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.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
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 databaseRead 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!
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!
Monday, February 10, 2014
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!
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!
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!
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!
Monday, February 3, 2014
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:
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!
- 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!
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