June 5th, 2007: Promotion and indirect RA – Book clubs and social reading
As discussed in class, passive readers’ advisory, non-mediated readers’ advisory and indirect readers’ advisory services are all ways to promote reading. Librarians are responsible for creating and manipulating the environment to perform adequate readers’ advisory services for readers (not such an easy feat). As librarian’s we must consider what draws us to a bookstore in the first place? Is it the signage, themes, space, the display of book covers, or the social aspect? Bookstores are very different from public libraries, but in some ways can they be similar as well?
See the article by McKechnie, “Grand latte, no sprinkles”, environment in the public library.. .
Librarians can also provide indirect readers’ advisory by arranging the collection into segregated genre collections, by offering the public and making use of RA tools (such as bookmarks/booklists), offering book oriented periodicals, and providing book displays.
As we learned in class, we must also incorporate some merchandising to promote RA in the library and to widen reader’s knowledge about books and related topics. Something as simple as offering a patron the “return cart” … where the reader approaches the cart with no idea if anyone has read the books in front of them, but knowing only that someone has taken them out. The item is considered “safe” and has been vetted.
