NSW public library wiki

Reality check: non-fiction readers advisory work 3 March 2009

This is the program for Reality check – non-fiction readers advisory to be held at the State Library of New South Wales 3 March 2009. After the seminar this page will become a resource guide for non-fiction readers advisory work.

Reality check – non-fiction readers advisory Tea/coffee 9.30am

10.00 Barbara Horgan from Shearers on Norton Street, Leichhardt will talk about latest non fiction trends, what staff and customers are reading. She will also talk about how they respond to current events 10.50 Non-fiction readers advisory - Ellen Forsyth (State Library of NSW) will be talking about stock selection, reading lists and the cross over with fiction readers advisory work 11.15 Secondary RA - Therese Scott - (Ashfield) will address the difficult question of how to help people selecting for their parents, children, teenagers, sick people, or other council staff. She will help you to ask the right questions (what questions to ask – and what not to ask) and provide some helpful resources. 11.40 Break out session with ideas for cross over reading lists - themes and content Suggestions for discussion

• Crime and punishment - real and fictional stories of crimes
• All you need is love - tales of romance, real and imagined
• Searching for clues - solving real mysteries, and their fictional counterparts
• new technologies - science fiction and their factual counterparts
• reading green - focusing on the environment
• laughing until it hurts

lunch 12.20 – 1.20 make your own selection from local places 1

.20 Non-fiction patron picks - Catherine Walsh, a reader from a public library will talk about her ideas on memoirs and biographies, what ones she enjoyed (or not enjoyed) and why.

1:35 Housebound Readers Advisory using Nancy Pearl’s gateways Ellen Forsyth (State Library of NSW)

1:40 I’ll have what she’s having: Non-fiction RA with Nancy Pearl’s gateways

structured by the gateways - setting, language, story, characte

2:00 Renewal, Reviews & Rewards: interactions with readers Judy Atkinson - Coffs Harbour - Attached below.

2:25 afternoon tea 2:50 A Chinese language reading group Vivien Chung from Willoughby Library will talk about her experiences in setting up a reading group in another language. 3:15 Resources for non-fiction RA

• databases Merilyn Hills from Hornsby
• web 2.0 Ellen Forsyth
• RA wiki : Jenn Martin

On Fiction and Non Fiction

This Read On list comprises novels and non fiction books which have subjects complementing each other or the authors have similar writing styles or have written on similar topics.

• Ahab's wife : Sena Jeter Naslund Moby Dick : Herman Melville
• A Confederate in the attic : Tony Horwitz March: Geraldine Brooks
• The memory of running : Ron McLarty On the road : Jack Kerouac
• Push : Sapphire True notebooks : Mark Salzman
• History of love : Nicole Krauss After you'd gone : Maggie O'Farrell
• Kitchen confidential: Anthony Bourdain Don't try this at home ed. by Kimberly Witherspoon Waiter rant : A. Waiter Heat : Bill Buford
• The Corrections : Jonathan Franzen My family and other animals : Gerald Durrell
• Bright lights, big city : Jay McInerney The Fabulist : Stephen Glass
• They called him Boy : Peter Fenton Home before dark: Ruth Park
• Game for anything : Gideon Haigh The Gift of speed : Steven Carroll
• A Child's book of true crime: Chloe Hooper Are men necessary? Maureen Dowd
• Nickel and dimed : Barbara Ehrenreich Dirt cheap : Elisabeth Wynhausen The Grapes of wrath : John Steinbeck
• Staying on : Paul Scott Heat and dust : Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Coronation talkies : Susan Kurosawa
• Another bullshit night in Suck City : Nick Flynnn Grand Central winter : Lee Stringer
• Harp in the south : Ruth Park The myth of the Great Depression : David Potts
• Paydirt : Garry Disher The Broken shore : Peter Temple
• The Deep end of the ocean ; Jacquelyn Mitchard The Missing : Andrew O'Hagan
• Truth and beauty : Ann Patchett The Palace thief : Ethan Canin
• Atonement : Ian McEwan The Night Watch : Sarah Waters
• Goat : Brad Land The Catcher in the Rye: J.D. Salinger
• Journey to the stone country : Alex Miller Swallow the air : Tara June Winch
• Stasiland : Anna Funder Faust's metropolis : Alexandra Ritchie Christopher's ghosts : Charles McCarry
• An equal music : Vikram Seth As it is in heaven : Niall Williams
• Ratking : Michael Dibdin Acqua Alta : Donna Leon John Berendt
• Leaning towards infinity : Sue Woolfe Passionate woods : David Bodanis
• Surviving the extremes : Kenneth Kamler The Last explorer : Simon Nasht
• Lincoln : Gore Vidal Manhunt : the 12 day chase for Abraham Lincoln's killer : James L. Swanson
• Waiting : Ha Jin Mao's last dancer : Li Cunxin
• Running in the family : Michael Ondaatje The Hamilton case : Michelle de Kretser
• A Tale of two cities : Charles Dickens The Rose grower : Michelle de Kretser
• The Big oyster : New York in the world : a molluscular history : Mark Kurlansky The Bear boy : Cynthia Ozick
• Little black bastard : Noel Tovey All my mob : Ruby Langford Ginibi
• Tampering with asylum : Frank Brennan The Tyrant's novel : Thomas Keneally
• Memoirs of a geisha : Arthur Golden The Pure land : Alan Spence
• Captain Corelli's mandolin : Louis De Bernieres Falling cloudberries : a world of family recipes : Tessa Kiros
• The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford (F) White Mischief by James Fox (NF) The Bolter: Idina Sackville - the woman who scandalised 1920s society and became White Mischief's infamous seductress by Frances Osborne (NF)

Nancy Pearl's Gateways and Non Fiction Readers Advisory

This reading list is based on Nancy Pearl's gateways of character, language, story and setting. Please add a short description for each title.

