NSW public library wiki

1. Present
2. Apologies
3. What have you been reading? (Standing Item)
4. How are people using RA generally, at their library? (Standing Item)
5. Genres
6. Reports on Training (5 mins/ presentation)
7. Share your RA programs, services, events and material
8. Planning for 2019
9. Points for communication (what summary of the meeting goes out with the minutes)
10. Meetings
11. Points for Communication

NSW Readers' Advisory Working Group meeting minutes

23 November 2018, Picton Library

Chair

Ellen Forsyth

Minutes

Natalie Funston

Acknowledgement of Country

1. Present

Monique Akauola (Sutherland)
Amy Salmond (Wingecarribee)
Helen Cowan (Wingecarribee)
Natalie Funston (Bayside)
Nicole Richardson (Blue Mountains)
Megan Blines (Blue Mountains)
Lee Burgoyne (Wollongong)
Annette Lindsay (Crookwell)
Lauren Watkins (Kiama)
Shazia Iftikhar (Canterbury Bankstown)
Jeannette Munro (Campbelltown)
Wayne Monkley (Campbelltown)
Gail Dunn (Wollondilly)
Ellen Forsyth (State Library of NSW)

2. Apologies

Christiane Birkett (Gunnedah)
Robyn Menzies
Liz Astley (Wollongong)
Vanessa Henderson (Ryde)
Eric Dodson (Lane Cove)
Christine Howard (Randwick)
Vincenza Cigolini (Castle Hill)

3. What have you been reading? (Standing Item)

Say three points about how you can use the book you are reading in readers advisory conversations. Look at readers advisory elements eg Doorways rather than plot How did this feel? It was hard to not mention the plot if you aren't familiar with the customer. Practice on other staff.

4. How are people using RA generally, at their library? (Standing Item)

Wollondilly

Use of an other wise blank wall with shelves for favourite books of borrowers. If someone borrows a book from the display they are encouraged to replace it with another.
Mental Health Week - A Library customer ran a workshop on the library resources she used to help her out of her depression.

Canterbury/Bankstown

7 days challenge from Facebook, adapted as a staff challenge called 5 Days Challenge

Staff printed the cover of a book they liked. Each staff member nominates another staff member to choose a book. The book covers are displayed.

For The Reading Hour - there was a staff challenge to take photos of reading and how they promote reading.

Sutherland

Vote For Your Favourite Book for the 2nd year. They used Survey Monkey to get people to vote of their favourite book for 2018.

Collected staff reviews by undertaking June 30 books in 30 days challenge as a 30 book reviews in 30 days. To help customers with voting, the top 20 most borrowed books from each category were displayed. There was also the "Other" option available, if the customers favourite book was not listed. The 5 most voted for books in each category were shared on the Library news on the Library website.

Bayside

Book reviews on the blog

Wollongong

Book Review videos
Celebration of JK Rowling's birthday.
Fast Backs - new release items

Kiama

Rotate collections between branches
Readers' Advisory pamphlet for different genres

5. Genres

*Short talks about many different genres addressing key works, a classic and a new work, plus the appeal of the genre/subgenre, diverse writers.

6. Reports on Training (5 mins/ presentation)

* Monique Akauola - Genre bootcamp training at Sutherland Library

Genre Bootcamp training

Three hour training (with 15min tea break).

One hour 45 mins presentation and activities/ videos pertaining to different genres.

One hour upstairs in TAC exploring various online resources. These will be available on Library intranet.

Each genre being explored is presented in the power point using an image sourced from free images available online and using a different colour and font.

Before the training, staff are being asked to look at selected genre categories within the Stock Quality Health Check.

This document is being used to determine areas of strength and areas where individual staff may like to read/ learn more about different genres. From this, we can identify staff who are knowledgeable in particular genres and who can assist with book suggestions within that genre.

Genres covered:

Sci Fi
Fantasy
Romance
Women’s Fiction
Horror
Suspense and Thrillers
Mystery
Historical
Adventure
Literary- Not a genre, but popular at our library.
Autobiographies/ Biographies/ Memoirs- to understand the difference between these as they are very popular at our library service and are shelved in their own section.

An overview of each genre:

Definition
Characteristics
Appeal factors
Helping readers
Examples of popular titles showing book covers.

The difference between similar genres:

Sci-fi/ Fantasy
Romance/ Women’s Fiction
Horror / Thrillers
Thrillers/ Mystery

We have also created lists of popular titles within each genre, linked back to the Library catalogue, to assist staff with Readers' Advisory.

To complement this, I am also creating self-managed, online, mini genre studies with links to articles, information with questions/activities. These are designed to be completed in 30 minute increments over 10 weeks. Staff can choose which genres they would like to learn more about. There will be a meeting at the end of each study to discuss the training/ genre as a group.

7. Share your RA programs, services, events and material

8. Planning for 2019

3 Meetings

Full Day Meeting

Readers Advisors Interview & Tools including training and staff, form based RA, a series discussion and Doorways with Joyce Sarricks. Also Goodreads research with Beth Driscoll.

Full Day Meeting - What Not To Do & Displays - including:

Social Media
5 minute talks?
Podcasts

Half Day Meeting -

Young Adult RA in conjunction with the Young People Working Group - including how to engage youth.

9. Points for communication (what summary of the meeting goes out with the minutes)

Planning for 2019 - two full day meetings and a half day meeting
Interesting Genre talk - Sutherlands Genre Bootcamp
New Enquiry Completion Rate forms and definitions

The links to join the meeting via Bluejeans are:

Joining a meeting from your PC:

Please check your connections to participate in the meeting via videoconference before the meeting - use this link to test:

https://bluejeans.com/111and talk to the parrot.

You really need to talk to the parrot to check your microphone and speaker settings are working. Technical support will not be available during the meeting. The link to join the Picton meeting is: