End of Class

Hello all!

I have received a couple of final projects so far - please feel free to turn these into me early. I have given you until May 9 to finish your projects, and I will be in DC from May 3-7 for National Library Legislative Day and will be very busy, but I should still have time to answer your questions. If you turn things in early enough you will be given time to revise if necessary. May 9th is the absolute last day I can take the assignment, so if you turn it in on the due date there will be no time for any revisions!

What a fun semester - thanks all, for making it an enjoyable transition to an online course. I appreciate you letting me know when things were unclear or confusing - I will definitely take it all into account for the next course. Hope you all have a great summer! Though that is weird to type as it just snowed several inches here in Montana.

Again, let me know if you have any questions or problems - I wish I could have met all of you in person!

Due by the end of this week:
Prompt Response (many of you have already done this, I posted it last week)

Due by May 9th: 
Lab - Final Project!

Prompts for Weeks 15 and 16

Bowing to the EXTREME pressure of people politely asking, I've decided to post prompts for both this week and the next, so you guys can get finished up with everything as soon as you'd like! Also, I will have next weekend off so I might go camping, and likely will not have internet access next Sunday. I hope you are all enjoying spring!

The last few weeks of this course are light, reading-wise, because I want you to focus on your projects. So for Week 15, some of the readings about programming for adults are more suggestions for what to read rather than required. Please read the Saricks chapter though, as that talks specifically about programming for RA and will be very helpful in answering your prompt.

You guys have been a joy to work with this semester. I couldn't have asked for a better group of students to teach my first online class. Thanks so much for your patience and your words!

Week 15 Prompt

What do you think are the best ways to market your library's fiction collection? Name and describe three ways you do or would like to market your library or your future library's fiction. These can be tools, programs, services, displays - anything that you see as getting the word out.

Week 16 Prompt

Both of our readings this week talk about the culture of reading and the future of the book. So I have two questions for you as readers, pulling on your own experiences and all of the readings we have done over the semester: First, how have reading and books changed since you were a child, for you specifically? Second, talk a little about what you see in the future for reading, books, or publishing - say 20 years from now. Will we read more or less, will our reading become more interactive? What will happen to traditional publishing? This is  a very free-form question, feel free to wildly extrapolate or calmly state facts, as suits your mood!

Week Fourteen Notes and Prompt

Hello Folks!

This week we are talking about some other types of fiction that aren't necessarily their own genres, but are often treated as such. There are of course, many short stories, books of poetry, and African American and GLBTQ writings that are of each genre. Please review the sources provided in your syllabus. I have also provided a powerpoint that lists some key African American authors in different genres. The readings are light this week; please take this opportunity to work on your final projects! Let me know of any problems, issues, or questions.

Due by the end of the week:
Prompt Response
African American, GBLTQ, Poetry, and Short Story annotations

Week 13 Prompt

Consider yourself part of the collection management committee of your local library, or a library at which you would like to work. You must decide whether or not to separate GBLTQ fiction and African American Fiction from the general collection to its own special place. Some patrons have requested this, yet many staff are uncomfortable with the idea - saying it promotes segregation and disrupts serendipitous discovery of an author who might be different from the reader. Do you separate them? Do you separate one and not the other? Why or why not? You must provide at least 3 reasons for or against your decision. Feel free to use outside sources - this is a weighty question that is answered differently in a lot of different libraries. 

Week 13 Notes and Prompt

Hey folks -

We're in the home stretch! I hope that you are progressing well on your projects - I have yet to have anyone ask me for help in finding a librarian to work with, so my guess is if you are doing Lab B you all already know who you are working with. If you are doing Lab A you should be finding your folks to experiment on now to give them time to read some of your picks and respond to how well they like them. Please let me know if you have any questions - I am very flexible, but I do expect a certain level of work from this project and you won't have time to revise it if you turn it in the day it is due. But going by the work you guys have been doing all semester everything will be great.

So this week we are tackling quite a few different types of books - some are genres, some aren't technically but are treated like their own genres. Let's start with street lit, or urban fiction.

Street Lit

Working at the Central branch of IndyPL, the majority of RA questions I received were about street lit. It was a challenge, as I had not read much street lit, but it was also a lot of fun to explore a new genre I was unfamiliar with and discover the subtleties and themes that ran through it. The frames of street lit include overcoming poverty, crime, outrageous acts of violence, the importance of money, life being cheap, women are often sexually abused. Storylines include betrayal and revenge, rags to riches tales, hip hop, overblown crime and violence. There are also street lit books that include a strong connection to Christianity and redemption through religion. A lot of these books are popular with young adults. Part of the reason for this is that black characters do not feature strongly in many YA titles.

Some of the seminal works of street lit include Iceberg Slim's Pimp: The Story of my Life  from 1967, and Donald Goines Whoreson. More modern street lit authors often publish their titles independently - author Vicki Stringer started the publisher Triple Crown for these titles. More modern titles that are highly influential include the work of Sister Souljah and Stringer. Street lit is really taking off in ebook form right now.

People who read street lit are often interested in specific sub-genres. Getting to know these titles and authors will prove to be invaluable in connecting with the patrons. Fans of street lit love talking about their favorite authors and do not expect librarians to have knowledge of the genre. When you show even the smallest bit of knowledge they are surprised and thrilled, and you increase the likelihood of their being library advocates. Even if the books are not to your taste, with the violence and sexual abuse, remember that people often like to read exaggerated tales that match their own lives or fears for their own lives, and that identifying with a similar character and seeing how they deal with difficult situations is an extremely valuable tool and part of the reason why fiction is so important.

Young Adult

Young adult books are kind of on the fence between being a genre and not being a genre. Obviously, they are mainly supposed to be an age group, with different genres interspersed throughout. However, young adult books now tend to share certain characteristics that make them very popular among both teens and adults. These characteristics include a fast pace, likeable and young main characters who are facing issues that do not devalue or minimize the problems that teenagers face.

One of your classmates did a paper on New Adult books - which are beginning to take off. New Adult books are similar to YA - however the people are slightly older and there is generally more sex. They may be going to college for the first time or on a military deployment. Here's some information:

New Adult Alley: This is a popular new adult website that has a lot of titles and reviews.

Meg-a-Rae: This is a video podcast from an IUPUI grad, who has since moved on to another job. She and her co-worker discuss a couple of New Adult titles and the genre.

Graphic Novels

Please do the readings on graphic novels this week! Like Young Adult, graphic novels aren't really a genre, they are a format and they contain different genres. Graphic novels have been steadily increasing in popularity for years. Some of the works that you should know include the Watchmen, Maus, The Death of Superman, and Persepolis. All of these titles have had a great influence on graphic novels, and have helped to propel them from comic book status to award-winning stories in their own right. Many very popular novels or series of novels have been made into graphic novels as well - especially urban fantasy. Also, it's become a theme for some popular science fiction shows that have gone off the air to continue their series as graphic novels - Firefly for instance.

The main difference in doing RA for graphic novels is that you have to take the art style into consideration - many patrons enjoy a particular type of art and just want to read graphic novels that employ that particular style. If you have a difficult time following graphic novels, try reading Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art. He explains some of the semiotics of comic books to help you understand how the artwork influences the story.

Week 13 Prompt 

Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. Obviously, graphic novels are becoming more acceptable, but I still had to fight to get my progressive library in a liberal college town to purchase a book club kit containing graphic novels. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature, graphic novels, and street lit? Or should we? I can't wait to read your thoughts on this. Thanks!

Week 12 Notes and Prompt

Hi Everyone,

Hope you have had a great week and Indiana is feeling spring more than we are here. This week we are discussing non-fiction and reviewing different types of book awards.

Non-fiction often poses a dilemma for readers' advisors. If the RA librarian is separate from the Reference Desk, isn't non-fiction the reference librarians' job? However, quite often anymore, someone isn't saying, "I'm looking for a book on social economics," they are saying, "I just read Freakonomics and I found it fascinating, but I was an English major and don't know math. Any other books that are like Freakonimics but that I can understand?" That type of question takes a readers' advisor. What about Freakonomics interested the reader? The sociology of it, or the study of numbers that made it possible? And why?

The difference here is between task-based and non-task-based books. If the reader is looking for a book to show them how to fix the sink, a guide to the best hikes in the area, or a biology textbook, then appeal is not as relevant. However non-fiction is very readable, and many people, myself included, read it for pleasure. These readers are the ones who need our help.

Neal Wyatt has written the book on RA for Nonfiction. In it, she discusses how we can do what we do with fiction for non-fiction. Here is what we need to look for in the non-fiction we read and suggest:

• Narrative Continuum  - How much does this book read like a novel? How many narrative devices does the author use to make it a page-turning work? 
• Subject – Many people are looking for a subject, just as in fiction they are looking for genre. However, a person who says they want to read about the restaurant business because they loved Kitchen Confidential are going to enjoy the equally raunchy and irreverant behind-the-scenes take on the hotel industry Heads in Beds more than A Thousand Hill to Heaven, the inspirational story of a couple who opened a restaurant in war-torn Rwanda. 
• Type - memoir, biography, letters, essays, history, social sciences, reporting, travel narratives - these are all types of non-fiction that readers will ask for. Often they won't know the word for it. 
• Appeal - We can use a lot of the same appeal factors that we use for fiction:
• Pacing- influenced by fact and theories, needed to be digested by the reader; also how much knowledge of a subject a reader brings to it the faster the pace will go. The more narrative a story is the more quickly it will unfold. For readers who want more details and facts about the subject this isn't always a good thing - however for readers looking for an enjoyable take on the subject it can be. 
• Characterization- reader interaction with characters vary: often the author intends for the reader to either identify with them or to observe them as separate.
• Storyline – 
• Affects narrative nature, focus of story, subject treatment. Books with a great story that are highly narrative are the best to “transcend the Dewey Divide”, as Wyatt puts it.
• Intent of author – to educate or to entertain?
• Easy to read or crammed with facts
• Subject focused – history, science, biography; whereas travel cooking memoir – more about story than subject
• Detail – descriptions, maps, illustrations etc
• Learning / Experiencing: teachable moments (Freakonomics) versus sharing an experience (David Sedaris)
• Language –does writing style matter – lyrical or sharp edged
• Setting – location, does it need to be brought to life? Most NF takes place somewhere
• Tone- light or dark

Please do the readings located in the Oncourse Resources folder this week. Wyatt also writes articles for Library Journal that I highly suggest reading - she is an approachable and incredibly knowledgeable part of the RA community and getting to know her work is a great way to keep up with the scholarship on Readers' Advisory.

Due by the End of this week:

Non-fiction Annotations

Literary Annotations

Week 12 Prompt Responses

Week 12 Prompt

For your prompt this week, please complete the Readers' Advisory Matrix, found on the last page of the reading title RA Guide to Nonfiction in Oncourse Resources, about a non-fiction book you have read. If you have not read a non-fiction book recently, feel free to use some of the techniques on how to "read" a book in five minutes such as Mary Chelton's handouts or any others we have covered to get a feel for a non-fiction book. I look forward to reading these!

Final Assignment

Hi guys,

I've received a lot of questions about the final assignment recently so I thought I would post some more details about it. Some people have asked if they can use organic work-based experiences for the Readers' Advisor is In Lab, and I have to say, I think that would be difficult to do. Let's take a more in-depth look at the assignment:

Lab A: The Readers' Advisor is In!

Provide readers advisory services to at least 5 different people.
 Do not use participants real names; create a reader profile describing their reading habits and preferences; list a few of the questions you asked them, indicate which tools/bibliographic aids you used to find other books; what you recommended; what they read; how well you met their reading interests. Submit paper via Oncourse email to me. Please use consistent formatting in whatever style you prefer.

 These criteria are meant to create ideal readers' advisory conditions that rarely organically happen in a library, in order to let you learn as much as possible about your subject and see how well you do and what you could have done better. We can't expect our patrons to be our lab rats! Let's break it down a bit.

1. Create a reader profile describing their reading habits and preferences: Here you will want to find out what your friend/family members like to read. Find out what types of books they generally like and why - find out what types of books they don't like and why. You may already have this information if this is someone you are close to, but it doesn't hurt to ask the why's just in case their reasoning is different from what you expect.
2.List a few of the questions you asked them: Give us a basic idea of your interview. Even if you know your person and their reading habits well, you never know what they might be in the mood for. When I did this assignment for Dr. Copeland (she designed the class and the assignments - I just update the readings), one of the friends I enlisted did not want to be interviewed; he said you know what I like, just pick something. When I did - I picked several fantasy novels for him, knowing those were the books he always borrowed from me - he took them and I didn't hear from him. I asked him couple of weeks later what he thought, and he said "Oh, you know, I haven't gotten to them. I just haven't been in the mood for those lately." It was very frustrating, come to find out he'd been reading exclusively non-fiction for months. I was then able to find several books he enjoyed, and it taught me a lesson about assuming I know what someone wants!
3. Indicate which tools/bibliographic aids you used to find other books: This is fairly self-explanatory. Let us know if you used Novelist, your own knowledge, the Saricks textbook or a Genreflecting book your library has, Goodreads, Amazon, Readers Advisor Online, whatever!
4. What you recommended: Again, fairly self-explanatory
5. What they read; how well you met their reading interests: Just so you know, you will not be graded poorly if you don't score a hit every time. This is meant to be a learning experience. Also, if someone does not end up reading the books you recommend, try to find out at least if they think they would like them. We can't force people to read, as much as we would like to.

And remember - you need to do this for five people, then write up your experiences with each person and reflect on them in a paper. This is a time-consuming project, but it is fun, and you learn a lot!

On to the other option:

Lab B: Reading List as Community Service

Create an annotated book list on a topic of interest to adult readers. Work with a public librarian to negotiate a topic relevant to the library’s community.
 Write about the various aspects of the experience, e.g., the library, the community, factors considered, tools used, the product (display, flyer with list); how selections were made; and the final list.
 Submit paper via Oncourse email to me. Please use consistent formatting in whatever style you prefer.

For this lab if you work at a library you are free to work with a librarian at your library to create a list. It does need to include fiction. If you do not work in a library or you want to provide a list for a different library find a librarian willing to work with you to create a booklist. Working with a library is part of this assignment. They may want a list on vampires who knit, or fiction that celebrates spring! Really, you just want the librarian to help you come up with a topic that is relevant to their library and patrons, and talk about the style/type of list they prefer. One point here - many librarians think annotated lists are unnecessary - I disagree, as should you by this point in the class! If they do not want an annotated booklist please create one anyway. Just tell them your professor is mean. It must include some fiction - that being said, feel free to integrate non-fiction, DVDs, music, audiobooks or other parts of the library's collection into the list.

You can refer back to some of our readings on annotation such as the Chelton handouts. I would prefer to see lists with at least 10 books on them, however if your librarian wants it as a bookmark or a small slip of paper obviously you may not be able to fit that many. For your assignment, please send me through Oncourse mail both the final product (the list, a picture of a display with the list, a link, whatever depending on what format the library would like) and a paper talking about your experience as listed in the assignment description.

This assignment sounds a bit easier than the other; but it is more difficult to write good, short annotations than it sounds. Please write your own annotations using appeal factors - do not use ones you have found on Booklist or Amazon. If you are the main RA person in your library and create the RA info and displays, feel free to work with yourself. If you are a having a difficult time finding a librarian to work with, let me know and I can help. But not the day before it is due. :)

 Please let me know if you have any questions that I haven't covered here. I'm going to move the due date on this back from May 4th to May 9th, and I've updated the syllabus to reflect that, so you can have finals week to finish it up. But there can be absolutely no lateness on these - grades will be due early the following week and it takes me a long time to grade them. Thanks!

Welcome to Week 11 and Prompt

Image by Alfred Hermida

Hope you all had a great spring break and were able to relax and have some fun. I did a LOT of reading - I fell for Mira Grant's Feed, a zombie novel, and decided to read everything else she has written. She writes urban fantasy and horror (urban fantasy under the name Seanan McGuire, and horror under Mira Grant). I don't read a lot of urban fantasy anymore because it all seems the same - but hers is quite different and enjoyable. A fresh take on the genre, which is always fun. A great choice to lead into this week's discussion of landscape genres! I'm looking forward to reading your annotations.

This week we are also talking about ebooks and audiobooks. Ebooks are here and whether we like them or not, we need to support our patrons who do. Since you guys are taking an online course I have to assume that you enjoy technology more than the average bear; but if you still don't like ebooks I hope you decide to give them a try. They may not be for you - but I've yet to meet a voracious reader who tried them and didn't like them. Maybe you don't like them the same way you like your physical books, but just for convenience or travel or to read at night without a light, etc. I love ebooks for things like the aforementioned urban fantasy - books I enjoyed but probably won't read again. I have too many books that I have to move as it is!

Audiobooks are a great way to get me to do chores. I tend to listen to audiobooks of books I have read a long time ago and forgotten a lot of, as I don't comprehend as well when I listen as when I read. There are a lot of people who do most of their reading through audiobooks. These patrons will often have favorite narrators, who will greatly influence their choice of books. A good thing to pay attention to for readers advisors.

Please do the readings this week - I am posting a couple of extra things in Oncourse resources. First, some research I did on romance readers and ebooks; both the PowerPoint and my lecture notes, since I can't lecture at you over the internet. Also the 2013 report on ebook usage - very interesting stuff if you think you will have anything ever to do with ebooks.

Due by the end of this week:

Prompt Response
Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and Western Annotations

Now that specter of the midterm assignment has passed, I would like to remind you that you are soon going to need to start working on your end of semester assignment if you haven't already. Remember, you have two options, but both require time and planning. Take a look at the assignments again and start thinking!

Week 11 Prompt 

Ebooks and audiobooks are a part of our landscape. What does the change in medium mean for appeal factors? If you can't hold a book and feel the physical weight of it in your hands, how does that affect your knowledge of the genre? How about readers being able to change the font, line spacing, and color of text - how does that affect pacing and tone? How about audiobooks? Track length, narrator choice, is there music?  For this week, I want you to think about how ebooks and audiobooks affect appeal factors - also think about appeals that are unique to both mediums. Please feel free to use your own experience and that of your (anonymous of course) patrons. I look forward to reading these!

Week Nine - Book Groups

Image by Catunes

Well, we are officially more than halfway through the semester! Congratulations - hope this is proving to be a fun and useful class for everyone. 

This week we should have fun. I've provided a short story in Oncourse Resources called Sur by Ursula K. LeGuin. It's a provocative story that should give groups lots to discuss hopefully without offending anyone too much. Learning to moderate a book group can be like walking a tightrope - you want to find works with enough meat to provide good discussions, but you have to get to know your group and try to find books that will appeal to all. At the same time, don't feel bad making people get out of their comfort zone - reading books they are unfamiliar with is half the reason a lot of people join book groups. I will share a few examples from my, instructive past with book group moderating:

• I once choose a Tom Robbins book, Another Roadside Attraction, for a book group I ran that my at the time boyfriend's mother belonged to. I hadn't read it in ages, but I remembered thinking it was brilliant. In case you are unfamiliar with Tom Robbins, he is very descriptive and enjoys talking about anatomy and drug use. In this case, he spent pages describing one particular piece of female anatomy that is generally not discussed in polite society, and the whole time I was reading it my face was getting more and more red, thinking, "I told Mark's mother to read this!!! What is wrong with me???" In the end, she was offended but not by that - there was some serious blasphemy in the book that I, as a non-religious person, had not even noticed. She still let me marry her son.
• I had some incredibly young, passionate, and intelligent young ladies in one of my book groups. Reading Pride and Prejudice was a wake-up call that infuriated them. They insisted that the women were in a form of slavery and that they should have prostituted themselves rather than being sold like slaves because at least then they would get to choose their clients. While an interesting point, it completely dominated the discussion and offended some of the people who really loved Jane Austen.
• These same young ladies were in the group when we read A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. One of the men in the group said he didn't know why we were reading it because it was irrelevant now as there was no need for feminism. Chaos ensued.
• When we read The Poisonwood Bible a new member came. He had not read the book. He had however, traveled extensively in India. This was not shown to be relevant, despite his repeated attempts to make it seem so by interrupting our discussions with anecdotes starting with, "Well in India they...." It was infuriating and very difficult to moderate. We later made a rule that you had to have read the whole book to participate in the discussion, but only instituted it when he was there. Which was inexplicably often even though he never read the books.

These are just a few examples of issues I ran into that I never thought about it. If any of you have had enlightening experiences while leading or belonging to a book group, please share them in the comments. 

Now I want to talk about some basic rules for book groups. First of all, if you are moderating, do not lead with your opinion of the quality of the book. Just like in readers' advisory, as a moderator you have a level of authority that will influence the opinions of your group. I also think that in a moderator-led group, there should generally be a rule that you need to have read the book to participate in discussions. Now, there are the less formal book clubs that are more of an excuse to socialize and drink wine where of course, there is a less formal structure. Moderator-led book clubs at a library though, are generally slightly more formal and attended by people who have a genuine interest in discussing the book, and the occasional person who just likes to talk too much - like my friend who loved India. This is of course, up to you and your group - while it does prevent problems like India-dude, it might discourage some people from coming if they've only had time to read part of the book.

Two big things to consider when choosing books for your group - length and accessibility. As great a book as it is, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, with over a thousand pages, is not a great pick for a book group that meets monthly for the most part. Of course, know your group. A group that reads exclusively historical fiction or epic fantasy is going to be more tolerant of long books than a group that reads literary or general fiction. Also, accessibility. Is the book brand new? That means there will be a waitlist at the library and it's only out in expensive hardcover. Is it out of print? How difficult the book is to get a hold of needs to be a consideration. If you have the power to purchase books for your club through the library of course, this is less of an issue.

