Reader's Advisory. It is actually one of my favorite aspects of being a librarian. I like the fact that it is really just conversation between two people where one person winds up helping the other. Sometimes other people will interrupt and add their own thoughts which can also be helpful (though not always).
Despite being someone who has had trouble interacting with people in past, I actually find that approaching the readers is fairly straight forward. In other situations, such as asking out that cute girl over there, you might not know how the other person is going to respond and that can cause a lot of anxiety. But when approaching a reader, you generally know exactly what they are needing: a book. And that's what we as librarians specialize in. It puts us immediately in our comfort zone even if the genre in question is not. It is still just a book that they are looking for.
Engaging with the reader is therefore rather easy. "You want a book? I can find you a book. What do you like?" That last question opens the floodgate. The reader will tell you all about what they like to read and what they don't like. As you listen you will pick out the individual bits that are key to recommending the right book. They said they like books that involve mystery, blood and gore. Well there is a section for that. Ah, but they also want something about a fun city. Hmmmmm, we're narrowing it down. Any good female writers? Ah! I have just the thing.
This is when you get to share books with the reader. This person would probably enjoy Laura Lippman's books. She's a mystery writer writing about Baltimore. Less on the blood and gore front, but that can easily be fixed by finding another book. Chances are they'll be interested in more than one. Especially if both books do a good job of covering most of the appeal factors.
No comments:
Post a Comment