Libraries: Reader's Advisories

(photo of bound journals at Palmer College where I work)

There are many things that librarians do. One of the more basic things is to create reader's advisories. These can be formal documents that are handed to a patron, or left in a place for a patron to pick up and peruse. They can also be very informal and done off the top of your head verbally. However, I think I should back up and explain exactly what a reader's advisory is.

Essentially, it is the answer to the question: "I like X author/genre/type of book, who else should I read that is like that author?"

Now, I suspect many of the readers of this blog do this sort of thing all the time. It is essentially recommending books to people. However, I also suspect you do it in a very narrow spectrum, say, science fiction and fantasy. When you work the reference desk, you will get questions about authors/genres/types of books you've never read.

You are still expected to answer these questions.

This is the part of my job that terrifies me.

I am no good at recommending books to people.

And I'm sad to say, I am almost worse at it when it comes to science fiction/fantasy books. I feel both over- and under-informed in the area. There are some aspects that I know so much about it that I have trouble narrowing it down to one thing. Or, the person reads an author I don't know much about, and can only make guesses as to recommendations.

For the most part, I feel unqualified (and yet, my degree uniquely qualifies me for this) to make book recommendations. I feel that I should an author/genre/type of book in and out from top to bottom before I should hazard a guess at what a fan of X would like.

This is plain silly. No person who has made the effort to come into the library is in such a hurry that they can't wait for you to do a little research or some thinking about it. They'd rather you give them a good recommendation than a quick recommendation.

Nevertheless, I still got a chill down my spine when someone says, "I've read every book by Michael Connelly, who else you got who's like that?" Occasionally you get lucky, like the guy who wanted biographical music books, but things that focused on a scene rather than a specific band so I could recommend Make the Music Go Bang! and Our Band Could be Your Life (both of which worked only because he said he was a fan of punk music).

Most libraries have access to a resource like NoveList which will answer the question: "If you like Robert Ludlum, you should read . . ." Even better is something like LibraryThing which also does book recommendations (and is free, whereas NoveList is a subscription product).

If you're absolutely hard up, you can try Amazon for the "people who bought this book also bought . . ." which says nothing about whether they read either book and also says nothing about whether they liked either book . . .

Now, I'm talking about when I have someone on the phone or standing in front of me. For me, the more formal form is easier to do. Many librarians hate making physical reader's advisories (and some like it too much). It's the same process, but you have all the time you want to make the perfect recommendations.

The only additional thing I'll say about formal reader's advisories is that if you're going to take the time to make them, please annotate them. That is, don't just make a list of books, explain why they're in your list. That will help your patron more than you know.