Ok, I think that covers the major points of what I wanted to say about book groups. Moderators, I have given you the power to create topics over in Oncourse Forums, and randomly assigned each of you 4-5 participants. 

***One reading in your syllabus, from Fellowship in a Ring, I was unable to find my copy of, and the closest library with a copy of the book it was in is a three-hour drive from me. If you are able to find and read that chapter in the Hollands book I encourage you to do so - IUPUI has a copy. However it is not going to be required this week. He talks about a thematic approach to book groups that is really interesting.

Welcome to Week 8!

Image by Bullmoose1912

Hello everyone!

Hope you are all having a great week. Since papers or booktalks are due at the end of this week, there is no prompt response due. However, please do the readings anyway - this week we are thinking about quality vs. demand in fiction - some pretty weighty issues. Do we spend lots of money on titles that are popular but that maybe aren't the greatest critical hits? Do we try to push people towards more "quality" books? Who defines what is a quality book and how? What is the role of reading? So many fun..fun questions to talk about - I really picked the wrong week to have your papers due!

So, due by the end of this week:

Special Topic Paper OR Booktalks
Women's Lives and Relationships Annotations

NEXT WEEK, we are going to be doing something a little different. We will be coming back to Oncourse forums for online book discussions! We will all be reading the short story Sur by Ursula K. LeGuin, which is in Week 9 resources. I will be dividing you into five groups and you will each participate in a forum-based discussion. If you have never done so, I highly suggest checking out Goodreads or another book site that hosts online discussions to get an idea of how they are organized and how people participate. There will be no prompt response - your participation in your book group will count as that.

I will also be harassing five of you to be group moderators. Please let me know if you would like to volunteer - thanks.

Can't wait to read your papers and see your booktalks - as always let me know if you have any questions!

Week Seven Notes and Prompt

Hello folks!

Since I'm on the road I am going to be combining notes and prompts into one, shorter post this week. I am sure you are all terribly disappointed! The readings this week focused on book controversies. When providing readers' advisory services, patrons expect us to know the details behind books that are in the news - without passing judgment. The articles you are to read for this week talk about some of the most significant book headlines of the past. We will also be doing our science fiction and mystery annotations this week. Be sure to read the chapters! Saricks has some interesting points to make about serving the readers of these genres.
Some of you know that I am a pretty big science fiction fan. I have a couple of resources available that I want to post on here - I know I put a lot of reading in the syllabus for this week so I didn't want to add any more required reading. But if you are one of those people who has never been able to "get into" science fiction, I highly suggest reading this article by Jo Walton. In it, she talks about SF reading protocols, or, how people who read science fiction read with a learned set of skills that people who did not grow up reading science fiction may not have. And here is a super-fun resource to share with patrons, it takes the NPR top one hundred SF and fantasy books voted on by listeners a couple of years ago and turns it into a flowchart.

Due by the end of this week:
Prompt Response
Science Fiction and Mystery Annotations

Prompt:
For our prompt this week, I want you to think about fake memoirs, author mills,and celebrity inspired book clubs. Basically write a readers' response to one of the articles you are reading for this week - or talk about a time when a book or author that made headlines affected you personally or your work.

Reminder: Your special topics paper or book talks will be due at the end of next week. For those of you doing the paper, I have only received a couple of topics for approval. You should be working on this - if not now, then starting soon. Please remember to email a copy of it to me via Oncourse mail as well as posting it to your blog. Since several people have asked about length, I will say between 5-7 pages, but really just as long as your topic needs it to be. If it is a little shorter or a little longer that's ok.

Week 6 Prompt

For this week's prompt, I would like you to write a booktalk based on a book that you've read. It doesn't need to be one you've read for this class but it certainly can be. Use the formula from the Baker article in the syllabus:

Baker, J. (2010). Booktalking for Adult Audiences. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 49(3), 234-8. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database

Read it out loud to yourself and make sure it sounds as good spoken as it looks written down. If you would like to record yourself reading it and post it for us, that would be super fun but is by no means required.

Also, I would like to hear your thoughts on a statement Baker makes in the article. She believes it is important, when preparing a booktalk, to "Choose only books you have loved and actually read." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

Remember, by the end of this week (Sunday February 23) I will need your:

• Prompt Responses
• Romance, Gentle Reads, and Horror Annotations

Thanks, I look forward to reading your responses!

Welcome to Week Six!

Hi all,

Great job on your Secret Shopper experiences. I know that is can be very uncomfortable and awkward to pretend in this way, but I think it's very valuable to see how the people we are trying to help are treated - both the good and the bad.

This week, we are doing Horror, Gentle Reads, and Romance. As strange as the three of these seem to pair together, they actually go very well as all three genres are designed to elicit strong emotions on behalf of the reader. Please review the PowerPoint in Week 6 resources on Oncourse, and let me know if you have any questions.

We are also discussing integrated advisory and booktalks this week. The concept behind integrated advisory is very simple: it's using forms of media other than books in your advisory. For example, if someone wants to get back into reading but they haven't read too much, you could ask what type of television shows or movies they like, or what kinds of games they like to play. The opposite works as well; I have nearly as many people ask me for movie suggestions as I do book suggestions. And I rarely watch movies, so I have to use sources - and these are not always as easy to find. With reluctant readers, having this knowledge and ability is even more valuable.

