaming world, which they may not be so familiar with, and consider RA options based on the appeal characteristics which match. For example an action gamer may enjoy a thriller or an aventure gamer may enjoy fantasy.
This presentation gave a well considered view of a collections approach which interconnects the resources of the library giving depth to a collection and presenting opportunities for promotion & display which maximise borrower engagement.

Gaming Breakout Discussion:

Castle Hill has popular Chess & Backgammon gaming groups.

Campbelltown has a large regular Scrabble group which they are trying to transition to online in the current climate. This is a challenge with an older age group.

Kiama has a large and popular puzzle collection. Pieces are not counted. When missing parts are reported the puzzles are removed from collection. Regular donations are common so it is easy to replenish damaged stock.

Wollondilly has some experience with planning escape room activities.

Gardening RA session

Natalie from Bayside presented on “Gardening in Space” titles:
The Martian – Andy Weir
Outer Earth Series – Tracer, Zero-G and Impact by Rob Boffard
Wool, Shift and Dust by Hugh Howey
Future Girl by Asphyxia

Rachel from the State Library presented on “Gardening in Crime”
The titles discussed are in the slide below:

Gardening RA Breakout:

Some titles discussed in the gardening RA breakout were:

Seed and book matching was also discussed. Information included from RUCL seed library. To find out more about their seed libraries you can contact them on enquiries@richmondvalley.nsw.gov.au

What Have You Been Doing in Reader’s Advisory?

Mosman

“Yay for YA” online presentation through Facebook page Local History reader’s advisory idea for Family History Month

Bayside

Promotion of eResources during lockdown Indyreads cross promotion with online author talk Kyle Perry promoting his book The Deep

Canterbury-Bankstown

Professional development, online Reader’s Advisory training program for staff

Ryde

Book match online service in connection with home delivery service as they have a 5 books minimum delivery. Affected by covid restrictions.

Kiama

New website has a Shelf Help form based reader’s advisory page: https://library.kiama.nsw.gov.au/Services/Shelf-help

Call For New Steering Committee Members

If anyone would like to be part of the Reader’s Advisory steering committee we are looking for new members. If you are interested you may contact one of the current steering committee members to ask any questions or to volunteer your time.

Members include: Natalie Funston (Bayside) - natalie.funston@bayside.nsw.gov.au
Amy Heap (Riverina) - amy.heap@rrl.nsw.gov.au
Eric Dodson (Lane Cove) – edodson@lanecove.nsw.gov.au

Next Meeting: TBA