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NSW Readers' Advisory Working Group meeting minutes 11 May 2018, Stanton Library

Chair: Helen Cowen

Minutes: Monique Akauola Acknowledgement of Country

1. Introductions

Natalie Funston (Bayside), Jess O’Reilly (Stanton), Monique Akauola (Sutherland ), Amy Heap (Riverina Regional), Helen Cowen (Wingecarribee), Taryn Khamlu (Hornsby), Cheryl Woodward (Willoughby), Ruth Slade (Central Coast), Eric Dodson (Lane Cove), Kate Stewart (Stanton), Robyn Menzies(Hawkesbury), Kerry –Anne Prideaux (Burwood), Ellen Forsyth ((State Library NSW), Leanne Walker (Penrith), Shazia Iftikhar (Canterbury Bankstown), Suzanne Micallef (Parramatta), Marguerite Rona (Ryde), Liz Agrew (Ryde). 2. Apologies

3. What have you been reading?

The Trauma Cleaner/ Sarah Krasnostein
Let go my hand / Edward Docx
The life to Come / Michelle de Krester
Out of the Silent Planet/ C.S Lewis
Grass for his pillow/ Lian Hearn
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings/ Mayu Angelou
The Tattooist of Auschwitz/ Heather Morris
Harley Loco: A memoir of hard living, hair and post punk from the Middle –East and lower eastside/Raya Elias
Force of Nature/ Jane Harper
The Hall of Mirrors/ Christopher Fowler
Scourged / Kevin Hearne
Lost for Words/ Stephanie Butland
Michael Robotham books
Sign/ Colin Dray
Manto Nama/ Saadat Hasan Manto
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star/ Paul Theroux
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe/ Lauren James
Metal to Win/ Kristin Simmons
Real Frank Zappa/ Frank Zappa
I'll give you the sun/ Jandy Nelson

4. Reports on Training

Duncan Smith

Duncan Smith visited regional locations including Wagga Wagga:

Take aways:

Get customers involved in the process of Novelist searching.
If you can’t give customers a specific book, look for similar books on Novelist or use appeal terms.
Discover how to use Lexiles.
I’m in the mood for books that are… Learn to use the appeal mixer!
Novelist Select- an add on integration that is used with Library catalogue.

Duncan Smith's 90 minute Novelist training from Readers Advisory Seminar 2018

Suggestion: Why not schedule a 90 minute training session with a group of interested staff together and hold this as a professional development event. This way, you are more likely to commit to the time and undertake the training, rather than putting the training to one side as other work commitments take priority…

Newsletters

Book Squad Good for displays around posters-passive readers advisory.

Library Aware Looking to do a newsletter? Try Library Aware: Lots of templates and large database of images. It’s on sale until July 2018 at US$4000/ year.

5. Goodreads as a resource

Should there be a NSW Public Library Group in Goodreads? Would this be useful? Who would look after this? Does anyone have the capacity?

RA perspective:

Keep track of our reading
Tell customers about it
This compliments Novelist- as it has Australian content.
Could create a Library account, creating shelves under different genres.
Opportunity to share reviews written on Social Media.
Create a colleagues list- collating the particular preferred genres read by various librarians.

Goodreads as a professional development tool

Find some readers/ writers you admire/ like on Good reads. If you like what they read, check out the books they rate 4-5 stars as you may find some interesting books to add to your TBR pile.
Follow each other- see what other librarians are reading
Comment on reviews (be nice).
Compare shelves
Get new reading ideas

Goodreads for film: Letterboxd

Easy to use
Easy to log films
Offers another way to combine RA
Create lists of films, such as world films by country of origin.

It was determined that Goodreads are used personally, possibly not relevant to make a State wide group. Other people’s responses would be appreciated and we can review this at the end of the year. Let us know by emailing any of the Readers advisory Working group. 6.Professional Reading

Experiment with subscribing to some lists. Follow publishers, and authors, go to writers festivals, subscribe to Australian Publishers.

Suggestions

British Bookseller (old issues)
Better Reading(Australian Site with book lists, reviews and much more)
Independent booksellers:Brings to your attention books being marketed, some that may be under the radar.

Subscribe to:

* Book Riot Email list to subscribe to, you can select lists including: -Book Club -Read harder challenge -Crime -Library

BookBub: Various genres you may not normally discover
Australian Bookseller newsletter
RA for All: Subscribe to Becky Spratford's blog. Becky presents a wider viewpoint and suggested under represented authors along with great RA tips. You can follow her on Twitter, RSS feed, or via Goodreads (you will get a lot of emails).
Discover some book related closed Facebook groups.
Goodreads: Variety of books at different brow levels.

Listen to:

Podcasts:

*Hub on Books (past programs)

Radio:

Hub on books
Books and arts

Read:

Australian Book Review
Readings magazine
BBC History magazine (has accompanying podcast)

7. Resources for Staff

Good Reading online subscription
Start hosting Author talks:

-Pitch to Sydney Writers Festival (payment required for authors) -Stream author talks/ events -Get creative and host author events: example: Romance High Tea with panel of romance authors – part of the Love between the pages tour offered by publisher.

Suggestion Having trouble getting started with an author talk program? Persist in asking publishers for authors, it might take a little while, but keep trying.

Foreign Languages RA

Ellen is following up on this with Shauna and Oriana. This will hopefully be reported on at the first meeting next year.

8. Resources for Clients

Author talks
Book marks- readalikes- Parramatta.
All about books- Self-explanatory brochure created by Parramatta Library in print and e formats.
Booktopia
Librarians Choice website/ Facebook
Librarians Choice Gold stickers on books
Library Staff picks in print/ online/ social media. (Books need to be in library collection).
Fast back collections (shorter loan period on new in demand popular books).
Staff book reviews
Pop up libraries to showcase e-resources
Librarian Confessions- Instagram - Sutherland
30 book reviews in 30 days on Facebook- Sutherland
Book Bingo: variety of ways to undertake this. Can be ongoing or for a finite time period- such as a summer reading challenge or an annual event. Create categories to be crossed off. May include different genres, banned books, different formats.

Can offer prizes or simply the pleasure of reading books to customers. Create book lists of suggestions relating to each category included. 9. Resources for Book clubs

Book lists- online
Book Kits
Put out a list to advertise vacancies.
Charge book clubs to use book kits- use funds to purchase more books (kits include a DVD if the book has been made into a movie) - Riverina Regional
Yearly event- strays and waifs- invite book group leaders with vacancies to come along to find new members. People come along to also create new book groups. (North Sydney)

10. Displays

Ideas: