Table of Contents
NSW Readers' Advisory Working Group meeting minutes
Tuesday 25 August 2015, Grafton Library
1. Welcome to Country and welcome to Grafton – Kathryn Breward
2. Apologies
3. Present
- Helen Sjosted, Casino;
- Catherine Johnston, Coffs Harbour;
- Jacqui Hinshaw, Iluka branch CRL;
- Belinda Skelton, Maclean branch CRL;
- Jolana Voeks CRL; Sue Pace, Marrickville;
- Monique Buchbach, Grace Ramsay, Kahlua;
- Danielle Gates, Katrina Shillam, and Kathryn Breward CRL;
- Ellen Forsyth, State Library of NSW.
4. Around the room introductions & what you are reading right now
(in 25 words or less: how would you suggest this to a client?).
- Heat and light – Ellen Van Neerven – Aboriginal author, selection of short stories in 3 parts, soft in language, confronting, dealing with identity and culture, sexuality and history.
- Book week titles – Two wolves. Entertaining, children finding their way on their own.
- Game of thrones – up to the third book.
- Aurora Teagarden series, charming mysteries, librarian in Paris solving mysteries. https://www.goodreads.com/series/41311-aurora-teagarden.
- Agatha Raisin – repeat reading, frustrating, funny and light.
- The friends of Emily Culpepper – grandma with lots of friends, kept in jars…
- Seasons of hate / Michael Costello, set in western NSW, looking at discrimination, injustice, Indigenous people, challenging to read – also enjoying Hamish MacBeth.
- The minnow – reading because liked the cover, sad book.
- One for the money / Janet Evanovich – hilarious, and looking forward to reading more.
- Quarterly essay on how old people are treated, Rereading Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels.
- Working the way through Children’s book list titles, Favourites are the Duck and the darklings, lovely language and illustration, promoting to adult readers.
- "A user friendly version of The Road” The banks – good for 12 – 13 yr olds, pacey stories, about growth and decisions.
- Truman Capote's In cold blood – also reading about Mindfulness.
- Memoirs of the addicted brain / Marc Lewis – about a life of addiction, part biography and also with perspective of neuroscientist.
- The book stops here – next book to read (has cat on the cover and a great look).
- Wolf of the plains.
- Alan Smale's Clash of eagles – alternative history of what if the Romans went to the USA in about 1200. Listening to Jason Chaser hover car racer, good reader, pacey listening.
5.Discussion about what is reading
Referred to the description on the read watch play blog https://readwatchplay.wordpress.com/what-is-reading/
6. 2016 Read Watch Play themes and ideas for using them
- in-house for displays
- newsletters
- bookmarks
- how can you make these themes work for you?
7. 2016 themes
https://readwatchplay.wordpress.com/monthly-themes/
- Started in 2011 with themed reading group – #readit2011 as a themed reading group.
https://readit2011.wordpress.com/
- Then it was the official twitter reading group for the National Year of Reading https://love2read2012.wordpress.com/
- In 2013 it was branded Read watch play with a different theme each month https://readwatchplay.wordpress.com/.
- How to think about each theme broadly, and bring what you want to the theme.
- International partners are included.
- How to be inclusive, and still make sure a lot of ideas are addressed.
- Discussion about location for reading, and looking at information to assist with readers’ advisory.
- Displays on the OPAC, suggesting options for other reading, new titles, using Novelist, Pinterest – tracking repins, and keeping refreshing the pins.
- Encouraging the use of Hootsuite to schedule the posts on social media (facebook, twitter, whatever)
6. Read Watch Play on social media- are you following and are you sharing?
Have a look at what is happening, and think about how your library can connect with this, and how these can work for your library, and that you can use them whatever way you want to.
Encouraging people to pin on the Read Watch Play boards
7. #rwpchat onTumblr, planning tumblr posts for future themes(standing item)
These are starting points for posts on tumblr – need 5 or 7 titles see http://read-watch-play.tumblr.com/
Using format of "if you liked x you might like ……" (this is a notes section and may be challenging to read
#darkread
- Lee Child – James Patterson, Andy McNab
- A group of Joes – Joe Abercrombie, Joe Hill, Jo Nesbo, female Jo?
