Rebeccah Vick (Pittwater), David Hay (Waverley), Eliza Luciano (Stanton), Claire Oats (Campbelltown), Cathy Rutar (Blacktown), Peck Ling Than (Stanton), Beth Grace (Wollondilly), Stephanie Hodgson (Auburn), Helen Kassidis (Burwood), Kerry-Ann Prideaux (Burwood), Ellen Forsyth (SLNSW), Leonie Jordan (Auburn), Eileen Smith (Wollongong), Jenny Sherlock (Bankstown), Carole Read (Bankstown), Emma Buttigieg (Strathfield), Kathy Tritsaris (Strathfield), Eric Dodson (Lane Cove), Amy Heap (Riverina), Melanie Mutch (Hornsby), Michelle Cairns (Kur-ring-gai), Lim Goodarzi (Canada Bay), Monique Akauola (Sutherland), Murray McBryce (Kogorah), Vanessa Henderson (Ryde), Lorraine Thompson (Blue Mountains), Heidi Colquhoun (Blue Mountains), Debra Lisson (Kur-ing-gai), Carol (?) (City of Sydney)

Debra Lisson, Manager Kur-ring-gai Library talked about how Readers’ Advisory has been recognized as a core activity for Library staff at her library and has been integrated into the new performance management system as a performance measure.

• With RA in their objectives staff are expected to share knowledge with customers and colleagues on an ad hoc and planned basis, participate in programming and displays and support each other to achieve library and wider organizational goals.
• All staff can propose an event/activity. This results not only in better service to customers but gets staff working with others and leads to increased staff confidence in use of resources.
• Not just a tick list of activities - provides evidence of work done – staff demonstrate how they have contributed to activities, to improving processes, strategy and outcomes.
• Also behavioural aspects – increases taking responsibility for own learning, sharing of knowledge, collaboration, cooperation, mutual support and adherence to corporate values.

Draft document SELF DIRECTED READERS' ADVISORY

Examples of Self-Directed Readers’ Advisory

Displays

◾ Quick Choice Zones- new book stands, staff picks, recent returns.

◾ High turnover/ express collections.

◾ Browsing zone for recent returns.

Printed Resources

◾ Reading Lists.

◾ Genre Guides.

◾ Spine Labels.

◾ Arrange Collection by Genre.

◾ Shelf Talkers.

Objectives

◾ Help browsers identify titles in their preferred genre.

◾ Signage is used to facilitate access to readers’ advisory services.

◾ Promote read-a-likes for high demand items.

◾ Draw attention to particular areas of the collection.

◾ Promote RA programs and services.

Guidelines

Measures are in place to promote discoverability of leisure reading collections and services.

Suggested performance indicators

◾ resources are up-to-date.

◾ number of items added to/taken from display.

◾ circulation.

◾ percentage of total circulation of library materials from book displays.

◾ benchmark circulation against ‘standard’ library collection.

◾ number of items read in the library.

◾ observe customer interaction with displays.

◾ number of printed resources distributed.

◾ use a unique URL or QR code. Measure resulting website visits.

◾ benchmark circulation before and after promotion.

◾ use LMS to monitor items promoted on book lists.

◾ compare the turnover of various genres.

◾ customer satisfaction.

Examples of Reading Oriented Programs

◾ Reading Discussion Groups

◾ Facilitation or provision of materials to community book/reading discussion groups

◾ Author Events

◾ Reading-Oriented Programs and Events

◾ One Book, One Community Programs

◾ Summer/seasonal Reading programs

◾ Reading challenges

◾ Book talk sessions,

◾ Reviews on radio or in media

Objective

To provide the community with a range of activities related to library services and collections that enrich the lives of community members who choose to attend.

Guidelines

Reader education programs and activities in the library are appropriately advertised and promoted.

Suggested Performance Indicators

◾ number of participants/members

◾ retention of members

◾ number of events

◾ attendance numbers of library members and non-members

◾ satisfaction rate

◾ number of groups using book club materials

◾ circulation of book club materials

◾ cost per loan of book club materials

◾ book club price point

◾ resources are up-to-date

◾ customer satisfaction

◾ number of media mentions of program

Examples of Digitally Based Readers’ Advisory

◾ Dedicated Readers Advisory Resources page on website

◾ Book Suggestions via social media

◾ eNewsletters

◾ Reading suggestions in catalogue

◾ Library Blog

◾ Community book reviews

◾ Asynchronous (form based) readers’ advisory

◾ Online chat reading discussion

◾ Databases

Objectives

Library members see the website as a trusted source of reading suggestions and readers’ advice

Guidelines

Library communicates information about new items, services or programs to customers, using means such as email, RSS, website, mass media, social media.

