Readers Advisory Services meeting minutes
11 October, 2012, Penrith Library
For the last two years themed reading discussions have been held online through Twitter. The themes for 2013 were selected at the Readers Advisory regional meeting, held at Wagga Wagga library in June, and monthly themes with descriptions, can be found at readwatchplay. These themes are open to interpretation, and libraries are welcome to use these for blogs, displays, book group themes etc. The twitter reading group has gone international , with partners in Denmark, Jan Holmquist joins us for each month’s twitterchat, getting up at unearthly hours to join in, that’s devotion!! Singapore: Public Library of Singapore.
Every year, the adaptation of themes gets wider and wider. Its not just books, it’s also phones, Television, Internet and computer games, being used to engage people.
A demonstration of Twitter was shown. Everyone is invited to join in the twitter reading group chat. You can become a follower, like Anita Heiss, and find out new ideas for reading. This can act as a reminder that the chat is on, the last Tuesday of each month, from 8pm AEST. You can also keep in touch with what’s happening, find book suggestions to read and when the next twitter discussion is on via the readwatchplayblog. You can link your library to the readwatchplay twitter, allowing your readers to find some great reads, and maybe join in the twitter chat themselves.
If you miss the discussion, or would like to review it, you can find a transcript in readwatchplay storify. There is also a Twitterchat wrap up, summarising the books, games, websites etc mentioned in the discussion posted on the blog each month. For 2012 this can be found at love2read2012 and from next year onwards, readwatchplay.
You can join in the discussion on 30 October on the last Tuesday of this month from 8pm. The theme is“explore”. Stay connected to the discussion by using the hashtags #explore, #nyr12. The November theme for the twitter discussion is Mo reads- This theme is used every November, with different male librarians writing blog posts featuring famous moustached, or even clean shaven authors. The 2012 theme is “Mo and son”.
Readwatchplay has pinterest! As you may know, pinterest is tagging things, such as images and quotes, pulling them together in one place. It is organising information from all over the web and placing in together in one place for easy viewing.
The readwatchplay pinterest has a board for each month/theme of the year, along with a readwatchplayboard. It provides ideas of books you may like to read relating to each month’s themes, including non-fiction. Anyone who wants to pin to this will be able to do this. The images selected and posted on pinterest follow back to the source, linking back to the website where they were found, providing providence. If pinning book covers, providing a link back to Trove, would show which Australian Libraries hold these books in their collections.
How can you use these themes in your library?
Hear what Blue Mountains library have been doing and be inspired.
Heidi Colquhoun discussed the Readers in the mist blog. “Its not rocket science” Heidi assures us, “Its shameless plagarism” of readit2011, love2read2012 etc. Some content has been copied, other material for the blog has been written by Heidi, and all book titles are linked back to the Library catalogue. The blog has been personalised to suit the blue Mountain customers. Where possible, Heidi tries to educate readers about the Library, examples include: offering suggestions available from the Library, as well as Dewey number locations for non fiction subjects, explaining what steampunk is, or entering “science fiction” as a keyword in the catalogue to discover new reads. I In November, 2011, feeling particularly creative, Heidi created a slideshow of moustached authorsto celebrate Moreads!
There are four regular blog posts posted on Monday of each week to ensure content is continuously updated.
On the staff blog, “What our library staff are reading; uncovered” is posted each month. You can do this too…Readwatchplay has been started, and you can schedule the blog posts describing the book themes at the beginning of each month. Schedule the twitter reading group reminders, the last Tuesday of the month. You need 3-4 staff whom are willing to post regularly to provide variety and different ideas and viewpoints.
Please note, although the site gets plenty of hits they do not often get comments from the readers. But there’s more! The Blue Mountains have added “Listeners in the mist’, a pod-bean where the local studies Librarian hosts interviews with people, including staff, on the monthly themes. The winner of the month book review competition, book industry people such as authors, book shop owners, etc. They are asked questions adapted from “ten terrifying questions”.
Bookcases in the mist- you tube videos, andfilmed events.
Facebook: a recent addition to the social media repertoire, there are 3 senior staff who have permission to post. At this stage, there is mainly copy and pasting of blog links.
Twitter: This is set up, but more training and experimentation is required. More staff expertise and interest will keep the communication varied and interesting for the reader.
All this can be replicated.
To get more activity on the blog try:
An example of this being well done is NPR podcasts.
To use the themes:
Examples of using the themes:
- Jenn
They finish the chat with What’s making me happy? Similar to the Readers Advisory wrap up, What are you reading?. They also have twitter, facebook and a blog that you can follow them on.
-presented by Vassiliki Veros
In 2011 EBSCOhost databases partnered with Goodreads. There is a button located at the bottom right hand corner of Novelist, which allows you to link with the reviews. Novelist does tend to have an American bias, rather than containing Australian titles.
Using Goodreads as a library service
- Vassiliki
Language groups
“It all sounds Greek to me”
Like all good reads groups, events, photos, discussions and book lists can be added. This can be in any language, not just English. It is an opportunity for like minded readers from different groups and cultures to connect and share their reading, information about events and news online.
Positives:
Negatives:
No names of readers for this meeting, just books, due to the outstanding number of attendees.