I chose to share the romance chapter with you from the book Integrated Advisory, because they do a great job talking about some of the many romance subgenres. However they do fall a bit short in suggesting that there aren't any games for romance readers - that is patently ridiculous. The huge surge in casual gaming is largely due to the same people who read romance novels; people who want a quick, easy, rewarding, and fun diversion. If you go to Big Fish Games or many other casual gaming sites you will find many, many games where the motivation is romance. Also, many romance authors have already put their spin on games - Marjorie M. Liu did years ago with one of her first titles, Tiger Eye. Many indie games have embraced romance as a narrative device. The huge narrative hit Gone Home from 2013 is a sweet teen romance that has won a ton of awards. As libraries expand their offerings to include games and other media, we need to  be aware of the possibilities that integrated advisory offers us. Steam, a cloud-based game media service (kind of like an iTunes for games) has very recently introduced tags into their search features. Library Journal includes game recommendations quite often in their RA articles now.

As for book talks, these are a great way for your library to connect with the outside world. Whether you go to a local group, they come to you, or you post them online, book talks let librarians show off their expertise.  Many librarians use book talks to establish connections with local clubs, schools, senior centers, day care centers, and other groups. Please read the article on book talks listed in the syllabus, and here are a couple of YouTube ones that follow the basic format that Jennifer Baker lays out in her article for booktalks:

Scholastic Book Talk

Library Book Talk

I will post the prompt later this afternoon. As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Prompt Week 5

Hello all!

Hope you are getting your reviews read and written. For this week's prompt, I want to start a conversation about the different types of reviews. Different publications review different types of books and they allow different types of conversations. For example, Booklist will not publish negative reviews, while, as you have all seen, Kirkus has no problems with it. Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular especially in the romance genre, see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author, and then still it's usually only RT Reviews (formally Romantic Times) or other genre heavy publications. How does this affect collection development?

I have posted two more documents in the week five folder. One is two reviews of an ebook only romantic suspense novel, one from a blog and one from amazon. Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? Do they follow the guidelines Erin talked about in her presentation? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library?

The other document contains some reviews of Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, an incredibly popular memoir. These reviews are all from professional publications, feel free to find more on your own I just nabbed a few from the Book Review Digest database for you. How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?

Do you think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed to death and other types of books get little to no coverage? How does this affect a library's collection?  And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate? If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources?

Personally, I love to read reviews, but usually the shorter the better. If it's too long I feel like I might as well just read the book. When I used to buy, I loved RT Reviews - it's very genre heavy but that's what everyone read where I was. For fun, I subscribe to Locus magazine and I love their science fiction and fantasy reviews, and for romance you can't go wrong with Smart Bitches Trashy Books. I flip through Library Journal and Publishers Weekly to keep myself up to date on what is coming out, but I don't usually sit down and read the reviews in them.

Thanks folks, I look forward to reading your prompt responses!

Welcome to Week Five!

Hello all!

Hope you have had a great week and enjoyed your secret shopper experience! I haven't gotten a chance to read many of them yet - I am looking forward to it. I got to go to a great Montana technology conference this week so it has wreaked absolute havoc with my normal schedule. I appreciate your patience - I'll be better at providing feedback this week, promise.

Speaking of feedback, I have heard from some of you that you would appreciate knowing some of your grades, which is understandable. I will get what you have done so far graded and in the Oncourse gradebook this week. From what I have seen you are all doing great so don't be overly concerned!

Due by the end of this week:

Adventure and Romantic Suspense Annotations
A Kirkus-style review of a book you loved or hated
Prompt Response

For this week, we are reading about the Adventure and Romantic Suspense and about book reviews.. I have posted a PowerPoint about the two genres in Oncourse resources. These are very fun genres that are really popular right now so please make sure to read those chapters!

For the book review reading I have asked you to look over several different book review websites and write a Kirkus-style review. Kirkus has two things that make it stand out from other review sources - first, it is anonymous. This means that an aspiring writer can publish a bad review without alienating a publisher, or a librarian can publish one without angering a popular author. The second thing Kirkus has going for it is format. Kirkus uses a very specific format that allows librarians and booksellers to quickly skim a review and find out if the book is one that they want for their collection. The first sentence or two is always a quick summary of the book, then the middle paragraph is a more thorough summary with criticism, and the last sentence or two sum up the reviewer's feelings about the title. I am posting some reviews in the Oncourse Resources, but please go to the Kirkus site or look up some reviews of books you have read in the library databases - many databases provide access to Kirkus, I believe Academic Search Premier is one.

I have also asked someone many of you may know, Erin Cataldi, to "guest lecture" this week by providing a presentation on reviewing books for professional publications. Erin just got her MLS last year, but she has been reviewing books professionally for years. She is an adult and teen services librarian at the Clark Pleasant branch of the Johnson County Public Library. She has a great blog, and if you dig back far enough, you may find some of her assignments from this class on it. I think she reads more books than anyone else I know, and that's saying something. She is a super fun, awesome young librarian who is going to do amazing things. Her presentation is in Week Five resources.

It may seem early, but you might want to start thinking about your midterm assignment. I have asked you to either write a paper on a topic related to readers' advisory (please email me the topic for approval prior to writing the paper) or to record yourself doing booktalks. We will be reading a bit about booktalks next week, also there is a great book at the Indianapolis Public Library called The Booktalker's Bible,  by Chapple Langemack, that is a short and easy read and has all kinds of tips. I'll post some links to booktalks I think are good in the coming weeks as well.

I will post the prompt later this afternoon. Ok, you guys have your work to do this week, and I have mine. As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Welcome to Week Four!