Suggested performance indicators for digitally based Readers' Advisory

◾ Social Media likes/comments/reach

◾ Clicks on promoted links

◾ Impact on circulation

◾ Number of requests received

◾ Response turn-around time

◾ Customer satisfaction survey

◾ Number of visits to readers’ advisory pages on library website

◾ Time spent on readers’ advisory pages

◾ Visits to library catalogue via readers’ advisory pages

◾ use of NoveList & other RA databases

◾ Resources are up-to-date

◾ Customer satisfaction survey

Objectives

◾ Appropriately skilled and trained staff deal with information and readers’ advisory requests.

◾ Library staff are proactive in offering assistance and promoting services and resources to customers

Guidelines

◾ Appropriate training in information service, technology assistance and readers’ advisory work and procedures are provided to all staff.

◾ Staff have a responsibility to maintain their reference and readers’ advisory skills and knowledge to a professional standard by participating in training and self-development/education.

◾ Readers Advisory Competencies are used as part of performance review.

Suggested performance indicators

◾ number of library staff trained in Readers Advisory

◾ training is up to date

◾ staff satisfaction with training program

◾ implementation of suggested improvements

◾ staff are familiar with Readers Advisory trends and best practice:

Draft Document is available to view and comment on. This document provides information and recommendations on what and how Readers’ Advisory services can be evaluated and documented in your library. Melanie has compiled the document and outlined the main themes. Readers’ Advisory evaluation can be used to show management that Readers’ Advisory is important and valuable and to prove the need for expert staff. Please send any input/contributions to Melanie (MMutch@hornsby.nsw.gov.au) Melanie also requested we share examples of what RA you do in your library, eg. Hornsby has collected RA data separately in the recent ECR weekstatistics. [See Melanie’s presentation Readers’ Advisory Ideas from last year’s RA seminar]

Attendees are requested to address Appeal Characteristics during this item.

• Michelle Cairns (Kur-ring-gai) – Night Study / Maria V Snyder

– Fantasy, lose yourself in a different world.

• Carole Read (Bankstown) - The Europe Book: A Journey Through Every Country on the Continent by Laetitia Clapton – Non-fiction, lots of pictures.
• Rebeccah Vick (Pittwater) – A Woman’s Story | Annie Ernaux – memoir, year after mother dies, attempt to capture truth of mother, historical lens
• Unordered List ItemDavid Hay (Waverley) – Best Australian Comedy Writing | Luke Ryan (Ed.) – for lifting the mood, variety of writing styles
• Eliza Luciano (Stanton) – Fangirl | Rainbow Rowell – first love, angst
• Claire Oats (Campbelltown) – Save Our Sleep | Tizzie Hall – recommend for parents and Good Night, Good Night Construction Site | Sherri Duskey Rinker - for little boys winding down at bedtime
• Cathy Rutar (Blacktown) – The Lady of the Rivers | Philippa Gregory – historical fiction, 1400s, language of the court
• Peck Ling Than (Stanton) – Anna | Jostein Gaarder (?) and Pretty Baby | Mary Kubica – not-put-downable, twisted, readalike – Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn
• Beth Grace (Wollondilly) – The Grief of Others | Leah Hager Cohen – sad, begins with death of baby and how family deals with this, impact on others, readalike Big Little Lies | Liane Moriarty
• Stephanie Hodgson (Auburn) – The Liar | Nora Roberts – Romance fiction, chicklit
• Helen Kassidis (Burwood) – Phryne Fisher series | Kerry Greenwood, readalike Daisy Dalrymple series | Carola Dunn – sassy, feisty heroine, 1920s
• Kerry-Ann Prideaux (Burwood) – Girl in the Woods | Aspen Matis – Memoir following rape, hikes Pacific Coast Trail, Travel/Adventure, personal development and journey
• Ellen Forsyth (SLNSW) – New Scientist – short snappy articles
• Leonie Jordan (Auburn) – Illusions : the adventures of a reluctant messiah | Richard Bach – Spirituality/Self-help, ideas and philosophy driven, mellow, quiet humour, appeal to men
• Eileen Smith (Wollongong) – Great Expectations | Charles Dickens – twists and turns to plot, slow pace but page-turner, character driven, flawed characters, first person narrator
• Jenny Sherlock (Bankstown) – Fate and Furies | Lauren Groff – marriage from two points of view
• Debra Lisson (Kur-ing-gai) – Political Amnesia : how we forgot to govern, Quarterley Essay 60 | Laura Tingle – moving, infuriating essay on the current state of Austraiian government and changes since the 1940s and 50s
• Emma Buttigieg (Strathfield) – The Uncommon Reader | Alan Bennett – Humorous Fiction, short, fast paced
• Kathy Tritsaris (Strathfield) – I beat the Odds : from homelessness, to the Blind Side, and beyond | Michael Oher – Memoir, personal journey
• Eric Dodson (Lane Cove) – Matterhorn | Karl Marlantes – Vietnam War fiction, discusses race issues, socio-economic issues, aims of the commanding officers and how that impacts on guys on the ground, modern historical document, readalike The Yellow Birds | Kevin Powers
• Amy Heap (Riverina) – Hausfrau | Jill Alexander Essbaum – thought-provoking, internal journey, finding meaning – readalike The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
• Melanie Mutch (Hornsby) – Summer Skin | Kirsty Eager – discusses slut shaming, sexual politics, gender issues, contains frank descriptions of sex, explicit
• Lim Goodarzi (Canada Bay) – Headhunters | Jo Nesbo – Point of view of villain, noir
• Monique Akauola (Sutherland) – Around the World in 80 days | Jules Verne
• Murray McBryce (Kogorah), Fool’s Quest | Robin Hobb – Fantasy, world-building
• Vanessa Henderson (Ryde) – Night Circus | Erin Morgenstern – Victorian era magic, not quite Steampunk – readalike Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell | Susanna Clarke
• Lorraine Thompson (Blue Mountains) – Melted into Air | Sandi Toksvig – humorous one-liners with darker mystery at heart of the jokes, characters well-developed, set in Italy
• Heidi Colquhoun (Blue Mountains) – The Sisters Brothers | Patrick DeWitt – brutal quirky language, fast paced, set in Oregon and California in Gold Rush era, brothers, hired assassins, psychopathic
• Carol (City of Sydney) – The Road to Little Dribbling : adventures of an American in Britain | Bill Bryson – reflective, humorous, romp, accessible.

