This is an old revision of the document!
RA Training
If you are looking for ways to brush up on your Readers Advisory skills, there are many training tools available online.
Here are links to some of them:
- The League of Extraordinary Librarians: A self paced RA continuing education resource. Use this as a refresher, undertake all the modules or just those that are relevant to you.
- Webinar Archive|Booklist is a great resource of past Booklist Webinars
- RA Conversations: Readers' Advisory Prescriptions Duncan Smith (NoveList), Becky Spratford (RA for All), and Rebecca Vnuk (Booklist) discuss common RA issues and side effects. This is the first program in the “RA Conversations” series brought to you by NoveList and Booklist.
The Year of the RA Makeover. An engaging and informative discussion as three libraries reveal why their attention is now on helping readers find the perfect read.Beyond Book Displays. Hear the latest results of patron browsing behaviors and learn about innovative practices to help you engage patrons with passive programming ideas and self-directed pathways.- Meeting Your Community's Demand for Books. A panel discussion with three librarians working at the intersection of collection development and readers’ advisory.
- Creating Engaging Book Displays. Hear from library director Susan Brown and marketing expert Nancy Dowd about how you can create book displays that will leave readers asking for more.
- RA Programming for Kids.Discover new strategies for marketing your collection (and upping your programming stats) with this webinar about making great-looking, engaging passive programming materials that your kids will adore.
- RA for all(blog) This blog by RA expert Becky is full of useful ideas and links her presentations. Her 10 rules of Basic RA service is a great tool to keep handy.
- Nancy Pearl for Bibliocommons: A series of videos available to watch on YouTube. Topics include:
- Collaborative list making(no fail choices in different genres)
Taking Basic Book Talking Skills online is a great tutorial on how to read a book in 5 minutes.
Ore Online is a virtual reference training program developed by the Ohio Library Council with partial funding from the State Library of Ohio with support from LSTA.
OPLA has a section on Readers Advisory Conversation.
Fresh Titles for Book Club - Library Journal Webcast. Do you struggle to find titles that your book clubs will devour and jump start lively discussions? Look at a variety of refreshing book club picks that promise to add new favorite authors to your book club rosters.