Ok all, this is the week for your Secret Shopper! No other prompt response this week. Review the Powerpoint In Week Two resources and the assignment details, and let me know if you have any questions. A couple of points:

• Please don't tell us what library you went to. Many people can have a bad day, and the point of this exercise isn't to shame our underfunded, understaffed public libraries - it's to show us how we can improve.
• Glance over some of the articles we've read about RA interviews before you go, to remember what is supposed to happen.
• Have an idea of what type of book you are looking for in mind. This is a great time to try to find a book for that romance annotation! 

Here is another little video. This one contains real things that were said by librarians when asked RA questions. Don't forget about this video from last week that shows a good RA transaction! I wish there were more good RA interview videos - maybe an assignment for next year's class?

I've read about some great transactions and about some horrible transactions over the years. Let's hope you all get great examples of amazing customer service!

Week Three Prompt

Week Three Prompt:

Hello all! I feel slightly better today, for those of you keeping track. I have stopped laying on the couch snoozing through old episodes of Futurama - at least for now. I thought I would go ahead and post this week's prompt response during this window of lucidity.

So two things this week- first, I would like you to use Novelist. Answer the following questions using Novelist as much as you can - just to familiarize yourself with it if you aren't already using it. Again, email me if your public library doesn't have access to it. Explain why you chose the books you did.

1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next! 
2. What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.
3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!
4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?
5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend? 

Second, after you get a chance to do the readings and explore Mary Chelton's list of tools, I want to hear about how you find books to read. It could be a site or a resource you've just discovered or one you've used for years, one you use for yourself or for your patrons or family and friends.

Personally, I use Novelist for work, and for family and friends if they ask me, but for myself I generally find books I want to read in magazines like Locus or Library Journal, also on websites like EarlyWord or through author websites or blogs.

I look forward to reading your prompts! Any questions get in touch with me however is easiest for you. Thanks!

*Edited to fix embarrassing spelling mistake 1/28/14

Welcome to Week Three

Hey guys,

Welcome to Week Three! I am really excited to read your Suspense and Thriller annotations. I’ll be honest and tell you I am really under the weather today – and I’m irritated about it because I got a flu shot and everything! I rarely get sick so when I do I’m terribly whiny and wimpy. Luckily I have a saint of a husband who is out right now getting honey for my tea.

So, the point of me telling you that was that I don’t really feel like sitting up at the computer for too long today (irony? Since it’s taking me so long to tell you? English majors?) so this will be short and sweet. I've posted a power point about the genres in Week Three Resources. Please review that and read your classmates annotations. Feel free to start a discussion here, on your blog, or on a classmates blog about things you've noticed about Suspense and Thrillers. We are all learning from each other here – and I think I benefit more than a lot of you since I do readers’ advisory at work.

Second – this week we are reviewing the tools of the trade. Quite possibly the most useful and popular tool is Novelist. This is a database that most public libraries subscribe to. IndyPL does, and with your IUPUI registration, you are eligible for an IndyPL card, but I know a lot of you don’t live anywhere near Indianapolis. Please email me if your public library does not subscribe to Novelist and I will let you use a card number from my library.

Once you find Novelist in your library’s list of databases, there are plenty of tutorials on how to use it. Directly to the right of the search box should be a button that says “How to Use Novelist.” Review Also, above that are several tiny links, one of which is Help. That has also proven very useful to me.

IUPUI has a RA database as well – Reader’s Advisory Online. I don’t find this quite as intuitive as Novelist but some people think it is easier to use. There is a Help link at the top of the page which gives you a quick overview of how to use it. The Tour and Video buttons up there go nowhere – I don’t think they ever have. It’s up to you what you prefer. Both Novelist and RA Online allow you to search by appeal, rather than just genre or age group which is what is really important. So play around and get used to those, or just one of them if you find one you immediately prefer.

There is also quite a comprehensive list in Oncourse Week Three resources of some great RA resources, put together by Mary Chelton – whose name you may recognize from other readings.

So, by the end of this week, I will need from you:

• Suspense and Thriller Annotations (for those who are doing Suspense and Thriller)
• Prompt Response

Please also remember that by the end of Week Four I will need to have your Secret Shopper Assignment! That one takes some planning so be looking ahead! With that, here is a great video about conducting a RA interview. This is from the perspective of a children’s librarian, but most everything is still relevant.
I will post the prompt response later today (Monday). Thanks!

Great Annotations

Just wanted to tell you all that I am really enjoying reading your annotations. Really impressive work!

Genre Selections

Hi all,

Just want to clarify a couple of things I've noticed after receiving your genre selections:

1. Please let me know which genre you are choosing, not which week. For example, even though we are discussing science fiction and mystery in the same week, please indicate which one of those you will be reading. (Several of you have done this, so don't think I'm picking on just one of you!)
2. Please don't forget to let me know in which genre you will be reading a classic.

If you have questions about the genres, feel free to ask me but really, Saricks explains them better than I can in the text. She has a section in each chapter (Offset as a figure) that very clearly discusses the characteristics of that particular genre. There are also sections in the text of each chapter labeled Key Authors and Sure Bets. These have great ideas for books that typify those genres if you are stumped in choosing one.

Thanks for being patient as we figure out this online format. Please be sure to let me know if things aren't clear - I've been involved in this class so long sometimes I think things are obvious when they aren't.