– Amy gave an outline of this free online self-paced learning course presented by the University of Warwick by FutureLearn. Topics covered will be Stress, Heartbreak, Bereavement, Trauma, Depression and Bipolar, Ageing and Dementia. Topics are presented in a mixture of videos, activities, reading. Participants interact via contributions to the Comments. Participants come from all over the world and from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. The thrust of the course is that literature has the power to make us feel less alone in times of distress and people can be connected with the right material to enhance well-being. Ellen noted that there is not much diversity in the literature examples used in the course – lots of dead white men and that we should ensure we offer diversity to cover a range of experiences.

– Ellen reported that the Refex self-paced online training tool on Reference skills is being edited/updated to include a Readers’ Advisory module as a supplement to the Rewarding Reading program. Ellen requested volunteers to work on this module. It is envisaged this would amount to about 2 days work via Google Docs/Google Hangout. Please contact Ellen with an expression of interest – ellen.forsyth@sl.nsw.gov.au

– Ellen asked attendees to share their most useful RA resources: · Who Else Writes Like? – print, British · Websites - Fantastic Fiction, Goodreads - Indie book lists, Inside a Dog – Inky Awards, LibraryThing · eResources – Novelist, Magpies, CBCA, Commonsense Media

– (with Library Lovers’ Day just passed, most of the examples were from that event). Please send pictures of examples to Melanie(MMutch@hornsby.nsw.gov.au)to enter on the Flickr page – do this for any activity anytime. · genre bookmarks · blind dates with books · brochures · Romance book club · book matchmaker session · Never Read Another Bad Book Again – an information session to promote Novelist · Valentine to the Library competition · Instagram challenge · Library Lovers Day chocolates · Writing competition – entrants given the first two sentences and asked to complete the story · Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year – paper cutting workshop · May Gibbs exhibition · Leave a love note · Let Cupid pick your book – arrows on shelves · Pop Up Library · Sketchflash – drawing class · Geeks to the Rescue – technology assistance · Movie passes draw – patrons wishing staff Happy Library Lovers Day got free draw for movie tickets · Library Lovers Day whiteboard – patrons encouraged to write name of book they fell in love with – photo taken daily then board wiped clean – people wrote positive things about the library also · Need to Read bookclub for 8-12 yr olds – using the RWP themes · Library Lovers Day fortune cookies · Read It or Watch It venn diagram

– New South Wales libraries and partners overseas. This month’s theme has been #speedread (unfortunately also the hashtag of a speedway circuit in the UK!). Posts from the RWP blog can be copied and shared on your own social media saving a lot of work.

Social media links

• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Readwatchplay
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/readwatchplay/
• Tumblr http://read-watch-play.tumblr.com/ See how you can contribute on the wiki http://readersadvisory.wikifoundry.com/page/RWP+Tumblr
• Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/nsw_risg/

– themes for next year will be discussed and chosen at the next RA meeting in Newcastle. Suggestions for themes can be posted on the 2017 RWP Planning page of the RA wiki prior to the next meeting in Newcastle.

Next Meeting The Lovett Gallery at Newcastle Library, 10 May 2016 9:30 for a 10am start until approximately 3pm. More details to follow.