- Astronomy
- Stephen King, Neil Gaiman – I am legend
- Stephen King and suggestions by Stephen King - see this list
- Zombie – Walking dead, Autumn haters
- True crime
- Dark picture books – Darkling, Patrick Rothfuss, Monster …Bilby moon
- Dark ages –
- Horrible histories, Haunting hour, Goosepumps, Around the twist, Series of unfortunate events
- training wizards etc…Harry Potter, Wizard of Earthsea, Matt Forbeck – Monster Academy trilogy, Isobel Carmody.
Dark YA books High body count
- Game of Thrones
- The Shattered Sea trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
- Walking dead
Macabre classics
Edgar Allan Poe Jane Eyre Lovecraft Wuthering heights Hound of the Baskervilles Frankenstein Dracula Matthew Reilly – Contest
See the photograph of the whiteboard with this information.
#joyread
Joy
Authors:
- Joy Fielding
- Joy Detland
- James Joyce
Titles Joy luck club
Joyful animals …Underwater dogs,
Joyful films
- Forest Gump
- Joyful noise
- Sister act
- The nugget
- The Nullabor nymph
- Red dog
- Best exotic marigold motel
- Priscilla Queen of the desert.
Cooking
- Ainlsey Harriot
- Julie and Julia
- Jamie Oliver
- 100 foot journey
Christmas
- Santa Clause
- Home alone
- Love actually
- Ren and Stimpy
Joy books to read to children
- Pamela Allen
- Andy Griffith
- Dr Seuss – all titles by this author
see the photograph of the whiteboard with this information
#wildread
- Where the wild things are,
- In the wild : Tracks, Into the wild, Bear Grylls, Alive,
- Bushwalking, wild water, extreme ironing,
- Deadly 60, things you encounter in the wild
- Chook/rural lit – Carly Lane,
- Lonely plane
- Alaska
- Old rock stars bios -
- Tartan.
Kilt reading list (romance in kilts - list on Novelist about this).
Tony Hawk (skateboarding)
see the photograph of the whiteboard with this information . #flightread
- Confessions of a Qantas steward
- Richard Branson
- Birds
- dragons (Matthew Reilly, How to train your dragon, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Jasper Fforde)
- The birds/Hitchcock
- Kite making
- Flight of the concord
- The sky
- Origami - cranes
- Vampires – Dracula, True blood, Interview with a vampire, Twilight,
- Let the right one in
- Astronauts : The right stuff,The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story, Chris Hadfield
- Fighter pilots -Biggles
- Da vinci
- Outer space _ The martian, Seveneves, Finches of mars, J A Corey
- Martian chronicles, (Maybe a mars series), Edgar Rice Burroughs
- x-files
- Series of flights : Star trek, Dr Who, Star wars, Battlestar Galactica
- Superheroes who fly – Spiderman, Superman, Batman (need some females), Wonder woman (invisible plane),
- Firefly/Serenity
- Lord of the flies – Disasters
- Dystopian –
- NASA
- Refugees
8. How are people using Read Watch Play, and RA generally, at their library?
- Add the themes to Goodreads – use as tagging for the themes, but also using Goodreads
- Showed how some libraries are using Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4332892-scottsdale-public-library
9. Highlights from CODES
- Professional development & keeping up with developing trends in RA: http://connect.ala.org/node/239202
- Link to the resources- useful tool, the summaries are great for accessing information without scanning the emails, but there are benefits to scanning the volume of emails. Maybe set a time limit to spend on scanning/reading the emails, so that it is more manageable.
- Reminding people about the resources of the Readers’ advisory seminars, as ways of finding out more about different readers, and how to help them:
- RA questions and answers – ask on the reference email list, and join the RA wiki.
- Discussion about social media good practice. Include #rwpchat and #nswpubliclibraries to connect to a wider discussion.
10. Key Readers’ Advisory issues?
What do you struggle with or are a champion of?
Science fiction Science Fiction for people who don’t read science fiction "If you like reading x – try …." book list suggestions, but also look at the tumblr -http://read-watch-play.tumblr.com.
- Continuum of science fiction (some information about this is available from Meg McArdle in the storify of the 2016 readers' advisory seminar).
