Although I did not set up an advice booth like Lucy Van Pelt I did employ her bullying tactics to force my relatives and co-workers to accept my book suggestions. After twisting some arms I was able to convince five of them to help me out.
Since I would be advising people I knew very well I did not want to just use my personal knowledge of their reading habits. I wanted to be more scientific and objective with my inquiry and thought if I gave each person a form asking the same questions I would offer the same quality of service regardless of the relationships I had with each reader.
My first step was to create a questionnaire based on the suggestions offered by Neil Hollands, Adult Services Librarian at Williamsburg Regional Library in the Reference & User Services Quarterly article Improving the Model for Interactive Readers’ Advisory Service. You can view that form at https://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhmwnp5c_51gkp7bkdg .
Then I had to make sure I had access to readers’ advisory tools. I went to a neighboring library that offers the Novelist database and applied for a reciprocal card. I soon discovered that I could not access the database from my home or my work place computer. So I had our reference department get a trial of Novelist from EbscoHost. (Subscription cost for our library would be $2,000 a year.) I also learned that I could not access FictionConnection unless I was in the library building. So all my research to find read-alikes had to be done at the library.
I was very excited when I started with the first subject. I was finding pages and pages of read-alikes. But then reality set in when I tried to find the books listed in our library card catalog. I was lucky if one out of 20 titles was part of the library’s holdings.
Subject 1 – Marci, a retired teacher, is an avid reader. A member of four book clubs, she reads the book club selections each month and as many other adult, young adult and juvenile books as she can fit in her busy volunteer schedule. Marci listed her favorite books and authors as Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy , Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series, Janet Evanovich’s mysteries, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series, Ellis Peter’s The Brother Cadfael Chronicles, Mary Coria Russel’s The Sparrow, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Tony Hillerman’s The Dark Wind Series and Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bears series. Marci listed Science Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobooks and Multibook Series as her favorite genres. “I like books that take me to another time or place. Things that might have been or could be.”
Marci said she is not interested in Romance or bloody, macho mysteries or suspense, books about the military or war or anything like the Left Behind series.
I pulled the few books that our library had from her read-alike lists that I created using Novelist and FictionConnection. She chose two of the offerings – Moving Mars by Greg Bear and Deep Pockets by Linda Barnes. She enjoyed both books. Moving Mars she said was very similar to Asimov’s writing and she liked Deep Pockets but it wasn’t as funny as Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum titles.
Success!
Subject 2 - Peppermint Patty, a youth librarian, loves to read juvenile, YA and adult books, as often as her busy schedule allows. Books and authors from her favorite’s section include: Iris Johansen, Alex Delaware novels by Jonathan Kellerman, Alex Cross by James Patterson, Catherine Coulter’s FBI mysteries, Douglas Preston and Lauren Child’s Agent Pendergast mysteries, Orson Scott Card, Abbarat by Clive Barker, J.R.R. Tolkien’s triology, Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. “I like enticing mysteries with returning characters,” writes Patty. “Abbarat is “off the wall” so sometimes weird appeals to me.” She ranked Mysteries, Thrillers, Action/Adventure, Sci Fi, and Audiobooks as her favorite genres.
I presented Patty with a small book cart filled with titles from her read-alike list I created using Novelist and FictionConnection. She then asked me about cyberpunk. I had just finished the Science Fiction chapter in Joyce G. Sarricks' The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction and explained to Patty that cyberpunk books are “those cynical tales of negative high-tech future in which humans are not necessarily the highest life-forms, science may not be our salvation, and somehow the universe has gone awry.” She wanted to try cyberpunk. I printed a list of cyberpunk titles from FictionConnection and looked at the titles in Sarricks' book. The library had three titles from more than 50 books listed. I added those titles to the book cart.
Patty selected a book from the FictionConnection cyberpunk list Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick. At first Patty was intrigued by the book. But the more she read the less she liked it. “It was the wildest book I ever read. It kept jumping from the beginning storyline to college and other worlds. The middle section was really bizarre and didn’t flow with the rest of the book. There are sex clubs and when the main character has sex she can see her mother in other lives.” Patty doubts this is a real cyberpunk selection. That makes me doubt the legitimacy of the FictionConnection list. Iron Dragon’s Daughter was the 26th book on the 47 title list.
Subject 3 – Charlie Brown reads the newspaper daily and Sports Illustrated and ESPN Magazine on a regular basis. Charlie refused to fill out the questionnaire. When asked he said his favorite authors are Stephen King and John Grisham. He occasionally reads sports non-fiction books, fitness books and biographies of famous individuals like Lee Iacocca, Sam Walton and Ray Crock. Charlie said his favorite books are The Stand and The Green Mile by Stephen King and The Client and A Time to Kill by John Grisham. He routinely requests the latest John Grishman novel from the library to read.
I found 28 read-alikes for Charlie on Novelist and FictionConnection, checked them out along with the latest John Grishman novel Ford County, and delivered them to him to allow him to browse and choose the title he would like. Charlie selected the John Grisham book Ford County and a legal thriller, The Judgment by William J. Coughlin.
Charlie said the Grisham book was ok and he liked The Judgment stating he is a “better writer than Grisham.”
Subject 4 – Snoopy, an English major who heads library tech services, got burnt out on required readings while in college. She took a break for several years and didn’t read anything. Lately she has read some non-fiction but most of her outside reading is computer and technology related. Snoopy would like to start reading for enjoyment as her time and personal commitments allow. Snoopy listed her favorite books as Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children by Dorie McCullough Lawson, I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert and The Hours by Michael Cunningham. She said she likes nostalgic books and books that contain symbolism. She ranked Recent Titles, Mysteries, Literary Fiction and Biography/Memoir as her favorite genres.
Because Peppermint Patty thought being presented with a cart of books to choose from was overwhelming I decided to type a list of suggestions for Snoopy. I included book reviews I borrowed from Amazon.com to describe the read-alikes I found for Snoopy’s favorites on Novelist and FictionConnection. I could not find read-alikes for Stephen Colbert’s book so I googled for suggestions and found John Stewart’s America as an example. Snoopy had already read it. I also included the title The Help by Kathyrn Stockett even though it was not on the read-alike lists. I had read the book and knew it was set in the 1960s (nostalgic) and it examined the roles of white and black women in the south.
Snoopy selected The Help and she loved it. She recommended it to her grandmother as well and she is now reading it. Snoopy is looking through the list and plans to read several more titles.
Subject 5 – Sally reads about five books a week. She works the library circ desk and sees and selects many of the library titles she helps patrons with. She listed her favorite reads as: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb, I Know this Much Is True by Wally Lamb, Open House by Elizabeth Berg, Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Piccoult. She said these books appealed to her because she likes family oriented books --books about family and history. Books that make you think and wonder. She said she didn’t want to read romance, westerns, or the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer because she said she thinks they are silly and frivolous. She likes her books to have substance and she ranked these genres highest -- recent titles, classic titles, literary fiction, inspirational (religious), biography/memoir, nonfiction and historical fiction.
I also created a suggestion list for Sally based on read-alikes from Novelist and FictionConnection and using borrowed book reviews from Amazon.com. Sally selected the only book from the list she had not read, The Chocolate Lover’s Club by Carole Mathews. (I hated to even recommend the title after a classmate said it was predictable and boring.) But Sally said she liked it. She described it as a “good, light read.” She said, “I occasionally like a light read. It was a good break.”
I felt bad after Sally made that comment because I went back and looked at her questionnaire again. She probably would have preferred a religious or non-fiction title, but I was so busy concentrating on the read-alikes for her favorite books and authors that I had neglected to offer any selections in those genres.
Four out of the five subjects were happy with the book suggestions I made for them. Patty did not like her cyberpunk title but she had an entire cart to choose from and the ultimate choice was hers. I think the questionnaire worked fairly well except for the section where the reader was asked, “What type of book are you interested in today?” and had to rank from 1 to 7 the attributes of the book – whether they wanted a happy, light, uplifting title or a dark ironic title… None of the readers knew how to use or mark this section and it confused them so I feel it could be eliminated from a form I would use in my library.
I think readers’ advisory is one of the most important parts of a librarian’s job. We have to connect readers with good books. But it is not easy. Recommendations to readers are only as good as the tools that are used. I relied on FictionConnection to give me a list of cyberpunk titles. I haven’t read the books on the list so if FictionConnection or Novelist or any readers’ advisory tool is not accurate I am recommending titles that might not meet my patron’s reading needs or mood.
Image Sources
All retrieved from Google Images
• Lucy and Sally from http://www.snoopy.com/
• Marci from http://www.weirdspace.dk/
• Moving Mars cover from bookrags.com
• Peppermint Patty from notlikeparis.files.com
• Iron Dragon’s Daughter cover from charles-tan.blogspot.com
• Snoopy from http://www.popartuk.com/
• The Help cover from http://www.amazon.com/
• The Chocolate Lover’s Club cover from mjmbecky.blogspot.com
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