• Character Dawn French Dear fatty Peter Fitzsimons Tobruck Mark Seymour Thirteen ton theory Catherin Hamlin Hospital by the river Greg Bottoms Angel head Susan Wyndham Life in his hands Don Tate The war within Dr Mohammed Khadra Making the cut : a surgeons' story of life on the edge Helen Mirren In the frame: my life in pictures

• Language A steroid hit the earth: the catastrophic world of misprints Martin Toseland Atonement Ian McEwan Shots Don Walker American journeys Don Watson Speeches that changed the world

• Story Scratch beginnings Adam Shephard At a cannibals table Never say die Chris O'Brien Escape Carolyn Jessop Grand Central winter Lee Stringer The cloud garden Tom Hartdyke and Paul Winder Shot Gail Bell Marley and me John Grogan White Gold Giles Milton Secrets of the red lantern: stories and Vietnamese recipes from the heart Pauline Nguyen

• Setting Alan Wiseman The world without us Alexa Thompson Antarctica on a plate Robert Hughes The fatal shore Chloe Hooper The tall man Simon Schama Landcape and memory Joel Kotkin The city reader The letters of Gertrude Bell Susan Duncan Salvation Creek Tim Smit The lost gardens of Heligan Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Gulag Archipeligo Rusty Young Marching Powder

Introduction to non-fiction readers advisory work

Non-fiction readers advisory work is generally regarded as a newer area of work than readers advisory work in fiction. Some of the non-fiction reference enquiries which are routinely received within a library are actually thinly disguised readers advisory questions, but they are not always recognised as being readers advisory questions. They are from readers who are looking for a factual explanation of some recent event, or more background information, or a particular kind of biography or recipe book. We are very good at asking about the kind of information people are seeking, but we need to introduce readers advisory skills to ask people about the kind of experience they want from what they are seeking to read and to find out about how they approach their reading. We may not always be able to supply the kind of reading experience they are after, but we can at least try to help them find something with the content and the appeal characteristics which they are looking for.

What is non-fiction anyway? Non-fiction is broadly fact based writing. This may seem obvious, however, this factual basis becomes more flexible with some the biographies and memoirs, but non-fiction is mostly fact based works. It includes works of narrative as well. It can be in any format. In this document I will use ‘books’ to refer to books – paper, online, dvds and all other possible reading or watching formats.

Examining recent public library statistics in New South Wales shows that non-fiction loans are lower than fiction in every public library in New South Wales. In some libraries they are almost half the loans of fiction, in other libraries only one tenth. These loan statistics show that that these books can work harder, they can be borrowed more. It is important to recognise this potential. Non-fiction readers advisory work is a way to help these titles continue to earn their place in the collection. Library staff also need to look at what they are actually buying and the age of stock as these are all contributing factors to the loans. It is possible that lower non-fiction loans indicates that the collections are not optimised to suit the needs of the community.

What is non-fiction readers advisory work? In some ways non-fiction readers advisory work is the same as fiction readers advisory work. You are trying to match a reader to what they want to read, but you have a different pallet to choose from. Potentially you have a larger area of selection as may be able to draw from fiction and non-fiction in all formats. There is also the possibility of attracting more male readers through the use of non-fiction readers advisory techniques.

It can also be different as you realise that what started as a reference question is really a readers advisory question. For example say I want to find out about what is happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – this could be a question of fact about how the civil war is going, it could be someone wanting to read about blood diamonds or a travel question – and you will need to ask more questions to find out what the person is seeking (as you would do in a reference interview), but you also need to keep in mind (and ask the reader) different questions in case it is a readers advisory question. They may also be interested in related fiction like the Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad or they may want factual works and no fiction. You have to be tuned in to both the potential reference elements of the question and the potential readers advisory aspects.

Sometimes we can be too concerned about the differences between fiction and non-fiction without seeing the similarities between fiction and non-fiction. There is the unifying idea of a person looking for a “good read”. This should be a consideration when purchasing non-fiction (as well as fiction) titles for the collection.

Nancy Pearl’s doorways and non-fiction Knowing that a person reads a particular author or subject does not often provide you the information about why they enjoy reading them. For example someone may like to read true crime writing and they read it because they enjoy the detectives and their personalities (or the criminals and their personalities), or they read for how the language is used, or the descriptions of the locations of the crimes, or the actual story of the process of trying to solve the crime. They also might like reading about murders which are not described in graphic detail, or only ones with every last blood splatter carefully described. These characteristics are known as appeal characteristics.