Prompt Response One

This week, I’d like to talk in more detail about appeals. Understanding appeal is probably the most important thing you will get out of this class. So, for this week, I would like you to choose a book that you have read and enjoyed and do a practice annotation. Assign your book a genre based on the appeals and characteristics Saricks talks about in the text –pacing, characterization, storyline, tone/mood, style/language, and frame/setting - and then talk about the appeals and characteristics of your particular book. You can go right down the line, following Saricks’ format in the text or you can use a more narrative style, it’s up to you. Also please include a short plot summary – you can find tips for that in the readings - and find three read-a-likes based on appeal. Read-a-likes can be found in many different ways; we will discuss more resources for them later in the semester. My favorite source is Novelist – a database you have to access through a library. Your local library may have access to it. Let me know if it doesn’t.

If you have any questions or worries that you aren’t doing it correctly, just post it early enough in the week that I have a chance to look at it and message me with your concern. I will let you know if it’s not what I’m looking for. Feel free to use the handouts from week one as a guide; also feel free to post questions or comments about this assignment here in the comment section if you think your classmates will benefit. Remember, you will need to post this and respond to two of your classmates blog posts by the end of the week, Sunday January 26th.

This should be a fun exercise - reading each others’ annotations is a great way to find new suggestions for patrons or for yourselves! Always feel free to post interesting books, articles, interviews, or observations on your blog to share with me and your classmates, since we can’t just chat about them during class.

Welcome to Week Two!

Hello everyone!

View from Bozeman Public Library a couple weeks ago. 

Hope you are having a pleasant start to this semester. I have enjoyed reading all of your intros and getting to know a little about all of you. Please let me know if you have any questions about the syllabus or assignments. I know there is a lot of reading this week – bear with it, it’s all for a good cause.
By the end of this week (January 26), I will need from you:

1. Your Blog URL and name. Please get this to me as early as possible.
2. The five genres you will be reading and annotating for this class. Annotations will be due in the week they are assigned, and will be turned in on your blog. Please indicate which genre you will be reading a classic in, and let me know if you are unsure if a book you have chosen constitutes a classic! We will figure it out. You do not have to know what books you are reading yet, just what genres.
3. Your first prompt response. I will post a prompt here on the blog very shortly. Remember you also will need to reply to two of your classmates responses as well. Please refer back to the assignment description in week one if you have any questions about these.

I also posted in Week One some sample annotation handouts from a class a few years ago; forgot to mention those. Obviously we aren’t doing handouts in this class, since it is online, but those should help you understand some of the things I am looking for in an annotation for the purpose of this class. Feel free on your blog to talk about your personal feelings about the book as well. If you are doing a suspense or a thriller, get reading! Those annotations will be due by the end of Week Three.

I have also posted In Week Two the PowerPoint describing what you should be looking for during your assignment for Week Four, the Secret Shopper. I wanted to make sure you had plenty of time to complete this assignment, because I know that for some people it can be difficult to get to a library where they are not well known. After doing the readings for this week you should have a pretty good idea of what makes a good readers’ advisory interview. I will also post some video examples in Resources – feel free to post any you find on your blog during the next couple of weeks.

As always, let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to reading your prompt responses!

Welcome to Week One

Image by Simon Cocks

Hello Everyone,

I am very excited to meet you and get this class going! My name is Carri Genovese, and I will be teaching this course. I taught it in person last year and was Andrea Copeland’s TA for it the year before – but those were in person. This will be a new experience for all of us so please let me know if things aren’t working or if you have any issues.

This class is fun. We read fun things and generally have great discussions. However it has a lot of reading. If you are interested in doing Readers’ Advisory you likely enjoy reading anyway, but I want to make sure at the beginning that all of you are aware that you will be responsible for readings in the textbook, relevant articles, and reading five novels in different genres throughout the class. If you do not think you will be able to handle this much reading you may want to drop this course. I will expect you to allude to the readings in your weekly prompts. I am sure that will not be a problem for most of you; after reading the early introduction posts it sounds like there are a lot of readers in this group!

This week I want you to concentrate on learning a bit about the history of readers’ advisory, meeting each
other in the Oncourse forum, reviewing the syllabus and forum, and thinking about what genres you will be interested in learning more about. By the end of Week Two, you will need to tell me what five genres you are interested in reading and annotating for this class. I strongly recommend that you choose at least one genre that you never read, for your own benefit and learning experience, and one genre you are an expert in or that is your favorite, for our benefit and learning experience.

Also by the end of Week Two, you will need to create a blog. Most of our communication in this class will be via blog. I feel this is a more organic way to communicate than Oncourse forums, plus you can keep it after you graduate. I have posted a Youtube tutorial on creating a blog on Blogger in Week Two Resources. Once you give me your blog URL, I will post it in the blog roll on this blog. That way you can see all of your classmates’ blogs and easily comment on them, follow them, however you want to keep track – it’s up to you. It has proven a great way to start or add to your social network of librarians. Feel free to use your current blog if you have one – just please label any assignments clearly.

I will expect you to comment on each others’ blogs. Reading about what other people are reading helps A LOT in readers’ advisory. I know this probably goes unsaid but just in case, there is one ground rule – this is a safe place. No teasing each other – if someone says the only book they have ever loved is a sparkly vampire romance they are to be treated with respect, just as a patron would. The definition of a good book, for the purpose of RA, is always one that is enjoyed by the reader.

I have posted more detailed assignment descriptions in Oncourse resources. Please review them this week and let me know if you have any questions.  I will post a general discussion forum on Oncourse for any questions or observations about the readings and assignments, and I will monitor it but you will not be graded on anything you post there. Please check this blog periodically.

You may ask me questions anyway is easy for you – comment on this blog, the Oncourse forum, you can text or email me. Thanks, and I really look forward to getting to know all of you!