Table of Contents

NSW Readers' Advisory Working Group meeting minutes

27 May 2015, Concord Library

1. Present

2. #rwpchat themes for 2016

Ellen put all the suggested themes up on the wall and everyone was allowed to cast 10 votes. The themes are as follows:

The themes were expanded and the descriptions can be found on the shared Google doc. If anyone is keen to write or co-write a blog post for any particular month, please email someone on the steering committee. The posts will go live in August so that libraries can plan ahead – you can get all of your hootsuiting done in half an hour.

3. What everyone has been reading

4. How are people using Read Watch Play at their Library?

5. Whole Readers Advisory

Ellen mentioned a great example of Storify as a Readers Advisory tool. Catherine Fletcher (@Cath-Fletcher), a historical advisor on the Wolf Hall TV series live tweeted during the show, to give people background into the research that was done. It is available here There was discussion around the room of the value of shelving different formats together, eg of interfiling Non Fiction DVDs with the Non Fiction book collection. Some libraries have tried this with mixed success, but shelving the music DVDs with the CD collection appears to be very successful.

6. Roving readers Advisory

7. Readers Advisory Training

A reminder that there are links to free Readers Advisory training on the RA wiki. Some of the tools include webinars and YouTube videos, and could be used as training in the library, or at home. Please take some time to have a look at it, and if you are aware of other tools and resources that are useful, please add them, or let us know.

8. Public Libraries in NSW Facebook page

Everyone in encouraged to visit the new Public Libraries in NSW Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/PublicLibrariesNSW.

If you haven’t been signed up to our DropBox where we collect your images and posts, please email me Barbara.todes@randwick.nsw.gov.au and I will send you an invitation. You don’t need to download DropBox onto your computer, you can use the online version.

9. Readers Advisory Survey follow up

We will be working through the points raised from the Readers Advisory Survey. A summary of the discussion is available in the attachments below.

There is a great Ebsco webinar called Meeting Your Community's Demand for Books that discusses strategies to help the community find the 'right' book.

10. Other Ideas

Waga City Library had great success when they arranged their picture books into subject areas like transport, animals, favourites etc. This idea was inspired by Darien Library, a service in the USA.