Appeal characteristics are simply what makes the book, film or recording appeal to the reader, watcher or listener. It is the hook which draws people into the work, and which keeps them reading, listening or watching. There are numerous ways of interpreting this, but I will focus on the appeal characteristics suggested by Nancy Pearl[1]. Nancy Pearl divides appeal characteristics into four categories which she calls doorways as they are the doorways into the book. They are character, language, setting and story. Just because someone is drawn to read something because of the characters does not necessarily mean they will have no interest in the language, setting and story of the work. They may be interested in them or they may not. For some works each doorway will be equally strong, but for most one doorway will predominate.

The doorways character People will describe the experience of reading in terms of the characters they are reading about – the characters of novels will sound like they are real people, and in non-fiction the person will describe the people as if they really know them. The reader may not necessarily like the person or the character, but they will want to find out more about them

In fiction the works will often have a character’s name in the title, for non-fiction it will often be biographies or autobiographies. It may also include celebrity chefs (think of Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay). Many crime and mystery novels will have strong character doorways as will some science fiction and fantasy. This is more likely to happen in series novels using the same detectives, and multipart science fiction and fantasy works. Family sagas can also have dominant character doorways as you need to know who has married whom. Romance is a genre which is almost totally character dominant (as you know that the man and woman will end up together). For romance you need to explore further into the character – what roles the men have (farmer, fireman, doctor…) and if it is a believable match.

Some non-fiction authors with character as the primary doorway are

• Jamie Oliver
• Jeremy Clarkson
• Peter Fitzsimons

language People who read primarily for language will describe the writing, or their enjoyment of the writing as part of the experience, they may describe the books as being poetic, powerful or using powerful language. People may also describe their reading as being emotional, or having moving ideas or language

  most likely to be award winners (as most writing awards target literary fiction which is more likely to have language as a doorway)
  how steamy (for romance) or how gory (for crime, science fiction, fantasy, horror) will also be characteristics associated with language.

Some non-fiction authors with language as the primary doorway are

• Don Walker
• Peter Robb
• Elizabeth David

setting This has readers describing the location as important, often in terms of details about daily life wherever or whenever. Readers will talk about the place (rather than the people). This will be a cross genre appeal characteristic, for example some people will only enjoy historical crime novels (perhaps only ones featuring actual historic characters in a fictional setting, or only romances set in the middle ages or earlier).

  some works written about other times and other places, whether historical or imagined (speculative fiction) will include setting as a important doorway
  with speculative fiction there are also setting preferences. Some people may only like fantasy set in recognisable locations (such as Sean William’s works set in South Australia).

Some non-fiction authors with setting as the primary doorway are

• John Berendt
• Simon Schama
• Tim Smit

story These can be fiction or non-fiction. This doorway will include action and thrillers as well as slower moving works. Some of these works will not be strong in the language doorway. Readers will have preferences about what the story should include (crime must be solved, how did the couple meet)

  most likely to be ‘the books which could not be put down” as people keep reading to see what happens in the story
  story points which resonate

Some non-fiction authors with story as the primary doorway are

• Terry Jones
• Mark Kurlansky

As you can see the ideas of doorways can work for most non-fiction work, and particularly for those being read recreationally.

People won’t talk about which doorway they read for, as it is really a term for library staff, but if you ask someone about something they have read or watched recently you will be able to pick up the clues as to the person’s reading preference and be able to use these clues to better help the read find what they are looking for, whether it is a cooking book or the history of the Taliban. The readers advisory type questions which will help you ascertain the appeal characteristics the reader prefers will also assist with some reference enquiries as it will help you provide material which the reader will enjoy more, or find easier to access.

You can see from these examples that this way of thinking about non-fiction (as well as fiction) has implications for when you, or someone else in the library, is buying for the collections. As well as subject gaps you need to make sure you are purchasing non-fiction which covers the different methods people use to access the work (story, setting, language and character). It adds a little to the complexity of selection, but provides an improved outcome for your community. You can use your usual non-fiction selection methods, but with the previously mentioned characteristics considered as well.

The Adult Reading Round Table in Chicago had done a very detailed analysis of appeal characteristics for some the non-fiction reading genres[1] and there are ideas which may help in your analysis of your non-fiction collection.

Not the great divide Increasingly when you receive readers advisory enquiries you might like to think about how the whole of your library’s collection can be used to provide an answer.

Back to the statistics Think about how you collect, catalogue, sign and promote non-fiction as it all will make in difference in how you can deliver non-fiction readers advisory assistance, and improve the service which your community can receive from your collection.

Some of the information about Nancy Pearl’s doorways has appeared in Forsyth, Ellen 'Readers advisory services for older adults' Next chapters: public libraries in Australia and New Zealand for older generations Sydney 1-2 May 2009

[1] Nancy Pearl presentation at the State Library of New South Wales, December 2007

[1] Adult Reading Round Table non-fiction genre study http://www.arrtreads.org/nonfictiongenrestudy.htm [accessed 7 July 2009]