• Martin Mantle (Armidale)
• Kirsten Bell (Armidale)
• Cathy Johnston (CRL - HQ)
• Sue Hughes (CRL – Nambucca Heads Branch)
• Leonie O’Shea (CRL – HQ)
• Kay Farrell (CRL – HQ)
• Katrina Shillam (CRL – Grafton Branch)
• Robyn Van Zanten (CRL – Urunga Branch)
• Maria Mutimer (Inverell)
• Robin Taylor (Gunnedah)
• Robyn Draper (Gunnedah)
• Sharon Tollard (Gunnedah)
• Megan Pitt (CNRL – Tamworth)
• Judy Atkinson (Coffs Harbour)
• Jessie Kane (Coffs Harbour)
• Therese Scott (Ashfield)
• Ellen Forsyth (NSL)

• Jenn Martin (Auburn)
• Helen Cowan (Bowral)
• Vassiliki Veros-Elliott (City of Sydney)

http://readersadvisory.wikifoundry.com/page/2010+Librarian%27s+Reading+Challenge

• Quite a few participants in this reading challenge now.
• There are other options also listed - http://readersadvisory.wikifoundry.com/page/2010+Reading+Challenges+for+all+Readers
• Good to see staff challenging themselves to read outside their comfort zone – or outside their usual reading tastes – eg, WillC58 is planning to ‘read’ the Klu Klux Klan website
• Have a look at what others are reading and add yourself to the list – lots of fun
• Some staff are challenging other staff to read an item – staff are choosing the item for them; positive feedback from some managers and library staff.

We’re always asked – recognising it happens, how do we make it strategic?

Coffs Harbour

• Rewarding reading training – bring it back and on-train – an important role for everyone to play.
• Training – valued as an integral part of library service.
• Wiki awareness sessions – especially with casual staff.
• White board in staff room – “what I’m reading now”
• People/other library staff don’t necessarily regard RA as a ‘skill’.

Armidale

• Home run – helps with selection and advice.

* Advising about reading preferences is not necessarily a core part of library service (opinions of other library staff) – library cultures across the board are not equal

• Different customer service principles in ea. Library service – rigid: check-in / check-out; small; personalities; noticing trends; sometimes its okay to comment, other times not; recommendations – opening up areas of interest; “who else writes like”, etc

Gunnedah

• Book marks
• New stock
• client promotion-giving it away.
• Large print – targeting handouts to suit clients.
• Facing books out – new stands.
• Personal help – magazines – don’t push on staff though.
• staff - never a fiction reader, always read NF; by doing RA discovered some good fiction choices which suit (eg, Bryce Courtenay)
• If RA is core work then statistics will support that: numbers through door, loans, etc; promotion – eg, library lovers week.

Inverell

• Once a month informal book club; social morning chat to discuss books; building a relationship and a routine; advising; using/showing NoveList;

Coffs Harbour

• Staff book chat.
• Strategic RA through displays, competitions, developing staff comfort with providing RA; embedding RA into every thing else the library does.

Inverell

• Every staff meeting.

Armidale

• Need standard agenda items.

CNRL

• Training (including RA) incorporated into staff meetings.
• Recommended reads stand/display

-book group members. -local pollies. -sports people.

How do you make RA work in offices where there is resistance from other staff?

Coffs Harbour

• Statistics
• Funding
• Slips for patrons to fill in (did you borrow more as result of a chat?).
• Surveys.
• Staff reviews on catalogue.
• Add to PD: gives staff something to strive for as a result of it being in the PD.
• Tracking positive verbal feedback – anecdotal record, email to staff – engagement

Gunnedah

• Reporting on successful programs (eg, membership drives show increased membership as a result).

Armidale

• Inviting staff to be involved – getting staff to recommend 2 new books and put on a stand.
• Lucky dip; mystery reads; creates staff anxiety but can positive feedback – though is more ad-hoc than strategic.
• Need to think strategic rather than ad-hoc.
• Sense that some staff think that RA staff are pandering to the clients and that the clients should help themselves without asking for help.