Genre crossover and ways in
- Where the crossovers are (referred to work by Meg McArdle)
- Sometimes not using the genre can help
- Using the suggested reading lists on the wiki – and updating the wiki – anyone can update it
- Try reading things you don’t usually read
Young adult
- 15 – 25, 12 – 17, under 15 yrs is junior?
- It varies according to the individual-12-25
- Looking at what is collected/borrowed targeting YA
- Discussion about shelving of graphic novels
- highlights may need to consult with young adults about purchasing
- fan fiction
- Challenges about parents controlling their children’s/young people’s reading, V the parent as selector (different focus).
- Discussion about place for gentle reads, (Amish fiction and others),
- Some challenges about some homeschool children and the constraints on interaction
- Or speed picks for children – lists can help
- Idea of writing on t-shirts with what you are reading as part of the roving – ask me what I’m reading…
11. New RA training page
-http://readersadvisory.wikifoundry.com/page/RA+Training. This bring together different online training resources, - also don’t forget the RA for all training resources, and there are other great resources too.
12. Novelist & other tools
(eg, ALA ebooks available via NSW.net)– Ellen showing ALA ebooks; access via nsw.net; anyone can create a login; search “ala” then select ALA eBooks; list of available books is regularly updated; eg, RA guide to horror/Becky Spratford; can print individual pages; eg, CH 7: zombies – historical context, modern context, etc; “related books”, can filter ; ebooks are free; eg, Joyce Sarick’s RA in the public library; Genre Blends (2015) / Megan McArdle – context, outline, reasons readers might like these blends, if you like aspects with alternatives (“reading paths”); new titles added every 6mths or so; NoveList – changing display on home page “for lovers of literary fiction, try…”, but interesting range, connecting genres together; can browse genres on home page, can refine by age range; each titles has its own blurb, character/plot driven descriptors, genre, elements, tone, etc; note: manga usually reads right to left (back to front) so RA reference to mention this different reading approach; make your own appeal mix: character / tone / etc… can be a fun way to engage readers and build RA skills; can subscribe to eNews; Librarians provide the reviews of the genres; can refine and focus your search
13. Cataloguing for Readers Advisory
Making your OPAC work for your users From discussion about the survey results
- Reviews are possible for all the participant’s library catalogues – how to encourage people to write reviews into the catalogue
- How do you motivate borrowers to write reviews, competitions?
Around Library lover’s day (have been run by a couple of libraries)
- staff word of mouth is critical.
- need motivated staff to motivate the clients.
- encourage staff to write reviews to encourage the public.
- need for timely current reviews.
- reviews need to be easy to find, easy to add, easy to see.
- too often sounds clunky to add or look at reviews.
- would like reviews to be more visible on the system (discussion about how easy it is on online system).
- plus needs to be easier to rate and not review (timing out is an issue).
- opac as extension of the library, easy to be used by patrons.
RDA discussion
- Importance of being tidy about cataloguing and removing duplication within records– think about using a bulk editing program to do this
- Think about what you readers need to see, and what will be helpful for them to find the next thing they want to read, watch
- What prompts does your catalogue provide for people when they have a successful search, and when they don’t have successful searches
Discussion about the importance of including isbns in the records Novelist overlay mentioned – "why did this title match link?" is helpful
- Summaries are great, more key words, as are decent subject headings, don’t forget non-fiction needs this too.
- Importance of images with the titles, makes it easier to look at – more entrancing.
- Importance of following up with suppliers to make sure they match the specifications needed, need to be persistence.
- Importance of having subject headings and descriptions of titles (much available from Trove) – do not strip subject headings out
- Maintain your authorities, make sure to remove duplicates of subject headings
- Every fiction title will have a genre, and then use the ones which best describe the thing,
14. Whole advisory (standing item)
- For book lists – include non-fiction with fiction, also think about dvds
- If you like this, you might like that (tumblr posts)
- Mixing formats in displays
- Idea of concept for displays – “books which make you smile”, red books…display is critical, visual is important, draws attention, worth investing the time, putting the principles of selling into action – library needs to be accessed and used, the collection needs to work – and the staff need to work with this…part of the conversation with the clients.
15. Roving readers advisory (standing item)
Proactive suggestions, and providing hints to clients.
Next meeting will be at Lane Cove. Date to be confirmed.