Example: 60 yr anniversary of Armidale library tied in with 70th anniversary of Patrick White’s first novel – birthday party + discovery – initiated by Martin rather than implemented strategically.

• Staff driven vs externally driven (eg, Oprah’s Book Club).
• Knowing strengths & weaknesses in staff reading.

Grafton

* Particular staff keeps telling people what they ‘should’ be reading / educating staff to recommend rather than advise. * Put RA into position description; thinks it important.

CRL

* Linking to competencies

• attending RA seminar
• on-training of supervising staff
• On-training in branches

* final outcome of increased loans and increased membership.

CNRL

• express loans (7days) non-reservable, non-renewable;
• heavily reserved items with extra copies;

So far all tickets have been taken and a waiting list is in operation. Good to see such a quick take-up

(This event is free for New South Wales public library staff.)

9.00 tea/coffee

9.30 Welcome from Executive at the State Library of NSW.

9.45 – 10.05 Diana Tixier Herald – senior editor of the Genreflecting Advisory series will talk on the genre-blend of crime and paranormal fiction.

10.15 – 11.00 Peter Milne – crime fiction buyer from Abbeys Bookshop.

11.10 – 11.55 Matthew Reilly – International bestselling action/thriller author.

12.05 – 12.50 Lunch time.

12:50 – 1.25 TBC.

1.30 – 1.50 Sherrey Quinn – Resources for Crime readers advisory work, online and in print.

1.55 – 2.15 Rachel Franks – Genres of Crime.

2.20 – 2.45 Murder in the Metcalfe (based on murder in the library).

2.45 – 3.10 Afternoon tea.

3.10 – 3.55 Crime/Mystery crossovers Panel – Discussion and reading suggestions on Children’s Crime fiction, Crime in Literary fiction and Romantic Suspense. Cathy Johnston (Clarence Regional), Therese Scott (Ashfield) and Vassiliki Veros Elliot (City of Sydney).

Make sure you have read a crime or mystery before coming along. It can be fiction, non-fiction, audio - just try out this genre.

(Ellen & Therese finally arrived after their flight was diverted to Tamworth and they then had to be bussed up to Armidale - Yay!)

– a collaboration

Aim: - to establish an RA doorways-based checklist for HLS for selection, etc.- to help people help their clients

22/2/2010 – group getting together to workshop ideas (Ellen, Vassiliki, Therese, 3 HLS people from other libraries, including Auburn & Burwood).

Developed list, etc, will go on wiki.

Came about as a result of conference in 2009 where Ellen spoke about RA and Older People and the limited availability of LP items (eek!), idea was based on taking Nancy Pearl’s doorways to develop a HLS checklist – why you (a HLS patron) read a particular genre, etc. Eg, character-focused reader of crime may not want a story-focused crime item; possible potential though for expanding reading tastes – eg, providing items in other genres which are character based; expands customer service.

Q. when I’m talking to a new client, how do I find the info I need to better select for them?

Reading preferences = reading lists (reflective of genres) = better stuff for HLS = enhanced reader experiences Wiki – editable by everyone.Helps with all 3rd person RA.

-Ellen

• Games as elements of RA work; people who play games cover the whole spectrum of readers and non-readers.
• Using games/gaming as an approach for RA; border element; paper for conference exploring reading & games; same appeal characteristics apply to both reading and gaming.
• Most responded to a series of emails asking Library staff about their gaming and reading tastes came from Australia, NZ, and Fiction_L.
• Not changing what RA is, but providing a different perspective;
• Different ways of asking similar questions, eg. Scrabble – for one person is played not as a language game but as a character game because of who they play scrabble with; for others it is about the language; assumptions are being turned on their heads.

Coffs Harbour –

* Local celebrities tell lib what they’re reading and come in with their favourite books – media opportunity

• Coffs – Rabbitohs – creating handouts – cover for PL News??
• Can depend on what it is you’re trying to “sell” at the library.
• Rated reviews – top gear wall / “cool wall” like Top Gear / voted by staff
• 100 reviews added to catalogue during the month it ran / best review won.

Further means to extend this promotion:

• This could then promote back to public accordingly – “super cool” books as reviewed by you and voted by staff.
• 3 months – add a review = draw for book voucher – gives staff something to discuss
• Staff listing what they’re reading.
• Newsletter – what staff are reading at the moment – “do you really want to know what we’re reading?” – no staff names just a list of books
• Verbal feedback from recommendations
• Generate a following of suggestions

Gunnedah –

• Dressing up and walking down the street – oompaloompahs, knights; shock value

Singleton library

• Newcastle Knights footballers

RA Workshop – afternoon session

RA wiki

http://readersadvisory.wikifoundry.com/

• Does anyone need to be updated to writer status?
• If you edit page - even very minor – you can add that page to your watch list so you receive an update/email when someone else edits - kind of works like rss
• Watch lists on threads and pages
• Droplets for keeping up to date
• Update your profile now!!
• Want to be a writer? Ask now – not onerous – updating / editing / tagging
• Posting new material
• Weekly digests by email – can generate additional material
• Reading Challenge
• Reading lists
• Book groups – came from an initial repetitive question at RA groups
• Non fiction RA
• Navigation – pages can move
• Moderators – management structure set up by wetpaint; enable RA steering c’tee to have final say on writers, etc
• RA work
• Authors in other languages
• What info actually adds value; more description the better; though ok to start with broad outline
• Droplets – links to iGoogle ; a way of organising all the Google things together – wiretaps section – feed from ra wiki – threads that are being discussed – get this droplet
• Updates – what’s been happening on the wiki lately
• Email alerts when someone else edits a page that you’ve put up.

Everyone has different skills. If used properly can save you time at work – not recreating the wheel.

Setting up Google alerts

http://www.google.com/alerts

For Example: local writers, high demand writers or anything - and never have to search on that subject again. think of areas of interest that you want to be kept informed about - you can always delete them or change the frequency of them if you feel swamped.

RSS

• Google alerts look for subjects - use RSS if there are particular blogs you want to follow, plus for tracking changes to a website.
• Search for authors, publishers, genres (there are lots in genres) - good way of scanning areas you are unfamiliar with. Try a few different rss feeds and when you find ones you really like you may want to delete the others - and organise into folders - so it is easy to delete the ones of marginal interest and retain the high demand ones.
• Explore options like http://www.loveromancepassion.com/top-50-romance-novel-blogs-to-watch-in-2009/

http://www.readersread.com/mystery/

• Folders – broad subject headings; look at and delete; some info is transient but good; can be weird but full of good ideas; scanning;
• Until recently this was all about blogs; just added ability to scan websites; good for ‘known items’ – sites/blogs you know you want to check / keep tabs on – David Lee King, Michael Stephens, etc, Massively (massively online multiple games),
• Info where you don’t know where the source comes from – terms you want to track (eg, SLNSW, slam the boards) – Google Alerts - trolls for you; eg, particular element of ra services, writers, etc.
• Tags – eg, companies setting up Google alerts to track comments about your company – immediate response
• Daily / weekly alerts – can feed alerts into Google Reader to avoid direct email
• Confirmation email- eg. serious games. Can stop at any time, obvious and not so obvious places; painless; broad spectrum of hits.Good option when clients are interested in a particular author they can set up an alert for that author. Another way for getting information

Twitter

#reading

• following authors
• library tweets about new titles etc (show twitter library list for examples)
• twitter search
• google search for authors

What is the value of Twitter?

Example: Ellen- QPLA conference – did not go – used #search (tag search) – Paul Hagon tweeted – followed what he said and got an idea of what was going on. Need to put the twitter # out again #crimera – # = searchable term (#crimera = Crime RA seminar) Depends on who/what you follow – eg, professional designing a game for reference instruction.

How to follow on twitter

Lists vs following

Following – is not not sorted.

Lists – new – discretely organised – eg, news, government, authors I like (eg, Ian Rankin is ‘breathe high), genres (eg, sci-fi) – subject clusters. (Can be useless).

• Tweeter choice whether to provide personal tweets or professional tweets
• Tweet-ups through tags – by both using the same tag
• Twitter search – searches tags – eg, #vala2010;
• To tweet about something and connect to it you comment with the hashtag in the tweet – eg, “I am almost ready for #vala2010”
• Good for following conferences – and for specific people you’re interested in.
• Can delete a tweet if you like – eg, typo, incorrect, etc.

Time spent tweeting per day??

• Different for different people and work situations
• Ellen – 10 minutes / day unless there’s a conference on that is being followed and then it simply stays up and regularly flick across to every now and then – eg, ALA Midwinter – 15 mins per day ; Google Alerts – depends on interest level; Google Reader – 15 mins;
• CRL - depends on work related issues at any given time; Google Reader (maybe monthly); Yahoo (daily); Twitter (daily/ every other day); wikis (every other day);
• Requires balance and non-misuse vs work that needs to get done.

Audioread tweets? (none found) – perhaps better as a Google Alert

Value of re-tweeting?

Ellen – bought a new game as a result of a re-tweet - Tulip mania 1637 – board game – Tulip stock exchange – follow as a result of a re-tweet from Michael Stephens who Ellen is following.

Blocked tweets??

Can be completely private but may not be the best thing – though can have private tweets between 2 people (must have follow connection though). Some is frivolous.

How do you find out about someone who you might want to follow?

-Eg, Ian Rankin – twitter search - “twitter ian rankin” = ‘breathe easy’.

Can someone assume someone else’s identity to create a twitter account?

• Some people are pretending to be dead people (eg, JFK = jfk_1960; JFK_1960 – 3 times the followers as the other, official tweeter);
• Ashton kutcher – “aplusk” – verified account – ie, this really is Ashton Kutcher, 40K(!?) followers
• Lunar moon landing – control / module – conversations between the two.
• Mars Rover.
• twitter Peter Gabriel?
• Ellen is following a whale – it’s scientifically accurately but is fun
• Wilw – will wheaton
• Unordered List ItemCan tweet from within Delicious –

Delicious

What is it?

• A personal bookmarking site to take your book marks with you – new: different way of looking at your bookmarks – snap shots
• Calgary library superstore ads – “everything you’re into”
• Digital Queensland –
• National library NZ – fun tweets from pictures –
• Can copy, save new bookmark, paste, title, citation, tag, save, tweet? (if wanted) – add message – can then re-tweet.
• Ellen – usually take an RSS feed – put into delicious – copy across to twitter
• Searchable by tags (Ancient Greek heroes’ personality quiz)
• Tag – “#flickrcommons” – images from institutions.
• Numbers down side indicate how many other people also have that bookmark saved – global
• Collecting tool
• Ellen - Tag “#toread” – deletes what sits there more than 12 mths
• Professional use of information

With any of these tools it’s working out the patterns of what works out best for you Picking what tool works best for your community. Try it and see if it’s for you / your community. Anyone can set up a hashtag – lots of creative options are out there. Social network tools are about options.

Youtube - book talks

Look for – author talks – book talks – play with authors names depending on what you’re looking for Libraries doing good ra stuff – on YouTube.

Creative commons:

• http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4465322C263CD0DC
• Topeka Library http://www.youtube.com/user/TopekaLibrary
• Google author talks http://www.youtube.com/user/AtGoogleTalks

Interviews with authors:

• Stephanie Meyer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SQ9bJIhcJ0

Publisher channels:

• Little Brown http://www.youtube.com/user/LittleBrownBooks
• Penguin Digital http://www.youtube.com/user/PenguinDigital

Web 2.0

Coffs

coffscitizen – how community can do some of the web 2.0 things. Asked to send to reference list. How to add a review, coffsmanblog. How to update your profile – instructions – remotely accessible instructions.

Feel free to email Ellen at eforsyth@sl.nsw.gov.au.

23rd June – games & public libraries seminar 24th June – morning gaming session ($20 ea) to explore ra ideas in an online environment – software implications (may not work in all work environments) – remote access – fully online – more info soon!

If already an RA wiki member and want to change to writer status we can do it now; if urgent when back at work, contact Ellen, Cathy, Therese directly; otherwise apply and wait a day or two.

Books to read whilst drinking whisky.

• 28 May Bowral Library
• 9 September Auburn Library
• November Ashfield Library